Origin PC Eon17-X Review

Laptop Mag Verdict

The Origin PC Eon17-X delivers great performance for all your gaming, virtual reality and multitasking needs, and offers a deep well of customization options..

Pros

  • +

    Excellent graphics and overall performance

  • +

    Fast transfer speeds

  • +

    Big, booming audio

  • +

    Extensive customization options

Cons

  • -

    Expensive

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Editor's Note: We've changed the rating on the Origin PC Eon17-X after a recent software update that affected the display brightness. Please see the Display Section for more details. 

Origin PC. When you need a gaming laptop with truly outlandish performance and a wealth of customization options, accept no substitutes. The company has revamped its Eon17-X to accommodate a ridiculously powerful Intel 8th-Gen desktop processor, which plays surprisingly well with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, PCIe SSD and G-Sync display inhabiting the massive chassis. As if that weren't enough, the laptop's CPU and GPU come overclocked out the box. But all that power and customization doesn't come cheap. The $3,712 price tag will stop most gamers in their tracks, but for deep-pocketed consumers, the Eon17-X might be right up their alley.

Design

The Eon17-X is like someone wearing a red outfit at a black-and-white ball: the center of attention. Origin flips the tired black-and-red gamer motif on its head with a dusky-red lid, instead of the funky accent, as the star of the show. That role is filled by the black Origin logo and the slate-gray, brushed-aluminum plate at the bottom of the lid.

Maybe one day, Origin will give consumers the options to trick out the keyboard deck. But for now, I had to resign myself to the Eon17-X's black plastic interior, which isn't nearly as exciting as its crimson exterior. The large speaker grilles sit between the laptop hinges while framing the power button and a series of status lights embedded in some of that sleek, gray aluminum. The keyboard resides in a slightly recessed dock above the touchpad. Instead of resting between the two discrete mouse buttons, the fingerprint reader is located in the top-right corner of the touchpad.

The Eon17-X is loaded up with ports as befitting a desktop replacement. On the right, you'll see two USB 3.0 ports, a secure lock slot and jacks for audio out, headphones, microphone and S/PDIF. Another pair of USB 3.0 ports sits on the left, along with a USB Type-C port, a Thunderbolt 3 port, a 3-in-1 card reader and Gigabit Ethernet. At the rear are two mini DisplayPorts and an HDMI 2.0 port.

Weighing 8.6 pounds, the 16.4 x 11.6 x 1.6-inch Eon17-X is on the lighter end of the desktop-replacement spectrum but not by much. It's slightly heavier than the Asus ROG G701V1 (7.9 pounds, 16.9 x 12.2 x 1.3 inches) but noticeably lighter than the Alienware 17 (9.6 pounds, 16.7 x 13.1 x 1.2 inches), Acer Predator 17 X (9.8 pounds, 16.7 x 12.8 x 1.8 inches) and MSI GT75VR Titan Pro (10.1 pounds, 16.9 x 12.4 x 1.2~2.2 inches).

Display

I enjoyed sumptuous colors on the Eon17-X's 2560 x 1440 matte display, such as the lovely contrast between actress Lupita Nyong'o's olive-green-and-gold dress and her warm brown skin in the Black Panther trailer. Her subtly dyed red hair rose from her head like a smoldering fire. The 17.3-inch panel also did a great job in darker settings, allowing me to clearly see Chadwick Boseman's movements in the titular Black Panther suit during a night ambush.

The Eon17 is equipped with Nvidia's G-Sync technology, which syncs up the GPU to the display for even smoother rendering, making The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt look amazing. After a hard night of battle, Geralt rode into town on his trusty steed Roach, ashen-white locks cascading over his shoulders like a slow-moving avalanche. The sky above was transitioning from dawn to daytime proper with the gorgeous rose pinks and tangerine sky giving over to an aquamarine one while a gentle wind rustled through a nearby wheat field.

The Eon17-X is like a woman wearing a red dress at a black-and-white ball: the center of attention.

The Eon17-X's display can reproduce 104 percent of the sRGB gamut, which is really good, though it missed the 128-percent average. However, all of the competition delivered much higher scores. For instance, the Acer Predator 17X produced an impressive 182 percent, while both the Asus ROG G701V1 and the Alienware 17 R4 notched 113 percent.

