HP to Acquire Voodoo PC 85
mytrip writes to mention a News.com article outlining HP's acquisition of Voodoo PC, the high-end gaming computer maker. Following Dell's purchase of Alienware this past March, it would seem that the big computer assemblers are gearing up for a gaming skirmish. "In the weeks prior to that acquisition, Rahul Sood predicted the looming deal after having similar acquisition-related conversations with Dell Chairman Michael Dell, he later revealed on his blog. Rahul Sood will become chief technologist in HP's game division, and Ravi Sood will take on the role of chief strategist, Rahul Sood wrote on the blog. Voodoo will maintain a presence in Calgary, Alberta, where the company is currently headquartered. The deal is expected to close in November, HP said in a press release."
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HP != Packard Bell
In fact, it appears Packard Bell is owned by Gateway now [wikipedia.org].
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Not Oh well! (Score:1, Insightful)
HP w/ AMD is actually a good computer. With Voodoo, they can line up against Dell better.
As the person quoted said, it is a good match.
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I have to agree; I have a nice little HP Pavilion zv6000, with an Athlon 64 processor. I love it.
-Mike
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here's the meat an potatoes of it as I understand it... HP needed a gaming division and buying us was cheaper than the R&D required to build one of their own... we needed capital to get some of our new designs off the ground.... so now HP has a gaming division (we are a somewhat seperate entity unto ourselves, under the greater umbrella of HP) that's immediately productive, and now we have a much g
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You work for HP? So, I guess you are really getting a kick out of some of these replies. Some of us guys are very good at making it sound like we know what we are talking about, but trust you, we don't. We just want to make ourselves sound smart, when in reality, we don't know what we are talking about.This is how bad info gets passed around. If we dont know the topic...don't make ourselves sound like we do. Cuz some Slashdotters believe anything we hear?
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um... (Score:1, Funny)
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Pardon my english, but this is
Wow! (Score:2, Funny)
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So two wrongs make a right, now? It's kind of like saying that Hitler wasn't the real problem, the problem was that the Jewish people weren't kind enough to disappear for him, which really, now that I think about it, would have saved everyone a bunch of grief.
Disclaimer: Before anyone flies off the handle, I don't really think that a
They did (Score:2)
so... (Score:2)
Hmm. Who's that leave for Gateway to purchase? Falcon?
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Re:so... (Score:4, Informative)
No.... at least for the time being our tech support is remaining in house... as are our production and service departments... we are now a division of HP, but we are retaining a good deal of our autonomy as we are technically classified as Research and Development...
If they did, would they change the name to... (Score:2)
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Tech support isn't your God given right anymore.
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1 buy the following from a local computer shop
A: an oem copy of XP
B: a nice large hard drive
C: a copy of Ghost (or similar drive imaging util)
Should be good for consumers (Score:2)
Should be good for GAMERS (Score:2)
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HP trying to one up Dell? (Score:2, Interesting)
I guess Falcon is next
Do you have to buy someone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Having said that, what's with all the big companies wanting to get into gaming PCs? That's a very small market, and with all the consoles coming out with HD, I don't see PC gaming getting a larger market (although I don't know if it will shrink). I just checked Voodoo PC, and their cheapest rig starts at $2800. For that price you could buy a PS3, XBox360, and a Wii, oh, and a ton of games, and still come out on top. I realize that there's a few games that are just better on PC (RTS and FPS), but seriously, I don' see a lot of people wanting to spend that much money on a computer.
Re:Do you have to buy someone? (Score:5, Insightful)
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A LOT.
Re:Do you have to buy someone? (Score:5, Insightful)
My guess would be the higher profit margins. The market may be tiny, but it's still got much fatter margins than the cutthroat bargain PC market where Dell is king and manufacturers fight bitterly over every last penny.
Re:Do you have to buy someone? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Then again, it doesn't seem to have done Microsoft or Sony any harm...
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Marketing.
Yeah, they had to buy someone (Score:1)
The issue is whether gamers continue to support Alienware and Voodoo, or come to believe that they've sold out to soul-less conglomera
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The better question is "Can gaming culture maintain its somewhat counter culture edge?" Gaming is moving mainstream and as it does more "mainstream" people get into it. That is people who are only concerned about being mainstream are going to be the more predominant group. The same can be said of almost any group of people. As it becomes mainstream then you get more people who only care about the appearance rather than the core ideologie
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I guess by buying someone out, they get to use the name, with brings in customers, but I really don't see the big draw.
