VoodooPC notebook ready for graphics upgrades

VoodooPC has announced that the upcoming Voodoo Envy M460 Gamebook is designed to take full advantage of the modular capabilities of ATI's Radeon 9600, a new DirectX 9 graphics chip for notebooks. While the last couple of mobile graphics chip generations have had the power to run the games available at the time of their release, notebook systems haven't been upgradeable in the same way as desktop PCs. With the Envy M460, VoodooPC is the first PC maker in North America to announce plans to let buyers significantly upgrade a notebook's graphics. The upgrade will require owners to send the system to the manufacturer, but the upgrade will only involve the cost of new ATI parts compatible with the modular standard, and the offer will be good for the lifetime of the notebook.

VoodooPC's Envy M460 will come equipped with a 2.6GHz Pentium 4 Processor-M, 512MB of memory, the Mobility Radeon 9600 with 64MB of DDR-333 memory, a 60GB hard drive, a DVD/CD-R/RW drive, WIFI 802.11 A&B, and a 15-inch SXGA+ panel display. The Mobility Radeon 9600 is designed for robust performance, with high clock and memory speeds and DirectX 9 compatibility.

The Envy M460 is scheduled to start shipping in August and will retail for $3,800.