Averaging 325 nits, the Eon17-X's screen is plenty bright. That score is well above the 287-nit desktop-replacement average as well as the Predator 17X (318 nits), G701V1 (277 nits) and Titan Pro (276 nits). However, the Alienware 17 was a tad brighter with an illuminating 340 nits.

MORE: Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000

Audio

Big laptop, bigger sound. Thanks to its top-mounted speakers, the Sound Blaster Connect 2 software and the large, arrow-shaped subwoofer on the undercarriage, the Eon17-X had no problems filling my bedroom with big, boisterous sound. And while loud is a great thing, you can't overlook clarity and warmth -- two things that the Eon17-X also produced. As I fought with an ancient Leshen, being able to hear its wood-like limbs flex and crash as it tried to crush me to death really enhanced the battle. Mixed with the fevered pitch of the violin with the clash of the tambourine of the background music, it was a thrilling aural experience.

After taking a break from fighting supernatural foes, I listened to Bruno Mars' "Finesse" featuring Cardi. B on Spotify and had a quick dance-off with my boyfriend. Despite trying to bust out my best moves, I could still hear the full bass line, crisp snares and funky keyboard, all of which served to bolster the artist's rich vocals.

Similar to other audio software, Sound Blaster Connect 2 lets you choose from several presets (Music, Game and Movie) to get optimal sound. Along with an equalizer and acoustic engine where you can tweak settings like Surround and Bass, the software features a Scout Mode that adds emphasis to footsteps so enemies can't get the drop on you out in the field.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Fingerprint Scanner

Though the Eon17's keyboard scored highly on our test (2 millimeters of key travel and 79 grams of required actuation force), some keys felt mushy (the A and G keys, for example), while others reflected our findings. The non-squishy keys had deep travel with firm snapback that helped me reach 70 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is above my 65-wpm average. Some of my colleagues said that the key caps felt a bit cheap, but as long as I got snappy response, I didn't have any problems.

Origin continues to cling to the outdated GameFeet app to handle the customization of the keyboard backlighting. With its three zones and lack of individual key lighting, GameFeet falls short of MSI's SteelSeries Engine, Alienware's AlienFX and Razer's Synapse software. However, it's fairly easy to create a snazzy-looking setup and create some macros.

The 4.2 x 2.4-inch Windows Precision Touchpad is very roomy, even with the fingerprint reader embedded in the top-right corner. Gestures such as pinching to zoom, summoning Cortana and switching between apps were a breeze.

I appreciate that Origin PC continues to offer the fingerprint reader. It's a nifty way to use Windows Hello if you're camera shy. I also like having the option to put all my precious game saves under biometric lock and key. Registering my fingerprints took only about 3 minutes; to do so, you swipe your finger over the scanner several times.

MORE: Best Gaming Laptops 2018

Gaming, Graphics and VR

That ripping sound you hear when you start playing one of your AAA titles on the Eon17-X is the system's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8GB of VRAM tearing through the rendering like a dervish while delivering some ridiculous frame rates.

I cranked the settings to Ultra for my Witcher 3 play-through and let my blade fly against a nasty Noonwraith. After trapping her with my Yrden spell, I struck a few blows with my silver sword and quickly dodged her gnarled hands as she attempted to attack. When I landed the penultimate blow, she screamed and disintegrated into a pile of dust averaging 63 frames per second at 2560 x 1440. The frame rate increased to 75 fps when I lowered the settings to High.

The laptop got 69 fps on the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark (1920 x 1080, Very High), easily topping the 51-fps desktop-replacement average. Equipped with their own 1080 GPUs, the Alienware 17, Titan Pro and Acer Predator 17X scored 50, 64 and 66 fps, respectively, while the Asus ROG G701V1 notched 71 fps.

That ripping sound you hear when you start playing one of your AAA titles on the Eon17-X is the system's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8GB of VRAM tearing through the rendering like a dervish while delivering some ridiculous frame rates.

On the Hitman test, the Eon17-X obtained a scorching 96 fps, which was more than enough to crush the 80-fps average. The Alienware 17 was a close second, at 89 fps, with the Titan Pro right behind with 83 fps. The Predator 17X delivered a respectable 60 fps.

