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Rahul Sood leaving HP
HP acquired VoodooPC and its founder Rahul Sood in 2006, and it's been a wild ride ever since. The ever out-spoken Rahul has brought a lot of "Voodoo DNA" to HP products, most notably the Envy line, but also witnessed the slow fade of the actual Voodoo brand. He also went on a lot of extreme cycling trips in-between all the product teases and wild statements. Rahul isn't saying exactly why he's leaving HP, but he has penned a substantial blog post detailing some of Voodoo's history and thanking a whole bunch of people and companies. As for his time with HP: "We merged, we invented, we kicked ass, and we had fun, but then things got a little complicated." What he means by "complicated" is unclear, but whatever Rahul is moving on to next (he says he "can't wait to be directly involved in a product pipeline again," for what it's worth), we're sure he'll do it with his trademark flair for the dramatic that we've come to know and love.
Voodoo's Rahul Sood emerges from hiding, gives us all the low-down
For years now, Voodoo PC's fearless leader (that'd be Rahul Sood) barely went a month without teasing this or that, or better yet, introducing the new hotness. In terms of cutting-edge design, these guys were at the front of the class. And then came the HP tie-in, along with the worry that the Voodoo name (and "DNA") would eventually be swallowed whole. After dishing out a smattering of VoodooDNA machines under the HP label, Rahul and his company went radio silent. In fact, we haven't heard a peep from Mr. Sood for nine whole months, and we really began to wonder what was going on when HP issued the new Envy 13 and Envy 15 with nary an official hint of Voodoo's fingerprints.Now, at long last, Rahul has emerged from hiding, and he's got a story to tell. In short, Voodoo is still alive and well, but it's certainly not the same company that shocked the world with its ENVY m:790 laptop in late 2004. In fact, Rahul's been working on some pretty unorthodox projects, ranging from healthcare (okay?) to futuristic stuff for HP's Innovation Program Office. In a lengthy letter to the world, he explains that the initial push to get Voodoo completely underneath HP's wings was done in order to give Voodoo access to global partners, and in turn, to ship its products to every corner of the world. When speaking about the Envy 13 / 15, he proclaims that HP's own laptop team simply lifted ideas from Voodoo prototypes and designed them internally; the truth is that Voodoo didn't design either machine, it only influenced them. The removal of the "VoodooDNA" tagline -- according to Rahul -- has to do with "the overall design language, the target market, and the fact that [Voodoo] wasn't directly involved in the design." In the end, Sood admits that there's still a chance you'll see another Voodoo-branded machine in your lifetime, but he also confesses that it has transitioned from a desktop and laptop company to "something beyond." He also makes clear that he hasn't forgotten about his promise to change the future of desktop gaming, and that new products from HP will continue to boast Voodoo's fingerprints. Typical Rahul -- it just wouldn't be a formal conclusion without a tease or two, now would it?
HP Firebird 802 unboxing and hands-on
HP was nice enough to send us a prototype Firebird 802 gaming rig, and while we haven't had a chance to fire it up and start sucking at Crysis quite yet, we thought we'd throw up a quick unboxing for you. It's pretty slick stuff, all around -- the box has big plastic latches that pop open, and the machine itself is held in by swing-out cardboard panels, giving everything that "top-secret missile codes" feel you'd expect from a gaming PC. The Firebird itself looks just as nice in our living room as it did at CES, but there are some sad surprises here -- the super-heavy external power brick has a troublesomely lame connector, and the included wireless keyboard is pretty simply crap -- the slightest downward pressure basically bends it in half. Plus, we're not at all sure why the mouse and keyboard require a plug-in USB dongle -- why not just build the receiver into the gigantic chassis? We're guessing the lameness of these two is why HP also sent along a Gaming Keyboard and Laser Gaming Mouse with our tester -- we'll have those two unboxed along with our in-depth Firebird impressions a little later. For now, hit up the gallery for the full unboxing!%Gallery-45664%
HP's Firebird with VoodooDNA 802 / 803 now available starting at $1,799
We know it's a little easy to lose track of time with the world's craziest consumer electronics show steaming ahead, but today actually is January 9th. The meaning of that? HP's two Firebird gaming towers are go for purchase. Both the Firebird with VoodooDNA 802 and 803 are available for purchase right now, with starting prices pegged at $1,799 and $2,099, respectively. The primary difference between the stock configurations are the CPUs (a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad versus 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad), the hard drives (2 x 250GB verses 2 x 320GB), the sound card (the 803 has a Creative X-Fi mini-PCI audio card) and the fact that the 803 comes packed with a slot-loading Blu-ray drive. Hit the read link to get your shopping on.
HP Firebird with Voodoo DNA hands-on
We just hit up HP's booth to check out the new Firebird gaming rig, and it's pretty slick looking, although it's a lot bigger than we expected / hoped. The side panels are actually a cool translucent smoke finish, and the blue LED lighting might be the first classy gaming PC light kit we've ever seen. HP was demoing the Firebird with Left 4 Dead and Crysis, and the gamers on hand seemed pretty pleased -- we'll have see how the $1,799 machine's 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards benchmark out when it's released on February 1st. Check it all in the gallery!%Gallery-41117%
HP officially launches Firebird with Voodoo DNA
We figured it was destined for a CES release, and HP has confirmed that today's the day. The hotly anticipated Firebird with Voodoo DNA has been properly introduced to the world, and within it will come an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, twin NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards in an SLI configuration, hot-swappable 320GB hard drives (two of 'em) and an advanced thermal management system to keep things cool, calm, collected and quiet. As we'd heard, the rig will be available starting on January 9th for as little as $1,799 directly from Voodoo, while those too frightened to hand over their credit card information online can hold tight 'til it hits select retailers (read: Best Buy, most likely) on February 1st. Have a look at Rahul Sood and team gloating ad nauseum over this thing just after the break.%Gallery-40673%[Via DesktopReview]
Voodoo Firefly gaming laptop prototype gets hands-on treatment
While most of the hype surrounding Voodoo right now pertains to the Firebird gaming tower, LAPTOP has discovered yet another undercover rig from the company's arsenal worth swooning over. Before you go getting too excited, we must caution you that the Firefly is merely a prototype at the moment, but we all know concepts are made with the intent to commercialize. With the fine print behind us, it's worth reading up on what this Voodoo DNA'd machine offered up; for starters, you'll notice a 17-inch panel and a hefty 13-pound frame. There's also a multitouch trackpad, keyboard with customizable backlighting, a secondary 4.3-inch 800 x 480 display sitting beneath the main screen, a 2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU, 4GB of RAM, two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs and a 250GB HDD. No benchmarks were allowed, but Far Cry 2 ran "silky smooth" even with details maxed. For the rest of the nitty-gritty, we'll direct you to the read link, and before you get all irate that this isn't available for purchase, just be thankful this post isn't about yet another teaser from Mr. Sood.
HP Firebird gaming towers with VoodooDNA to start at $1,799
It'd be a gross understatement to say that we weren't remarkably excited about the HP Firebird 803 when we caught wind of it last week, but now you can safely say that our emotions have settled down after hearing the price. Granted, the $1,799 starting figure for the Firebird 802 isn't totally unexpected -- after all, the Blackbird 002 went for upwards of three large -- but we still see the sticker as a touch high given the weaker innards and the lack of upgrade options. Those of you who vehemently disagree can certainly hand over your wallet starting on January 9th, or you can wait for the boxes to hit unnamed retail outlets in February.
