Viper or Eagle?

[Steuben]

What i would like to know, is it worth it to upgrade from sidewinder to eagle very early on?

 

[Eldan Cross]

when you have like 400-500k go into a viper.

 

[fergal]

What i would like to know, is it worth it to upgrade from sidewinder to eagle very early on?

if you want to only fight, yes.
If you want to trade, no

 

[Adept]

Stick with the Eagle until you have half a million invested in it, at least. Then it may be worth it to trade.

 

[Zing Freelancer]

If you plan to kill things, go for the viper. Yes, it will cost you about 2 million credits to fully upgrade (minus weapon and optional mods)

However, both Viper and Eagle cap out at class 2 weapons, meaning they will have similar power draws. But the Eagle can only fit class 2 power plant, which means you will have less juice to play with when outfitting your ship. Which also means to get maximum effect out of your Eagle you will need a high grade power plant A2 or B2, they cost a hefty amount of credits.

Viper comes with a class 3 power plant and even a D3 plant cost cheaper than A2 and deliver more power to your ship. Viper also has stronger shields than Eagle and better hull protection.

 

[Ganjis]

I prefer the Eagle until you can spend 2-3 million on a viper. Get A grade where you can, especially power and thrusters. Stick a beam laser on top and two MCs underneath. You will be able to take anything up to an Asp with no real problems. Anything bigger will be a pain to kill though.

 

[Darth-Simba]

Eagle first, highly fitted it's an often underestimated killer, good for bounty hunting smaller ships.
When you've got like a million spare cash, go for a viper and fit it accordingly.

Once you flew a well fitted Viper you won't go back. Screw the overrated Cobra. Everyone's flying that boring all-rounder but if you wanna do bounty hunting, go for the Viper.
My advice at least.

This, I went from Viper, to cobra and then back to viper. My viper is worth 700k at the moment. Once I fit the A3 FSD, and the A3 shields it will be worth around a million. Just need to find a couple of C2 beams.

 

[CMDR Canaris]

I started in my Sidewinder, maxed it out, moved on to my free Eagle, almost maxed it (all B or better components), then went all in on a Viper.

The Viper is superior to the Eagle with just C and B components because of it's toughness, high top speed, and four weapons. All that said, never underestimate the Eagle, flying one will teach you a great deal about the game.

 

[Bertster]

However, both Viper and Eagle cap out at class 2 weapons, meaning they will have similar power draws. But the Eagle can only fit class 2 power plant, which means you will have less juice to play with when outfitting your ship. Which also means to get maximum effect out of your Eagle you will need a high grade power plant A2 or B2, they cost a hefty amount of credits.

Huh?

The Eagle has 3 class 1 weapon slots, the Viper has 2 class 1 and 2 class 2 weapon slots. Those are very different power draws.

Personally, I'd stick with the Eagle. Everything for it is cheap, it has great jump range (whereas an under speced Viper has terrible range and is very limiting) and it's really fun to fly.