Interview: HP's Rahul Sood Talks Gaming With NotebookReview

by Perry Longinotti

What happens when you combine a PC gamer, a brilliant entrepreneur, and HP's industry muscle? You get Rahul Sood, one of the biggest names in the world of PC gaming and now the man raising HP to new levels in the world of luxury and gaming computers.

Rahul Sood is the chief technology officer of the HP Voodoo Business Unit (VBU), part of HP 's emerging businesses group. Sood oversees the technical strategy and product vision for Voodoo's cutting-edge products, including the Voodoo Omen and Envy product lines, the award-winning HP Blackbird 002 and other products with the "Voodoo DNA" brand.

Rahul Sood. (view large image)

Sood joined HP in November 2006 after it acquired VoodooPC, a gaming computer company he founded in 1991. As founder and CTO of VoodooPC, Sood was the first to bring liquid cooling and active liquid chilling to the high-performance gaming PC market. These innovations helped VoodooPC's Omen desktop earn the coveted Ziff Davis Editors' Choice award in the Ultimate Gaming Machine competition for five years in a row.

Since joining HP, Sood was instrumental in the design and architecture of HP Blackbird 002, the VBU's flagship product.

NotebookReview.com contributor Perry Longinotti spent some time asking Sood some serious questions about notebook gaming, Voodoo, and HP's plans for the future. Here are a few highlights:

Two segments of the notebook market that seem to be generating a lot of interest right now are Gaming Notebooks and Ultra Mobile PCs.

Let's start with Gaming Notebooks first as that is a VoodooPC forte:

I had a chance to interview Ravi a couple of years ago during a factory tour article - this was before the HP acquisition. At that time, he mentioned that Voodoo was pursuing its own notebook chassis design. Can you update us on that?

<blockquote>

Yes. One of the biggest hurdles we faced in the past was getting the ODMs to take us seriously based on our volume commitment, distribution channel, and market size. Even though almost all of them were familiar with the Voodoo brand and believed in us, they couldn't get past the other issues. So this is simply another reason why we merged with HP.

It's amazing how quickly things have changed since. People are calling on us to introduce us to new technologies on a daily basis. ODMs are no longer asking a billion questions, they are excited to work with us, and we now have a team based in Taiwan working for the Voodoo Business Unit (VBU). It seems that everyone is stoked about our future.

</blockquote>

Several folks in the NBR forums asked questions along similar lines, how does Voodoo deal with the perception from some people that your notebooks are simply re-branded Clevos? On the desktop side you can point to extensive in-house fabrication as the differentiator, it must be a lot tougher on the notebook side.

<blockquote>

Well, for the most part your community is right. How can I argue that? The notebook business, especially in the channel, is bloody challenging.

Prior to the acquisition Voodoo always did our best to differentiate our notebooks by modifying thermals, software, and adding different levels of personalization. In fact, we were the first to offer gaming notebooks with custom high quality automotive paint jobs. Then others came into the market and the space became very competitive and extremely stale. Let's face it; there are only so many ways you can paint a product before you ask yourself what the heck you're doing in the business.

Joining HP has taught us a ton about notebook development. The mainstream notebooks that HP have created feature some cool long lasting imprint designs, quality finishes, and quickplay innovations. Although Clevo notebooks look appealing from a feature set standpoint, from a reliability and engineering standpoint you just cannot compare them to any of the tier 1 companies.

There is a significant difference in engineering and testing that goes into HP notebooks. It's somewhat unreal to me, the development cycle tries our patience, but the results speak for themselves. The bottom line is we are in the business of selling notebooks, not hand grenades.

Comparing Voodoo pre acquisition to today is like comparing a Lamborghini from the early years to the ones of today. Audi brought in significant R&amp;D and engineering resources to Lamborghini allowing them to create some of the best cars they have ever created including the Gallardo and Murcielago. On the flipside Lamborghini brought in some style and edge which allowed Audi to create the new award winning R8 (car of the year in Robb Report Magazines).

What's my point? Tell your community to stay tuned. We're working on some obvious holes in our portfolio.

</blockquote>

Are there any plans to develop Voodoo notebooks using existing HP chassis as a starting point rather than more commonly available ODM units?

<blockquote>

That's a great question. The 20&quot; HP HDX consumer notebook (aka the Dragon) is an incredible system for gaming, yet we haven't gone ahead and used the same chassis. The fact is HP has afforded us the resources and time to dream up the ultimate portfolio which will be authentic to the Voodoo brand.

