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I think HP collects dying hardware companies for some voodoo ritual.

voodoopc.com? (one of HP's "high-end" desktop brands)

I was mostly referring to desktop or server hardware, but notebook-wise, it's still a huge rip-off. Here are two alternatives:

It's not 1/4th the price, but it is also not $2799; How about the Voodoo Envy? Or the Dell Studio ($799 CAD)?

If by "thin and cool", you mean "trendy fashion statement that runs OS X", then no, these machines are not for you.. I mean, they might run OS X. But if you meant a machine that has a favourable price per performance ratio, forget the MBP. It's just not worth it.
If you don't mind using a 15.4" LCD instead of 17", the Lenovo T61p is a nice machine (Oh, and it includes firewire!)

Yes, but not for Dell/Alienware laptops.

Dell & Alienware use a proprietary formfactor which is not generally available elsewhere.

I already paid 300% of what I should have on a GPU upgrade from Dell. Not only was the process thoroughly frustrating and overpriced, but my laptop just barely gets by with the approved Dell upgrade.

I was looking in this thread for vendor recommendations, but sadly I don't see any. So here are mine: (DISCLAIMER: I currently own a Dell. I am not a professional tech writer and do not have resources available to actually try out these products)

Sager Notebook - http://www.sagernotebook.com/default.php
Clevo is the first name I see tossed around most often and Sager seems to be a good reseller. They let slip some 8800M talk a while back, but haven't had an 8800M laptop ready to go yet. I think they might make a good platform for an SLI laptop gaming rig.

VoodooPC - http://www.voodoopc.com/system/Notebook.aspx
I read some celebrity interview and this is what they used. Checking out the specs they look good, if overpriced.

You're not going to the right dealers. VoodooPC specializes in weird colors and designs, and custom hardware. I've only looked at the laptops but I would also check out WidowPC if you're (relatively) less concerned about looks, as VoodooPC tends to be expensive.

COMPLETELY Fanless and Silent: http://www.voodoopc.com/system/quotekitchen.aspx?p roductID=1048

Still expensive, though.

Voodoo PC has name recognition for being the Lexus of gaming machines. Hence their $2,800 starting price. They've been on the leading edge of the curve for several years. So much that Maximum PC has interviewed them a few times about some of their techniques.

They lead the pack with everything from IDE cable folding (before rounded IDE cables) to implementing a gaming rig with no active cooling. And they've constantly pushed to the next level by custom-building parts for next-gen rigs. Some of the stuff that Voodoo PC was doing, you couldn't buy off the shelf.

Voodoo has been reviewed in everything from PC Mag to Playboy, Photo Pro and Cigar Aficianado. Buying a Voodoo PC is for the people who can suffer the excess of a custom name-plate on their PC.

Even now, when everyone is jumping in to the HTPC field, Voodoo is already one step ahead of the curve. Their HTPC has top of the line parts and no fans.

Seeing these guys get bought out just breaks my heart. It was long my dream to own a Voodoo PC, but that just went down the tubes today.

Voodoo PC has name recognition for being the Lexus of gaming machines. Hence their $2,800 starting price. They've been on the leading edge of the curve for several years. So much that Maximum PC has interviewed them a few times about some of their techniques.

They lead the pack with everything from IDE cable folding (before rounded IDE cables) to implementing a gaming rig with no active cooling. And they've constantly pushed to the next level by custom-building parts for next-gen rigs. Some of the stuff that Voodoo PC was doing, you couldn't buy off the shelf.

Voodoo has been reviewed in everything from PC Mag to Playboy, Photo Pro and Cigar Aficianado. Buying a Voodoo PC is for the people who can suffer the excess of a custom name-plate on their PC.

Even now, when everyone is jumping in to the HTPC field, Voodoo is already one step ahead of the curve. Their HTPC has top of the line parts and no fans.

Seeing these guys get bought out just breaks my heart. It was long my dream to own a Voodoo PC, but that just went down the tubes today.

Voodoo PC has name recognition for being the Lexus of gaming machines. Hence their $2,800 starting price. They've been on the leading edge of the curve for several years. So much that Maximum PC has interviewed them a few times about some of their techniques.

