Laptops haven’t been really upgradable in a while. Sure you could switch out the storage or memory on some, but as laptops have gotten thinner and thinner, even those components have become permanently a part of devices. So it was a big deal when Alienware showed of the new Area-51m at CES. Yes, it’s a 17.3-inch beast that starts at $1,950 and can go up past $4,000, but you can also upgrade the storage, memory, and even the CPU and GPU as time goes by. But the Area-51m isn’t the only upgradeable laptop. Late last year Origin, a Miami-based PC company made up of ex-Alienware employees, announced the Eon17-X. Like the Area-51m, this device can get real pricey, but you can also upgrade everything. So I got curious to see what the insides of these devices look like and how hard is it to actually replace the components in them. And I was surprised! These two companies have taken very, very different approaches to the upgradable laptop. So take a moment, watch the video above, and see for yourself just how different two fully upgradable 17-inch laptops can be.
