Origin EON15-X

Would a high-end gaming laptop that is more than empty your wallet? The Origin EON15-X ($ 2,579 as tested) delivers the gaming performance and heavy-hitting processing power, thanks to a top-of-the-line Nvidia graphics card and a powerful, desktop-class Intel CPU. With more power than the ultraportable midrange system at a price that undercuts our leading premium gaming rig, the ASUS ROG G751JY-DH72X, the EON15-X is not only a serious competitor in the online arena, it is also high-end Our Choice Editors' gaming laptop.

Design and Features
The EON15-X is a gaming laptop of the old school, new slim ultraportables, such as the Maingear Pulse 15 or the MSI Ghost 3k Pro GS60, came along. The laptop measures 1.4 by 15.2 by 10.3 inches (HWD), and it is heavy, weighing 7.5 pounds. While lighter than the giant Titan SLI MSI GT80 (9.9 pounds), it is also much smaller, with a 15.6-inch display, compared with the giant 18.4-inch MSI's GT80. A lot of that thickness to accommodate the cooling fan inside, which is a necessary evil, thanks to desktop-class processor system.

The display is quite good, a 15.6-inch panel with a matte finish and full HD (1920-by-1080) resolution. While other systems offer higher resolution display, such as screen 2880-by-1620 MSI found GS60 Ghost Pro 3K and the Maingear Pulse 15, we find that the laptop, the graphics hardware needed to support the 3k or higher just is not quite there, making the standard resolution full HD the better choice for gaming laptop. There is also no touch capability, you may want to really take advantage of Windows 8.1. The accompanying audio sounds good, thanks to a Soundblaster X-Fi sound card 3.

The chiclet-style keyboard customizable multi-color backlighting, there are three distinct lighting zones. The touchpad provides gesture support for Windows 8, with separate click buttons and a built-in fingerprint reader for secure logins. Just below the touchpad, the front edge of the chassis, is a glowing-red stripe, which point the matte-black soft-touch finish of the laptop.

There is a wide selection of ports, spread out to the right, left and back sides of the system. On the right, you'll find a Kensington lock slot, one USB 3.0 port, and audio connections for headphone, microphone, S / PDIF output, and line-in audio. On the left are three more USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 / eSATA combo port, and an SD card slot. Gigabit Ethernet pairs well with the Intel PRO Wireless system AC 7265 module, which provides the same dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 support.

Behind, standing between two large exhaust vents, you will see two DisplayPorts and an HDMI-out port, along with a four-pin power connector. I usually dislike pinned connectors, they must be plugged in the correct alignment, and can be prone to damage, but it works just fine on a system that is likely to be stationary.

For storage, the EON15-X is equipped with a 240GB solid-state drive (SSD), which functions as a boot drive, and faster-than-normal performance, thanks to a PCIe connection M.2, who offering faster data transfer than the older SATA-connected drives. For larger storage, however, the system is also outfitted with a 1TB hybrid drive, which combines a regular hard drive with SSD storage for boosted performance. In addition to the pre-installed copy of Windows 8.1 and Nvidia GeForce Experience, which includes the drive and extra recording and streaming functionality for the graphics card, the system is free of any extra software. Taking Origin EON15-X with a one-year warranty that includes replacement parts, plus a 45-day "No Dead Pixel" guarantee for the screen, 45-day free shipping for warranty repairs, and free lifetime tech support.