We also renamed our business unit from &quot;The Gaming Business Unit&quot; to &quot;The Voodoo Business Unit&quot;. This quiet announcement, while seemingly small, has profound implications on our charter.

</blockquote>

Mainstream notebooks makers seem to be targeting gaming-capable notebooks as a growth category with some offering high end features such as Nvidia 8800m GPUs at the $1200 price point. How does this trend affect Voodoo's pricing strategy?

<blockquote>

In the past Voodoo branded products have never put price ahead of everything else, however &quot;customer value&quot; continues to be (and always has been) very important to the team. I'll say it again, value is huge, and without it we'd be nowhere today. That said, the definition of a good value always changes, and if you don't spent time to revisit it over and over again you'll never be successful at this business.

HP scale has made it possible for us to ensure that we can deliver a killer value in our systems. For example, if you compare a high end Blackbird 002 with our competition, there is no comparison. Blackbird is built better, engineered better, and includes a much better out of box experience -- and you absolutely get what you pay for. You can assume that as we fill out our portfolio we'll keep this in mind.

</blockquote>

Why does Voodoo use AMD processors in high end notebooks when Intel products perform better?

<blockquote>Indeed Intel processors currently perform better in most instances. However, HP is agnostic; we offer both AMD and Intel processors in many of our machines including those that fall under the Voodoo Business Unit. That said, as we move forward into our own &quot;grounds up&quot; designs, you can rest assured that we'll use nothing but the best technology in our flagship devices.</blockquote>

On the subject of Ultra Mobile PCs:

Andrew asks: What are your thoughts on this new push for budget $300 / $400 laptops such as the Asus Eee PC and Everex Cloudbook? We know that HP is planning to enter this segment; will Voodoo bring a high end companion device to market?

<blockquote>

Though I cannot discuss future HP product possibilities, I do think the ultra mobile is an interesting space. We are actively pursuing new attractive markets in our business unit.

</blockquote>

Some general questions:

You are well connected in the industry, where do you see notebook technologies going in the next couple of years.

<blockquote>

I'd love to share our vision with you; however this industry is way too competitive. Over the years (especially in the last year) we have found that our competitors look to us for leadership -- so personally, I would rather surprise them with our view of the market.

</blockquote>

What non-Voodoo computing products are you most excited about recently? Outside of HP and Voodoo whose products do you respect the most?

<blockquote>

Easy answer, respect Apple immensely -- I really like their complete ecosystem view. Their undivided focus on the customer should be a wakeup call for everyone in this industry. If &quot;boutique companies&quot; ignore Apple they might as well shut their doors now.

</blockquote>

Is Voodoo planning any entry level products, or will the focus remain strictly high end?

<blockquote>

This question requires a bit of background to answer.

At HP we created Blackbird 002 with Voodoo DNA. It's an HP branded product with the Voodoo DNA ingredient brand. It's build by the team at Voodoo in Calgary, and meets the stringent HP standards of engineering excellence. Borrowing from the automotive industry, a similarly tight combination of engineering and design is the creation of the Audi R8.

We really believe in what we're doing currently. That said, even though HP Blackbird is a premium performance PC, the price point in many instances is significantly less than our competition. From a value standpoint there is no comparison, you really have to see it to understand.

As far as Voodoo exclusive products, we plan to refresh our entire portfolio. You'll have to wait and see, but let's just say no matter what you buy - whether it's Compaq, HP, HP with Voodoo DNA, or Voodoo - you will receive value for your money.

As I said before, Blackbird is a start, and it's our pace car, we still have a portfolio to fill.

</blockquote>

How has the HP acquisition impacted Voodoo sales?

<blockquote>

We don't discuss our sales numbers externally - however, as a result of the HP acquisition we quadrupled the square footage of our facility in Calgary, hired more than 100 people, and expanded office space in Cupertino, Calgary, Taipei, and recently Houston.

We just finished scaling our Calgary facility to accommodate a much larger professional downdraft paint booth. The paint facility now includes three booths, one of which is dedicated to mixing custom colors. It features a clean room which eliminates all dust, and ensures that any personalization you order from us will remain absolutely flawless.

We also ordered some really cool equipment which we're not going to talk about just yet - but let's say that that the investment is going to put us further ahead of the competition in the high-end and performance PC space. HP is clearly committed to this space and based on our expansion on the customer care, sales, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and business side we're not stopping

</blockquote>

I understand you have expanded your facility, is that primarily a result of the HP acquisition? Is the extra space for construction and fabrication or have you added more support and product development capacity too?