They lead the pack with everything from IDE cable folding (before rounded IDE cables) to implementing a gaming rig with no active cooling. And they've constantly pushed to the next level by custom-building parts for next-gen rigs. Some of the stuff that Voodoo PC was doing, you couldn't buy off the shelf.

Voodoo has been reviewed in everything from PC Mag to Playboy, Photo Pro and Cigar Aficianado. Buying a Voodoo PC is for the people who can suffer the excess of a custom name-plate on their PC.

Even now, when everyone is jumping in to the HTPC field, Voodoo is already one step ahead of the curve. Their HTPC has top of the line parts and no fans.

Seeing these guys get bought out just breaks my heart. It was long my dream to own a Voodoo PC, but that just went down the tubes today.

This is not a first review, and this laptop is not manufactured by Alienware. This laptop is really a Clevo M590K, rebranded as Alienware. It's also avalable from a lot of other reseller like Sager, Voodoo PC etc. For ages Alienware was trying to get credit for "reseach" a"design" of laptops of Clevo. All that it really doing is modifing the lids.

I'm amazed every time I see a new alienware product. The only other products coming close are VooDooPC. Problem is that Voodoo's laptops are TWICE the weight at a hefty 13-16 lbs and you get less( apart from the 19" screen.)!

Recent Reviews:
http://resource.voodoopc.com/images/default/review s_images/PDF/wired_524_art.pdf
http://resource.voodoopc.com/images/default/review s_images/PDF/gi_524_art.pdf
(Warning PDF Links)

I'm amazed every time I see a new alienware product. The only other products coming close are VooDooPC. Problem is that Voodoo's laptops are TWICE the weight at a hefty 13-16 lbs and you get less( apart from the 19" screen.)!

Recent Reviews:
http://resource.voodoopc.com/images/default/review s_images/PDF/wired_524_art.pdf
http://resource.voodoopc.com/images/default/review s_images/PDF/gi_524_art.pdf
(Warning PDF Links)

I never thought of it that way before, but consider:

I can name a couple of PC brands like Alienware and Voodoo, but I can't really think of anyone who is "known" for making similarly high-end laptops.

I realize that's because most people need them for mundane, business-related tasks, but with so many (myself included) using laptops at work as desktop replacements, you'd think the specs would matter more.

Our company just rolled out "new" laptops for the staff: IBM/Lenovo T-41 ThinkPads, which were first introduced almost two years ago! That's "good enough" for a laptop around here, and I'm sure that's the consensus at the majority of offices.

6 to 8 thousand? I laugh at your puny half-size system. You need to pay at least $15000 to have a competitive system at a lan party these days:

http://www.voodoopc.com/showroom.aspx?productID=10 90

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article .asp?article=articles%2Farchive%2Fc0601%2F14c01%2F 14c01.asp&articleid=29318&guid=972259F0597543C89D8 154D4FF63D608

8 grand. ha ha ha.

This months CPU (computer power user) features a gold-dipped voodoo system selling for a base price of $15000 (and going up with options).

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article .asp?article=articles%2Farchive%2Fc0601%2F14c01%2F 14c01.asp&articleid=29318&guid=972259F0597543C89D8 154D4FF63D608

http://www.voodoopc.com/showroom.aspx?productID=10 90

Enjoy!

Go to Voodoo Laptops, look at this
Then go to Alienware, look at this

Then look at the case on the Widow
Seems someone is outsourcing these things...they have the ports in the same exact spots, I wonder if thier parts are interchangeable. And the insides are exactly the same. I would assume so, since they are identical on the outside.

Wait for the AMD dualcore version. Less heat, WAY more performance. It's a standard Clevo D900K notebook, also sold by M-Tech, VoodooPC, Alienware, etc.

If it doesn't have to be a Mac, then a Pentium M mini-clone is already available from VoodooPC for about $900 w/o shipping (Pentium M 740, Intel 915GM chipset). Much cheaper options will be coming soon from AOpen, which supplies that case/motherboard to VoodooPC.

