after doing some basic research, i decided on the mr-2.
if you are concerned about noise and power consumption, then the asm is for you.
since i have a dedicated fish room to silence the equipment and don't really care about power consumption, i chose the mr-2.
i read a quote here from someone who has both a mr-1 and a g3. this guy said that the mr-1 with only a mag-12 (non pressure rated) outperformed his g3. ...and when he upgraded to a pressure rated pump it upped the skimming 30% on top of that.
it was a no brainer for me. dual becket mr-2 w/ pcx-55 pump. i might add the 8" piece, as that is what andy from mrc said would give me the best performance with the pcx-55.