When we ran the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark, the Eon17-X achieved 85 fps, which was on a par with the Predator 17X (83 fps) and the Alienware 17 (87 fps). The Titan Pro was a little behind, at 78 fps, but still managed to top the 63-fps average. The G701V1 reigned supreme at 90 fps.

The Eon17-X is also quite the performer on virtual reality. I had a blast exploring the mental hospital in Wilson's Heart in all it's kitschy, black-and-white glory on my Oculus Rift. I'm not going to lie: I screamed a little when that demonic teddy bear jumped out of the painting, but I can assure you, I pummeled it pretty hard. Not surprisingly, the Eon17-X maxed out the SteamVR Performance test with 11, beating the 9.4 average and matching the competition.

Overall Performance

Yeah, Origin PC could have put a high-end mobile processor in the Eon17-X, but where's the fun in that? Instead, the company equipped the laptop with a 3.7-GHz Intel Core i7-8700K CPU with 16GB of RAM. That's right: They crammed an 8th-Gen desktop chip into a laptop. I ran Witcher 3 in a separate window while running an episode of Planet Earth II on Netflix with 30 tabs open in Google Chrome. There wasn't so much as a stutter from the Eon17-X.

The Eon17-X absolutely crushed Geekbench 4, our synthetic performance test, with a score of 21,273, coasting past the 13,015 desktop-replacement average. The Asus ROG G701V1 (Core i7-7820HK CPU) posted 17,404, making it a distant second. The Acer Predator 17X and Alienware 17 and their Core i7-7820HK CPUs scored 14,795 and 14,154, respectively. The Titan Pro (Core i7-700HQ CPU) brought up the rear with 12,492.

Yeah, Origin PC could have put a high-end mobile processor in the Eon17-X, but where's the fun in that?

On the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro test, the Eon17-X took 2 minutes and 43 seconds to pair 20,000 names to their addresses, beating the 3:25 average but not the Alienware 17's time of 1:47. The G701V1 posted the next best time, with 2:59, while the Predator 17X had the worst, at 3:41.

When we tested the file-transfer speeds, the Eon17-X's 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD (and 2TB, 5,400-rpm hard drive) duplicated 4.97GB of multimedia files in 9 seconds, for a great transfer rate of 565.5 megabytes per second. That's better than the 437.4-MBps average and the Titan Pro's (256GB PCIe SSD) 391.5 MBps. They were no match, however, for the G701V1 (dual 512GB m.2 PCIe SSDs) and the Predator 17X (dual 256GB SSDs), which were in a near dead heat at 1,272.4 and 1,272.3 MBps, respectively.

MORE: Gaming Laptop Buying Guide: Find the Right Rig

Battery Life

Because it packs so much power, I wasn't too surprised or disappointed to learn that the Eon17-X lasted only 1 hour and 41 minutes on our battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi), which is well below the 4:35 desktop-replacement average. The Predator 17X lasted slightly longer, at 1:58. The Titan Pro and Alienware 17 clocked in with 2:24 and 2:46, respectively, while the G701V1 was the last laptop standing with a time of 3:27.

Heat

Under normal multitasking and multimedia conditions, the Eon17-X is pretty cool. When we measured the touchpad, center and bottom, the system delivered temperatures of 79, 92 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, all of which are under our 95-degree comfort threshold.

Webcam

The integrated 1080p webcam does a great job of accurately capturing color, but the details are lacking. In the test shot in our old office, the shooter showed off the splash of violet in my hair as well as the splotches of mustard and brown in my shirt. However, you can see plenty of visual noise throughout the photo, which obfuscated any real details, like the rhinestones in my glasses.

Software and Warranty

Thankfully, Origin PC didn't bog down the Eon17-X with any unnecessary bloatware. Instead, there's useful software such as Nvidia GeForce Experience, which has several game-centric apps, including Game Optimization and ShadowPlay for livestreaming. You also get Killer Networking, so you can prioritize network bandwidth. Finally, there's DataColor's Spyder4Elite software, which lets you calibrate the color on the display.

