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What's going on with Voodoo? Founder Rahul Sood Gives an Update

Ryan Whitwam — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:37:46 -0500

After HP acquired high-end PC maker Voodoo, everyone expected to see a lot of their products coming out of HP. That didn’t happen. Dell has kept the Alienware brand highly visible, and they were acquired around the same time. Voodoo’s Rahul Sood has posted an update to his blog to tell everyone just what happened to the venerable maker of really expensive PCs.

According to Sood, Voodoo still exists, and the long silence was something of a transitional period to get the company completely integrated with HP. “Voodoo, as you all know, was to be integrated into the larger business units so we could take some of our ideas and products to a much larger audience,” Sood wrote in his blog.

Indeed, the HP Envy 13 and 15 are good examples of the effects Voodoo has had on HP. Sood explained that the “Voodoo DNA” branding was removed from the laptops because Voodoo didn’t technically design them, HP did. He pointed out that HPs designs have changed dramatically in the last 3 years largely because of Voodoo. The Voodoo founder said the company was changing from a manufacturer, into “something beyond”. The take away seems to be that you’ll probably see some Voodoo branding in the future, but their main goal is to advance HP products as a whole.

Hands-On with HP's Envy 13 and 15 Notebooks

Norman Chan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:00:00 -0500

If the Voodoo Envy was HP's answer to Apple's Macbook Air, than the just-announced Envy 13 and 15 laptops are diect responses to Apple's Macbook Pro lineup. Sacrificing edgy styling and ridiculously-thin dimensions (seriously, who cares anymore?), the new Envys are built more for performance to meet the demands of the high-end market. These are definitely not underpowered thin-and-lights -- the 13.1-inch model packs a 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB of DDR3 memory, and an ATI Radeon HD 4330 discrete graphics card. The 15.6-inch model is even more powerful. And both support an innovative battery slice add-on for prolonged use.

Envy 13

Full specs:

12.59" x 8.46" x 0.8"
13.1" LED Widescreen Display (1366x768)
1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor SL9400
1066MHz FSP, 6MB L2 Cache
3GB DDR3 System Memory
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 Graphics
250GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Brushed Aluminum with Metal Etching and HP Webcam
Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN
2-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader
Beats Audio
2 USB ports, HDMI, RJ-45
Weight: 3.74 pounds

One thing we noticed was the exceptionally bright screen of the Envy 13. The WXGA LED-backlit display has an 82% color gamut and 410 nit brightness. When paired next to a Macbook Air with the same image on both, the HP's rendering looked more vibrant and full.

Battery Slice

The base of the Envy houses a 4-cell lithium-ion polymer battery, which is good for 7 hours of battery life. But included in the box is a thin battery slice, which extends the battery life to 18 hours (HP's estimates). The battery slice is surprisingly thin, adding less than half an inch of additional thickness when magnetically latched to the bottom of the laptop. Its beveled edges make it non-intrusive, and it has a small button on its base to indicate remaining juice.

The base of the Envy 13 -- note the small magnetic connector for the battery slice.

Size Comparisons

Envy 15

The 15.6-inch model is more than just a supersized version of the Envy 13. It has a different laser-etched design all around the magnesium alloy unibody, housing an Intel quad-core (which looks to be the not-yet officially announced Core i7 part). Other specs include an ATI 4830 graphics chip with 1GB of video memory, up to 16GB of system RAM, and two hard drive bays (no internal optical drive). The Envy 15 has its own battery slice, as well, which adds to it's relatively slim 1-inch thickness and 5.18 pound heft.

One thing we noticed was that the resolution of the Envy 15's screen is the same as that on the Envy 13 -- 1366x768. Hopefully, HP will offer a higher-resolution option.

The system properties window indicates that the Envy 15 is using an Intel Core processor, model Q820.

This label confirms that the CPU is indeed a 1.73GHz Clarksfield part, which Intel is rumored to officially announce at IDF.

Low Cost, Low Power Gaming PCs Soon to Come From HP

Benson Hong — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:30:36 -0600

When the words “gaming” and “desktop” come to mind, we often associate the words “pricey” and “unaffordable” with them. HP hopes to change that mindset with the launch of their new series of low cost gaming computers. At CES this week, HP will be showcasing not only an inexpensive line of gaming PCs but also a new line of affordable and ultra-light notebooks.

The Firebird desktops will come equipped with a Core 2 Quad, 4GB of DDR2 memory, and dual GeForce 9800 video cards. These desktops will be utilizing energy saving components, usually found in notebooks, to lower power consumption. HP claims the power usage by these desktops will not exceed 350 watts, which is impressive considering your average GeForce 9800 card can consume almost 250 watts under load on their own. With a price tag starting at $1800, consumers will be happy to know they’re saving money both at the register and on their energy bill.

