Review: msi gt80 2qe titan

Users usually have to choose whether they want power and comfort with a desktop, or manageability with a laptop. MSI wants to break with that policy with the GT80 Titan series, real beasts that include for the first time in a laptop a mechanical keyboard, accompanied of course by top-of-the-range components. In this case in an 18.4-inch model, it will delight traveling gamers, or partys lovers who don't want to carry a tower.

The list of components does not disappoint, in the case of the analyzed model we have an i7 4720HQ, 16GB of RAM, a 2 nVidia GTX 980M SLI, Killer 1525 wireless network card (AC 2 × 2), backlit steelseries keyboard with switches MX Red, a RAID0 of 4 kingston SSDs that make a total of 512GB, accompanied by a 750GB mechanical disk for data, 4 speakers plus Dynaudio subwoofer and BluRay reader.

Technical characteristics

• CPU The 4th generation Intel® Core ™ i7 Processor Operating System Windows 8.1 Chipset Intel HM87 Memory DDR3L, up to 1600 MHz, slot * 4, max 32GB LCD size 18.4 ″ WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display GeForce Graphics Card GTX 980M SLI VRAM Graphics Card GDDR5 8GB Hard Drive (GB) Up to 1024GB Super RAID 3 + 1TB HDD 7200rpm Optical Device BD Writer / DVD Super Multi Audio 4 + 1 Speaker System, 2 speakers for each channel

  Support 7.1 channel SPDIF output

  Exclusive Audio Boost 2 technology

  Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2 Webcam Full FHD type (30fps @ 1080p) SD Card Reader (XC / HC) LAN Killer DoubleShot Pro Gb LAN Wireless LAN Killer DoubleShot Pro 11ac Bluetooth Bluetooth v4.1 HDMI 1 (v1.4) Mini-DisplayPort 2 (v1.2) USB 2.0 ports USB 3.0 ports 5 SPDIF-Out 1 E Microphone / S Headphones 1/1 Keyboard Single-color backlight (Red) SteelSeries keyboard AC 330W adapter Battery 8-Cell Lithium Ion Dimensions 45.6 x 33 x 4.9 cm Weight (KG) 4.5Kg (w / Battery) Dynaudio yes

MSI GT80 2QE-Titan

The box has somewhat smaller dimensions than in the GT72 model, a curious thing given the larger size of this equipment. Equipment protection is correct.

Detail of the laptop case

This particular model does not include any accessories apart from the equipment itself and its power supply. You really don't need any extras to stand out either.

The laptop comes in a cloth bag to avoid scratches (the aluminum is delicate, and very dirty in terms of fingerprints), in line with other MSI models:

It is a fairly large model, with 18.4 inches it is a very suitable screen to replace a monitor in movies and games. As in the GT72, it is ideal if the equipment is not going to move too much (it does not fit in many backpacks and wallets) but we want performance and comfort. It is a laptop to carry partys and for users who live abroad or simply travel a lot.

The laptop is well designed, it is a fairly thick model with almost 5cm in the back, but in return the air vents are generous and the number of ports very generous (although inexplicably somewhat less than seen in the smallest model) with 5 USB3.0, two miniDP and an HDMI 1.4, along with the typical card reader and the network port, very well located at the back

The lower part displays red and black grille in the style of the rest of the laptop and contributing to a very good cooling The upper part does not detract from anything either, with very good details such as the MSI logo illuminated by the screen backlight itself, along with two bands also illuminated Open laptop detail

As in the GT72, the cover is aluminum and the main box is plastic. Also metallic is the surface at the top of the keyboard, showing the MSI dragon. Although the robustness and aesthetics of this area are good, personally I see a lot, a lot of wasted space, which could have been put to good use with some programmable buttons, or with a large touchpad for example.

The keyboard is backlit in red. In our review sample, the keyboard does not include “Ñ”, but it is to be expected that commercial -ES models do, it is equally worth consulting the trade in this regard.

