Voodoo M:855 vs Alienware 51m2

Mmh, really dunno the original manufactor of the m855.
But there are many 'nonname' Notebooks in Europe that have nearly identically specs and looks the same too - so perhaps its the same manufactor?
They cost less than 2.000 USD...
One example: German reseller


Marlboro

hmm

That German Reseller has a 15" XGA screen, bleh

Perhaps this could be teh reason i posted: *that have nearly identically specs*
They are several more online-retailers with SXGA - google is your friend.

But of course a Voodoo would be much better - even if it would cost 1000USD more just because of this cool name.

Marlboro

The Voodoo is a great machine - they themselves have said it's comparable and bests a 3.2GHZ 800MHZ FSB laptop like the Alienware or Voodoo's own M-600 (8890). A fully tricked out one will set you back almost 4 grand, but it's a great machine. Hypersonic-pc offers a similar machine, I configured it to be around $3000, but Hypersonic's build quality and customer service is less than perfect.

My advice is to ditch the alienware whatever you do, if you're on a budget go pctorque, if not, go voodoo.

The original manufacturer of Voodoo's m:855 is Arima. I seriously considered returning my new Area-51m and buying the m:855. But, after some correspondence with a few people at Voodoo, I decided against the m:855.

The main issues for me were:

1) The heat problem - The m:855's cooling system can't handle the extra heat generated by the 128 MB ATI card. The Voodoo tech (Nilo was his name) suggested that I go with the m:600 if heat was a concern for me.

2) The screen is only 15" SXGA+ - Voodoo claims its screen is "optimized for gaming" which means the screen has a 25 ms response time. Considering that the Alienware and Sager screens rate at 30 ms, the Voodoo screen isn't overly impressive. I use an external LCD monitor (16 ms response time) for most of my gaming, anyway.

3) The price is staggeringly high - A comparably equipped 51m, 8890, or 5680 is easily $1000 - $1200 less than the m:855.

Just my two cents, but I hope it helps!

I agree, Dragserb. Heat is THE issue when it comes to the high performance (and high priced) laptops. My 51m handles heat like a dream. I've run some gaming sessions and graphics applications simultaneously for over two hours and my 51m has never even felt warm to me. I'm very pleased with my 51m, although I sympathize with your frustrations and impatience over the waiting period.

in case anyone cares, there's a thread on voodoo's forums about the heat of the 855 from the president of the company...

http://www.voodoopc.com/boards/messa...850&forum=1026

Also, Anandtech has a system in hand and has done the first half of their review, they specifically mention the heat is not too hot.

Here's what they have to say:


We are currently benchmarking the M:855 in more depth, and part 2 will cover what has become known as the AnandTech standard mobile review, as well as diving into the battery life of this powerhouse notebook. Voodoo claims that it fairs better than their Centrino notebook, which is indeed a very exciting claim to make. Considering it based on a K8T800 chipset and uses an Athlon 64 DTR, we aren’t expecting incredibly high battery life. After all, these are desktop and desktop like components, which aren’t designed to be that forgiving on power consumption. We will know more on this subject soon once we get the final benchmark numbers in.

In the meantime, we should mention that our system comes with a price tag just shy of 3,600 USD. (3,578 USD with 1GB of system memory to be exact, but we only used 512MB for benchmarking purposes.) With this price tag and considering its hardware, Voodoo is no doubt continuing to go after the gaming market. So far so good, as the M:855 comes with a great feel to it: tactile keyboard, crisp screen, etc..., which we will explore deeper in our part 2 coverage. The system gets only so warm as some of the Intel based desktop replacements we have seem (Pentium-M, Pentium 4 533MHz/800MHz, etc...), and is surprisingly quiet compared to many desktop replacements (about the same as the Dell Inspiron 8600 when idle in this regard). At the moment, we have no qualms about recommending the Envy M:855 for gamers or enthusiasts, as it performs extremely close to a desktop AMD Athlon 64 3200+ system in some scenarios

AnandTech has a review of the Voodoo Envy M:855 here.

hey Dragserb you might want to check out Hypersonic, they are still the Clevo/Sager brand, with the same cases - the equivelant model to what you were looking at is Called the AX6 and comes with the 9600 pro W/ 64 ram and slick paint and you can save a few bucks they also have more powerful systems if thats what you may be looking for. They even have the same comp as the AW Area 51m2 but it doesn't have the same lid.......I got stuck at Phase 11 about the same time as you and finally gave up......anyway I've been really happy with Hypersonic so far......much better than AW, anyway its worth a look if you have some time.

Damn that is nearly the same thing as the Voodoo no? And its far cheaper.

I bought a Hypersonic desktop PC about 2 years ago and have had no trouble. I did hear someone telling a horror story on this board recently and I was surprised to hear it.

I just wish that this model was upgradeable in the GPU and RAM department. Someone said a while ago that supposedly it can go to 2GB of RAM but there is just not a 1GB chip out yet that fits it. Is that true?

Re: Voodoo M:855 vs Alienware 51m2

No.
The amount of memory in a video card has absolutely nothing to do with performance unless more memory than that is needed to fit textures, the Z buffer, etc.
Thus, if you will run games at very high resolutions, like, higher than the TDT of that laptop can do, than it may effect performance. If you plan to run games with 8x antialiasing, which will be dog slow on a 9600 for most modern games regardless of the amount of RAM, then yes it would make a big difference as it would have to swap out to system RAM over the AGP bus to fit everything on the screen.
The CTO of VoodooPC recommends running all games at 1024x768. They have fairly high quality screens, and you get something of a pseudo-antialiasing effect due to the resizing, which would resemble bilinear filtering. (I don't have a Voodoo myself, but I have seen this effect on other, similar screens)

I would cancel an order from Alienware anyway, after doing research into their reputation and business practices. They just don't seem to be as good as they used to.
An M:855 will greatly outlast the Area51 in the battery life department, even if not using power saving features, because the Athlon64 consumes slightly less power and because the M:855 comes with a powerful 12-cell battery. (See my post in the VoodooPC thread listed above)
If wait times are a great concern though, avoid VoodooPC, as orders can take a month or so to be filled, especially after all the publicity that Anandtech is giving them.

Geometry can (depending on how the game was written) also be stored in the GPU's RAM, therefore the equation for screen resolution and bitdepth does not suffice.

There is no black and white answer as some suggest, it varies wildly on the game and the drivers.

Generally speaking, if you are concerned about the longetivity of your notebook's gaming performance, and don't have an option to upgrade the memory later, than I suggest waiting for the 128MB version.

I too am torn. I cant decide between the AW-51m and the new 855. Power is key of course, but I want to go voodoo becuase I respect companies who respect thier customers (AW obviously doesnt as Ive learned through many phone calls) and the options of asthetics on the voodoo are immense (got a kickass tatoo idea). Im not too worrysome on its video memory, it primary use wont be games. SO I dont know, does anyone have any more in sight in the aw-vs-855 thing? I was all sold, then they had to go and release this....

i agree with you completely...you're definitely paying more for a voodoo but you're paying for great service too...that confidence in my purchase sealed the deal. Alienware is not even on my A list, they're just too iffy. You CAN get lucky and get a good notebook that never needs repair, service, or tech support, but it's unlikely, and if it does ever happen, I want a live person right away and not sh*tty hold music for an hour.

The 855's battery life is unheard of for a DTR notebook....let us know about your tattoo idea when you get it.


Check out this guy's website for his custom tattoo on his M355 laptop.
http://www.got-chow.com

Enjoy, and let us know!

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