Maingear Intros New Mid-range Gaming Laptops

By Jane McEntegart
published

Just in time for the holiday rush of spend-thrifty people with gamers to buy for, Maingear has launched two new mid-range gaming laptops in 15- and 17-inch flavors.

Specifications for the two notebooks are largely the same (apart from the differing displays, obvious), with both the Alt-15 (15.6-inch display) and Alt-17 (17.3-inch display) packing an Nvidia GeForce GT 425M GPU with 1GB GDDR3 memory; a choice of either Intel's Core i5 or i7 CPU; a 1920x1080 16:9 HD display resolution; up to 8GB of DDR3 1066MHZ RAM; up to 512GB of SSD storage or up to 500GB of hybrid storage; USB x 4 (1 x USB 3.0 and 3 x USB 2.0); Bluray; integrated b/g/n wireless; HDMI; 3-in-1 card reader; and an integrated webcam. Additional features include Kensington locks along with biometric security via a fingerprint reader, as well as touch sensitive hotkeys for executing customizable macros and applications. The Alt-17 also features a full-sized keyboard complete with numpad.

Base prices for two Alt-15 and Alt-17 start at $1,049 and $1,099 respectively. Hit up Maingear to start customizing and jack those prices up to a $3,247 (for the 8GB, Core i7 Alt-15 with 512GB SSD) and $3,297 (for the Alt-17 packing 8GB of RAM, Core i7 and 512GB SSD).

Source: MainGear via HotHardware

Jane McEntegart
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jskilnyk
    Thats great! More competition for the other manufacturer. However, there is nothing mid-ranger about their prices though.
    Reply
  • theshonen8899
    Not sure what the rage is with gaming laptops. Seems like too much of an investment for something so fragile and hard to repair :\
    Reply
  • killbits
    uhh, geforce 425m is a piece of SH*T card- these can barely be called gaming laptops with that graphics card in them.

    i went to xoticpc.com and put together the exact same hardware configuration (4gb ddr3, 500gb 7200rpm hdd, i7 640m, blu-ray) except with a geforce 460m and it turned out $120 cheaper for a 15" with 1920x1080 display. also maingear doesn't seem to have the option to ship the laptop without an operating system.

    I'm in the market for a new laptop, about $1500, and im not even remotely interested in these maingear machines.
    Reply
  • painis
    There is no such thing as gaming laptop.
    Reply
  • sinner01
    These are mid-range gaming laptops. an nvidia 425m can easily run games. thats all you need, because laptops don't EXCEL at running games. simple as that. All you need is something capable of doing it. This card is very capable. What isn't capable is a fully integrated graphics card.

    Not sure where Killbits gets off saying they aren't 'gaming' laptops when they have a card that is perfectly capable of running 'games'.

    Wait...

    Great laptops that don't look too flashy, I really hate alienwares.
    Reply
  • liveonc
    I've seen cheaper Core i5 with HD5650. Just replace the 5400rpm hdd with an SSD & you've got a cheap mid-range gaming laptop. You can even upgrade the RAM too & still be cheaper then this.
    Reply
  • Lutfij
    more compettion = lower prices = more confusion for customers = crap bubled into hardware
    Reply
  • reaper2794
    A "gaming laptop" is a laptop that has a higher end video card meant to be able to run games, so stop whining, you guys all know what it means, it doesn't mean the laptop does it well.
    Reply
  • theholylancer
    Reaper2794A "gaming laptop" is a laptop that has a higher end video card meant to be able to run games, so stop whining, you guys all know what it means, it doesn't mean the laptop does it well.

    a anything from the lower end should not be called that gaming, at least a 460 M or a mobility 5770 for 1080p, GT 435s/5570s are going to be gaming if you are dealing with 1366*768 screens, if this was a 11 inch laptop competing with the m11x, then the 425 would have been meh okay, but it isnt and STILL cost a ton


    If you want to say that the LED screen is really good for multi media (or what nots) then do that and maybe you are paying the premium of a good screen (like in apple's MBP) but claiming its a gaming laptop with this kind of gfx power, nty.

    Reply
  • cookoy
    those are huge numbers and fast. high prices make your money disappear pretty fast.
    Reply