Origin PC Eon17-X (2017) review: Configure this massive gaming laptop to your heart's content

The Eon17-X from Origin PC is an antidote to unsatisfying gaming laptops from mainstream manufacturers. 

8.2

Origin PC Eon17-X (2017)

The Good

The Origin PC Eon17-X is a highly customizable 17-inch gaming laptop backed by personalized service. It has a large port and connection assortment, an excellent 4K display, a good RGB backlit keyboard and a touchpad with a built-in fingerprint reader. Excellent service and support package.

The Bad

More like a portable desktop than a laptop, the generic-looking Eon17-X is large and heavy and expensive, starting at around $1,800. Its cooling fans are distractingly loud.

The Bottom Line

A giant gaming laptop fine-tuned for peak performance, the Origin PC Eon17-X can be as powerful as your wallet will allow.

The massive 17.3-inch desktop replacement is based on a P775DM3-G gaming laptop from OEM/ODM PC manufacturer Clevo. 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. 

As is the case with other boutique system builders, a PC like this comes at a premium. Origin starts the Eon17-X at $1,807 (about AU$2,400 or £1,420) with a dual-core 4.2GHz Core i3 7350K desktop processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card, 8GB of 2,400MHz memory, a 250GB Samsung 850 Evo Series SSD and a full HD G-Sync IPS display. Our review laptop is nearly twice the price, but has upgrades across the board, and if you go all out on components and services, you can blow right past $6,000. 

Regardless of what's inside the laptop, the system itself is generic-looking and it will cost you a minimum of $175 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 8.6 pounds (3.9 kg) 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. 

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.  

Actually, one of the nicest parts about the design is the number of connection options. Out of the back is the power jack along with two Mini DisplayPort 1.3  and one HDMI output. On the sides you find two USB 3.1 (gen 2) Type-C ports -- one with Thunderbolt 3 -- and four full-size USB 3.0 ports as well as Gigabit Ethernet and an SD card reader. Basically, it's enough to easily turn this into a desktop without resorting to any docks or adapters. 

For those times when you're not a desk, the 17.3-inch 3,840x2,160-pixel resolution IPS matte display with G-Sync is excellent with accurate colors and wide gamut. Some of the matte screens I've seen on gaming laptops can make colors look a little flat, but that's not the case here and although it doesn't get super bright, it doesn't really disappoint either. But, if you don't want to pay for the high resolution, Origin offers full HD- and 2.5K-resolution displays for less. 

Though it looks oddly cramped for a 17-inch laptop, the keyboard does give you a comfortable typing experience. There's plenty of key travel and there's nice feedback with each press. The WASD keys are outlined to help you find them faster and the RGB backlight can be set into three separate zones if you want to make them stand out even more. The included software lets you not only adjust the color and lighting patterns, but can also record macros for gameplay.

The Synaptics trackpad supports Windows 10 multitouch gestures and overall performs very well. You'll just have to be careful not to drag your palms too much. Also, there's a fingerprint reader integrated into the upper left corner that can be used with Windows Hello for instant logins.  

You get back what you put in

The components you choose to have Origin use are going to dictate much of its performance. If you pay for a GTX 1080 card, a Core i7 desktop processor and dual, high-end PCIe NVMe M.2 drives in a RAID 0 configuration, you're going to get some pretty great performance, as was the case with my review laptop. Put in more or less and, well, you get the point. 

The Eon17-X sailed through our benchmarks and real-world gaming alike. Outside of the fan noise, playing games including Metro: Last Light, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt posed no problem at the system's native 4K resolution. Gameplay was good when set to ultra, too, though backing down to high was understandably smoother. 

Battery life is brief and, unlike the company's smaller Eon15-S, the battery isn't removable. At 2 hours and 36 minutes on our streaming video test, you're not going to get much gaming in before it shuts down. 

Origin PC Eon17-x 2017

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More a portable desktop than a laptop

The Origin PC Eon17-X can be as powerful as your wallet will allow. It has a bounty of ports and connections, is available with an excellent 4K-resolution display and you can load it with a high-performance desktop processor, top-end mobile graphics, up to 64GB of memory and up to four storage drives: Easily enough to replace a desktop. That said, it's big and heavy like a small gaming desktop, battery life is short and keeping it cool means you'll hear the constant whir of its fans.