Friday, July 24th 2009
Maingear Unveils eX-L 18 Desktop-Replacement Gaming Notebook
MAINGEAR Computers, award-winning builders of high performance custom computers for PC gamers and enthusiasts, is proud to announce the world's most powerful desktop replacement notebook, the eX-L 18. Featuring dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M graphics processing units (GPUs) with NVIDIA SLI technology, the eX-L 18 brings your games and multimedia to life with brilliant 3D graphics and movies in 1080p HD resolution. With powerful Intel Core 2 mobile processors, eX-L 18 delivers breakthrough multi-core performance and dual-channel DDR3 memory.
"MainGear has equipped the eX-L 18 with the world's fastest notebook graphics solution," said Rene Hass, General Manager of the notebook business unit at NVIDIA. "With NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs, MainGear's customers will experience breathtaking in gaming physics from titles such as Terminator Salvation or Darkest of Days and are ready for GPU computing applications such as Badaboom, vReveal and Arcsoft SimHD."
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs are the fastest GeForce notebook GPUs ever. Built-in support for NVIDIA PhysX technology enables a new world of ultra realistic gaming effects from lifelike explosions to natural water. Stay on top of your game with the highest performance using the latest notebook drivers direct from NVIDIA.com. When you're not gaming, NVIDIA CUDA technology offers breakthrough performance in compute-intensive tasks like video transcoding and photo editing, delivering up to 10x faster performance compared to traditional CPUs. Watch high-definition videos come alive with sharp images and vibrant colors supported by NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology, which enables extended battery life so you never miss a scene.
The eX-L 18 is chock full of expansion potential, with up to 3 2.5" SATA or SSD drives configurable in RAID formations. eSATA, HDMI, USB 2.0, and FireWire ensure that you can use the eX-L 18 just
like you would a desktop and without compromise. Additional features include a 3 Megapixel video camera provides high definition video conferencing, and a full sized keyboard with a number pad, and programmable gaming buttons.
"With the increasing demand for mobile high performance computing solutions, we wanted to offer our customers with the most powerful gaming desktop replacement possible" said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR. "With the co-processing power of the Intel Core 2 CPU and dual NVIDIA GPUs, you're able to get the same cutting edge technology available to desktop users in a balanced computing configuration that is ideal for today's GPU computing environment."
The eX-L 18 also features MAINGEAR's M.A.R.C. custom laser etching technology. Customers can upload the image or logo of their choice and MAINGEAR will customize your notebook to specifically fit your personal style or corporate brand.
Specifications
"MainGear has equipped the eX-L 18 with the world's fastest notebook graphics solution," said Rene Hass, General Manager of the notebook business unit at NVIDIA. "With NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs, MainGear's customers will experience breathtaking in gaming physics from titles such as Terminator Salvation or Darkest of Days and are ready for GPU computing applications such as Badaboom, vReveal and Arcsoft SimHD."
The eX-L 18 is chock full of expansion potential, with up to 3 2.5" SATA or SSD drives configurable in RAID formations. eSATA, HDMI, USB 2.0, and FireWire ensure that you can use the eX-L 18 just
like you would a desktop and without compromise. Additional features include a 3 Megapixel video camera provides high definition video conferencing, and a full sized keyboard with a number pad, and programmable gaming buttons.
"With the increasing demand for mobile high performance computing solutions, we wanted to offer our customers with the most powerful gaming desktop replacement possible" said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR. "With the co-processing power of the Intel Core 2 CPU and dual NVIDIA GPUs, you're able to get the same cutting edge technology available to desktop users in a balanced computing configuration that is ideal for today's GPU computing environment."
The eX-L 18 also features MAINGEAR's M.A.R.C. custom laser etching technology. Customers can upload the image or logo of their choice and MAINGEAR will customize your notebook to specifically fit your personal style or corporate brand.
Specifications
- OS - Windows Vista Premium with Free Windows 7 Upgrade Offer
- CPU - up to Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor
- Chipset - NVIDIA MCP79
- Graphics - Single or Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M
- Memory - up to 8GB DDR3-1333
- Storage - up to 3 2.5" SATA or SSD drives (RAID Available)
- Optical Drive - DVD or Blu-ray
- Display - 18.4" LCD 1920x1080
21 Comments on Maingear Unveils eX-L 18 Desktop-Replacement Gaming Notebook
Toshiba Qosmios, Dell XPSes, etc. do not take battery life into account with their desktop replacements. They're huge and are supposed to consume a huge amount of power for multimedia/gaming purposes. If anything, having a battery on a desktop replacement notebook would just act like a UPS with a desktop computer.
www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
I've yet to see some other benchmarks from SLI 280m's but theres no reason why it wouldn't beat the 4870'x in CF.
Two G92s beating two RV770XTs is logically impossible.
There are sooooooo many changes that factor into each and every implementation of a GPU in a notebook computer, so that whole site qualifies as nothing more than a loose guideline to purely synthetic performance.
With that said, yes, it's a very powerful GPU configuration, but I think those numbers misrepresent the situation. All-in-all it probably is the fastest, although I blame that in large part to ATi absolutely crippling the clock speed of the M4870. The 200Mhz drop makes a big difference with that many stream processors, and I'm sure it's perfectly capable of reaching much greater speeds, even in the tight confines of a notebook chassis.
i7 975 desktop replacement is far superior as it has tri-channel ddr3 memory first of all. Second , no way in hades does any mobile processor come close to competing against a desktop processor not in performance nor cost and more importantly availability.
Battery-life is a factor of course(ssds' can help reduce the power drain some), as is the increased size/weight. Still one gpu that is currently available in the clevo d900f/sanger 9280 as well as the plain keyboard, lack of fingerprint reader, media keys that lit-up does make this eX-L 18 look appealing if only in photos.
I would like to see this design package the contents of the clevo d900f only with the increase of two gpus.
www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Clevo-M980NU-Notebook.18377.0.html <- similar, eh? :)
I often ask myself why companies that have behemoth products in performance such as the Clevo D900F, which have literally the lastest in tech yet fall short in other areas to lesser product offerings within the same company?
What I am referring to is the Clevo M980NU which has the lits, whistles & bells in features:
lited keyboard
media keys
fingerprint reader
dual vga cards
All of these are not an option with the i7 Clevo D900F, but come on we all know as pc/laptop techies that they could just as easily made these available for the Clevo D900F.
It highly likely that Clevo simply did not as a stunt to sell off some over-stocked core 2 duo mobile chips they got at some ridiculously cheap prices due to the current economic climate.
In the very least this has me in a place where I " HAD " planned to purchase a Clevo D900F, yet now will likely wait until a true flagship offering makes itself available.
Whether or not Clevo reads these posts or gets the message thru other potential clients concerns remains to be seen. If they offer a revamped case design for the internals of the D900F, I will buy it if it has everything.
Or, perhaps since I am a designer I will simply build my own " True Flagship Laptop "; and make it available for all.
Im sure my SLI 280s in my desktop can whoop any of these laptops :laugh:
Also, not everyone is into gaming with performance pc/laptops.
I need and want a powerful laptop so that I can display my designs on my own portable pc which has graphics as well as cpu memory to match in CAD/Cam applications.
And, btw....even if it cost $5k for a lappy I would spend it knowing that a $60M design project is safe from using anyone else's pc when plugging in my flashdrive.
$5k to protect $60M....common sense.:laugh:
Anyways, I have thought of the perfect design in a laptop...I just still might get around to building it sooner than later.