ECS/AlphaTop

ECS/AlphaTop

The Green Laptops

Early "Green" laptop models were produced by GVC Maxtech's AlphaTop Corp. division with Maxtech acting as sole importer. Support was via Alphatop's service center in Southern California. Today, Maxtech is no longer in the laptop distribution market. GVC has even removed any reference to laptops from their USA web site. In 2001, the AlphaTop division was purchased by Elitegroup (ECS) and today ECS Green laptops are sold via many reseller brands (OEM's) including WinBook, Northgate, Balance (Walmart), GQ (Fry's) and Ashton Digital. At the time of purchase, ECS reported in the Taiwanese press that they purchased AlphaTop because of the Apple iBook series of laptops (which were also made by AlphaTop), however, I believe that production of the Apple laptops was soon sold to ASUS. Very confusing in any case.

Support for Green laptops also shifted from Alphatop to Sambyte, and independant service company. But in 2007 ECS purchased Uniwill International, also a maker of laptops, and has combined the two product lines. Support is now directly via ECS and I no longer have the direct line to service parts that I enjoyed for years with Alphatop and Sambyte.

Over the years some more of the OEM's that sold one of more of the standard Green laptops or sold custom designs produced by AlphaTop include: ARM Computers, Maxtech, Ergo (now Brick), HyperData, Trogon, Jetta, Leo, Micron (now MPC) and NEC. (sold as their Ready 200T, 300T and 400T series of laptops) I'm sure that the list is much longer too. I have not been able to identify all the other resellers at this time, but they include Excel (Australia), Leo (Taiwan), and Designote.

The chart below is a quick cross-reference list for converting from some WinBook model names to the Green models.

J1 = Green 720

J4 = Green 730

J4 = Green 731

J4 = Green 732

S2 = Green 510

X1 = Green 500

X2 = Green 510

X4 = Green 550

X4 = Green 551

I will be adding more information on the newer models as I get my fingers on them and can list the features.

General support information

The replacement parts supply is very limited for most of early Green laptops and used parts removed from dead machines may be the only source for many early models. New or used keyboards are very hard to find for models. I do stock some parts for the older machines, but the inventory is mostly for the Green 753 or Green 753+ models since I purchased the remaining factory stock of factory warranty laptops and remaining service stock.

Many Green laptops may have a case label (not the lid jewel) that appears to imply that it is a brand specific model, but most are often all the very same laptop if you compare them to the "white-box" laptops. In a rare case, a large OEM reseller would order custom plastic case pieces or a special paint color to have a product that differed slightly from the so-called "white-box" laptops. Micron and NEC often did this with models that they sold as the VLX, VLX-Enhanced, Trek, Trek Lite or the NEC Ready 200T, 300T and 400T laptops. Properly painted parts may be impossible to find today and satin black paint spraying does a decent job of matching the original color.

Alpha-Top also produced a few models that were brand specific (custom design) or only sold my one of two brands. The NEC Ready 300T series and the Micron Trek, Trek Lite and VLX - Enhanced were all Green 756 laptops. (Not the Trek2's) The NEC Ready 400T series laptops and the Micron Trek2's are Green 760 or Green 790 laptops. Note: Not all Micron or NEC laptops are AlphaTop laptops. (See Micron)

Information below was found on an old Maxtech web site:

Maxtech Models

Link to model
X-770	13.3" or 14.1" TFT XGA Color LCD, CD-ROM Drive 5.25" 24X or higher IDE - Exchangeable with DVD drive, zip drive, 2nd HDD and 2nd battery, Supports Pentium II 300/333/366/400 MHz, Celeron 300/333/366/400/433 MHz
X-759	13.3" or 14.1" TFT XGA Color LCD, CD-ROM Drive 5.25" 24X or higher IDE - Exchangeable with DVD drive, zip drive, 2nd HDD and 2nd battery, Supports Intel Mobile Module up to Pentium II, and Intel Celeron, (MMCI connector). Supports AMD Mobile K6-2/300/333/366 MHz processors.
X-735	12.1” TFT SVGA LCD (Optional 13.3" TFT XGA LCD); Supports Intel Pentium MMX Tillamook 233/266 MHz, and AMD Mobile K6-2 300/333/366/400 MHz; 24X CD-ROM Drive
X-735A	12.1” TFT SVGA LCD (Optional 13.3" TFT XGA LCD), AMD K6-2/366MHz with 3Dnow! Technology, 24X CD-ROM Drive
X-7354	12.1” TFT SVGA LCD (Optional 13.3" TFT XGA LCD), AMD K6-2/400MHz with 3Dnow! Technology, 24X CD-ROM Drive
X-7356	13.3” TFT SVGA LCD (Optional 13.3" TFT XGA LCD), AMD K6-2/366MHz with 3Dnow! Technology, 24X CD-ROM Drive
X-783	12.1” TFT SVGA LCD , AMD K6-2/266MHz CPU, 24X CD-ROM Drive, Intel Tillamook Support, Removable Combo Bay
X-758	12.1” TFT XGA LCD (Optional 13.3" DSTN SVGA LCD or 14.1"TFT XGA LCD), Intel Pentium MMX & AMD Support, 20X CD-ROM Drive or Higher
X-755	12.1” Dual Scan LCD (optional 11.3"/12.1” TFT), NIMH Battery (optional Lithium-Ion), Multimedia Pentium MMX support. Optional 16x/20x/24x CDROM swappable with FDD
X-793	Chicony Model MP993?