Many of the gaming laptops we’ve seen since Nvidia started shipping its RTX graphics cards earlier this year have been thin and relatively light — but not all of them. Origin PC’s Eon17-X is a huge 17.3-inch model like the gaming laptops of yore, though instead of being disappointingly underpowered, the Eon17-X is essentially a desktop with a screen attached.
Starting at $2,434 (though its price fluctuates with component prices), the Eon17-X base model has a desktop-class six-core Intel Core i5-9600K and a 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060. The config I tested had Origin’s top offerings for the model: An Intel Core i9-9900K and the Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU. It’s a powerful combo that achieved some of the best frame rates we’ve seen to date. (It was predictably bad on battery life, barely crawling across the two-hour mark.)
These are also the same components found in the Alienware Area-51m we reviewed. While their other parts might differ in brand or minor specifications here and there, they essentially performed the same in our tests. They each come in around the $4,000 mark when similarly configured as well. It’s in design and features that these two really differ.
Aside from the Origin PC logo on the lid, the design is generic.
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Origin PC Eon17-X (2019)
| Price as reviewed | $4,072 |
|---|---|
| Display size/resolution | 17.3-inch, 144Hz 1,920×1,080 display |
| CPU | 3.6GHz Intel Core i9-9900K |
| Memory | 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 3,200MHz |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 8GB |
| Storage | 500GB NVMe PCIe SSD; 2TB hybrid HDD |
| Optical drive | None |
| Networking | 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Operating system | Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
Pretty on the inside
The massive 17.3-inch desktop replacement is based on a P775TM1-G gaming laptop from OEM/ODM PC manufacturer Clevo and doesn’t look any different than the past few versions of it. Origin takes it, puts in the components you want, tests the hell out of it to make sure it runs at peak performance and then backs it with personalized service and support that includes lifetime free labor and a year of part replacement. Origin will also paint it for you (for a price, naturally), so the outside is just as customized as the inside.
Regardless of what’s inside the laptop, the system itself is generic-looking and it will cost you a minimum of $150 if you want it in a color other than red, white or black. The plastic body has a very sturdy feel to it, but at 9.3 pounds (4.2 kg) for the configuration I tested, it’s unlikely you’ll be tossing it around like you would a thin-and-light. Plus, the body measures a sizable 16.4 by 1.6 by 11.6 inches (40.6 by 4.1 by 29.5 cm). After all, putting a desktop processor in a laptop body requires space not only for the components, but for keeping them cool.
The included software makes it easy to monitor the system performance.
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Helping keep temps in check are two large fans that seemingly never stop blowing when you do anything more demanding than opening a web browser. The fans are loud, too, so you’ll either have to pump up the volume or pop on a headset. The speakers sound remarkably good, but the integrated audio includes a two-in-one jack for headphones or S/PDIF optical output and there are also separate line-in and -out jacks.