ORIGIN EON 17-S Pro Reviews

Origin’s Eon 17-S reminds us of Brienne of Tarth, the star-crossed female knight from Game of Thrones: It’s massively powerful, but very plain to behold. If that bothers you, spring for one of Origin’s optional finishes (which range from $99 to $249), or go whole-hog with a completely custom paint job ($149 and up). But when you’ve already spent $3,597 for a notebook PC, it’s hard to think about spending even more for mere appearances. If we were to throw any more money into this configuration, it would go towards upgrading its audio capabilities (Origin offers several Creative USB audio solutions) and a better wireless network adapter (Intel’s Ultimate-N 6033 dual-band module costs an extra $48, or you can add the Killer Wireless-N 1103 NIC for $44). Or you could go the other direction and build your own Eon 17-S with lower-performance components: Prices start at $1,592 for a machine equipped with an Intel Core i5-2520 dual-core proc, 4GB of DDR3, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M. But where’s the fun in that?

Overall, the Origin EON 17-S offers superb performance in general-purpose and media-authoring environments, and better-than-average performance in most games. It’s pricey, though, at around $3400 as tested. For that amount of money, you get a system with lots of RAM, fast storage, and an impressive CPU. All of that makes up somewhat for the laptop's relatively undistinguished appearance and excess bulk.