Origin PC ships the Eon17-X with lifetime 24/7 support, lifetime free labor, one-year part replacement and a 45-day shipping warranty. See how Origin PC fared on our Best and Worst Gaming Laptop Brands report.

Configurations

If you want the bells, whistles and everything between, then Origin PC is the company for you. I got to explore a haunted mental hospital in VR and battled mythical beasts on the $3,712 configuration of the Eon17-X, which has a 3.7-GHz Intel Core i7-8700K CPU with 16GB of RAM; a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD with a 2TB, 5,400-rpm hard drive; an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8GB of VRAM; and a 2560 x 1440 display. Both the CPU and the GPU are factory overclocked.

The $1,878 starting configuration has a 3.6-GHz Intel Core i3-8100 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 250GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM and a 1920 x 1080 panel. And as always, Origin PC offers a plethora of customization options, including custom paint jobs, multiple SSDs and HDDs, and different display resolutions, to name just a few.

Bottom Line

Origin PC never ceases to amaze with how much awesome it can jerry-rig into a laptop chassis. For $3,712, you can get the factory overclocked Eon17-X, which offers impressive performance on both the graphics and multitasking fronts. The audio system is loud and immersive and only serves to enhance an already great presentation.

If you want a slightly better display with comparable performance and a price that's much easier to swallow, the $2,799 Alienware 17 is definitely worth considering. But if you're searching for an extravagant take on the kitchen sink motif, the Origin PC Eon17-X is a top choice.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Laptop Mag

Editor's Note: We've changed the rating on the Origin PC Eon17-X after a recent software update that affected the display brightness. Please see the Display Section for more details. 

Origin PC. When you need a gaming laptop with truly outlandish performance and a wealth of customization options, accept no substitutes. The company has revamped its Eon17-X to accommodate a ridiculously powerful Intel 8th-Gen desktop processor, which plays surprisingly well with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, PCIe SSD and G-Sync display inhabiting the massive chassis. As if that weren't enough, the laptop's CPU and GPU come overclocked out the box. But all that power and customization doesn't come cheap. The $3,712 price tag will stop most gamers in their tracks, but for deep-pocketed consumers, the Eon17-X might be right up their alley.

Design

The Eon17-X is like someone wearing a red outfit at a black-and-white ball: the center of attention. Origin flips the tired black-and-red gamer motif on its head with a dusky-red lid, instead of the funky accent, as the star of the show. That role is filled by the black Origin logo and the slate-gray, brushed-aluminum plate at the bottom of the lid.

Maybe one day, Origin will give consumers the options to trick out the keyboard deck. But for now, I had to resign myself to the Eon17-X's black plastic interior, which isn't nearly as exciting as its crimson exterior. The large speaker grilles sit between the laptop hinges while framing the power button and a series of status lights embedded in some of that sleek, gray aluminum. The keyboard resides in a slightly recessed dock above the touchpad. Instead of resting between the two discrete mouse buttons, the fingerprint reader is located in the top-right corner of the touchpad.

The Eon17-X is loaded up with ports as befitting a desktop replacement. On the right, you'll see two USB 3.0 ports, a secure lock slot and jacks for audio out, headphones, microphone and S/PDIF. Another pair of USB 3.0 ports sits on the left, along with a USB Type-C port, a Thunderbolt 3 port, a 3-in-1 card reader and Gigabit Ethernet. At the rear are two mini DisplayPorts and an HDMI 2.0 port.

Weighing 8.6 pounds, the 16.4 x 11.6 x 1.6-inch Eon17-X is on the lighter end of the desktop-replacement spectrum but not by much. It's slightly heavier than the Asus ROG G701V1 (7.9 pounds, 16.9 x 12.2 x 1.3 inches) but noticeably lighter than the Alienware 17 (9.6 pounds, 16.7 x 13.1 x 1.2 inches), Acer Predator 17 X (9.8 pounds, 16.7 x 12.8 x 1.8 inches) and MSI GT75VR Titan Pro (10.1 pounds, 16.9 x 12.4 x 1.2~2.2 inches).