Hell, if you were really serious about it (and nobody read your expense reports) you could just go to somewhere like Voodoo and get yourself a carbon fibre model costing anywhere from $2500 to about $7500. Which I understand is small money to the bigger suits.

I'm actually shocked that there doesn't seem to be anyone with Apple's business model in the Wintel space.

maybe these guys: Voodoo PC

Not as classy as a Mac, but for the Windows world, it's quite neat imho

They just figured out that people would rather stick a game console next to their tv than a noisy pc tower. Also, voodoopc has a complete set available for purchase. Their modded xbox looks so cool.

http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/vibe.aspx/

Voodoo PC makes a high-performance gaming rig that's totally fanless, uses giant heat pipes integrated into the case for cooling. It's called the Rage F50.

Apparently it can cool damn near anything as far as CPUs and GPUs, including an Athlon FX-53 and a Geforce 6800gt and up to 2 Gig of ram. The only thing you'll hear is the drives while you frag.

Voodoo PC makes a high-performance gaming rig that's totally fanless, uses giant heat pipes integrated into the case for cooling. It's called the Rage F50.

Apparently it can cool damn near anything as far as CPUs and GPUs, including an Athlon FX-53 and a Geforce 6800gt and up to 2 Gig of ram. The only thing you'll hear is the drives while you frag.

Falcon Northwest make some very pretty PC systems that far outmatch anything Alienware puts out. Granted you have to pay for it, but you get a custom paint job that's unmatched.

Voodoo PC is also a manufacturer that puts an Apple-sized amount of detail into their systems. While they may be expensive, I would like to point out that they are priced very competitively with the G5.

As for me, I built my own system and made it pretty (without obnoxious windows and lights).

I'm in the market for a gaming notebook, so I've done some research. I think the best bet may be the the ABS G1 Gamer's Notebook, which Tom's Hardware Guide reviewed last week. A WAY better price than, say, the top-of-the-line Voodoo PC ENVY m:860. It may not have the ATI 9700, but the 9600 is still pretty good.

I bought one from Hyperdata which is basically the retail front for Sunrex. I'm very happy with it so far, it seems well put together and haven't noticed any hardware defects.

This is definitely not for someone who plans to carry their laptop around all day, but it's fine for occassionally lugging to work, conferences, vacation, etc. Besides, the performance and largeish screen are very nice.

I was daring and ordered mine sans OS. After a couple of tries and a little poking around on the web I was able to install Fedora Core 1 (x86-64 version) successfully. The 2 main tricks are

1. disable frame buffering during install, "linux nofb"
2. the installer won't recognize the Radeon 9600 mobility, you have to hand configure and use the VESA driver

• underperforming video driver (no surprise)
• wireless kernel module not found
• misc minor software issues that are probably due more to the imaturity of FC1 x86-64.

Although, it would be very very cool to get this technology to work on big loud things, and is very cost effective, for quite pc's, the Voodoo F:50 does a very good job at keeping noise at a minimum, using no fans, only convective heat pipes, and using the entire case as a heatsink. Voodoo claims that their system operates at below 20 dBs, and cannot be measured in a room with regular ambient noise.

The cost is... Absurd. Even for a top-end gaming laptop.

Let's see. For $2,500, I can get an Athlon64 laptop which:
1) Dominates gaming performance (games, you know, the point of the Dell laptop's existance)
2) Will run for more than 45 minutes on battery, becaues of Cool'n'Quiet technology. Mine runs for about 3 hours on battery. Honestly, a high end Pentium IV in a laptop? While we live in infinite battery land, why not add a 21" CRT monitor?
3) Isn't a Dell laptop.

Or, if I still like Dell (they aren't bad for the price sometimes), and am not one of the 95% of the world's clueless that still believes the CPU clockspeed = performance, I can buy a Dell Inspiron 8600 with a 1.7GHz Pentium M (which is very close or equal in performance to a 3GHz Pentium IV in most tasks), with an ATI Radeon 9600 Mobile and 1GB of memory, for about $2,600.

