Conclusion
Even with the use of desktop/desktop-like components, the Voodoo Envy M:855 is able to provide a very satisfying amount of battery life. This was perhaps one of the greatest feats that Voodoo had to overcome with this notebook, particular since it eats up power like there is no tomorrow. In this case, it is like Voodoo gave the notebook a whole oil tanker to feed off of, which ends up providing the notebook with battery life similar to some of the Centrino systems we have seen.
For the most part, the Voodoo Envy M:855 has lived up to and surpassed our expectations in a desktop replacement notebook. It has a very durable build and is designed well as a gaming and high-end solution. Clearly, the Dell Inspiron 8600 is not of the same class as the Voodoo Envy M:855, though we do benchmark it as a reasonable reference point. The pure enthusiasts and gamers wouldn’t be caught dead with a Dell gaming notebook; instead they would turn to something the likes of Sager, Hypersonic, Eurocom, etc... The problem with a few of these vendors is that technical support is sometimes not up to par with what is desired.
Voodoo offers great support, which is even transparent in the upgrade options they provide. Once you purchase one of their notebooks, they will allow you to upgrade to the latest and greatest technology costing only whatever the wholesale price of the upgrade components may be. This is limited only to the newest laptop that uses the same notebook frame, as the new components need to naturally fit into the old notebook frame.
We recommend this beautiful notebook to those looking to tackle the best of desktop gaming, high-end multimedia users, and even those looking for an alternative to the very popular Pentium 4 desktop replacement notebook, like those that are ODM through Clevo (Sager/Eurocom/Hypersonic). At the moment, this is the only notebook on the market to use a processor from the Athlon 64 family, and we are sure there will be more to follow. We are particularly excited to hear about AMD’s upcoming mobile Athlon 64 processor, which should breathe a breath of fresh air that mobile systems have yet to fully appreciate.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
10 Comments
View All Comments
spawnocula - Friday, November 21, 2003 - link
It would be nice if Anandtech would review the ALIENWARE AREA-51m, Voodoo Envy 855, Sager 8890, and Hypersonic Aviator GX6 or 8, to see which is better of the bunch and has longer upgradeability.spawnocula - Friday, November 21, 2003 - link
alexruiz - Thursday, November 20, 2003 - link
I am quire sure MOST of the available Athlon 64 laptops are based on the MITAC 8355. Clevo doesn't have an Athlon 64 design. The other 2 Athlon 64 laptops are the hyped Arima A520-K8 that is nowhere to be seen (mobility radeon 9000 only though). The other is the Uniwill 766 that employs the SIS 755 chipset, still not seen yet.So, I am 95% confident all the machines available are based on the MITAC design.
Alex
Madcat207 - Tuesday, November 18, 2003 - link
#3&4-Im not sure why the article says there is no DDR400, but Uniwill and Clevo both have good DDR400 supplies. I cant speak for Uniwill, but Clevo ships Apacer PC3200, CL2.5, which can be OCed (with some register editing) to CL2. Also, this ram is commercially sold to end users..
#6-
Hypersonic's A64 laptop is the EXACT same as Voodoo's, since they both get thier laptops from from the same ODM..
mrbdm99 - Monday, November 17, 2003 - link
Hypersonic has a 64 notebook as well, I'm sure it's from Clevo as well.ssamurai26 - Sunday, November 16, 2003 - link
OK, thanks for the clarification.Andrew Ku - Saturday, November 15, 2003 - link
FishTankX - Yes, that would be mighty speedy. :)gordon151 - Well only one score from each actually, a typo, which has been fixed. Thanks!
ssamurai26 - The Alienware 51M systems most likely use Kingmax, but the problem still remains to be supply. SODIMM DDR400 modules are very very rare. The highest speed that is actually available to the general consumer still remains to be DDR333.
ssamurai26 - Friday, November 14, 2003 - link
"While the K8T800 supports DDR400, SODIMM modules are still limited at DDR333, which is why Voodoo had to go with this memory speed."Out of curiousity, why is it then that the Area 51M ships with DDR400 sodimms?
gordon151 - Friday, November 14, 2003 - link
Someone wanna email and tell Andrew Ku he mixed up the "Content Creation Winstone 2003" scores with the "Business Winstone 2002" scores =/?FishTankX - Friday, November 14, 2003 - link
Wow! That Insperon 8600 is running mighty fast at [b]MHz/b].