Exterior Design And Features
The overall layout of the Panther 5D is fairly standard for a notebook computer. You quickly notice that it is a large system, but the size and weight are manageable if you are used to 17” notebooks. There are tons of ports along both sides of the system. Parts quality and construction are excellent. Overall polish is great as well.
With its lid closed, the Panther 5D is thicker than most systems, but easily fits in a large Targus backpack. The machine is easy to pick up and move around.
On the front-left, we find the ExpressCard and SD combo card slots.
Power indicators grace the machine's front-right.
Analog and digital audio I/O, two USB 2.0 ports, the subwoofer, and a Kensington lock port line the Panther 5D's right side.
Taking a closer look at the audio I/O, we find four channels of analog output, a mic input, and a headphone jack. There's also the TOSLINK port for up to six channels of digital output.
The back of the Panther 5D is dominated by ventilation. In the middle, there's the AC adapter plug.
Turning the machine to its left side reveals DVI-D display output, GbE, HDMI output, DisplayPort, USB 3.0, a USB 3.0/eSATA combo port, FireWire 800, and another USB 3.0 port. Under the USB ports there's a Blu-ray writer.
The lid on the Panther 5D is beveled with a brushed metallic finish. In the center is a glass-like strip with Eurocom's logo inset in the middle. The screen hinges are beefy and strong.
This is the screen opened as far as it'll go.
And here's the system closed, from the back. It's large, but is still very professional-looking.
The bottom of the Panther 5D shows off a clear focus on system cooling. The four feet at the corners are oversized, keeping the bottom of the chassis clear of whatever surface it sits on. Large circular intakes for CPU and GPU cooling dominate the bottom of the enclosure. The closed compartment to the bottom-left is the battery. The main hard drive bay is in the bottom-middle, and it's also well-ventilated.
The battery is secured by three screws. Again, it helps to think of this power source as a UPS, rather than a true enabler of mobile computing. Screwing the battery in, rather than clipping it, minimizes the chance it'd get removed accidentally.
A 78.44 Wh rating defines the battery's energy, while 5300 mAh represents its charge capacity.
There's a third drive bay under the battery.
