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Considering buying an ECS G556 (E?) laptop

post #1 of 17
11/22/04 at 2:43am
Thread Starter 
G'day

I'm thinking about buying an ECS G556 laptop because I heard that it is a laptop that is between mobility and gaming performance. What is it like and is it a good buy?

Also too, what is the model of DVD writer of this laptop?

Thanks

TW
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post #2 of 17
11/22/04 at 4:30am
Well, i dont trust ECS one bit. Their motherboard business anyway. Ive had 2 ECS motherboards die on me and before that, they ran in between the speed of a hot steaming pile of cow sh*t and a snail anyway. Not too sure about their Notebooks, but since they make the motherboards, i suspect it wont be much different.

If u want a bled of gaming performance and portability, i suggest you look into my laptop here . It's reliable (no problems with it so far), does good performance (can play Doom 3 at 1024 x 768 with all quality turned down with acceptable framerates) and lasts 2 hours of solid Doom 3 on batteries.
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post #3 of 17
11/22/04 at 4:37am
IIRC, the ECS G556e has been an outcast of this forum because of its history of heating issues and bios troubles.

This is why you don't see anyone with a G556 around here. Many who've had it, returned it and got something else.
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post #4 of 17
11/23/04 at 1:44am
If I were you i'd go for the Compal CL56... pretty cheap at discountlaptops.com.

NovaShine: Where did you get your laptop? I can't seem to find any vendors for it
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post #5 of 17
12/13/04 at 3:14am
Thread Starter 
I wasn't able to get a Compal CL56 laptop around my area. It did look good though. (CL56s aren't easy to get in Australia). The G556 that my supplier sells happens to sell ones with Dothan processors and I bought some Artic Silver V for the noise/heat problems. I managed to discover that the burner's a Lite-On but they can be crossflashed to support +/-. I sold my ECS G733.
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post #6 of 17
12/13/04 at 3:33am
The ITC 6100 is a CL56:

http://www.p4laptops.com.au/order-6100.htm

Steve
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post #7 of 17
12/13/04 at 8:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarfol
If I were you i'd go for the Compal CL56... pretty cheap at discountlaptops.com.

NovaShine: Where did you get your laptop? I can't seem to find any vendors for it
For now, BenQ Joybook 7000's are only sold in most of Asia, Europe, Australia and Dubai. Currently no venders on the North American continent im afraid.For once the americans are left out, phew.
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post #8 of 17
12/19/04 at 3:54am
Thread Starter 
Unfourtantely, my brother bought me this laptop and it's already on the courier. I would have got a CL56 (CL56 had a better battery life) if I had the choice. I have a syringe of Artic Silver 5 but what's the trick with applying it? I did hear the heat issues can fixed using thermal transfer paste.

By the way: Pentium-M Dothan 1.7GHz, Radeon 9700 128MB, 60GB Hard drive, DVD+RW.
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post #9 of 17
12/19/04 at 6:06am
I have an early model of the ECS G556 (the infamous voodoo m:460) -- though it is in many ways a very nice machine that really does have good gaming performance in a pretty slim and fairly light (6.5lb) mobile package, I can't recommend it. It shipped with bios problems, but those were fixed, and I assume they wouldn't be an issue for recent models. Heat has never been a problem for me, but it has a loud fan that kicks in with any sort of intensive graphics/disk usage, and I'm pretty sure that no amount of artic silver will change that.

My main problem with the notebook is that it's construction is not good: I've had three screws fall out of the lid, one rubber foot fall out of the bottom, problems with the DvD drive opening (currently it works, but for several months I had to pry the DvD tray open), and the keyboard is poorly supported and springy (my major complaint, in fact).

While I do like and use the notebook all the time, and it is mobile and can handle any games you throw at it very well (currently World of Warcraft), I would look for something different if I had to do it over again...
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post #10 of 17
12/19/04 at 3:52pm
hmm.... what kind of battery life? I'm guessing around 2.5 hours.

Even with those faults, I hear that the ECS has a good screen and looks good to boot.
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post #11 of 17
12/20/04 at 12:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarfol
hmm.... what kind of battery life? I'm guessing around 2.5 hours.

Even with those faults, I hear that the ECS has a good screen and looks good to boot.
Battery life is 2 hours maximum, I would say. The screen is good (decent response time, though with a somewhat narrow viewing angle, probably like any other similar screen), and the notebook does look nice -- goes from 3/4" at the front to 1" at the back (not sure even now that there are any other thinner notebooks out there with a similar graphics performance).
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post #12 of 17
12/26/04 at 8:49pm
Thread Starter 
I just got the laptop. It was a G556E. After applying Artic Silver 5 to the CPU, the computer has been pretty quiet. The burner was a Lite-On SOSW-852S Dual format burner which I upgraded to DL capable.

So far, HL2 and Doom 3 runs great on it.

NovaShine: The BenQ Joybook 7000 is sold here in Australia.


Specs:

Intel Pentium-M Dothan 1.7GHz
512MB RAM
Samsung 60GB HDD 5400RPM 8MB Cache
Lite-On SOSW-852S (+/-/DL)
15" SXGA+ screen
ATi Radeon Mobility 9700 128MB
RaLink RT2500 802.11g Wireless card
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post #13 of 17
12/26/04 at 9:40pm
Any problems with stand-by or suspend mode?
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post #14 of 17
12/27/04 at 9:33am
Thread Starter 
Suspend Mode appears to work fine. In Windows XP, the laptop reports as ACPI compliant and when I put the laptop into standby, the screen turned off and the standby light turned on, as well as the fan shutting off.

I'm not sure if the ACPI glitches are in the earlier G556s but suspend works fine for me.
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post #15 of 17
12/27/04 at 11:26am
I heard problems about the fan in suspend mode. Does the fan come back on after suspend/standby/hibernate mode?
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post #16 of 17
12/27/04 at 8:47pm
Thread Starter 
The fan only really kicks in (even after suspend) when playing games or on a hot day. It only starts depending on the temperature. It used to sound like a fighter jet starting up until I put some Artic Silver on the CPU core. It's not as loud as it used to be.
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post #17 of 17
1/2/05 at 9:55am
Thread Starter 
Review of the ECS G556E

Display: Looks great except there's a couple of dead pixels but barely noticable. The ATI 9700 Mobility packs enough power and games like HL2 and Doom 3 runs smooth with no noticable ghosting. The viewing angle isn't that crash hot.

DVD-Burner: Lite-On SOSW-852S. Originally I was supposed to get a 4x + only burner. When the laptop arrived, it was a 4x dual format burner. It appears to burn cheap Princo discs without problems. This burner can be flashed to support 8x burning and 2.4x DVD+R DL burning which I have, but I haven't tested DL discs yet. (If anyone has a G556 with a + only drive and it's a Lite-On, it can get flashed to support + and -.)

Wireless: Ralink RT2500 802.11G. Works ok. Same chipset as my desktop PC. I can easily get adhoc access to my home computer and it works well with the 802.11G ADSL Router at work.

Fan: Pretty quiet unless running games. The noise isn't really unbearable but I put some AS5 on the CPU.

Battery life: I can get 3.5 hours out of it when using SpeedswitchXP. For what I need is ok. It's reasonable for a Centrino with a R9700 Mobility and a 5400RPM HDD (Samsung Spinpoint).

Overall: It has been an excellent laptop since I had it. It runs anything I throw at it. HL2 and Doom 3 run great and DVD burning works great too!

Rating 4 out of 5.
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