Display

I enjoyed sumptuous colors on the Eon17-X's 2560 x 1440 matte display, such as the lovely contrast between actress Lupita Nyong'o's olive-green-and-gold dress and her warm brown skin in the Black Panther trailer. Her subtly dyed red hair rose from her head like a smoldering fire. The 17.3-inch panel also did a great job in darker settings, allowing me to clearly see Chadwick Boseman's movements in the titular Black Panther suit during a night ambush.

The Eon17 is equipped with Nvidia's G-Sync technology, which syncs up the GPU to the display for even smoother rendering, making The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt look amazing. After a hard night of battle, Geralt rode into town on his trusty steed Roach, ashen-white locks cascading over his shoulders like a slow-moving avalanche. The sky above was transitioning from dawn to daytime proper with the gorgeous rose pinks and tangerine sky giving over to an aquamarine one while a gentle wind rustled through a nearby wheat field.

The Eon17-X is like a woman wearing a red dress at a black-and-white ball: the center of attention.

The Eon17-X's display can reproduce 104 percent of the sRGB gamut, which is really good, though it missed the 128-percent average. However, all of the competition delivered much higher scores. For instance, the Acer Predator 17X produced an impressive 182 percent, while both the Asus ROG G701V1 and the Alienware 17 R4 notched 113 percent.

Averaging 325 nits, the Eon17-X's screen is plenty bright. That score is well above the 287-nit desktop-replacement average as well as the Predator 17X (318 nits), G701V1 (277 nits) and Titan Pro (276 nits). However, the Alienware 17 was a tad brighter with an illuminating 340 nits.

MORE: Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000

Audio

Big laptop, bigger sound. Thanks to its top-mounted speakers, the Sound Blaster Connect 2 software and the large, arrow-shaped subwoofer on the undercarriage, the Eon17-X had no problems filling my bedroom with big, boisterous sound. And while loud is a great thing, you can't overlook clarity and warmth -- two things that the Eon17-X also produced. As I fought with an ancient Leshen, being able to hear its wood-like limbs flex and crash as it tried to crush me to death really enhanced the battle. Mixed with the fevered pitch of the violin with the clash of the tambourine of the background music, it was a thrilling aural experience.

After taking a break from fighting supernatural foes, I listened to Bruno Mars' "Finesse" featuring Cardi. B on Spotify and had a quick dance-off with my boyfriend. Despite trying to bust out my best moves, I could still hear the full bass line, crisp snares and funky keyboard, all of which served to bolster the artist's rich vocals.

Similar to other audio software, Sound Blaster Connect 2 lets you choose from several presets (Music, Game and Movie) to get optimal sound. Along with an equalizer and acoustic engine where you can tweak settings like Surround and Bass, the software features a Scout Mode that adds emphasis to footsteps so enemies can't get the drop on you out in the field.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Fingerprint Scanner

Though the Eon17's keyboard scored highly on our test (2 millimeters of key travel and 79 grams of required actuation force), some keys felt mushy (the A and G keys, for example), while others reflected our findings. The non-squishy keys had deep travel with firm snapback that helped me reach 70 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is above my 65-wpm average. Some of my colleagues said that the key caps felt a bit cheap, but as long as I got snappy response, I didn't have any problems.

Origin continues to cling to the outdated GameFeet app to handle the customization of the keyboard backlighting. With its three zones and lack of individual key lighting, GameFeet falls short of MSI's SteelSeries Engine, Alienware's AlienFX and Razer's Synapse software. However, it's fairly easy to create a snazzy-looking setup and create some macros.

The 4.2 x 2.4-inch Windows Precision Touchpad is very roomy, even with the fingerprint reader embedded in the top-right corner. Gestures such as pinching to zoom, summoning Cortana and switching between apps were a breeze.

I appreciate that Origin PC continues to offer the fingerprint reader. It's a nifty way to use Windows Hello if you're camera shy. I also like having the option to put all my precious game saves under biometric lock and key. Registering my fingerprints took only about 3 minutes; to do so, you swipe your finger over the scanner several times.

MORE: Best Gaming Laptops 2018

Gaming, Graphics and VR

That ripping sound you hear when you start playing one of your AAA titles on the Eon17-X is the system's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8GB of VRAM tearing through the rendering like a dervish while delivering some ridiculous frame rates.

