It seems that the market for exclusive, customized and boutique computers has somewhat disappeared. Five years ago, you could easily drop $30,000 on a new PC. Today, your choices are limited in this territory, and that especially applies to notebooks. Eurocom, however, has a new workstation in its portfolio that is, as far as we know, the most expensive portable computer you can buy today. It isn’t pretty, but it carries all the hardware money can buy today.
Eurocom Phantom 2
If it still makes sense for you to but the highest performing computer and you don’t have to worry about an insane drop in value within a few months, then it there are still ways to customize desktop PCs that exceed a price of $25,000 (Mac Pro with 12 cores) and even touch $30,000, if you appreciate custom artwork on a gaming PC, for example on a Falcon Northwest Mach V example. The actual value is much less than the idealistic value that comes with owning such a computer. However, if you switch to the notebook space, there may actually be a reasonable value proposition.
The gaming notebooks we were used to just a few years ago have virtually disappeared. Dell’s expensive XPS line is almost gone and quad-core flagship models top out now at $2500. Step up to Alienware and you can get the flagship for $4400. Falcon Northwest is one of the few manufacturers that still offers customized gaming notebooks with an Intel (desktop) six-core processor that can approach $9000. In the consumer space, however, that is very unique, especially since very capable notebooks can be purchased for less than $1500 today.
It is a different story for portable workstations. It would be a bit far-fetched to call these heavyweights laptops or notebooks. Portable workstations is the more appropriate term as they get hot, they are heavy and the battery running time in these devices can be less than 30 minutes. One of the most capable workstations, as far as raw computing power is concerned, is Eurocom’s new Phantom 2, which uses a standard Clevo case that is also available in Clevo-branded computers as well as Sager-branded portables.
The Phantom 2 can be equipped with
- 17.3: display
- 3.0 MP webcam
- 2 GeForce GTX 480M GPUs
- Xeon X5680 6-core processor
- 24 GB memory
- 4 512 GB SSD drives
Once you have checked all the options, you end up at $15,785, which makes it, as far as we know, the most expensive portable computer you can buy today (excluding any ridiculous customs.) However, it also the only one we know of that can be equipped with a 6-core Xeon CPU, 24 GB of memory, 2TB SSD memory as well as two 480M GPUs. If you are just looking for a 6-core notebook you can get the Sager NP9285 with an i7-980X processor, a 480M GPU, 12 GB of memory, and three 160 GB SSDs for just about $6000. Similarly equipped Clevo notebooks run also slightly above $6000.
There are usage scenarios that may justify the expensive of such monstrous notebooks. If you stay with basic components, the manufacturers promises battery running times up to 90 minutes, but six cores, two GPUs and lots of memory may drain the battery in less than 30 minutes. A fully equipped Phantom 2 will weigh about 12 pounds, according to Eurocom, which isn’t exactly portable anymore. However, we are talking about a mobile workstation that exceeds the performance of most PCs that are sold today. If you do require the horsepower on the go and at client sites, even 30 minutes of battery time can be invaluable. And for some, $16,000 may be a bargain, especially if they do not have to carry around their regular desktop PC.
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