Maingear's eX-L 18 grabs for "world's most powerful gaming laptop" title
By Darren Murph 
posted July 24th 2009 1:08AM
posted July 24th 2009 1:08AM
MAINGEAR Unveils the World's Most Powerful Gaming Notebook
eX-L 18 laptop delivers unprecedented performance with Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs with NVIDIA SLI technology, GPU Computing with NVIDIA CUDA, 1080p HD resolution support and an Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU
Union, New Jersey – July 23, 2009 – 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.
Consumers can purchase the MAINGEAR eX-L 18 at MAINGEAR's Web site www.maingear.com or order by phone at (888-MAINGEAR). The base price $2,999. eX-L 18 comes standard with MAINGEAR's standard 14 month warranty and is backed by the best in-house support team
Don't think about it in terms of battery life. Its a desktop replacement so an 'apples to apples' comparison would be to ask how long the UPS on your desktop lasts compared to the battery in this laptop.
I spend my life touring with rock bands doing lighting. I've bought the Alienware M17x. it will be plugged in either on the tour bus, in a hotel or at the lighting dimmers where I have multiple 400amp 3phase supplies. I'm away from home for 8 months a year and I want to play games in my down time. If a machine like this suits your lifestyle buy it. Don't just ignorantly mouth off because it doesn't suit yours.
Agreed.
When I was at uni years ago, I lived 4 days in one place, 3 in another. I picked up a 2nd hand Alienware at the time, served me well for 3 years. Don't recall ever actually using it off battery life but it was great having a relatively powerful gaming PC to lug around to wherever I was staying.
I'd have zero use for such a laptop these days, but that doesn't mean there isn't a need for them.
iBuyPower, CyberPower, DigitalStorm, and probably others have Core i7 975 laptops, so how is this the most powerful gaming laptop? The only thing is this system has dual GTX 280M GPUs and the others don't, but I'd much rather have the way faster processor.
the quote is "World's most powerful GAMING laptop" any current games will have the GPU as the bottleneck, not the processor, and will run the same on a corei7 as a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo. it is the most powerful because it has the most powerful GPU combination.
It also appears to boast the world's glossiest screen.
"breathtaking in gaming physics from titles such as Terminator Salvation"
Great example there.
Well, my $699 gaming laptop (ASUS G50t-X5) has only 1 graphics card, only 4GB of RAM, only 2 RAID 0 drive bays, and it's less powerful (NVIDIA 9800M GTS) but it has up to 4 hours of battery life. Oh, and a little OLED screen that shows my email, system stats, and IMs. So...uh...ha.
The world’s most powerful desktop replacement featuring Intel® Core™ i7 Processors
Sager NP9280 - Gaming Laptop
Intel® Core™ i7-920 Processor (2.66GHz) / i7-950 (3.06GHz), 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8 GT/sec QPI, LGA 1366
The Powernotebooks NP9280 is the world’s first Intel® Core™ i7 processor-based desktop replacement featuring the Intel® X58 chipset capable of handling the latest Intel® Core™ i7 Extreme Edition processor and triple-channel 12GB DDR3 memory and three Intel® X25-M 160GB SATA Solid-State with newer model, and Blu-ray Disc Burner. In addition to the state-of-the-art processor, the NP9280 boasts the fastest notebook GPU ever - the nVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M graphics card with both DVI and HDMI output. The unit also features an eSATA port and a 3.0 Megapxiel high resolution video camera. With the combination of all of these powerful technologies, the NP9280 is the ultimate rig for demanding enthusiasts and extreme gamers. The Ultimate Setup is Here, Have one on Order total in price with shipping a configuration $8,000.00
I love that they're showing off the extra controls around the keyboard by showing off how reflective the screen surface is. Cause that's something appealing.
Is it just me or does this laptop have a tramp stamp?
LOL. Alienware released it's "All Powerful" laptop how long ago? And it's already at a risk of being outdated?? Keeping up with Moore's Law is starting to break the bank.
I didn't see it in the press release, but are we to assume engadget's claim that this has 1920 x 1080 resolution?
You would think the "most powerful" gaming machine would come with 1920x1200 resolution. Why would they design it otherwise, if the primary purpose is to just do games?
that looks beastly