I have to say, this new Dell laptop is clearly targetted towards complete idiots with too much money on their hands. It isn't even a "just for rich folks which can afford the finest things in life" unit, because those "rich folks" can get a hell of a lot more laptop for the price, and not have the cheap stigma that is attached to every Dell laptop (except the admittedly very good Dell Precision series (which is made by the same ODM that builds some of IBM's laptops).

Or you could buy a first-gen 17" Powerbook for about $2500, spend $100 and upgrade it to a gig of ram, and ignore the screen resolution since there isn't a mobile graphics card on the planet that can drive a display for a first-person shooter at either system's native resolution anyway.

(spit-take)

What what what??! You really have no idea what level of technology the rest of the world is actually using.

A mobile Radeon 9700 is more than powerful enough to play any fps at the native resolution of this laptop. I have a brand new laptop with a 2.4ghz non-Extreme P4 and the same res. screen as the XPS and I can play UT2K3 and Max Payne 2 at native resolution at around 60fps with a Radeon 9000. So your statement is clearly ignorant, and false.

There's nothing wrong with buying a 17" Powerbook if that's what you want, but you're fundamentally misunderstanding the market for the Dell XPS if that's what you'd think that audience would want. Mac people always say "or just buy a Mac" for pretty much every situation, as if their machines work best for everything. The simple fact is the XPS would be a far better gaming machine than a 17" Powerbook - it has a faster CPU and it has a faster graphics card (and it's upgradeable). The PC market is a specialized market, with a lot of different machines for different purposes. The whole point of a gaming laptop is to have a laptop that's good for playing games, not to have a laptop that's a catch-all device with gaming as merely one of the possible functions. This is not a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none... this is a master of one trade, and that's it.

That said, I wouldn't buy an XPS myself. It's fugly, for one thing. And heavy, and unnecessarily expensive. When I can play games like those I listed above at good frame rates at native res. on my $1,200 widescreen laptop that doesn't weight 9 pounds and also looks better than the XPS, what the heck am I spending $5,000 on? Which is not to say I think these things are silly for everyone, I am just not their target market. I do have a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none machine. If I really had some extra cash to waste, I'd at least go for something like this or even this. At least they're somewhat portable and don't look like they were designed in 1989.

There are many other silent pc's available, three from hushpc, voodoo pc (looks awfully like that tnn 500a though)
and i'm sure i've seen others...

I like the hushpc idea, of course, i'm still not ready to spend that much =)

Sorry about the [] tags, other forums I go to use them >_<
Here's the proper link: Voodoo Rage F-50

I've been impressed with the silence of Dell's machines for the last few years. Everything from the Dimension 8200 to the Precision 340, 350, and 360 have been almost completely silent.

This is not one of the first Athlon64 laptops. I have had an Athlon64 laptop for almost two months, and they have been available since late October/early November 2003.

If the market doesn't catch fire, your desk or legs will...

This is not true at all. The laptop runs at 800MHz 95% of the time (whenever the full 2GHz is not needed). At that speed, the CPU has a peak heat dissipation of 35W, and a typical output of 28W. This is well below Pentium IV laptops, and is below the peak output of most Pentium-M chips at their full speed.
Even at 2GHz, it outputs at most around 85W (max theoretical heat output). Compare this to laptops with the Pentium IV Extreme Edition (available from many vendors), which has a typical heat output of over 100W--and that is at idle! Don't even ask about power usage when actually doing something.

I get a good 3 1/2 hours of battery life on a single charge. That is pretty damn good for a laptop which is more powerful than 95% of the full desktop processors out there, including my own. When it runs at full speed all night, the mouse pad and right side of the keyboard get fairly warm, but not to a point that it makes the machine uncomfortable to use. Warmth is comparable to the Dell Latitude D800, which uses a Pentium-M.

Unfortunately, it does not support dual batteries, and has no modular optical drive bay (the DVD drive is set when the machine is assembled), but these aren't major issues for most people. It also has a rather bulky power supply for the use of A/C power, complete with its own tiny cooling fan. This does not help the weight, which is already nearly 8lbs with battery. Ah well--it's more powerful than my desktop, reasonably light, and is MUCH smaller than certain 12-lb Pentium IV laptops. One often wonders if manufacturers have a different definition of "lap" than the rest of us.