Detail of the three buttons, whose functions are respectively to set the fans to maximum, switch between the dedicated and integrated GPU (to save battery power), and turn the equipment on / off. As for the speakers, this laptop has 4 + 1 speakers manufactured by Dynaudio to achieve remarkable sound quality for what is common in laptops.

Equipment detail from the sides

In line with the usual in MSI laptops is a simple laptop to disassemble change parts. All the screws are on the bottom cover, and those that hold other parts, such as the keyboard, are marked on the plastic, we can open it in a few minutes and without danger.

The internal distribution is quite symmetrical, with a graphic on each side and the processor and chipset in the center, all connected with heatpipes to two fans that are on the sides. As for the RAM slots, we find two occupied by two modules of 8GB each.

We started as it could not be otherwise with the mechanical keyboard. If with the GT72 the keyboard sensations were quite good, in this case they are unbeatable, with the same Cherry MX Red switches as most high-end gaming keyboards. It is made by steelseries, backlit in red, and quality is appreciated on all four sides. The place of the numerical keyboard is occupied by the trackpad, which if we press the numerical lock key becomes a complete numerical keyboard, in its natural position. In addition, nothing is noticeable to the touch when used in trackpad mode, it is really achieved, although unfortunately for users who use the numeric keyboard a lot, it forces to change modes all the time. As we anticipated, in the case of our sample the keyboard follows the American layout, but we hope that the -ES models that will finally reach the Spanish market have the local layout.

Detail of the numeric keypad on the touchpad

The laptop is quite quiet in charge for the usual, well-designed and perfectly compliant cooling is appreciated, thanks in part to the thickness of the base and the size of the laptop. As with the GT72, at rest the fan does not stop and is noisy at rest, although somewhat less than its younger brother.

As for the processor, we find one of the smallest of Intel's really powerful processors, an i7 4720HQ, with 4 cores and 8 threads, and Haswell architecture. Even though it is the most discreet in frequencies of its series, it has everything its older brothers, and it is certainly the right choice for a gaming laptop. The suffix -MQ means that it is a FCBGA socket processor (1346 in this case) , which indicates that it is soldered to the board and not on the socket, a rather strange decision in a laptop of this size, and that unfortunately we prevents changing it for a higher model.

Although this processor starts with a modest frequency of 2.6Ghz, it has a turbo frequency of 3.6Ghz, almost like desktop processors, so in correct thermal conditions it should not be far from them, as we will see in the testing section performance.

In RAM memory they have opted for a 16GB kit, in two modules of 8GB at 1600mhz configured in dual channel, a generous amount to go several years and nothing out of the ordinary in these ranges. They are DDR3L (1.35V) modules as Haswell demands, keeping that in mind, latencies are not particularly high.

The laptop is very agile in terms of startup and use, with just five seconds between pressing the button and reaching the desktop, and it's not for less, since MSI has chosen to mount four 128GB disks in RAID0, achieving performance in sequential read / write that reaches up to 1500MB / s as we will see in the tests. The hard drives are manufactured by Kingston, and belong to a medium range, although combined in the RAID they give sequential values ​​far from any other hard drive.

The data hard drive is a 750GB 7200rpm Western Digital. No surprise in this part, it is a capable and spacious disk to store our data. The performance is quite remarkable, without of course reaching the heights of an SSD, we find 120MB / s of sequential read and write.

The graphic section is undoubtedly its strong point, in case the above seemed little. Mount the most powerful configuration that can be found right now on a laptop, a GTX980M SLI. As with the GTX970, this GTX980M is based on the GM204 chip, Maxwell architecture, it is a really efficient chip, with much lower power consumption than the 880M and better performance and overall overclock margin. This chart features 1536 CUDA cores (vs. 1280 on the GTX970M) and 8GB of GDDR5 memory mounted on a 256-bit bus (vs. 192 on the 970M). Although 8GB of graphics memory may seem exaggerated, it is certainly a very good choice in a computer of this range, since being one of the few laptops with power to move the heaviest games in 4K resolution would be a pity that it could not for lack of VRAM. Luckily, this is not the case, and we have a laptop to move all the games a few years. We see below the information of the GPU-Z.

