Origin PC EON17-SLX Gaming Laptop Review

[Guest]

Another high-end gaming laptop hits our lab. This might be the most powerful laptop we've tested, but it has a price to match.

Origin PC EON17-SLX Gaming Laptop Review : Read more

 

[g-unit1111]

What's up with laptop manufacturers including A/C adapters that are the size of a small textbook? Does it really take a huge A/C adapter to power laptops these days?

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Heck, at $3600 for the MSI, you could take the difference and build a VERY good full blown desktop class gaming machine.

 

[the nerd 389]

Just curious:

Have you guys ever considered testing using an external display so you can do a frame-time/F-CAT analysis?

I get the feeling that the cooling solution in this laptop is coming up short, and that would show up in your frame time variance tests.

 

[dark_lord69]

"cooling solution"
"show up in your frame time variance tests."

LOL

 

[TMTOWTSAC]

To be fair, trying to effectively cool a pair of 1080's along with a 7700k plus a 4k screen all shoehorned into an 18 inch laptop would probably require the bottom of the laptop to consist entirely of fans at rpms so high the laptop hovers in midair.

Actually...that would be a completely awesome no-lap-needed computer/drone.

 

[TJ Hooker]

"cooling solution"
"show up in your frame time variance tests."

LOL

Why "LOL"? If the cooling solution is insufficient, the components could throttle (intermittently), resulting in stuttering, which would show up in frame time measurements.

 

[FritzEiv]

"cooling solution"
"show up in your frame time variance tests."

LOL

Why "LOL"? If the cooling solution is insufficient, the components could throttle (intermittently), resulting in stuttering, which would show up in frame time measurements.

In many of our laptop reviews now, especially when we started seeing odd behavior with Max-Q laptops, we started looking at temperatures during gaming benchmark runs. When we see results that don't seem quite right (say two laptops share a configuration -- GPU, CPU, DRAM), we're going back and re-running the tests; and in fact, we're starting to collect more of this information just so that we have it, since we do have to send these samples back.

Further, we have discussed showing more frame time data, just like we do in our gaming tests on CPUs and Graphics Cards. We're in the middle of re-tooling some of our scripts, but once we have that pretty much automated, we may start doing that in our laptop reviews.

Finally, we're also trying to up our game, so to speak, in all areas here. We've done some display calibration, we've had Chris Ramseyer devise some better storage tests, and Igor has worked with us on dialing in the thermal imaging. We'll keep pushing all of it, so thanks for the suggestion(s).

 

[Kunra Zether]

I like the overall design it's nice and clean cut , I really love the led accents on the back of the screen. I feel like at this price point they should have a mechanical keyboard minus the number pad section. There should definitely be a better quality touch pad, and plastic really?? How about aluminum or even steel I mean at over $4K they give you plastic and on top of it I think you could design a better bezel around that screen too. Unfortunately aswell it sounds like that display is lacking aswell.

Just build a nice home PC for about 2 to 3K and get a 1060 gaming laptop for on the go much better deal.

 

[lazymangaka]

I can't help but think if you need 2 AC adapters, you've gone too far in stuffing the laptop full of hardware.

Also, why do you need 2 AC adapters, but they're still able to combine down to a single port? That seems like a lot of power to pack into one little port.

 

[ledhead11]

My family asked and help pitch in years ago for an MSI GT80 TITAN 980M SLI rig for graduation. Mostly happy other than feeling burned when MSI abandoned various levels of support for it.

That being said, it was one of the final of these types of SLI monsters to feature the single brick.

@Just curious:

"Have you guys ever considered testing using an external display so you can do a frame-time/F-CAT analysis?

I get the feeling that the cooling solution in this laptop is coming up short, and that would show up in your frame time variance tests."

For awhile I had it hooked up to a couple of different displays(a 1080p/120hz/3d and 1440p/144hz/3d). I can at least tell you that yes, if the external display offers greater potential the rig will do its best and eventually throttling happens. I never did f-cat with mine but did do plenty of gaming. Ultimately I just use it's built-in display now and as a portable high end desktop between work and home.

Now years later having built/upgraded my desktops to 1 1080TI and the other 1080 SLI I really feel they should just abandon any SLI and just stick with a 1080TI/1440p-144hz Gsync. I know they don't exist yet but honestly that would be the best path IMO. Less power, less heat, maybe back to single brick, smaller chasis/case(maybe) and a screen that would impress most hardcore gamers.