<blockquote>

Good question. We actually put a higher proportion of resources in our customer facing departments in anticipation for our pending growth.

</blockquote>

How has the Blackbird performed for HP? What was Voodoo's role in that project?

<blockquote>

Blackbird has been a great success for HP, and is a product which was created from the ground up by our business unit, the Voodoo Business Unit. HP started the Blackbird 001 project prior to the Voodoo acquisition but it was canned before we joined.

All said, I have never been involved in a more successful product launch, ever. We started with Blackbird, and took some time to scale the business while we prepare to fill the portfolio around it. Now that our expansion is complete we're ready to launch new products and initiatives.

</blockquote>

Will we see Blackbird notebooks?

<blockquote>

Wouldn't that be the most insane thing ever?

</blockquote>

Will there be more HP products that have Voodoo DNA contributed to them? When can we expect to see them? Any hints to what they may be?

<blockquote>

Not only will you see products with VoodooDNA which feature our core heritage of performance gaming and second-to-none build quality and engineering from HP, but you'll also see Voodoo dedicated products which will continue to tap the luxury and highly personalized market. In the process we will still take full advantage of the engineering, scale, leverage, and quality strengths that HP has brought to the table.

</blockquote>

Are there plans to leverage HP's presence in retail to sell more Voodoo PCs? Will we ever see your products at Best Buy?

<blockquote>

HP is a huge company with some incredible long-standing relationships in the retail channel. We have not publicly discussed our retail strategy, but you can assume that we will continue to scale our business while delivering the best experience possible to our customer.

</blockquote>

The HD optical format war is over, when can we expect to see Blu-Ray in Voodoo notebooks?

<blockquote>

We will offer Blu-Ray in our notebooks sometime in 2008.

</blockquote>

K-TRON, owner of a couple of Voodoo PCs asks: when is the Vootique is coming back, and when are the new forums supposed to be up?

<blockquote>

I'm not sure about the Vootique, but the new community is on the way. It will be hosted by both Kristin Reilly and Greg Vederman so needless to say it should be a pretty cool place to visit. Both Greg and Kristin are currently contributing to my blog at www.rahulsood.com prior to the transition to our new community so it's definitely getting closer. Tell K-Tron I said hi.

</blockquote>

 

I have 1 question. When will the new notebook debut? The answer "soon" is not acceptable.

 

You expect an industry professional to give you a specific date for a new product launch? There are reasons companies (regardless of the industry) don't advertise when new products are coming out:

1) If you say you're going to release a new product on "the 5th of next month" your competition will try to one-up you and release a new product the day before.

2) If you say you're going to release a new product on a specific date and something happens (factory accident, shipping delays, a design flaw is discovered last minute, etc.) your company loses face when they don't meet the previously announced release date.

3) If you say you're going to release a new product there is a reasonable percentage of your buying market that will hear about it and not purchase your existing products ... hoping that something new will be better. That means you aren't selling your current product and it hurts the bottom line.

Those are just a FEW of the reasons companies don't announce launch dates for new products in advance.

 

great interview.

He probably said soon because there is not a solid date yet and he knows if he says a date and it doesn't come out then, everybody will start b*tching

 

It's interesting to hear from Voodoo.

Their paint jobs are beautiful... And I would love to buy from them.

But paying such a premium for their products is way too far out of my price range.

Last time I checked I could get a m15x w/8800mGTX for less than the Envy 15" repainted Compal IFL90.

 

That's a great interview, thanks to Perry and Rahul for providing this.

Man, it's exciting to hear about the competition and how HP is really stoked about pushing the envelope with gaming. I can't wait to see what these "secret" competitive technologies are. And I'm sure the Blackbird notebook will be cool...

 

Yeah, with the weight of HP behind them I fully expect to see some crazy new stuff from Voodoo.

 

So it does look like the HP merger was designed to be beneficial to both companies. That's good. However, the prices have to become more diversified. Right now VooDoo is still so high I won't even consider it.

I do really love the idea of gaming notebooks. However, it seems more and more gaming companies have been giving PC gamers the short end of the stick. I've got a number of games that the developers just refuse to fix or "don't know why" they released it for PC (Gears of War). Playing PC games recently has been nothing but a headache generator because companies who are supposed to back PC gaming aren't even remotely doing so anymore and we have to look to all these newer or smaller companies for decent products. The market for games is honestly depressing.

