Voodoo Envy M:855 Part 2 - Take Two

Construction - Under the Hood

As we mentioned in part 1, the M:855 is based on the Athlon 64 DTR processor, which AMD offers in two processor configurations: Athlon 64 DTR 3000+ or 3200+. Voodoo offers both for the M:855, but the default configuration option is the Athlon 64 DTR 3000+. Our system came with an Athlon 64 DTR 3200+, 1GB DDR PC2700 memory, WiFi connectivity, and a 60.0GB 7200RPM hard drive.

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Since the Athlon 64 DTR has thermal characteristics close to its desktop counterpart, Voodoo had to employ the use of a large heatsink allowing them to use a larger and slower fan, which cuts down on audible noise.

There is a small amount of thermal grease that helps the CPU interface with the copper heatpipe, which is connected to the aluminum heatsink. In our use, the fan got very quite at points when idle, almost to the point of a whisper, but it would so speed up to the point of being noticeable audible, though definitely not loud. It is very similar to the Inspiron 8600 in this respect.

The northbridge is mounted directly below the CPU socket. Of the solutions available, Voodoo chose the K8T800 chipset for the Envy M:855. We have yet to see an NVIDIA solution of this category, though Voodoo has toyed with the idea back at the original drawing board.

For now, Voodoo feels that the VIA has the best performing solution. We may yet see something based on NVIDIA nForce3 class chipsets in notebooks, as Voodoo tells us that NVIDIA’s single chip solution is being considered for Centrino based notebooks, because the single chip solution will offer the advantage of saved real estate space.

As we went over in our part 1 coverage, the M:855 has uses a ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro configured with 64MB of video memory. Within the past 24 hours, we have received information regarding how the “Pro” dubbing will be used, which we will discuss further shortly in an upcoming article. For now, we can safely say that Voodoo is in the clear about using the term Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro on the Envy M:855. The refresh model of the M:855 will still be bumped up to 128MB of video memory.

Ethernet support is provided by the VIA’s VT6103 10/100 ethernet controller, which is located on the top side of the motherboard near the right edge. While it is designed as a high end system, the M:855 isn’t provided with Gigabit ethernet support.

The M:855 employs the use of the C-Media CMI9378S AC’97 audio codec, which is located on the bottom of the motherboard in the bottom left hand corner.

The motherboard is about three quarters the length of the actual system. The battery pack for the M:855 interfaces with the pins that are exposed on the far left side of the motherboard. The directly next to the battery pack is reserved for the large heatsink.

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