14 DAY TRIAL // A few months ago MSI unveiled the behemoth of gaming devices, a machine called the GT80 Titan notebook, which comes with a huge 18.4-inch display and a powerful set of graphics.
But back then the company didn't share a lot of details with us. Now, however, the specialized gaming gear has come to CES 2015 ready to disclose these details.
The Titan brings a mechanical keyboard to the table
Putting aside the glorious specs for a moment there, the GT80 Titan is special because it offers a mechanical keyboard which should add superior tactile feedback, increased durability with enhanced gaming experience being the end result.
The keyboard is of the Cherry MX Brown variety, so it takes advantage of Cherry switches and a standard keycap with 27mm / 1.06 inches of thickness.
Now for the complete list of specifications. Even if some gaming gear manufacturers are currently putting 4K (3840 x 2160 resolution) panels on their devices, the MSI G780 Titan disappoints in this department (as seen at Pcper).
Therefore, the 18.4-inch PLS display from Samsung will offer only 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, an option that fails to live up to what lives under the hood.
It is possible that over time MSI will throw in a more advanced display option, but that’s not the case for the time being.
The notebook lives off a quad-core Intel i7-4980HQ chip from the Haswell garden working together with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 980M in SLI. The GTX 980M GPU is the best card one can hope to find in notebooks today and the fact that it’s in SLI configuration implies that you will see incredible levels of performance.
The system is expected to ship out with up to 24GB of DDR3L memory (up to 32GB possible with 16GB SO-DIMMs), up to four M.2 solid-state drives in RAID 0 mode for max performance and 1TB hard disk drive with 7200rpm spindle speed for maximum storage.
The Titan also bundles Qualcomm Atheros Killer DoubleShot Pro network solution with support for Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Dynaudio and Creative Sound Blaster Cinema audio system plus 1080p webcam.
The spec list is completed by an HDMI out, mini DisplayPort and USB 3.0.
The Titan is upgradeable
One of the most interesting features GT80 Titan brings forth is its easy-to-open chassis, so keep in mind that you’ll be able to upgrade when components become outdated.
The Titan is a beast so don’t expect it to be too light. The machine is 49.1 mm / 1.9 inches thick and breaks the scales at 4.7 kg / 10.3 lbs.
Now for the final part, in which we tell you you need to save up a lot of money if you want to enjoy its perks. The MSI GT80 Titan will be commercially available starting next week with a price tag of $3,299 / €2,764.
