Voodoo Envy M:855 Part 2 - Take Two

Construction - Build, Appearance, Size (continued)

The front of the system is home to several features that would many times be seen on the back the system. The set of five status LEDs near the edge are not visible once the screen is closed, though the LEDs on the back of the LCD panel are. The sound can be heard reasonably well from the speakers, even when closed, but there is noticeable dubbing. Because the M:855 is first and foremost designed as a gaming system, the use of headphones is expected during gameplay; which is provided at the front of the system. In addition the front of the M:855 is home to (from left to right) a wireless button (blue when active), volume control scroll, microphone in, 4 pin IEEE-1394 firewire port, flash card reader (for MMC, SD, CF, SM), and IR window.

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The left side of the system is fairly bare, due to the placement of the M:855’s battery: a huge 12 cell 14.8V 6.6AH (our sample was 2.4AH) that weighs in at about 0.5 pounds. Left of the battery are numerous slots that act as an intake vent for the processor’s heatsink. There is a small horizontally oriented slot that at first appears to be part of the intake vent, but upon closer inspection, it is, in fact, a lock port.

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The back side of the M:855 is mainly occupied by a pair of exhaust vents for the heatsink. Left of the pair of vents is home to the power in port, which is unlike what we have seen on any notebook to date. The 4 pin power connector is quite similar to what we have seen the ECS EZ-Buddie SFFs use, though not identical. Next to the power in port and the parallel port is another vent for a fan that is used to cool a cluster of capacitors on underside of the M:855’s motherboard. For video out, the M:855 comes with a s-video out port and VGA-out port; there are two USB 2.0 ports next to the VGA-out port for peripheral connectivity.

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Other than the front side, the right side of the system is where Voodoo designed most of the interaction to take place. Another pair of USB 2.0 ports are located here and to the left of them lies a modem and ethernet jack. The placement of the two connectivity jacks here instead of the more common placement on the back of the notebook does limit orientation a bit, but only so much in the length of the cable being used.

The Voodoo Envy M:855 comes with a DVD-RW drive, which is the default configuration as well as the only one available. The downside we see with DVD-RW is the late adoption of this standard, which is clearly reflected in the other notebooks we have seen. The more popular preference is the DVD+RW drive. In theory, Voodoo has the ability to offer a DVD+RW drive because the notebook supports a modular bay interface. Note Voodoo doesn’t offer DVD+RW drives for their notebooks. Instead, this format is only offered in their SFF and tower systems but is only available via their DVD±RW drive.

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The charger we got for the M:855 is unlike anything we have ever seen before. This is one mammoth size charger, which Voodoo admittedly joked about as being “a laptop in itself.” As a reference point, we put it next to the charger for the Dell Inspiron 8600, and the immense size of the charger is clearly visible. Topping it off, the battery pack weighs a great deal (about 0.5 pounds) and this does reduce the mobility factor.

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After our testing, Voodoo has since informed us that they will be implementing a new charger for all shipping models. This was expected, as the charger we got was an engineering sample used by Voodoo to tinker around with the M:855’s thermal budget. The new charger should be about 1/5th the original size and weight and charge about 50% faster: 1.5 hours to 3 hours.

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As mentioned earlier, there are three status LEDs on the back of the back side of the LCD panel. Aside from the one of a kind Voodoo paint job, Voodoo is known for the graphical art work they put onto their casings for notebook and desktop systems, which they refer to as a “graphical tattoo.” Our Envy M:855 system came with what is known as “The Voodoo Tattoo.”

The bottom of the system only has two access panels. The access panel in the upper right hand corner covers the heatsink, which is the reason behind the meshing: airflow. The lower access panel covers the system’s hard drive, which Voodoo gives several options for configuration. The two tabs on the bottom of the system are to secure the large and heavy battery pack. The upper tab locks the battery in place, and the lower tab is a secondary release tab.

Curiosity has probably set in about the electrical tape strips on the bottom of the system. Our Envy M:855 is an engineering sample, so Voodoo was still playing around with heat dissipation and airflow right before we got in the labs. There was originally going to be two horizontal vents, but Voodoo has decided to revamp the design a bit by removing the vents in that location, which will be effective as of production units. For testing purposes, we left the tape on during testing to emulate the thermal characteristics of production systems.

The Envy M:855 is no doubt a desktop replacement notebook. However, unlike many notebooks of this class, the M:855 has a physical footprint of 13” x 12” x 1.7” thick that is similar to typical notebooks just with a larger height. The use of length and width specifications reminiscent of typical a notebook passes on the sense of being compact and somewhat mobile, even though the M:855 weights in at about 8 pounds, which is heavier than what we would refer to as non-mobile desktop replacement notebooks (i.e. Sager/Hypersonic/Eurocom notebooks). Though, the mobility factor of the M:855 is nothing compared to the likes of the IBM X31 or Dell X300.