This is exactly it. Both Voodoo and Alienware built up a brand name. Most people don't understand the technical parts of computers, so they rely upon brands. Even before Dell bought Alienware, they started selling crappy, re-branded white boxes at exorbitant prices and people bought them. If you spend a few years building a reputation and you are unscrupulous, you can use that brand to
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Whitebox != crappy unless you're using Bill & Ted's cheap motherboard of the week.
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Whitebox != crappy unless you're using Bill & Ted's cheap motherboard of the week.
Ummm, if I thought that, why would I have said the boxes were both crappy and whiteboxes? Wouldn't that be kind of redundant?
Crappy? (Score:1)
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I think consoles are great, and they've come a long way to meet the 'game-ability' of a personal computer, but the PC still plays games the best. With things like updates, patches, add-ons, mods, and hacks, there are so many reasons to play game
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Having said that, if you want a good gamepad for you PC, go to your local electronics store. They have USB to GC/PS2/XBox adapters so you can use your f
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Yeah, but.. (Score:1)
From the mouths of babes (Score:2)
<malcolm in the middle>Why must you destroy everything I love?</malcolm in the middle>
Come to think of it, most of my best quotes are from that show.
Leakers and tweakers (Score:1)
They thought that they could use Voodoo to find and punish the leakers. I see visions of HP management sticking needles into PCs as we speak: "Oh YEAH - TAKE THAT! AND THAT! AND THAT! BWAHAHAHAAHA!"
With extra features! (Score:4, Funny)
anti-cheat technology included (Score:2)
I hear that the new machines will have anti-cheating technology built in. With the integrated keylogger, persistent dial modem, and gigabit snitch-on-lan ports, the risk of anyone cheating in online games is a thing of the past. Also included is a one year subscription to a fully customized* client version of a popular identity fraud monitoring service.
Shows They Don't Understand Gamers (Score:1)
We really don't want some crappy Dell or HP proprietary motherboards or proprietary memory in our PCs (don't even get me started on the onboard video).
Personally, I usually build my PCs from scratch, but will every once in a while buy a prebuilt PC with the exact components I want.
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Are you completely and totally unaware they any serious gaming rig from Dell or HP comes with a real dedicated video card?
I mean are you seriously thinking Dell and HP only sell computers with onboard video? And proprietary memory? WTF?
RIP Voodoo (Score:1)
Slashdot Business Model? (Score:2)
1) Build a business like Alienware or Voodoo PC that sells high-performance gaming PC's, and sell them at a premium price.
2) Get bought out by a white box PC manufacturer like HP or Dell.
3) Profit!
You better hurry up, though, since the only other big PC manufacturers that haven't gone on a gaming PC buying spree yet are IBM/Lenovo and Gateway.
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What happened to Independence? (Score:1)
In related news, HP acquires voodoo dolls (Score:1)
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Where are the mod points when you need them?!?
I just got 3rd party Voodoo2 1000 drivers.... (Score:1)
What's high end? (Score:2)
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There goes my dream (Score:1)
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 [maximumpc.com] 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 [voodoopc.com]. And they've constantly pushed to the next level by custom-building parts for next-gen rigs. Some of the stuf
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No fans? The system has both chassis fans and power supply fans. Nothing unique here except the really high price and the custom paint jobs.
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Still expensive, though.
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"Even now, when everyone is jumping in to the HTPC field, Voodoo is already one step ahead of the curve. Their HTPC [voodoopc.com] has top of the line parts and no fans."
It does, in fact, have fans both in the chassis and in the power supply.
There have been fanless computers before. If you'd like to pay nearly four grand for a Turion processor and an 80GB drive go right ahead.
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Now who will buy Falcon Northwest? (Score:1)
ibm / Lenovo?
Sony?
Toshiba?
Only a matter of time (Score:1)
Gaming skirmish or just preparing for Vista? (Score:1, Funny)
They're just learning how to build computers fast enough to run Vista.
From the Hourse's mouth (Score:2)
[URL]http://voodoopc.blogspot.com/2006/09/project
It's not often you have such a long, frank explenation from a president about the future of their company. Very cool.
Spy PCs (Score:2)
HP Computers? (Score:1)
Since when does their business model include selling computers? Wouldn't that just take away from their black, yellow, cyan, and magenta gold?
- RG>
Voodoo at HP (Score:1)