The latest Origin EON17-S ($3,540 as tested) is a monster gaming laptop with the latest hardware from Intel and Nvidia. Thanks to the extreme enthusiast components, like a quad-core CPU, Nvidia GTX 880M graphics, and dual solid-state drives (SSDs), its price tag jumps up to what most would call serious money. Thankfully, these components will give you the gaming performance you’re looking for. But is that ultimately worth the EON17-S’s(1,630.00 Base Configuration at ORIGIN PC)(Opens in a new window) large price tag?

Design and Features
Gaming notebooks have never been about subtlety, and the EON17-S bears that out. The top lid is a glossy white with a prominent black Origin PC logo inset at the top. It’s large, measuring about 1.8 by 16.5 by 11.5 inches (HWD), and it weighs 8.46 pounds. That’s about a pound lighter than the current Editors’ Choice for high-end gaming laptops, the Origin PC EON17-SLX(2,177.00 Base Configuration at ORIGIN PC)(Opens in a new window). As you’d expect on a 17-inch laptop, the backlit keyboard has a full-size numeric keypad to the right, which unfortunately means that the illuminated touchpad isn’t centered under the space bar, though it is centered on the chassis overall. Two physical mouse buttons and a biometric fingerprint reader are located under the touchpad.

Animated blue LED lights flash in between the keyboard and screen to show audio levels in real time; picture the decibel (dB) marked bars you used to see on 1990s aftermarket car stereos, and you’ll get the idea. They can be distracting when you play games or watch videos, but they do add some bling to the otherwise unadorned black expanse of the keyboard deck. The Onkyo-branded speakers above the keyboard and the subwoofer mounted under the chassis pump out a decent amount of distortion-free sound. The built-in Blu-ray drive gives you more options than simply streaming or downloading movies.

The 17.3-inch display lacks a touch sensor, but that’s hardly necessary for an expansive gaming laptop. The screen smoothly displays 1,920-by-1,080 resolution games and videos, including Blu-ray movies.

Similar Products

4.0

Excellent

Origin EON17-SLX (2014)

2,177.00 Base Configuration

See It

at ORIGIN PC

(Opens in a new window)

Read Our Origin EON17-SLX (2014) Review

4.0

Excellent

Digital Storm Krypton

 

 

 

Read Our Digital Storm Krypton Review

4.0

Excellent

Alienware 17 (2014)

$849.90

See It

at Newegg

(Opens in a new window)

Read Our Alienware 17 (2014) Review

Since there’s so much space around the chassis, there are plenty of I/O ports. It has audio jacks, a DisplayPort, an Ethernet port, a 4-pin FireWire port, a Kensington lock slot, a mini DisplayPort, an SD/Memory Stick card reader, a USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, another USB 2.0 port, and two USB 3.0 ports. About the only connector that’s inconvenient is the 4-pin power jack, which needs to be inserted in a single direction, rather than the barrel-shaped connector that most folks are familiar with. It’s a minor annoyance. For wireless connectivity, the system has 802.11ac Wi-Fi with WiDi support and Bluetooth 4.0.

The system comes with two 120GB mSATA SSDs in a RAID 0 array (striping for speed and capacity). A 750GB, 7,200rpm SATA hard drive provides additional storage for downloads. Just about all that space is free, since the system comes with no bloatware. The included USB key recovery drive saves even more space on the drives. Nvidia’s GeForce Experience program and drivers for the GeForce GTX 880M graphics card are the only additions to Windows 8.1. The EON17-S comes with a one-year warranty for parts, which is a little short for such an expensive system. Granted, labor and telephone support are covered for the life of the laptop. Sadly, other gaming systems also have shorter warranties these days. For instance, the Alienware 17 (2014)($849.90 at Newegg)(Opens in a new window) comes with a one-year warranty for both labor and parts. Meanwhile, our midrange gaming laptop Editors’ Choice Digital Storm Krypton comes with a three-year warranty for labor, but only a one-year warranty for parts.

Performance

Performance-oriented components include the 3.1GHz Intel Core i7-4940MX quad-core processor, 16GB of memory, the dual 120GB SSDs, and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 880M graphics card. These combine to give the EON17-S near-top performance on all of our benchmark tests. It got 3,447 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which is 603 points less than the Origin EON17-SLX. This means that the Origin PCs will serve you well if you decide to stop playing and start doing work.

Gaming, however is where the EON17-S and its competitors are supposed to shine. To its credit, the system returned playable frame rates on our Heaven (35 frames per second) and Valley (46fps) benchmark tests at Ultra quality levels. The Origin EON17-SLX was much smoother on both tests (69fps on Heaven; 86fps on Valley) due to its dual Nvidia GTX 780M graphics processors in SLI configuration.

The EON17-S lasted 3 hours 19 minutes on our battery rundown test, which was longer than the Origin EON17-SLX (1:13). The Digital Storm Krypton lasted about four hours on the same battery rundown test. Note that since this is a video playback test, battery endurance will be a lot shorter during gameplay sessions.

The Origin EON17-S puts in a good showing as a lighter-weight alternative to 10-pound gaming laptops like the Alienware 17 and the Origin EON17-SLX. It also has two more hours of battery life than either. That said, the Origin EON17-SLX has more braggable performance numbers on the 3D gaming tests, thanks to its dual GPU setup, and it’ll cost you about $100 less, so it holds on to the Editors’ Choice for high-end gaming laptops.