I cranked the settings to Ultra for my Witcher 3 play-through and let my blade fly against a nasty Noonwraith. After trapping her with my Yrden spell, I struck a few blows with my silver sword and quickly dodged her gnarled hands as she attempted to attack. When I landed the penultimate blow, she screamed and disintegrated into a pile of dust averaging 63 frames per second at 2560 x 1440. The frame rate increased to 75 fps when I lowered the settings to High.

The laptop got 69 fps on the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark (1920 x 1080, Very High), easily topping the 51-fps desktop-replacement average. Equipped with their own 1080 GPUs, the Alienware 17, Titan Pro and Acer Predator 17X scored 50, 64 and 66 fps, respectively, while the Asus ROG G701V1 notched 71 fps.

That ripping sound you hear when you start playing one of your AAA titles on the Eon17-X is the system's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8GB of VRAM tearing through the rendering like a dervish while delivering some ridiculous frame rates.

On the Hitman test, the Eon17-X obtained a scorching 96 fps, which was more than enough to crush the 80-fps average. The Alienware 17 was a close second, at 89 fps, with the Titan Pro right behind with 83 fps. The Predator 17X delivered a respectable 60 fps.

When we ran the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark, the Eon17-X achieved 85 fps, which was on a par with the Predator 17X (83 fps) and the Alienware 17 (87 fps). The Titan Pro was a little behind, at 78 fps, but still managed to top the 63-fps average. The G701V1 reigned supreme at 90 fps.

The Eon17-X is also quite the performer on virtual reality. I had a blast exploring the mental hospital in Wilson's Heart in all it's kitschy, black-and-white glory on my Oculus Rift. I'm not going to lie: I screamed a little when that demonic teddy bear jumped out of the painting, but I can assure you, I pummeled it pretty hard. Not surprisingly, the Eon17-X maxed out the SteamVR Performance test with 11, beating the 9.4 average and matching the competition.

Overall Performance

Yeah, Origin PC could have put a high-end mobile processor in the Eon17-X, but where's the fun in that? Instead, the company equipped the laptop with a 3.7-GHz Intel Core i7-8700K CPU with 16GB of RAM. That's right: They crammed an 8th-Gen desktop chip into a laptop. I ran Witcher 3 in a separate window while running an episode of Planet Earth II on Netflix with 30 tabs open in Google Chrome. There wasn't so much as a stutter from the Eon17-X.

The Eon17-X absolutely crushed Geekbench 4, our synthetic performance test, with a score of 21,273, coasting past the 13,015 desktop-replacement average. The Asus ROG G701V1 (Core i7-7820HK CPU) posted 17,404, making it a distant second. The Acer Predator 17X and Alienware 17 and their Core i7-7820HK CPUs scored 14,795 and 14,154, respectively. The Titan Pro (Core i7-700HQ CPU) brought up the rear with 12,492.

Yeah, Origin PC could have put a high-end mobile processor in the Eon17-X, but where's the fun in that?

On the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro test, the Eon17-X took 2 minutes and 43 seconds to pair 20,000 names to their addresses, beating the 3:25 average but not the Alienware 17's time of 1:47. The G701V1 posted the next best time, with 2:59, while the Predator 17X had the worst, at 3:41.

When we tested the file-transfer speeds, the Eon17-X's 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD (and 2TB, 5,400-rpm hard drive) duplicated 4.97GB of multimedia files in 9 seconds, for a great transfer rate of 565.5 megabytes per second. That's better than the 437.4-MBps average and the Titan Pro's (256GB PCIe SSD) 391.5 MBps. They were no match, however, for the G701V1 (dual 512GB m.2 PCIe SSDs) and the Predator 17X (dual 256GB SSDs), which were in a near dead heat at 1,272.4 and 1,272.3 MBps, respectively.

MORE: Gaming Laptop Buying Guide: Find the Right Rig

Battery Life

Because it packs so much power, I wasn't too surprised or disappointed to learn that the Eon17-X lasted only 1 hour and 41 minutes on our battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi), which is well below the 4:35 desktop-replacement average. The Predator 17X lasted slightly longer, at 1:58. The Titan Pro and Alienware 17 clocked in with 2:24 and 2:46, respectively, while the G701V1 was the last laptop standing with a time of 3:27.

