MaximumPC 2005 12

reviewsTESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2005

D

espite all the chest-beating about

notebook computers replacing

desktops for gaming, it’s never really

been anything more than hot air from mobile

enthusiasts drunk on Kool-Aid.

That’s because notebooks have always

lagged behind in graphics. If a desktop “ultra”

version features a 16-pixel pipeline chip, the

notebook version features 12 pipes. If the

desktop version is clocked at 400MHz, the

mobile version is clocked at half that.

That second-class status is finally shed

with the Voodoo Envy Hu:703, thanks to

its state-of-the-art GeForce Go 7800 GTX

graphics part. nVidia’s new mobile graph-

ics chip is damned close to its desktop

brethren in specsmanship and marks a

new age in graphics performance. Like its

desktop counterpart, the GeForce Go 7800

GTX has a 24-pixel pipeline part. It’s also

just a hair off in clock speeds at 400MHz

core and 550MHz DDR memory, versus

430MHz and 600MHz DDR RAM on the

desktop cards. There’s no SLI of course,

but nVidia says it’s a possibility down the

line, even in a laptop.

Voodoo matches the Go 7800 GTX with

a beautifully painted and brutally heavy note-

book. Inside the massive chassis there are

few surprises—RAID 0, A/B/G wireless, and a

17-inch screen. The Envy’s 3.6GHz desktop

P4 660 can even run a 64-bit OS. None of

the notebooks we reviewed in our July 2005

roundup could do that. If you read our July

roundup, you prob-

ably recognize the

chassis of the Envy

Hu:703, because

it’s pretty much the

same Sager chas-

sis that Alienware,

Cyberpower, and

Hypersonic submit-

ted to us. Voodoo,

however, opted for

a Matshita slot-fed

DVD burner, which

is an improvement

over the pop-out drive trays of the others.

We don’t think the screen is an improve-

ment, though. The 17-inch monitor in the

Envy sports an aggressive anti-glare coating

that almost gives the screen a frosted-glass

look—it can be very distracting.

Its flaws are a shame, as the Envy

is clearly the fastest gaming note-

book we’ve tested. Compared with the

Alienware and Dell machines from July,

the 7800 GTX-equipped Envy is smoking

fast. In 3DMark05, it’s about 38 percent

faster than the Mobility Radeon X800

XT Platinum Edition in Alienware’s 51M

and about 42 percent faster than the

GeForce Go 6800 Ultra in Dell’s XPS (both

Alienware and Dell now offer the 7800

part, however). In Doom 3, the Envy Hu is

about 33 percent faster than the Alienware

and 34 percent faster than the Dell. But

in applications, the Envy gets pushed

out of the way by the 3.8GHz P4 in the

Alienware. Megahertz still matters for

some things.

Speed isn’t everything, though. You

probably know that we don’t think the

P4-based super notebooks are the wis-

est selections. They’re heavy and super

hot. And we mean uncomfortable, steril-

ity-inducing hot. The Envy is no exception.

The vent along the left side of the note-

book could double as a hand-dryer in the

men’s bathroom at Wal-Mart. Battery life is

also disappointing. With 3DMark03 looped,

we got an unspectacular 51 minutes of

run time. Most people who buy this class

of notebook obviously aren’t looking for

portability and they’re probably not looking

for battery life either. They’re looking for

all-out performance, which the Envy deliv-

ers in spades.

While we’re not sold on Pentium 4 for

notebooks, consumers who know what

they’re getting and can live with it will find

that the Envy is at the front of the class.

—GORDON MAH UNG

Voodoo Envy Hu:703

The Envy puts a hex on gaming benchmarks

$5,000, http://www.voodoopc.com

VOODOO ENVY HU:703

RED RUM

Smoking-fast GeForce Go

7800 GTX is nearly on par

with desktop part.

REDRUM^8

Can double as a waffle iron for

your legs; anti-glare coating gives

screen a shimmery look.

The Voodoo Envy Hu:703 can make some desktop machines beg

for mercy.

15.5"

11.75

"

VIDEO nVidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX

256MB (400MHz core/550MHz

DDR)

DISPLAY 17-inch (1920x1200@32-bit)

AUDIO CHIP Realtek AC97

LAP WT 12.85 lbs

CARRY WT 15.4 lbs

UNDER THE HOOD

BOOT: 25 sec. DOWN: 15.4 sec.

BRAINS

BEAUTY

CPU 3.6GHz Pentium 4 660

(915P chipset)

RAM 2GB DDR2/533

LAN Intel A/B/G 2915 wireless,

Realtek RTL8169

HARD DRIVE Two 60GB Hitachi 7,200

RPM TravelStar in RAID 0

OPTICAL Matshita UJ-8455

CD-RW/DVD burner

487

355

BENCHMARKS

Premiere Pro

ZERO POINT SCORES

Photoshop CS

HD T ach

Doom 3

3DM ark 05

Portable Gaming

0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Our zero point is a Dell Inspiron XPS, with a 2.13GHz Pentium M, 1GB of DDR2/533 RAM, and a GeForce Go 6800 Ultra.

59.8 (116.67%)

65.9

6,510

92 min 51 (-44.57%)

4,889

686 sec

394 sec

27.6 MB /s

49.1 fps