The 3.8 pound HP Pavilion DV2 is said to be less than an inch thick while sporting the new AMD Neo processor, a 12.1 inch screen, 500 gigabyte hard drive, and an ATI Mobility Radeon 3410. The DV2 is said to hit stores this March with a price tag between the $600 and $800 range.

Don't Toss that Voodoo Videocard, New 3DFX Driver Released

Paul Lilly — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:37:22 -0600

So you thought 3DFX was dead and gone? Well, you're right. The graphics company largely responsible for ushering in 3D gaming bit the dust nearly a decade ago when Nvidia devoured the company and announced it would not support 3DFX products. But that hasn't stopped others from stepping in to fill the void left by 3DFX's demise and its once mighty Voodoo videocard lineup.

For those of you still getting your old school game on, 3dfxzone.it has released new drivers covering a variety of vintage GPUs. Models supported by the SFFT 1.5 driver release include:

Voodoo3 2000
Voodoo3 3000
Voodoo3 3500
Voodoo4 4500
Voodoo5 5500
Voodoo6 6000

We don't imagine too many Voodoo owners are concerned with running Vista, but for the sake of full disclosure, the new drivers support Windows 2000/XP 32-bit and XP 64-bit.

Voodoo Envy Comes Dressed to Impress

Paul Lilly — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:45:16 -0500

Buyers who can't wait to unbox their swank Envy 133 notebook might find themselves taking pause for the occasion. And to ensure they do, Voodoo's Raul Sood plans to give the high-end laptop the white-glove treatment. Inside the box (which Sood likens to one you'd get from shopping at a Tiffany & Co.) the Envy will come wrapped in a microfiber polish sleeve stamped with the company's logo. Underneath, an assortment of accessories includes:

Voodoo Aura power connect with an additional removable cable (should the original fray over time)
HDMI to VGA Presentation Adapter
ESata optical drive with hideaway cable

Sood also includes a few more close-up shots of the carbon fiber Envy in his package-pimping blog, which show a pre-production engineering sample. Shipping Envys will trade the red logo for one in silver and chrome. You can order one now, and if HP Live Chat operator iCrzyMonkey isn't flinging poo, expect it to ship in August, bodacious box and all.

Image Credit: Raul Sood

HP Blackbird 002

Michael Brown — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:00:55 -0500

Label us Luddites for resisting Windows Vista, but there’s no arguing the point that the new OS currently offers very little you can’t get faster with Windows XP. That goes double for games, which is why we’re baffled by HP’s decision to run Vista Ultimate on the groundbreaking Blackbird 002 gaming rig it sent us.

We’re equally surprised that HP sent us a machine it knew would blue-screen when going into suspend mode (and then leave it to us to discover this). Those two decisions are unfortunate because nearly every other facet of the Blackbird is utterly brilliant. Here’s proof that HP’s acquisition of VoodooPC was much more than an opportunistic move (by a company that many gamers dismiss as stodgily conservative and more appropriate for middle-aged newbs) to glom on to the cachet of a high-profile boutique PC vendor.

Actually, we’d argue that HP shed its old-fogey image months ago when it shipped the superbly designed TouchSmart IQ770 (reviewed April ’07). Although that desktop system is also limited to Vista, the embedded 17-inch touch-screen LCD justifies the decision (and you wouldn’t play games on it anyway).

The Blackbird is a different story. Although HP tells us consumers will be able to order machines with either XP or Vista, we review rigs as they are sent to us. As for the blue-screen issue, HP says it’ll have it fixed before you read this review.
Those issues aside, HP and Voodoo deserve high praise for building an exciting and innovative personal computer while using industry-standard parts for every key component. One glance at the all-aluminum case reveals that it’s highly customized; nonetheless, it will accommodate any ATX motherboard and any standard power supply.

Swinging open the side access panel, which easily lifts off its smooth-as-silk hinges, reveals an Asus Striker Extreme motherboard. In a ballsy move, HP adjusted Nvidia’s nForce 680i SLI BIOS to allow a pair of ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT cards to run in CrossFire mode—tweaking the noses of AMD and Nvidia in the process.

Removing the Blackbird's access panel reveals beauty that's more than skin deep.

Each of the Radeons is outfitted with 1GB of DDR4 RAM and cooled by an Asetek LCLC liquid-cooling system. The LCLC also wicks heat away from the 3GHz Intel QX6850 (Core 2 Extreme quad core), which HP overclocked to 3.76GHz. You can order a Blackbird with an X-Fi soundcard and an Ageia PhysX card, but our unit had neither (relying on Analog Devices’s Integrated Digital SoundMax HD Audio for sound, installed on a riser card to escape electrical noise on the mobo).

