The Starting place Eon 17 SLX is a monster … in an effective way. Geared up with twin Nvidia GTX 780M GPUs in SLI configuration, avid gamers can are expecting screaming body charges on even essentially the most graphically taxing video games. An impressive Core i7 Excessive CPU processor, a pair of SSDs and a further laborious force simply strengthen the corporate’s shock-and-awe way. In fact, all this energy does not come low cost: Whereas the Eon 17 SLX begins at $ 2,016, our configuration prices $ four,462. Does all that muscle make the SLX the brand new king of the gaming notebooks?
Design
After we first set eyes on the Eon 17 SLX, our internal “Knight Rider” fantasies ran wild. A pair of glowing crimson lights and black chrome grilles alongside the rear of the computer reminded us of David Hasselhoff’s Trans-Am. We simply want that there have been a pulsating row of pink lights up entrance so we can have our personal non-public Ok.I.T.T. Apart from the computing device’s rear, the Eon 17 SLX retains issues easy, using a polished, black, smooth-contact end on the lid, with a mild-grey Foundation emblem prominently within the middle. Sadly, the lid is a fingerprint magnet, becoming a brilliant mess. One factor you will not see on most notebooks is the again-dealing with 1.zero-MP webcam on the highest fringe of the Eon’s lid. Supposed to be used when video conferencing, it americathe laptop’s weirdness issue significantly.
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The internal is made essentially of black matte plastic, with a skinny strip of shiny black plastic breaking the monotony. This vivid strip, which runs alongside the highest of the deck, accommodates a variety of standing lights in addition to a round energy button. The keyboard resides in a relatively recessed deck; just under, the touchpad is emblazoned with a glowing Beginning brand. In every other zany design twist, Starting place left a 1/2 inch of area between the touchpad and the discrete mouse buttons. We had been disenchanted to research that, in contrast to the Starting place Eon 17-S, which has seven customized chassis choices, the SLX can handiest be ordered in black. Measuring sixteen.5 x eleven.three x 2.15 inches and weighing a hulking 9.four kilos, we would not suggest carrying across the Eon 17 SLX for lengthy sessions of time. The sixteen.5 x 10.7 x 1.2~1.7-inch Toshiba Qosmio X75 is a full 2 kilos lighter. It additionally dwarves the ASUS G750JX (eight.eight kilos, sixteen.1 x 12.5 x zero.sixty six~1.9 inches) and the MSI GT70 (eight.9 kilos, sixteen.eighty five x eleven.three x 2.2 inches). That is nothing in comparison with the hulking beast that’s the Alienware 18?s 12.2-pound, 18 x 12.9 x 2.eighty three-inch body. Lighting fixtures
Much like Alienware, Beginning outfits its notebooks with customizable backlit keyboards. Customers may also set the colour of the touchpad logo. The lighting fixtures configuration software permits customers to choose between eight results (Random, Dancing, Tempo, Flash, Wave, Breath, Cycle and Customized) and eight colours (Black, Blue, Pink, Red, Inexperienced, Gentle Blue, Yellow and White). Sadly, that you would be able to’t toggle the lights alongside the computer’s rear. The use of the backlighting tool is moderately easy — that you may make a choice an impact or create a novel mild palette the use of the Customized surroundings. We want that the instrument allowed deeper customization, as Alienware does. It will be good, as an example, to set the colours for the opposite results, as a substitute of getting them cycle during the to be had colours. We additionally want the instrument had been more uncomplicated to get admission to. This system can simplest be launched by way of urgent the “/” (ahead cut back) key on the quantity pad along with the Fn key. It took us quite a few tries prior to we positioned and began the app.