Heat

Under normal multitasking and multimedia conditions, the Eon17-X is pretty cool. When we measured the touchpad, center and bottom, the system delivered temperatures of 79, 92 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, all of which are under our 95-degree comfort threshold.

Webcam

The integrated 1080p webcam does a great job of accurately capturing color, but the details are lacking. In the test shot in our old office, the shooter showed off the splash of violet in my hair as well as the splotches of mustard and brown in my shirt. However, you can see plenty of visual noise throughout the photo, which obfuscated any real details, like the rhinestones in my glasses.

Software and Warranty

Thankfully, Origin PC didn't bog down the Eon17-X with any unnecessary bloatware. Instead, there's useful software such as Nvidia GeForce Experience, which has several game-centric apps, including Game Optimization and ShadowPlay for livestreaming. You also get Killer Networking, so you can prioritize network bandwidth. Finally, there's DataColor's Spyder4Elite software, which lets you calibrate the color on the display.

Origin PC ships the Eon17-X with lifetime 24/7 support, lifetime free labor, one-year part replacement and a 45-day shipping warranty. See how Origin PC fared on our Best and Worst Gaming Laptop Brands report.

Configurations

If you want the bells, whistles and everything between, then Origin PC is the company for you. I got to explore a haunted mental hospital in VR and battled mythical beasts on the $3,712 configuration of the Eon17-X, which has a 3.7-GHz Intel Core i7-8700K CPU with 16GB of RAM; a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD with a 2TB, 5,400-rpm hard drive; an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8GB of VRAM; and a 2560 x 1440 display. Both the CPU and the GPU are factory overclocked.

The $1,878 starting configuration has a 3.6-GHz Intel Core i3-8100 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 250GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM and a 1920 x 1080 panel. And as always, Origin PC offers a plethora of customization options, including custom paint jobs, multiple SSDs and HDDs, and different display resolutions, to name just a few.

Bottom Line

Origin PC never ceases to amaze with how much awesome it can jerry-rig into a laptop chassis. For $3,712, you can get the factory overclocked Eon17-X, which offers impressive performance on both the graphics and multitasking fronts. The audio system is loud and immersive and only serves to enhance an already great presentation.

If you want a slightly better display with comparable performance and a price that's much easier to swallow, the $2,799 Alienware 17 is definitely worth considering. But if you're searching for an extravagant take on the kitchen sink motif, the Origin PC Eon17-X is a top choice.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Laptop Mag

OriginPC Eon 17-X (2018) Specs

BluetoothBluetooth 4.2
BrandOrigin
CPU3.7-GHz Intel Core i7-8700K processor
Company Websitewww.originpc.com
Display Size17.3
Graphics CardNvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU
Hard Drive Size2TB
Hard Drive Speed5,400rpm
Hard Drive TypeHDD
Highest Available Resolution3840 x 2160
Native Resolution2560 x 1440
Operating SystemWindows 10 Home
Optical DriveNone
Optical Drive Speedn/a
Ports (excluding USB)Microphone, security lock slot, Headphone, USB Type-C, HDMI 2.0, USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, Thunderbolt 3, Audio-out, S/PDIF, Mini DisplayPort
RAM16GB
RAM Upgradable to64GB
Secondary Hard Drive Size512GB
Secondary Hard Drive TypeNVMe PCIe SSD
Size16.4 x 11.6 x 1.6 inches
Touchpad Size4.2 x 2.4 inches
USB Ports6
Video Memory8GB
Warranty/SupportLifetime 24/7 U.S. Based Support and Lifetime Free Labor. 1 Year Part Replacement & 45 Day Shipping Warranty with 45 Day No Dead Pixel Guarantee Free
Weight8.6 pounds
Wi-Fi802.11ac
Wi-Fi ModelKiller Wireless AC 1535 Dual Band
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Sherri L. Smith
Editor in Chief

Sherri L. Smith has been cranking out product reviews for Laptopmag.com since 2011. In that time, she's reviewed more than her share of laptops, tablets, smartphones and everything in between. The resident gamer and audio junkie, Sherri was previously a managing editor for Black Web 2.0 and contributed to BET.Com and Popgadget.