The Topower Computer TOP-1100W DVT power supply is rated to deliver 1,100 watts (the 2900 XTs, you’ll recall, are insatiable power hogs). The PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case, which is elevated by a large aluminum foot to allow cool air to enter the case from the bottom as well as the sides. Cable management is simplified by modular power plugs, but there’s more to it than that. The SATA cables for the hard drives, for example, are routed to a set of sockets mounted on an internal backplane. The drives are mounted on trays that slide into a rack and plug into this backplane.

Two vertically mounted slot-fed DVD burners are hidden inside the case’s heatsink-like grill, with only LED-lit eject buttons revealing their presence. The case can accommodate a third (tray type) optical drive next to the other two. An equally well-disguised pop-up module on top of the case harbors a 15-in-1 media-card reader, jacks for a headphone and mic, two USB ports, and a FireWire port.

Close this swing-out panel and its spring-steel strips will push installed PCI Express cards firmly into their slots.

We’re excited about many of the Blackbird’s innovations, but HP’s decision to send us a Vista PC severely undermined the machine’s gaming benchmark numbers (including a Quake 4 performance that was slower than our aging zero-point rig’s). “What about DX10?” you ask. “Pretty much irrelevant for now,” we say. And while we applaud the company’s decision to enable CrossFire on an nForce motherboard, our experience has been that Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 Ultra are both faster than the Radeon HD 2900 XT (although the GTX’s edge evaporates when running Vista).

Buy this machine and you won’t care which camp wins the next skirmish in the GPU wars because you’ll be covered either way—as rightly you should be. That’s just one of the features that endow the Blackbird 002 with such potential for greatness. Yes, this PC deserves so much better than Vista.

Voodoo Omen a:121 CrossFire

Gordon Mah Ung — Fri, 05 May 2006 13:59:02 -0500

Many PC vendors put case windows on their systems, but few consider whether the system’s interior is actually worth looking at. It’s like the guy at the beach with a bad farmer’s tan—some things just shouldn’t be out in the open.

Not so with Voodoo’s Omen a:121 CrossFire, which is totally justified in putting its innards on display. The Omen features Voodoo’s oft-imitated but rarely duplicated, stealth wiring job. Does Voodoo make its cables from the same material used for Reed Richards’ costume, or what?

The Omen’s Swiftech-based water-cooling also charms. The company skillfully connected water blocks to the CPU, north bridge, and both videocards in the system. You don’t have to worry about the motherboard’s voltage regulators overheating; Voodoo placed a low-rpm 12cm fan at the rear of the PC to keep air moving.

The cooling system is impressive, but the hardware it serves is even more so. The Omen is host to the reigning CPU-performance champ: a dual-core AMD Athlon 64 FX-60, overclocked from 2.6GHz to 2.92GHz. Voodoo paired the FX-60 with 2GB of Corsair DDR400 and a pair of ATI’s X1900 XT cards running in CrossFire mode. The system sports an Asus A8R32-MVP motherboard, which uses ATI’s new CrossFire Express 3200 chipset—so both of the X1900s will run in full PCI Express x16 mode. Did we mention the four 150GB Raptors? One 150GB 10,000rpm Raptor is fast, but four in RAID 0 gives you average read speeds of about 250MB/s. You won’t see better hard drive performance than this system’s 600GB array.

We were pretty excited to see how CrossFire would stack up. We haven’t reviewed a desktop system with ATI videocards in ages, but our stand-alone tests of the X1900 XT show performance on par with nVidia’s high-end cards. In our testing of this system, however, we saw some irregularities. In 3DMark05 Game 3, the dual Radeons squeaked past the record set by Falcon Northwest’s SLI-equipped Mach V machine in February. Not a bad feat considering how shockingly fast the Mach V was. But the Radeons take a back seat to nVidia’s dual-card solution in Doom 3, where its score of 109fps is a distant second to the Falcon’s record 137.

Fortunately, there’s good news elsewhere. The Omen scorched our SYSmark2005 application test, blasting past the 300 mark, and setting a new record at 312. The Omen also broke the record in our Adobe Photoshop CS test. In the two remaining tests—our Premiere Pro and DivX Encoding test—the Omen didn’t break any records, but it performed extremely well.

In the end, we’re very intrigued by the Omen, but we have reservations. We’re a little worried about the Doom 3 numbers. It’s not unusual for some games to run better on certain hardware, but a 28fps gap is abnormal. We just don’t have the confidence yet in ATI’s CrossFire scheme that we have in SLI systems yet. This is the first CrossFire system we’ve tested, and while we didn’t have any major problems, we did see some oddly rendered shadows in certain games.
And then there’s the price. The Voodoo costs a painful $7,500 which is good and bad. The bad is that it’s $7,500, the good is that it’s about $250 less than the Falcon Mach V we reviewed in February.

Month Reviewed: May 2006

+ VOODOO: Yummy FX-60, plus two X1900 XT cards equals happiness.

- DOO DOO: Expensive, with just fair OpenGL gaming performance.

VERDICT: 9
kickass=yes

URL: www.voodoopc.com