SUMMARY: Thomas in Texas got on the phone with Rahul Sood, the CTO of VoodooPC, recently and quizzed him regarding their new fanless Rage f50 desktop line of products and the company's goals for the future in the performance systems OEM market. Sit back and take a peak behind the scenes of VoodooPC.
Rahul Sood may be a name you are not familiar with, but, by the end of this article, he could easily be someone who relates to the enthusiast and DiYer in all of us. Here's what all was said [in as accurate a form as my shorthand can record ;)]:
TT: Please tell us a bit about your background with VoodooPC.
Rahul: I founded VoodooPC back in 1991, working as CEO until I stepped down in 1999. At that time, I became CTO to work closely with the hardware design part of the business. It's a hobby and I prefer focusing on the product rather than the business end.
TT: How does VoodooPC determine what products they use in their systems?
Rahul: With processors and video cards, we compare the performance of the two [ATI and NVIDIA, AMD and Intel] and select the best performing component at the time. Currently, we believe AMD has the best desktop gaming performance, but we are very interested in the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. With ATI and NVIDIA, both have extremely competitive high-end boards in the 9800XT and 5950.
In respects to motherboards and desktop memory, ASUS and Corsair Micro offer products that we consider the most stable and reliable out of the box leading to minimal system issues or errors, a must for any VoodooPC. For notebook memory, Corsair and Crucial seem to offer the best performance and stability.
TT: Every OEM has a target market. What is the target market of VoodooPC?
Rahul: We aim to provide high-quality systems for the enthusiast market. More specifically, we want to provide great products for people seeking High-end PCs with minimal issues. We are striving to go beyond simply mainstream buyers and believe our style of being a true innovator helps us achieve our goal.
TT: Can you tell us a little about your Rage and f50 Desktop Lines?
Rahul: The casing for our Rage product lineup was designed in-house at VoodooPC and the designs were then brought to life by our case manufacturing partner. There is no other case [exactly] like it available.
As for the Rage f:50 (pictured in the images above), this Desktop utilizes a fanless design and a case specially designed for fanless computing. We were the first and the only OEM to qualify for the case [from Zalman]. Special changes to system components such as the use of a heat pipe cooler for the processor and a very powerful, fanless power supply were required to give buyers the quietest PC on the market.
TT: VoodooPC recently launched an Athlon64 notebook, the envy m:855, with integrated Radeon 9600 Pro graphics accelerator. How well does this system perform compared to its desktop counterparts?
Rahul: The m:855 compares as good as if not better than our desktops in everyday use. The performance of the mobile 9600 Pro graphics is very similar to that of the desktop 9600 Pro.
TT: What can you tell me about the VoodooPC tattoos offered for desktops and notebooks?
Rahul: VoodooPC offers buyers the option to have intricate tattoo designs painted onto their desktop or notebook. All they need to do is select the option or call us directly and request it. These designs are of the highest quality and add to the unique features of VoodooPC’s.
TT: VoodooPC currently markets its products mostly to Canada and the United States. Are there any plans to expand to other regional markets such as Australia and Asia?
Rahul: Absolutely. VoodooPC is committed to its current sales points of Canada, US, Europe, and the Middle East. Our goal is to expand support offices worldwide at some point in the future as we feel there is a growing worldwide market for our systems.
TT: In closing, is there anything you would like to tell our readers about VoodooPC, its products, or anything else?
Rahul: VoodooPC is a company about innovation. There are no others innovating like we do in that we are continually striving to bring new innovations to our buyers while improving the overall product we sell. We have a multitude of lineups and future releases which have me very excited.
