MSI GT80 Titan Gaming Laptop Review

Rating: 9.5.

Few products have generated as much hype and interest as the MSI GT80 Titan Gaming laptop. Kitguru was the first major publication to cover the new laptop when we flew over to Taipei last November. LEO then got his hands on an early pre retail sample for KITGURU TV back in December. Today we present our full, in depth analysis of what can only be considered the most powerful laptop that money can buy. Add a full mechanical keyboard with Cherry switches into the mix and you have a heady combination for a gamer demanding a fully mobile form factor.

Before reading our indepth analysis today, be sure to watch LEO's early video coverage from December 2014 over HERE.

The MSI GT80 Titan will ship in various guises over the coming months and our review sample ships with some seriously high end hardware.

The GT80 Titan is powered by Intel's most powerful mobile chip – the i7 4980HQ which runs at 2.8ghz with a turbo to 4ghz. There is 32GB of DDR3 memory installed, alongside dual Nvidia GTX980M graphics cards and a 1TB 7,200 rpm storage drive. To ensure that system responsiveness is never an issue, MSI have equipped this machine with 4x 256GB Solid State Drives, running in RAID 0.

While all this high end hardware is enough to get an enthusiast gamer literally foaming at the mouth, one of the biggest talking points is the inclusion of a full mechanical Steelseries keyboard featuring Cherry switches.

This backlit board has caused much debate over the last month due to the position. The deep travel mechanical keys force the internal hardware to be pushed back inside the chassis. MSI are aware that this could be uncomfortable, so as the first image on this page highlights – they have included a gel style wrist rest as part of the package.

MSI GT80 Titan Specifications:

• OS: Windows 8.1
• CPU: Intel core i7 4980HQ (2.8Ghz – 4Ghz)
• Display: 18.4” Full HD, anti-glare LCD in LED backlight 1920×1080 16:9
• Memory Supplied: 4 x 8GB (32GB)
• Memory Type: DDR3L
• Memory Speed: 1600
• Max Memory Support: 32GB
• Graphics Chipset: Dual nVidia GeForce GTX 980M SLI
• Graphics Memory: 8GB GDDR5 x2
• Storage: 4 x 256GB M.2 SSD + 1TB 7200RPM
• Keyboard Type: SteelSeries Red backlit mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown Switches
• USB3.0 Ports: 5
• HDMI Port(s): 1
• Mini Display port(s): 2
• LAN Port(s): 1
• Microphone Jack(s): 1
• Headphone Jack(s) (SPDIF): 1
• Card Reader: SD (XC/HC)
• Audio: – 4.1 Sound by Dynaudio
• LAN: Killer DoubleShot Pro Gb LAN
• Wireless LAN – Killer DoubleShot Pro 11ac
• Bluetooth: V4.1
• Webcam: Full HD type (30fps@1080p)
• Warranty : 2 YR's Collect & Return (1 YR Global)

Total cost £3,499 inc vat.

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