World's No.2 PC maker HP buys Voo Doo PC

HP buys high end gaming computer manufacturer Voodoo PC.

HP has big plans to fight out its rival Dell in its own den. And how, if you might ask? 

On Thursday the company announced that it's buying Voodoo PC, a Canadian maker of high-end game computers for an undisclosed price. 

HP wants to stamp its authority in the gaming market, where there is a lot of opportunity. This comes at a time when Dell decided to buy Florida-based Alienware, the biggest of the gamer PC companies, earlier this year. Industry insiders say that it's a sign that gamers are a key market for escaping the price wars at the low end of the PC market.

The game PC market is estimated at about $3 billion to $5 billion a year. Many small computer companies, which sell high-end gaming machine report that, the sales are growing as rapidly as 50 percent and more a year. Today, PC Makers are willing to chase down all avid gamers. The reason being, gamers spend several thousand dollars each on their machines. Contrast this with the average consumer desktop, which sells for well below $1,000. 

Dell on the other hand set up a division to launch its XPS-branded game computers, which have become popular over a period of time. But Dell was adamant on only Intel chips, which hurt them badly. After a brief research, it was found out that gamers favored chips from Advanced Micro Devices. Dell changed tweaked its strategy a bit to shore up its presence in gaming including offer AMD chips in March by buying Florida-based Alienware, the biggest of the gamer PC companies.

HP has plans to use Voodoo PC as the spearhead for a larger gaming business. Rumors are that HP will launch new low-end gaming devices very soon.

With the acquisition of Voodoo PC, HP is driving its technology not just into games but also into mainstream computer products. Rahul and Ravi Sood, co-founders of Voodoo PC, said they liked the idea of linking with HP, because it spends $3.5 billion a year on research and development alone. Rahul Sood will become a chief technology officer in HP's personal systems group while his brother Ravi will direct strategy in the group.

The deal was announced at an even in New York, where HP showcased its lines of consumer entertainment machines, right from liquid-crystal display TVs to new models of Media Center PCs. It's a well-known secret that such machines are in direct competition with Dell and other PC makers.

Voodoo PC, the Canadian based company has just 30 employees. It ships only a few hundred computers a month. These PC's often come with expensive liquid-cooling systems to keep the systems from melting down as the components over-clocked. The Voodoo PC's are customized according to personal whims of the buyers. Voodoo PC's are aimed at wealthy young gamers who have no qualms spending a fortune on a computer gaming rig. Rave reviews are featured in Playboy magazine too.

Voodoo computers price at about $2,000-3000. Whereas, you can get a Alienware approximately at $2,750 that is before Dell bought it. If you want a more elaborate system, add a few thousands more.

Dell XPS 210: Let the games begin!
Dell XPS 210 small gaming computer introduced.

World's No.2 PC maker HP buys Voo Doo PC
HP buys high end gaming computer manufacturer Voodoo PC.

Intel’s new quad core chips will arrive in November 2006
Intel's confusing family of processors and processor brand names continues to expand, to see Core 2 Quad addition in November 2006.

Apple's Time Machine: Backing up was never so simple!
Apple has unveiled the next generation of Mac OS X, code-named Leopard at WWDC 2006. We will take a close look at Leopard’s back-up feature, Time Machine.

16GB Flash Drive from Toshiba

Samsung Develops 32 GB NAND Flash

Protect digital media and data against hard disk failure
Interact-TV Unveils MediaSafe - Complete digital media and data protection against hard disk failure at home.

Apple upgrades to Shake 4.1

Apple promotes Parallels desktop over Bootcamp

DiamondTouch tabletop PC from Mitsubishi

AMD launches LIive! PC platform

The PC Recycling program from Apple

Dell XPS PCs will have Skype

Sony VAIO VGC-VA1 PC Desktop

MacBook pro from Apple with intel core duo chip

Samsung launches flash based PCs

Sony Vaio VGN UX50 microPC