 

That eee part killed me- 300/400$ VOODOO hahahahahahahaha

 

What's wrong with a UMPC with "Voodoo DNA" that is priced so people can actually afford it? I wouldn't expect to see a $400 Voodoo notebook, but I would like to see some "realistic" prices coming from the VBU.

HP's VBU really needs some products in the sub-$2,000 and sub-$1,000 price points. There are plenty of PC gamers who can't afford $4,000 computers.

 

well with today`s VOODOO prices it is funny,but yeah they really need a "cheaper" laptop

 

They are just a tad overpriced...

 

You seemed to be quite aggressive at defending "something" here. BTW, what i meant from the date line, i never expect to get a specific date.. but i do expect to at least get something like autumn 2008 or so... soon is a word, that never comes.

Edit: Wrong Quote.. a bit lazy to put the right one in.

 

Having owned and used several HP and Compaq machines over the years I couldn't help but snicker at this part. Every single one of them has been beset by major technical problems right out of the gate - my v2000z on which the factory failed to properly seat the heatsink on the processor is still my favorite. I can only imagine the fun that kind of mistake would cause for a $4000 gaming rig.

 

Voodoo makes quality computers, but they cost 3-4 times as much as other brands.

 

I'm sorry but never have been a big fan of Voodoo or AW .

Both selling nothing more then "painted" Clevo/Compals for insane premiums . So you say you got 3 painting booths now ? Interesting .

 

Come on, an 8800GTS? Sure it's better than say an 8600, but it's not a GTX, surely not a SLI GTX. Second best isn't always best HP, stop using second rate cards and calling them "gaming" systems.
Oh, and here's a hint HP, if you were far more competitive in the "gaming" arena, I would have certainly gone with you instead of Dell.
[happily gaming on my Dell]

 

A laptop with

C2D extreme 2.6
8700m GT
4GB RAM
200 GB HDD

costs 5700 with tax at Voodoo.

i can get the laptop if my config for 2700 at Xotic, then add a paint job for 300 bucks , so for 300 u get a laptop that is 2x faster less than 1/2 od the price. (because it has the 8800m GTX). Gaming? Voodoo does not even offer the 8800mGTX in their Clevo m570ru variant

 

And Voodoo does not make the computers, they just rebrand them.

 

Voodoo desktops are fully custom fabricated cases, typically come with water cooling and sometimes have components that are not on the market yet. When I visited their HQ they had a rig with two cards in SLI that had not been announced yet.

My point is soon they will be bringing this to notebooks. That should be interesting.

Most of the comments so far are redundant. If the CEO says, 'yeah they were just repainted Clevos and I can't argue that' then what point is there in exclaiming that they are just repainted Clevos?

A year from now we can look at Rahul's statements and see how close they got to their goal.

Maybe I read too much into what he said, but I am looking for:
- Blackbird gaming notebook from HP.
- Voodoo designs based on new or existing HP chassis designs.
- Voodoo DNA in lower priced HP lines.

 

Do you know what companies HO orders their barebones from?

 

HO? If you mean HP, they don't buy barebones from ODM firms (unlike Sager, Rock, etc.). They design their own notebooks (which is one of HP's core businesses) and then submit the final blueprint to ODMs for manufacturing.

 

Exactly, so he was right. They still get their notebooks from ODMs.

 

Interesting read . . .

But seriously, the current Voodoo prices can't even make me have a second look at them . . . . (Really waaay out of my league . . .)

Hope what he says about the pricings may come true. Sure would be great

 

yea i meant HP, but my point is still right, HP does not manufacture their own notebooks, just like most vendors.

 

Well, I thought you were implying that HP rebrand ODM designs, which they do not.
Most, if not all, Tier 1 vendors outsource notebook manufacturing nowadays. They still have several small plants doing final assembly and customisations though, but this is being continuously integrated into their ODM factories.

 

This is my personal interpretation of what is said in the interview.

What a bunch of mambo jambo statements about gaming desktops. It does not take 3 months on this market to figure out what he concludes. VoodoopC doesn't even have a thread on it's own on this forum. That shows how strong their brand is in the gaming market.

Simply, people don't see the value that he is talking about. Maybe that is why is called luxury. It might be there, but we cannot see it, at least just enough to justify paying XXXX dollars more for something we can by cheaper feature wise.

In my view, VoodooPC was bought by HP as a reaction to Dell buying Alienware just in case. That is all, there was no strategy behind it really as far as I see it and that shows.