 

[the nerd 389]

My family asked and help pitch in years ago for an MSI GT80 TITAN 980M SLI rig for graduation. Mostly happy other than feeling burned when MSI abandoned various levels of support for it.

That being said, it was one of the final of these types of SLI monsters to feature the single brick.

@Just curious:

"Have you guys ever considered testing using an external display so you can do a frame-time/F-CAT analysis?

I get the feeling that the cooling solution in this laptop is coming up short, and that would show up in your frame time variance tests."

For awhile I had it hooked up to a couple of different displays(a 1080p/120hz/3d and 1440p/144hz/3d). I can at least tell you that yes, if the external display offers greater potential the rig will do its best and eventually throttling happens. I never did f-cat with mine but did do plenty of gaming. Ultimately I just use it's built-in display now and as a portable high end desktop between work and home.

Now years later having built/upgraded my desktops to 1 1080TI and the other 1080 SLI I really feel they should just abandon any SLI and just stick with a 1080TI. I know they don't exist yet but honestly that would be the best path IMO.

I know that any SLI build will struggle with frame time variance. I wasn't asking if it stutters. That's virtually guaranteed. I was asking the reviewer to measure it on this specific laptop, as their cooling design strikes me as woefully inadequate for this hardware, even by laptop standards. If someone is looking to buy something like this, the frame time variance would be among the most meaningful performance metrics to base a purchasing decision on.

Again, all laptops like this will throttle. A well informed purchase (performance-wise) would be based on which laptop throttled the least. Thus, I requested that the reviewers measure it and add that to the article.

 

[jongri]

Guess the $5999 ASUS ROG GX800VH-XS79K isn't included in the
comparisons b/c w/ it's water cooling, it simply blows away all
competition. Why hasn't Toms reviewed the fastest notebook
yet being the ASUS ROG GX800VH - XS79K?

 

[RazberyBandit]

As best as I was able to configure it, an identical computer is roughly $500 cheaper from Sager.

 

[bigdragon]

I'd be curious to see what happens when builders of these dual-GPU laptops drop the integrated battery or shrink it further. Such demanding machines will likely always be close to AC power and rarely used off of it. Dropping the battery requirement may help with cooling, weight, and modifications.

 

[jongri]

I realize that at $5999 the stock ASUS ROG GX800VH - XS79K cost
$1000 more than this $4994 Origin PC EON 17-SLX but at least
ASUS gives you a better 4K UHD Display, nice mechanical keyboard
and its' overall build quality is much higher end along w/ having the
additional water cooler for better, faster over clocked gaming performance.
I'd rather spend the additional $1000 for the better ASUS ROG GX800VH - XS79K notebook if I were to spend $5000 for this cheaper quality, plastic Origin PC EON17-SLX notebook. Not impressed w/ this Origin PC EON17-SLX at this price point.

 

[jongri]

My family asked and help pitch in years ago for an MSI GT80 TITAN 980M SLI rig for graduation. Mostly happy other than feeling burned when MSI abandoned various levels of support for it.

That being said, it was one of the final of these types of SLI monsters to feature the single brick.

@Just curious:

"Have you guys ever considered testing using an external display so you can do a frame-time/F-CAT analysis?

I get the feeling that the cooling solution in this laptop is coming up short, and that would show up in your frame time variance tests."

For awhile I had it hooked up to a couple of different displays(a 1080p/120hz/3d and 1440p/144hz/3d). I can at least tell you that yes, if the external display offers greater potential the rig will do its best and eventually throttling happens. I never did f-cat with mine but did do plenty of gaming. Ultimately I just use it's built-in display now and as a portable high end desktop between work and home.

Now years later having built/upgraded my desktops to 1 1080TI and the other 1080 SLI I really feel they should just abandon any SLI and just stick with a 1080TI/1440p-144hz Gsync. I know they don't exist yet but honestly that would be the best path IMO. Less power, less heat, maybe back to single brick, smaller chasis/case(maybe) and a screen that would impress most hardcore gamers.

I agree 100% sorry about the down vote I meant to hit the up vote for your post & it won't let me change it on this site.

 

[ledhead11]

@jongri, No problem. I've done that too before.