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In distinction, Alienware’s AlienFX device may also be speedy discovered within the Alienware Command Heart utility suite. MORE: High Computer Items Show
The Eon 17 SLX’s 17.three-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel matte show bargains excellent viewing angles and sharp important points, however colours and distinction might be higher. Gazing the 1080p trailer for “Her,” Joaquin Phoenix’s brilliant-purple shirt took on extra of a persimmon colour. The blacks additionally fared poorly, as evidenced by way of an evening scene of town skyline that wasn’t fairly as darkish accurately. Once we performed “The Witcher 2: Murderer of Kings,” the deep and foreboding blacks of a middle of the night woodland appeared ashen and grey. Geralt’s dissimilar facial scar additionally had a light high quality. And identical to within the “Her” trailer, the reds had extra of an orange tint than we’d have preferred. After we measured show brightness, the SLX measured 261 lux, topping the 253-lux pc alternative moderate. That was once sufficient to beat the GT70 and the G750JX, which each hit 240 lux. The Alienware 18 did moderately higher, with 254 lux, however the Qosmio X75 was once the brightest within the bunch, measuring 297 lux. Audio Nestled between the hinges of the lid and angled towards the person, the SLX’s Onkyo audio system bathed our face in loud, brassy audio. Queen Latifah’s full, flirty alto was once the superstar of the exhibit as we listened to “When You might be Excellent To Mama.” Then again, her playful supply was once, from time to time, upstaged by using the tinny trumpet part. That, blended with the brassy cymbals, resulted in a cacophony of chaos at full quantity. We tried to tame the brass dragon with the Sound Blaster Xi-Fi MB keep an eye on panel, however there wasn’t any actual distinction between the Tune, Film and Recreation presets. Whereas taking part in “The Witcher 2,” probably the most heritage track sounded flat, with very shallow bass, and swelling crescendos throughout a key fight sounded hole and extraordinary. Alternatively, results akin to clanging swords and babbling brooks had been spot-on and very much stronger the ambiance. MORE: Prime Vacation Reward Ideas 2013
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The SLX scored eighty two decibels on the LAPTOP Audio Take a look at (audio output at 23 inches from the computer), smartly beneath the ninety one-dB reasonable. The G750JX managed eighty five dB, whereas the X75 done ninety four dB. Keyboard and Touchpad
Just like earlier Starting place notebooks, the SLX has a conventional keyboard with a full quantity pad. The keys are large, with good spacing and agency, springy remarks. We hit 60 phrases per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Take a look at, especially greater than our fifty five wpm reasonable. We weren’t blown away through the brightness of the backlighting, however it’s going to get the job accomplished in a dimly lit room. Beginning’s four.1 x 2.seventy five-inch touchpad has a whole lot of area so that you can navigate. On the other hand, it is no longer established beneath the G and H keys, which will also be a subject matter for contact typists. The discrete mouse bar is hit and miss — as in, it’s important to ignore your intuition to press down instantly beneath the touchpad, or you’ll be able to omit it. For the reason that mouse bar is positioned a full 1/2 inch under the touchpad, we steadily discovered ourselves having to appear prior to we pressed to verify we actually hit the bar. The evenly textured bar felt just right towards our finger and had a definite click on. Then again, it could were good if the bar had been break up into two separate buttons. Fingerprint Reader
The SLX incorporates a BioExcess fingerprint scanner for players who wish to be sure their “Name of Responsibility” stats have further safety. The scanner is situated slightly below the Enter key of the quantity pad. The preliminary startup is modest. After selecting a finger to register, we slid our finger over the scanner six instances. As with most scanners, the swipes must be sluggish, deliberate motion or it is not going to scan, and you can be compelled to do it once more. As soon as the fingerprints had been entered, we assigned them to launch Steam and get right of entry to our Fb account. It can be used to get entry to Twitter and Gmail. Warmth
