Got my laptop! ECS G556e *first impressions* - Page 3

Odd, i guess :P

Well, lets see how things go :P It's May 1st so 9 more days till Dothan lol...

Unfortunately I had to lend the laptop to my friend since he just broke his laptop. I won't be able to give you guys any pictures now because of that.

To be honest, I don't see how I can take pictures of this notebook which aren't already available over at internetishop. You really can see the notebook from every angle from the ishop pictures. Trust me that this case looks every bit as nice as the picture of it on www.ecs.com.tw.

BTW, I will try to answer your questions to the best of my abilities. I am very happy with my decision to purchase this laptop at the moment. To be honest, am I going to purchase a laptop with the ecs case at a price point > $3,000? I don't think so. If I had that much money I would definitely buy an IBM.

There are some annoyances I have with this laptop which would drive a person who overpaid for his laptop nuts. The keyboard does flex, and is stiff, and if I am not mistaken the missing 'a' key problem still exists.

There must be 10 different levels of fan noise on this laptop which ranges from nonexistent while browsing and word processing to sounding like a muffled blow dryer when playing the 3dmark 2003 demo.

Those are my biggest complaints so far, but do I regret my purchase decision? Not at all. I paid $1,400 for my ecs machine proper and an additional $180 for shipping and extended warranty. I can perfectly sleep at night knowing that I have paid a fair price for the product. I personally think that you can't do better in the current market given the size/weight, screen resolution and graphic card of this thing. I can account for every cent of my purchasing price in an itemized fashion and internetishop's pricing of this model is perfectly reasonable.

My biggest concern before the purchase was that internetishop was going to put a 4 year old 40gb 5,400 rpm since it doesn't specify the brand and make of the hdd. Upon receipt of my notebook, the first thing I did was to find what hdd I received, and it turned out to be a Fujitsu 5k80, which I prefer over the Seagate Momentus I have on my old laptop because the 5k80 is almost whisper quiet whereas the Seagate is noticeably louder.

One more thing I want to add is I am really satisified with the job Internetishop did in assembling the ecs barebone. They did not skimp on the hdd component either even though I didn't opt for the best model. Their assembly and shipping were super-fast as well. I ordered on Friday night, and the unit was shipped next Monday through UPS 3 day mail, and received it Thursday morning. So far, I am impressed with this company's service though I can't comment on its after sales support since I haven't really needed it.

What accessories did it come with standard?

Battery life

Has anyone that owns this laptop tested battery life? Also, I've seen conflicting reports on the actual weight of the laptop. Can someone check it on a scale?

I agree, guitarded, for < $2,000 the ecs is quite a bargain. I don't know why ecs 556e is not getting more attention since it definitely deserves it. It comes with one of the best mobile GPUs (if not the best) out there, and the case finish is top notch. Put a 556e case right next to a Compaq or Toshiba, and you will realize that the 556e case looks nicer.

I have missed a few more 'a' strokes since my last post. I am a touch typist, and the missing 'a's seem to appear randomly. I don't know, it could have been caused by the keyboard stiffness.

I haven't tested the battery and wireless range of this machine because I currently don't have it. My friend borrowed it and won't be returning it to me for another 2 weeks.

The notebook came packaged with driver cds for the ecs 556e barebone and the 802g wireless card. It also came with some junk software which are worthless. It also comes with a usb charger for cellphones which is pretty neat but barely charges my phone because the usb power on notebooks is kinda weak. Oh, the ishop packaging is well done but the notebook "bag" which came with the package was garbage. It might as well have been made from toilette paper.

BTW, I guess this is important if you missed it somehow. The internetishop doesn't provide any OS preloaded with the laptop with the base price. You would have to pay extra for Windows.

Does it come with the CD? Or can you use an XP Home CD and it'll be fine?

what's your gpu spec?

i have compal cl56 from chembook

with ati 9700 oc'ed to 420/218

i got 3dmark03 of 2985 , i tried go little bit higher it crashes

I didn't oc my gpu, and I only have a 1.4ghz PM. Nonetheless, I think oc your notebook is quite foolhardy especially in this form factor and with the processing power/heat those little beasts generate.

What are the wireless and network card makes?

I thought someone mentioned Realtek on at least one of them. That is a BIG downer on the network front.

Ok, but what about the LAN port. Was that realtek or was I just mistaken?

"Does it come with the CD"

No, it doesn't come with Windows CD. You would have to pay extra for it. I personally loaded a copy of Windows XP. It worked fine from the get go.

I think both the sound card and the lan are realtek, but I am not sure since I don't have my laptop now.

I don't think most of the people would have a problem with the ecs keyboard. Personally, I like the ecs keyboard better than the Dell 5100 one. The keys are equally stiff, but the layout is somewhat better. At least the delete key is not right next to the direction pad, which imo is the most retarded design one could ever put on a keyboard. I think the Compal barebones have this keyboard layout. Sometimes when I try to scroll through my code, I would reach for the wrong key and delete some letters. Since I am a programmer, this is not particularly funny.

In any case, I would most likely get an external keyboard to work with my laptop. I already use a retractable mouse.

any pics yet...this machine is marked down to 1699 right now which is pretty cheap for a 1.7 with a 9700.