14 DAY TRIAL // Over the past weeks, virtually all PC suppliers came out and unveiled a new PC or another. Mobile PCs were released in the greatest numbers, as companies strove to make the best of AMD's new platform and Intel's DDR3-supporting Atom chips. Among all these products are even some gaming systems that promise to outmatch their predecessors completely. Origin, for one, showed off a new iteration of its EON15, which even has 3D capabilities. Now, determined not to be outmaneuvered, Maingear has joined the fray with the eX-L 17.
Maingear was more than a little bold, actually claiming that this newcomer is the most powerful 17-inch mobile PC in existence. This, of course, is highly debatable. What is not as debatable is that the actual insides are nothing short of powerful. At the heart of the configuration lies an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 central processing unit. This CPU is assisted by up to 8GB of memory. Furthermore, two hard drives or solid state drives provide up to 1.5TB of storage.
Now, of course, comes the component that has the greatest bearing on multimedia and gaming performance, the video board, and Maingear did not shy away from throwing in the strongest ones it had. End-users will be able to configure their product with not just the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870, but also the GeForce GTX 480M. These discrete GPUs have DirectX 11 support, 1GB and 2GB of VRAM, respectively, and deliver video to the device's 17.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit display.
Other specifications of the laptop include Gigabit Ethernet, 802/11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, a DVD or Blu-ray ODD, a 7-in-1 card reader, a 2 megapixel webcam and an HDMI output. Finally, the notebook can be pre-loaded with Windows 7 professional, Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit) or Windows 7 Home Premium. Pre-orders can be placed on Maingear's website, for at least $1,900.