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Right through the LAPTOP Warmth Check (streaming a full-reveal Hulu video for quarter-hour), the SLX’s touchpad measured a groovy seventy seven levels Fahrenheit. The distance between the G and H keys registered eighty four levels, whereas workstation’s backside was once 86 levels. These temperatures are neatly beneath our ninety five-level alleviation threshold. Then again, after quarter-hour of enjoying “The Witcher 2,” the touchpad jumped to 87 levels. The gap between the G and H keys and the underside vent rose to one hundred levels. Additionally, the workstation’s lovers had been going at full pace and appeared like a small turbine. MORE: Reward Concepts for Avid gamers Webcam
The Eon 17 SLX has the atypical difference of getting each rear-going through and entrance-dealing with webcams. Each units can seize pictures and video in 1080p. An choice bar alongside the underside of the show allow us to change between the cameras on the fly. Colours on the 5.zero-MP digicam (the one going through us) had a bluish tint, giving any browns within the image a darker hue, together with our pores and skin. Even though the picture was once clear sufficient to learn the orange textual content on the cereal field, the picture used to be nonetheless fuzzy, with few clear small print. The 1.zero-MP rear digital camera gave us brighter colours than the entrance digicam. We have been in particular impressed with the vivid blue and crimson from our “Sweet Crush Saga” Rubik’s dice. Just like the entrance digital camera, the rear tool did an admirable job of taking pictures textual content, however the total picture was once nonetheless grainy. Ports
The SLX is solely teeming with ports. Two USB three.zero ports sit down
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on the correct facet of the computing device, together with an eSATA/USB 2.zero port, a Thunderbolt port and a DVD burner. Alongside the left are a 9-in-1 card reader, an Ethernet port, a Kensington lock slot and jacks for headphones, microphone, line-in and S/PDIF. Lining the rear of the software is every other pair of USB three.zero ports, HDMI-in and the facility jack. MORE: Sport Changer Awards – The Most progressive Tech of 2013 Images
Strap to your seatbelts! The Beginning Eon 17 SLX has been equipped with twin Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPU in SLI (Scalable Hyperlink Interface) packing 4GB of VRAM each and every. For the uninitiated, Nvidia’s SLI expertise harnesses the facility of two GPUs to dynamically raise portraits efficiency and reinforce picture high quality. That implies that this rig will ship blistering body charges and efficiency, whether or not you might be saving the galaxy or modifying video. The laptop tore thru 3DMark11 with a jaw-shedding rating of thirteen,076. Which is virtually thrice as excessive because the four,576 laptop-alternative reasonable. The Alienware 18, which additionally sports activities twin Nvidia GTX 780M GPUs in SLI, scored a reasonably decrease eleven,642. Remember the fact that, the Starting place’s ratings have been in most cases double these of different 17-inch notebooks with single GPUs. As an example, the MSI GT70, which has a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPU, notched 5,903. The ASUS G750JX and the Toshiba Qosmio X75, which have Nvidia GeForce 770M GPUs with 3GB of RAM, hit 5,202 and four,915, respectively. After we ran the “World of Warcraft” benchmark, the SLX executed 112 fps on Extremely at 1080p, topping the ninety four-fps moderate. Alternatively, it could not compete with the Alienware 18?s 168 fps. That left the G750JX and GT70 duking it out for 0.33 position, with a hundred and five fps and 103 fps, respectively. The X75 barely beat the typical, with ninety five fps. On the extra disturbing “BioShock Endless” take a look at, the SLX hit a searing 108 fps on Excessive at native decision, crushing the 38-fps reasonable. The Alienware 18 was once an extraordinarily far-off 2d, with eighty fps. The GT70 managed forty four fps, adopted via the G750JX (37 fps). The X75 introduced up the rear, with 29 fps. The SLX persisted to dominate once we ran “Metro: Final Mild,” scoring fifty two fps on Excessive at 1080p.