Voodoo PC also makes a very similar laptop. I wouldn't be surprised if the weren't from the same OEM.

They list battery life as 3+ Hours

Even if it manages only HALF of that under normal usage, it's still better than most.

This is most likely due to the power-saving technology present in the Athlon 64 (which, interestingly enough, is also present in the desktop versions of the chip, and is supported on virtually all motherboards). From what I understand of it, it's similar in concept to Intel Speedstep.

Unfortunately, I couldn't test it out on my Athlon 64 desktop, because WinXP refuses to install a specialized processor driver on non-laptops.

That being said, i'll stick with the same setup i've used for quite some time. AMD Desktop. Apple Notebook.

See? It's not so hard!

Then get one of these . Voodoo has had a 64 bit AMD laptop for quite a while now.

VoodooPC has been doing this for over three months already.

I've researched their business strategies fervently...and these people know what they are doing with open source software.

Except for their limiting x86-64 support to their enterprise version and not including it in the-version-that-follows-9 (codenamed Severn), which has me (a paid-up RHN subscriber) looking at SuSE 9. Yeah, because Linux geeks just aren't going to be interested in playing with shiny new toys like the Athlon 64 or multiprocessor Opteron machines...

(No, I don't have one. Yet. Been busy with classes. Trying to hold out for a semi-affordable Athlon 64 notebook. This one is exceptionally nice, but not quite within my budget, sigh.)

Then again, that still puts RH well ahead of Microsoft. Hey Bill, thanks for the encouragement to switch over to Linux full-time!

Athlon 64 Laptops are available now. So I don't think apple will be the first with a 64bit laptop.

http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/m855.aspx

There are a few others, but thats the only one I know off hand. Pretty good considering the chip was only released a few weeks ago.

Cheers,

Bill

Just found another, VoodooPC also has one.

http://voodoopc.com/systems/advanced.aspx?t=1&p=23 0

And you'll fix or replace every single part that may need it, for whatever reason, including shipping, and address ANY software issue for 7 years, no ifs, buts, or exceptions. Right? Right?? Because you can do all that for ALL your customers for the last 7 years while you're at your day job right?

He could charge $1100 more for the same build and a paint job in place of the service mentioned above. But he doesn't.

And no I don't own it. I just DON'T LOVE playing Legos with computer parts and being stuck on hold with money grubbing OEM's, especially in my free time, when I could be playing with my digitial SLR, or even better - fishing. It's called "Value Added", I value my time, therefore I value that service. When I play with tech, I play a lot cooler things than PCI legos and driver roullette.

Also, I would NEVER buy a PC from somebody with a different day job. When I want something from you I'd want it NOW, not when you get off work. I'd want your livelihood to depend very much on my satisfaction.

I'll give you this, he doesn't have a marketing dept., and marketing definitely isn't his strong point. I'd spend more time touting the service than the hardware myself. But hey whatever works for him.

So go ahead, post a link to your shop. In addition to coming nowhere near the 100% service and replacement for 7 years, I bet you live in Arkansas and pay a dollar a month rent, since you can afford to keep a shop running in your spare time whenever the fancy strikes you. I'm posting anonymously to keep this sorry assed conversation out of my log. Why are you?

It happens yearly (incidentally, last weekend). 4 days of non-stop gaming, contests & silliness. Lots of case mods (my fav was the labatts blue fridge system). A buddy of mine won a can of SPAM for the best "Ghetto mod" PC - a beat up gateway with duct-tape keeping the cover on.

3 & 4AM Sunday MOHAA: funnies included 'nade dancing, an orgy, an unsuccessful congo line (some dumbass kept dropping nades) and a human pyramid.

Official tourney's were were 5v5 Counterstrike (blech!), 4v4 RA3, and an Xbox Halo tourney. See the site for the give-a-way goodies & details.

It was loads of fun and I'll definitely be back next year. We even had a guy from Washington state (but the guy arrived with a fried HDD). And wow...chicks...and 1 in a skipping contest, no less...*droool*

I know very few PC users who even think about their computer case for a second. It usually is tucked away under a desk somewhere and forgotten.

'zat a fact now?