The Über laptop release cycle continues unabated, the latest entrant into the race is the Maingear eX-L17 a TRUE gaming laptop. Most entrants in the Über laptop competition are extravagant looking as they are full of bleeding edge technology. The Maingear bucks this trend, eX-L17 is the Clark Kent of the Über Laptop world. Don’t underestimate eX-L17, it’s definitely faster than a speeding bullet. Underneath the nice guy exterior the eX-L17 has all of the technology to make it into the Über category, but can it take the crown ?
While the rise of the tablet seems to be negatively effecting the sales of desktops the Über laptop seems as popular as ever. With a new contender for Über King of laptops every month the battle continues heats up. With a top spec unit costing over $4,746 you would expect some top end equipment and that’s exactly what you get, the latest generation Sandy Bridge i7 CPU’s with a maximum Turbo mode speed of 4.8Ghz. This is a record for any laptop. Nvidia GeForce GTX 485M with 2GB takes care of pushing pixels and running the latest games, coupled with a true 1920×1080 high def 17.3″ LED display. The screen is capable of pumping out 3D at 120 Hz, for those who love the glasses 3D movies pop on this display. 16GB of fast DDR3 memory and Dual SSD based hard drives ensures there are no bottle-necks on this gamers delight.
One of the highlights for the Maingear design are the very cool laser etched display lid with a choice of patterns. The examples range from a Tron style geometric pattern, to fractal looking organic curves. The laser etched lid comes in 4 standard choices or you can pay an extra $100 to have your own pattern etched on. Purely bling it’s a nice option to help you stand out a little. Customization is one of Maingear’s strengths, from you basic video cards all the way up to a Workstation class QuadroFX 2800m all options are covered. This same flexibility is applied across the board from CPU to Hard drives, if you have the coin Maingear will shoe horn it into the eX-L17 . .
Based on a common chassis Maingear take the basic shell and build out the laptop with your selection of parts. The chassis is produced by Clevo and shared by other OEM manufacturers. The current chassis doesn’t support a backlight keyboard which is a major drawback for a laptop of the caliber, back to using the miners torch hat when working in the dark. This is the downside to using off the shelf parts, like the chassis, waiting for your manufacturer to catch up with the latest option.
If running the latest video games is your thing or you need huge amounts of computing power for video production or 3D design then this is one of the laptops you should look at. While the latest Alienware 18″ laptop probably still has the lead and the crown the Maingear is a slightly more affordable and subdued option. The standard spec Maingear and Alienware M18x are very similar spec but the Maingear is $2,699 and the Alienware is $3,299 and the M17x is $2,999. The Maingear is a well made extremely quick laptop with subtle looks and plenty of muscle.
Buddha’s Brother out.…