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Efficiency
The Starting place Eon 17 SLX’s three.zero-GHz Intel Core i7-4930MX CPU with 16GB of RAM was once extra highly effective than different methods we now have examined, however the hole was once much less mentioned. It simply streamed an episode of “Home of Playing cards” whereas operating a device scan with 15 open tabs in Web Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. On PCMark 7, the pc scored 6,475, simply topping the four,689 pc-substitute reasonable. The Alienware 18?s 2.eight-GHz Intel Core i7-4900MQ delivered 6,199, whereas the ASUS G750JX and its 2.four-GHz Intel Core i7-4700HQ CPU hit 6,a hundred and fifteen. The two.four-GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU-powered Toshiba Qosmio X75 and MSI GT70 notched 6,049 and 6,025, respectively. The SLX is supplied with two 120GB SSDs in RAID zero configuration and a 750GB 7,200-rpm onerous power, which allowed the device as well Home windows eight.1 in sixteen seconds. That is 10 seconds quicker than the 26-2nd reasonable. Then again, the G750JX (1TB 5,four hundred-rpm exhausting pressure) began Home windows eight in eleven seconds, the GT70 took 9 seconds and the X75 loaded Home windows eight in a blistering 6 seconds. The Eon 17 SLX duplicated four.97GB of blended-media information in 17 seconds for a switch price of 299 MBps, greater than twice the 123-MBps personal computer substitute moderate. The Alienware 18 used to be proper at the back of, with 268 MBps. The X75?s 256GB SSD and 1TB 7,200-rpm exhausting power finished 154 MBps, whereas the G750JX and hit one hundred seventy MBps respectively. On the other hand, the GT70?s twin 128GB SSDs and 1TB 7,200-rpm HDD got a screaming 463 MBps. Once we ran the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro check, the SLX matched 20,000 names and addresses in three minutes and 39 seconds, which blew previous the four:forty six reasonable. The Alienware 18 used to be a detailed 2d, at three:forty, with the X75 proper in the back of, at three:fifty eight. The GT70 and G750JX clocked in at four:01 and four:05, respectively. Battery Lifestyles Should…keep…plugged…in…The Starting place Eon 17 SLX simplest lasted 2 hours and 18 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Check (steady Internet browsing over Wi-Fi). Whereas we do not are expecting all-day persistence from a computer substitute, which is nearly 2 hours lower than the four:12 pc-alternative reasonable. The Alienware 18 managed to part out the SLX, with a time of two:30. The Toshiba Qosmio X75 clocked in at four:09, whereas the MSI GT70 posted four:18. The G750JX was once the remaining rig fragging, at four:fifty seven.
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There isn’t a bloatware so far as the attention can see. As opposed to the Home windows eight.1 apps (Mail, Calendar, Xbox Tune and Information), the Starting place Eon 17 SLX has no extraneous applications gumming up the works. The laptop comes with a one-12 months section alternative and a forty five-day free-delivery guarantee, with lifetime labor and 24/7 make stronger. Configurations So, how a lot is an extremely-tricked-out rig price to you? An arm? A leg? Each? Our evaluate unit prices a whopping $ four,462 and includes a three.zero-GHz Intel Core i7-4930MX CPU with 16GB of RAM; a pair of 120GB SSDs in RAID zero configuration; a 750GB, 7,200-rpm onerous pressure; and twin Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPUs in SLI (Scalable Hyperlink Interface), every of which packs 4GB of VRAM. However do not signal your firstborn over to Beginning simply but. Avid gamers may additionally stroll away with the $ 2,016 base adaptation, which deals a 2.four-GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ processor with 4GB of RAM; a 320GB, 7,200-rpm onerous power; an Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M GPU with 2GB of VRAM; Home windows 7; and a DVD burner. It is no longer all-highly effective, but it surely’s nonetheless a sexy bold laptop. The corporate additionally deals a plethora of enhancements, permitting consumers to make a choice from as much as three GPUs, six CPUs, 9 RAM choices and eleven SSDs. Avid gamers may additionally order extra mSATA caches and RAID configurations. Verdict
Each time we predict Foundation cannot high itself with the overpowered bells and whistles, one thing just like the Eon 17 SLX falls into our laps. Its twin Nvidia GPUs delivered the very best photographs numbers we’ve got viewed this yr, and its CPU and SSDs have been additionally among the many quickest we’ve got viewed. It would not damage that the workstation resembles a horny sports activities automobile, both. And who can disregard the dizzying selection of customization choices the corporate deals?
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Alternatively, for $ four,462, Starting place desires to position some extra work into its show and audio, and we weren’t enthusiasts of the position of the touchpad or the mouse bar. For roughly the identical value ($ four,499), which you could configure an Alienware 18 with the identical CPU, GPUs and RAM, plus a 512GB SSD and a 750GB, 7,200-rpm arduous pressure. Even supposing it weighs three kilos extra, we additionally choose its design, show and customizable lights. Total, the Foundation Eon 17 SLX is an über-highly effective laptop made for players with cash to burn. Whereas it might probably stand some enhancements, in the case of uncooked horsepower, it’s going to provide you with one hell of a trip. Prime 10 Laptops Now Computer Shopping for Information 2013: eight Very important Guidelines Prime 10 Ultrabooks Tags: Foundation Eon 17 SLX, laptops, gaming, evaluations, Starting place
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