New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Mayhem G3 Eclipse XT

post #1 of 14
6/29/06 at 4:23pm
Thread Starter 
I'm now using an original G3 and have been happy with it for the past 2 years, but the ATI 9700 is deffinitly showing its age. My girlfriend needs to replace her POS Dell Inspiron so I was thinking of giving her this and replacing it with the new Eclipse XT.

I'm a airline pilot so its on the road every day. I only really play WoW and CivIV but I really want Oblivion and I was hoping the X1600 should handle it ok. Does anyone have any experience with this? How well and at what settings this gpu can handle such a graphics intesive game?

I'm not sure if its worth the $$ for the MT-37 over the MT-34. A few other things is they only offer 2 gigs of ram and 333mhz instead of the full 400mhz that they claim it can handle. With that and the thought of Vista, DirectX 10, and the Turion X2 coming out will these be significant enough for me to wait. I'll probably be able to get Vista for free through my old college's library. I know you can always wait for better technology but are these new advances enough to seriously wait for especially if Vista will make full use of the 64 bit cpu.

I like my G3 now. The screen is great, the heat isn't all that bad, but the battery life is horrible, and the power brick weighs half as much as the notebook itself. I'm not sure of which OEM the Eclipse XT is made by but I really hope it doesn't have the same power source. Here's a link to the specs and benchmarks http://www.abs.com/app/g3ext_specs.asp .

Any and all thoughts are appreciated.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 14
7/1/06 at 3:18am
The G3 Eclipse XT is an MSI 1039 notebook, the refresh of the G3 Eclipse (an MSI 1029). I would highly reccomend looking elsewhere than ABS, however. Their sytems do look nice, and they try to make it look all great but their RMA process is said to be horrible, and their customer service is lacking.

I'd strongly suggest RawPowerPC (http://www.rawpowerpc.com) or XMeld Systems (http://www.xmeld.com) as they both provide the same system for less money and better service. Just my $.02.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 14
7/2/06 at 1:18am
I agree with TuxToaster there are better places than abs. And if i were you i would try to get somthing better than an x1600. But thats just my opinion.

Whats your budget?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 14
7/2/06 at 3:07am
I have been looking at that laptop for a while. I think it's pretty darn SWEET for the price. ABS seems to have good reselleratings, and seems to be a fairly big and reliable company.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 14
7/2/06 at 5:37pm
As long as you get 2gig of ram and a amd mt-37 (try to get a mt-40) with a
7200 rpm drive you should be fine.

ps thoses benches look fishey, better check other places to confirm them.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 14
7/2/06 at 5:43pm
I suggest going for an asus s96j instead. also comes with the X1600 but a core duo instead, and quite a bit cheaper..

buy it here to get the lowest price on the market:

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/c...r.aspx?mid=173
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 14
7/2/06 at 6:33pm
i woudnt buy that there ibuy power is the same as cyberpowerpc.com

they are know for bad service and faulty wiring. So be cautions if you get it from there.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 14
7/2/06 at 6:52pm
With ABS you're going to pay an unnecessary premium, which wouldn't be bad for the "name brand" factor in a way, but read some reviews... their customer service responses are so/so.. and their RMA system almost always receives bad reviews from what I've seen.

Besides, I was looking at them a few months ago for the G3 Eclipse. For pretty close to what I would have been shelling out to load up the G3 with max on everything, I bought a MSI 1036 barebook with a Turion MT-40, ATIx700 256MB PCI-E (not the newest but still a very nice card), 2GB of RAM, a 7200RPM 100GB HDD, wireless and bluetooth, plus accessories. It really pays to shop arround.

P.S. : True, my 1036 is presently DOA, but that's my own fault for trying to flash the BIOS, a risk inherent every time you do so. Either way, I received confirmation already from MSI confirming the issue and a replacement is already underway. You might not think a reseller's return/RMA standings are a big deal... but you never know when you just might need them. Both resellers I lsisted above have outstanding ratings and frequent these forums and others ready and willing to help... last I saw ABS's support forums were down for several months, and may still well be.. My advice: Go with someone else.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 14
7/2/06 at 7:42pm
ABS has decent prices...that XT model is pretty reasonable with all the options...seriously.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 14
7/2/06 at 8:44pm
No doubt, their pricing is competitive... I'm not saying it isn't. I'm just saying that experience shows if you run into problems, they are not as supportive and easy to work with as other resellers.... though if you do go with other resellers you might just find a better deal while you're at it.

ABS's site is quoting me $1732 right now, and that's *without* the MT-40, which they are convienently out of stock on (they have been quite often when I had been checking their site in the past). I paid just a few dollars over $1800 for mine total (shipping, taxes and all) through a local reseller and got a 17" WSXGA system and much better support. Had I been going for the 1039 (the same as the Eclipse XT)... I would have likely paid less than what ABS is quoting for the same machine and better service.

Just saying that shopping arround is a good idea, if he wants to go with ABS that's his choice, my advice would just be to look elsewhere.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 14
7/3/06 at 4:46am
Defidently shop around! some times u can save hundreds!


You can proboley fnd the same stuff cheaper with a lesser know company. Dont pay that extra premium for the name.


ps Sagers seem reasonably priced.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 14
7/4/06 at 1:12pm
Thread Starter 
I was happy with ABS support and customer service in the past thats why I was looking at them again. I RMA'd my first G3 due to 2 large dead pixels (told them I either RMA for a new G3 or just return it completely for a refund and go somewhere else...just my way of being an a$$ and getting around they're $50 dead pixel policy) and they sent out the new notebook before the old one was even sent.

My price range is in the $1500-1700 range I think, and no lager than a 15.4" screen (that size is a pain to carry around as is). I thought that for the price I can get it with the MT-34, 2gigs RAM, and 100gigs @7200rpm. Only thing is the RAM is 333mhz and I haven't seen the performance difference between the 1.8 and 2 gig cpu's.

I looked at the the Asus Z96J and W3J but I think with Vista coming I want the 64bit ability over the better battery life. And can anyone tell me how MSI is compared to Sager and the Uniwell I'm using now? I know I'd probably not buy another Uniwell do to the noise it puts out and the hugeness of its power brick. I saw that MSI and I think Sager are both coming out with notebooks with the X2 and the stats I'm looking for...always something better on the horizon so maybe I should wait.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 14
7/4/06 at 1:53pm
Well there are new asus coming out with the turion x2, and those have the best quality around.. if you can wait 2-4 weeks, do it, there's a lot of good things coming out in the near future
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 14
7/4/06 at 2:38pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the advice Filippo. I wouldn't be buying for a few weeks anyway and its good to hear that new stuff will be out soon. I think I'm leaning towards the Turion X2. I've been looking at Asus, but what is the best Asus Reseller? I've been looking at Powernotebooks.com because they seem to have a really good reseller rating.

On a seperate note, how well does the the Hypermemory on the X1600 work? Do you see a huge performance difference when it supposedly bumps it up to a 512mb card? BTW I'll be getting 2gigs of ram on my next notebook.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Notebook Forums - General