WE RECOMMEND YOU MSI Optix MAG272CQR Review in Spanish (Complete Analysis)

The laptop includes a button to switch between the dedicated and the integrated graphics, a great functionality, although unfortunately we will have to restart to apply the change, as it happened in the GT72. Consumption is reduced slightly with this practice, although the nVidia Optimus system also works. We have had some problems with the battery of our sample, so I would not dare to advance autonomy. Luckily, it seems like a problem solved in business models.

This laptop mounts some of the best components available today, so it should not surprise us that the benchmarks give scores much higher than most desktops on the market, even counting high-end.

Test of performance

The first test we'll see is Cinebench R15, which is a fairly objective measure to see at a glance the performance of the processor. As we see it is a processor very close to the 4710MQ, from which it only differs by 100mhz which gives it a very slight advantage. Again it works very well even if we compare it with the most powerful desktop processors, leaving the middle ranges far behind

The laptop is big and quite heavy, but in exchange the cooling is very good. The temperatures are similar to those of the GT72, the size plays in its favor, and against it having two graphics, so we see the result as something very positive.

The results in games are outstanding, leaving our test team behind with a desktop gtx 680, surpassing even current high-end graphics thanks to its SLI. We need a Titan X to match these results.

As for the SSD, at the moment that we pass the 4kb of block length it is clearly seen that we are facing a RAID0, in this case of 4 SSDs, giving a really brutal performance, between 2 and 3 times the maximum bandwidth under SATA3.

This time MSI brings us a laptop with exceptional performance levels, which directly competes with Clevo's high ranges and surpasses the offers of the vast majority of manufacturers.

As a notable novelty we should note the inclusion of a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Red switches, which transmits similar sensations to the mechanical keyboards of the most prestigious brands.

As expected, a laptop of these characteristics has a very high price, let's not forget that the cheapest laptops mounting the GTX980M are already around € 2, 000, and in this case we do not have one of these graphics but two. Prices for this model start at around € 3, 000 for the basic model, which has little basic, and go up to 4, 300 in the configurations with the best processor and SSD. While we can't help but count this as a downside, competition is non-existent, there is no other laptop with a mechanical keyboard, and comparable Clevo's aren't cheaper.

Likewise, given the quality of this laptop, the price seems very justifiable. The screen is even more generous than in the GT72 series, with 18.4 inches we will not miss an external monitor, although again we are faced with a TN and non-IPS panel, with limited viewing angles and a color representation that is just plain.

It is not lazy in the details that are less often looked at, with two Killer network cards, one wireless AC and one for cable connection, Blu-Ray reader, and 5 US3.0 ports. Without a doubt, it is a luxury laptop for users who want the best.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ EXCEPTIONAL GRAPHIC PERFORMANCE. COMPETENT PROCESSOR AND 16GB OF RAM	- PRICE ONLY WITHIN THE REACH OF A FEW, EVEN THOUGH IT IS WORTH IT
+ RAID 0 OF 4 SSD'S + MECHANICAL	- LOTS OF WASTE SPACE ON TOP OF KEYBOARD
+ THE FIRST GAMING LAPTOP ON THE MARKET WITH A MECHANICAL KEYBOARD	- TN SCREEN, SOMETHING BETTER VIEWING ANGLES. VERY GOOD RESPONSE AND RESOLUTION TIME
+ VERY LOOSE REFRIGERATION, OC MARGIN IN GPUS	- SOLDIER PROCESSOR, NOT EXPANDABLE
+ IMPECCABLE AESTHETICS
+ RED INALÁMBRICA AC

For his excellent performance the Professional Review team awards him the platinum medal