Our review model costs $3442 and packs alluring specs: an Intel Extreme Edition Core i7-3920XM CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz, 16GB of speedy DDR3 RAM, and a discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M graphics card. The system also boasts two 120GB solid-state drives in RAID 0, as well as a 1TB hard disk in the optical bay (Origin includes a slim external Blu-ray writer for all of your optical-drive needs). Other notable features include built-in 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, built-in Bluetooth, and a built-in webcam, microphone, and fingerprint reader. The system runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

The Origin EON17-S is a gaming powerhouse, and its performance score reflects this. In PCWorld's WorldBench 7 tests, the EON17-S scores an impressive 200, which means it is twice as fast as . This score makes the EON17-S one of the highest-scoring computers we've tested on WorldBench 7 so far, including performance desktops.

Despite the EON17-S's excellent benchmark score, its graphics performance is only slightly above average. In PCWorld's graphics tests, the EON17-S churned out consistent, but not exceptionally high, frame rates of 75 and 90 frames per second in Crysis 2 and Dirt 3 (high-quality settings, native 1920 by 1080 resolution). The Dirt 3 frame rates are especially unimpressive, as we're used to seeing nearly double these rates in performance desktops.

As in the , Origin has chosen not to implement Nvidia's Optimus technology for automatic switching between the integrated Intel HD graphics and the discrete Nvidia GPU. This probably accounts for the EON17-S's poor battery life, which is not much better than its predecessor's, at just 2 hours and 33 minutes.