World's First Gaming Notebook with a Mechanical Keyboard - MSI GT80 Titan
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,564 words · ~7 min read
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I want to open this review with a conversation I had with Brandon one of
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the camera and editing guys here at lonus Media Group about a year ago I was
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commenting on the keyboard on some laptop I was reviewing and he asked me
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why no laptop manufacturer uses mechanical keyboards if they're so great
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to which I replied because that would be
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stupid so without further Ado here's my review of the MSI gt80 Titan the world's
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first gaming laptop with a cherrymx brown key switch mechanic gaming
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keyboard oh and stay tuned because I'll reviewing their notebook that can use a
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desktop graphics card soon too these guys are freaking
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crazy cooler Masters case mod World Series is your opportunity to show off
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your modding skills and win great prizes entries Clos February 7th 2015 click now
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to learn more so let's kick things off with a tour of the outside shall we this
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is a portable computer but to call it a lap laptop feels almost a little
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misleading to me it weighs over 10 lb is nearly 5 cm or 2 in thick when closed
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and has the keyboard positioned so close to the user that it literally wouldn't
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balance on your lap if you wanted the keyboard at a comfortable distance for
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use since we've got it open I guess we'll continue the tour here there are
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four drivers located just under the 18.4
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in 1080P PLS display that combined with the bottom mounted subwoofer make this a
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relatively loud laptop top if you want to crank up the sound in games or movies
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below that is a blank aluminum panel more on that later uh buttons for power
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switching Graphics adapters and turning the fans up to full speed then below
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that still is the touchpad and included red LED backlit mechanical keyboard what
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a strange thing to behold this is in terms of performance well it's what
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you'd expect the keys actually sit the same height off the desk as a standard
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keyboard MX Brown round strike a great balance between Acoustics and tactile
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feel and are my personal favorite switch and the inclusion of four Metal Key caps
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is a nice touch I do have a couple of complaints however the lip at the bottom
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makes the space bar a little less comfortable than a normal keyboard
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especially if you don't have a wrist rest with you although MSI does include
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one in the retail package this key doesn't need to be duplicated I'd rather
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have another function there and the touchpad while
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usable is just not a very practical
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shape given that it appears to be just a normal touchpad that's rotated
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90° more on why they did this a little bit later but one other needo thing here
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is the number lock button on the top left of the pad the haptic feedback is
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laggy and honestly I'd be happier without it but having the option to type
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with a number pad at all here is something I did find myself using moving
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on to the sides on the left is a headphone microphone Jack optical audio
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out three USB 3.0 ports an SD card reader an optical drive and a very large
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vent on the right is two more USB 3.0 ports and another very large vent then
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on the back we find a killer land port HDMI 2.0 two mini DisplayPort 1.2 ports
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one of those unusually beefy four pin power connectors and what two more
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massive vents I guess this is a good time to open this baby up and talk about
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the guts on the bottom the first two screws we're going to remove are here
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and here these allow us to slide the top panel to the right and find the quad MSA
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SSD slots in the gt80 yes its stock
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configuration is four ssds in raid zero
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for this model also up here is easy access to the 2 and 1 12 in hard drive
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two of the 4 DDR3 sodium RAM slots and the optical drive making this already on
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par or better than most gaming laptops in terms of upgradeability then we
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removed the rest of the screws and pop the bottom off revealing the reason this
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bad boy needs so much cooling down down
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here we've got the battery Wireless module two more RAM slots the CPU socket
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that contains a 47 wat core i7 4980hq
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quad core that turbos up to 4 GHz we can see why the touchpad was crammed off to
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the side because it's the entire thickness of the laptop that that
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keyboard makes up and finally two
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massive mxm GTX 980m 8 gig graphics
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cards with this crazy long SLI Bridge connecting them and lots and lots of
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heat pipes connect in the CPU and the gpus to the coolers and the weirdest
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thing about all of this is that it actually almost looks like MSI wants you
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to have easy access to everything and that's because they do along with this
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notebook they're launching a program where they will guarantee that for two
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full mobile GPU Generations they will provide mxm and cooling upgrade kits to
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gt80 Titan customers who want to stay on the bleeding edge with NextGen Flagship
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graphics cards an option that desktop users take for granted but notebook
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users rarely get to experience but let's take a step back
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from the amazing specifications and neverbe seen Innovation and take a
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moment to talk about the actual experience of using this thing gaming is
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a treat at 18.4 in and at the distance
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that you need to sit to actually use this computer 1080p is less of an issue
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than you might think you don't have to deal with any scaling and in games
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thanks to Dynamic super resolution something you'll have ample power to
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utilize you can still get a little bit better image quality out of them even
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though the panel resolution is what it is but the touchpad necessitates the use
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of a mouse when I mean aside from gaming if you want to get any serious work done
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and the space the laptop takes up on a
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desk in order to sit a comfortable distance from it and have room for your
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mouse makes this just take up more room
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than any other laptop that I've ever encountered so it's basically a portable
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desktop suitable only for use where you've got a lot of room to stretch out
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but it's not like you aren't getting something in exchange for all of that
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hassle the keyboard is just playing better than any laptop keyboard ever
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which I guess leads us into the conclusion a little bit earlier in the video than we normally would because
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it's less of a two- sentence summary about who I think this product is
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intended for and more of a massive list of the pros and cons of this incredibly
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Unique Piece of gaming Hardware so the pros like I just said the greatest
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keyboard on a laptop ever the performance and the upgrade path both of
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which are the best I've ever seen on a laptop ever the cons it's heavy it's
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bulky I mean even the power brick is heavy and bulky it takes up a lot of
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space and it is extremely expensive with
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the lowest end model starting over
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$3,000 and then the somewhere in between pro and con fan noise cooling
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performance and battery life are a but what you'd expect for a large powerful
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gaming notebook and the overall fit and finish is still MSI I but not super
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premium MSI like their GS Series Laptops with their sexy full metal bodies so in
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my mind rather than comparing it to the other options in the market and saying
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yeah go for it or no don't go for it all
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I can do is present you guys with this video and let you make your own choice
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because For Better or For Worse there is
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nothing else in existence like this thing and I've been saving this for the
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very end cuz I've been kind of putting it off but I have to give MSI this they
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pulled off this concept in a way that I didn't expect and sitting using the
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device convinced me that a mechanical keyboard and a laptop is a lot less
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stupid than I originally thought it was so Cliff you can put that on the box if
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you want guys like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it
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