Can PC Specialist's Nova X1 really be called a gaming notebook, with its 12-core Ryzen 9 3900 desktop processor that handles any task like a multi-headed Hydra CPU? Whether it can be called a gaming laptop is debatable.

Especially since, to be honest, the battery acts more like an uninterruptible power supply than enabling this powerful machine to be dragged out and about.

However, with the Nvidia RTX 2070 pushing pixels to 1080p screens and giving it tons of graphics performance to back up its high-end CPU, and the Nova X1's RGB-lit keyboard and 144Hz screen, there is some gaming device for sure. I intend it to take the place of a gaming desktop. I don't want this so-called "laptop" to melt my testicles in a gaming session.

The first AMD Ryzen 4000 processors to be released this year, both in the mobile category, use the same Zen 2 CPU architecture as the current Ryzen 3000 series, only with Radeon graphics alongside. However, none of these new Renoir chips released so far have been able to match the 12-core processing performance that AMD has introduced to the desktop range, not even the octa-core Ryzen 4900HS in the Asus Zephyrus G14.

So what's a gamer to do who wants 12-core, 24-thread 7nm AMD processing, but in a form factor that doesn't fill his apartment with a huge desktop chassis and accessories, to a system builder like PC Specialist? Go to them and they will hang a Ryzen 9 3900 in a Clevo laptop chassis for you and hang that sense of style.

And if you're in the US, Origin PC will do the same job for you thanks to their new Origin EON15-X gaming laptop that they recently launched.

When we were specced out to review this machine, and when Origin first launched its own Clevo and Ryzen combo, PC Specialist offered the Nova 15 gaming desktop replacement with a 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X configuration, but it now appears to have been removed from the options list.

Perhaps for good reason: ...... Even with the vaunted Eco mode, this machine would have been a hot and noisy beast, and the limited mobile BIOS on this machine does not allow access to the Precision Boost Overdrive technology that enables Eco mode in the Ryzen Master software.

Not that it really matters here, but Eco mode was introduced by AMD with the 16-core 3950X and allows users to limit the chip's power consumption to about 95% of performance at 70% of full power consumption. This feature was quite useful in the thermally restricted environment of a laptop chassis, but unfortunately it did not happen.

And even the much more modest Ryzen 9 3900, a 65W 7nm processor available only to system builders, makes the Nova X1 quite chatty. Even as I write this review, it is still mumbling as if it is just starting up a browser and rendering Toy Story 12 in the background.

The GPU is also a little below 50 dB, but still noticeable.

But that's not what the Nova X1 is like with such high-performance components. This is not a thin, light wallflower, nor is it a small notebook that you would throw in your leather man-bag to write a novel at a fair-trade indie coffee shop. Rather, this is a gaming laptop. It's a chunky, purposeful desktop replacement, focused on performance more than anything else.

And this is why the best gaming headsets are designed. So one can hardly blame fans for their harsh whispers, but they are simply soaking up the unprecedented level of performance offered by the Nova X1. Even Eurocom's workstation monsters costing thousands of dollars could not come close to what this PC specialist machine can do.

And given that this configuration costs £1,699 ($2,400 for the Origin version) for a 12-core, 24-thread CPU, 32GB of relatively fast memory, 1.5TB of SSD storage (SATA and NVMe), and RTX 2070 GPU, you get It's surprisingly affordable for what you get.

No other mobile processor can deliver CPU performance like AMD's Ryzen 9 3900. The closest Intel chip is about 26% slower, and that's the octa-core i9 9900KS, a special desktop-specific version that runs at a uniform 5 GHz across all cores. And it's not even available to buy anymore. The 3900 runs at 3.7 GHz to 3.8 GHz across all core loads, which is still above the peak of Intel's desktop capabilities.

Considering that AMD's Ryzen 4000 series 8-core chips (the ones we've been touting as offering tremendous mobile processing performance) perform about 35% slower than the 3900 in some cases, you can see what this portable desktop CPU can now You can see what this portable desktop CPU can do now. [The full-fat RTX 2070 easily delivers the kind of frame rate performance seen on the small form factor Razer Blade 15 with a Max-Q version of the RTX 2080, a 6-core, 12-thread Intel chip and the same RTX 2070 GPU. Compared to the Asus Strix Scar II with 6-core, 12-thread Intel chips and the same RTX 2070 GPU, this PC Specialist machine still holds the lead in gaming.

It would be easy to dismiss machines like the Nova X1 as pointless displays of brute force that are small enough to fit in a laptop chassis, but that forgets that there is a dedicated market for this kind of desktop alternative. This is because the battery life exists only to help move the system from outlet to outlet without shutting it down. It would be difficult to play a Battlefield V match before the battery runs out.

However, all-day battery life is not the purpose of buying the Nova X1. Some people need the power of a full-fledged gaming desktop PC, but don't have the space for a permanent installation at home. This PC Specialist gaming desktop PC offers a high-power, high-frame-rate, no-compromise solution.

And while it's clear that the Nova X1 is not for everyone, it impressively demonstrates how efficient AMD's Ryzen 9 3900 is and how effective the cooling of this Clevo enclosure is. It's certainly chunky and a bit loud, but considering it's more powerful than any other laptop and more affordable than many 12-core desktops, the Nova X1 is one heck of a machine.