MSI GT80 Notebook Review

[Redaktion]

Megalomania. Not only the weight of the MSI GT80 surpasses typical gaming standards, but also the features as well as the performance, including the mechanical keyboard and the SLI configuration with two GTX 980M chips. We tested the 18-inch monster.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GT80-Notebook-Review.136724.0.html

[MOFO]

Love  MSI having the guts to try something so crazy and pull it off but it sort of defeats the purpose of having a "laptop".

[samxlr]

It is a mobile desktop computer with some limited battery functionality, which is awesome for single unite usage with nothing but a mouse\power cord (and an optional Ethernet cable + headsets).

The only obvious shortcoming is the fact that you can't raise the screen and keep the keyboard on the desk's top, which puts either your arms or neck in a bad position.

Another bummer is the non-replaceable\upgradeable cpu, but that's less of an issue in my book.

To me this two factors combined are a deal breaker as I much rather use an external display (which renders this laptop's keyboard irreverent due to positioning) and being able to upgrade to CPU (as well as the GPU) is an added plus.

An updated version of this with an added ability to raise the monitor (so the lowest part of the display panel sits a good 8" above the desk) would be amazing [and doing away with that nonremovable cpu would be a plus]

[gary]

Sorry but I find your ratings absolutely mystifying!  Your name is 'Notebookcheck'.. why is a 5.5kg 18" monster even considered a notebook, regardless of how powerful it is. I may as well just put my desktop under my arm and call it a notebook. Even more irrational is its score of 87, again price  / value for money seems no factor in your rating.. Gamers with a cool 5000 euro must be a very rare breed. Surely your focus must be on high performance in a small, light form factor.. that is the essence of a "notebook".  Your artificial bracketing and secondguessing of notebooks as gaming, business, multimedia etc is outdated. Just give us the facts and stop overlay your subjective biases. So this MSI monster gets 87, and the Gigabyte P34w v3 gets 83.. I know which one I think is better bangs for my buck but it certainly isn't reflected in your biased rating criteria..

[Thin & Light Garbage]

@ Gary, I don't agree with you that a notebook being thin & light is a major factor in how good a notebook is.  I'm not a fan of the Gigabyte P34 that you mention, the problem with thin & light notebooks is that they are LESS than the sum of their parts:  the CPUs throttle significantly, the GPUs likewise but not as much.  Also, the thicker notebooks not only don't have throttling problems but also have extra scope in their cooling abilities for overclocking, not to mention the ability to have bigger screens & better keyboard layouts.  Finally the larger notebooks often have MXM GPU modules which allow for some GPU upgrading later on - although with some workarounds & difficulties required quite often.

I like the idea of the mechanical keyboard in this GT80, and I'm not bothered about it weighing 5kg either.  I use a laptop for space saving in the home, flexibility of where to use it in the home, and the ability to transport it relatively easily from house to house; therefore, I'm not in the market for as thin & light as you can get - too many compromises on performance with thin & light.  I don't like the fact there is no wrist rest with the GT80, instead they've opted for a whole swathe of useless space above the keyboard. 

[gac64k56]

I recently bought the version of this machine with the i7-5700HQ and two NVidia GeForce 965M's with plans to upgrade to the GeForce GTX 980's through the upgrade path. This machine first and foremost very large and attracts attention, but did not stop me from using this within the airport or within my house for both travel and server work. While on a plane, the tray on the airplane was consumed, yet was enough to play a game of Plants vs Zombies or watch Dr. Who / The Big Bang Theory on a 4 hour flight without any power with the NVidia GPU's turned off.

For managing virtual machines through VMware vSphere and running VM's on VMware Workstation, this machine can handle a small network while multitasking on a larger infrastructure. As well as that, this machine can handle letting a several VMs (Cisco CSR 1000v, CentOS, ESXi, Windows 2012 R2) run in the background, doing upgrades or running deduplicaton while I play few levels on Warframe or play Watchdogs or Metro Redux.

The mechanical keyboard does require me to push the machine back in order to type, but feels better than working on my wife's Alienware 14 or my retired Fujitsu T732's keyboards. The mousepad works for management and general use, but feels unusable for gaming.

Overall, the machine works for it's intended purpose of multi-purpose usage that is surprisingly portable with the bag that was provided. The bag was used as a carry on with 3 pairs of pants and 4 dress shirts, along with my Logitech mouse, mousepad, power supply, and dress shoes. The only thing I would suggest for those who travel with this is to get a portable desk.

[Trojaworm]

1st.  Sorry for bad Language.

I own The Titan SLI GT80 and i have to say the only thing is bad : NOISE#

At all this is a very powerfull Mobile Computer that can run all current Games.

GG WP