I would merge your team with the HDX team, and build HDX branded gaming system's that can compete with DELL XPS both in the notebook and desktop market. As for desktops you are loosing territory to Alienware and DELL XPS too. That is your market.

Don't get me wrong, there is a market for luxury systems such as the ones of Falcon and VoodooPC but is so small. But there is a market also for Cutting Edge systems and it seams to be a bigger market considering the sucess of Dell XPS line, Clevo and Alienware in this niche.

Trance
PS: In the end I just might be wrong.

 

You know what I'd like to see? I want to see these big manufacturers like Dell and HP starting up their own game design studios. VooDoo, Alienware, Sager, and others could do it too. Maybe then we'd start getting some decent PC games that sell today's hardware instead of either getting released half-finished (UT3), getting zero support (Gears), or selling/pressuring only the top-tier unfordable hardware that's out or about to come out (Crysis). It just seems like I've been playing a lot of terrible games lately that failed due to optimization, support, or being released too early. That's also assuming they weren't crappy ports of console games, which typically happens. I don't see how VooDoo thinks it can continue charging such a huge premium when PC gamers are treated like trash by everyone except for maybe Valve and Stardock.

There's a lot of potential in PC gaming and right now nearly all of it has been getting ignored by the big names in the video game industry. I would like to see VooDoo, Alienware, HP, Dell, and so on start making PC games too to breathe new life into the PC games industry because the PC Gaming Alliance is going absolutely no where (where do you expect them to go? Their biggest members, Microsoft and Epic, are too busy selling consoles and console games. Epic doesn't even know why it releases PC games anymore).

 

I would like to see a $2000 15" SLI rig. I don't really care who brings it to me, but I'll buy one. An Alienware is about $1000 more than that target.

AW has Voodoo beat right now. Voodoo's notebook line is a bit stale. You can't sell a premium product if it isn't totally cutting edge. That was kind of what I was getting at with the cheaper competitors question. The Alienware 15" SLI is sick - and you can argue all you want about the price, but I think it is worth it.

I hope there is eventually an HP notebook with Voodoo DNA. I had an HP DV2404 that I thought was an amazing machine for the price. I like what HP is doing with design and value. Emphasis on the value. I can justify spending whatever I want on a notebook, but I always try to spend as little as possible. Its great when you get more than you paid for.

Maybe with the success of the Gateway FX, Acer/Gateway will come out with the rig I've been wanting. FX is a pretty good start and they didn't have to buy anyone to get us what we wanted.

 

Im pretty sure u will be able to get that clevo for 2K, judging on Sagers Great prices

 

Here are things that I would buy if they were "easily" upgradable with prices topped at 3000 Euros and minimized at 1800 Euros:

* Pavilion HDX Entertainment
* HP TouchSmart PC
* XPSTM M2010 20" HD Widescreen
* XPS M1730

The DELL XPS is a killer, even for Clevo standards. Clevo's are becoming way too expensive in comparison to DELL. For instance a DELL XPS M1730 can be bought maxmized bellow $4000 (2700 Euros) with dual 8800 GTX SLi (If we don't put extreme CPU's)

Trance

 

great interview...

now... hmm... dunno what i'm supposed to feel after reading this though...

wha... my preciousssss is not tier 1?

 

"AW has Voodoo beat right now. Voodoo's notebook line is a bit stale."

Currently everyone that matter at the moment is beating Voodo's notebook line.

1. DELL
2. Alienware (more DELL)
3. SAGER, EUROCOM and a few more friends.

Looking forward to Gateway offer.

Trance

 

The Dell is still kind of clunky. I priced an XPS 1730 out today and I don't see the value. You can get an AW Sli rig for $1000 less.

Sager and Eurocom are stuck in the same boat as current Voodoos. You can save even more and just build your own. But there is a good chance that Voodoo will have non-generic chassis soon.

Gateway's gaming line is out. It starts at $1300 with a 8800m GTS. I think it must make a lot of 8600m or 8700m SLI owners (X205) who paid $2000+ feel played. The 8800m with a 1.8 GHz CPU is more than a Match for an 8700m SLI rig with a faster CPU (according to Nvidia).

 

Wow, I cant believe I just found this sub section.
Thats good news Rahul, and thanks for the interview lewdvig.

Rahul is pretty cool, he is going to sign the base of my U709, making it extra special.
I cant wait to get my system back it is one amazing system.

K-TRON