02:42
A mechanical keyboard is born
We've seen some massive laptops in our day, from the Alienware 18 to the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro. This year, however, MSI pulled out a new rabbit out of its hat and introduced the GT80 Titan as the first-ever gaming laptop with a built-in mechanical keyboard. Weighing in at 9.9-pound beast and just shy of two-inches thick, it's designed almost like a foldable typewriter.
The hardware underneath this massive machine is even more impressive. The list of components includes two top-tier Nvidia GTX 980M GPUs working alongside the most extreme of Intel Core i7 processors and an absurd 32GB of memory.
MSI's Clifford Chun told TechRadar in an interview the school of thought with the GT80 Titan was, "How crazy can we get?" The MSI product manager explained that once the team realized it was working with a massive 18-inch space, they couldn't overlook the opportunity to create one of the most insanely outfitted gaming machines ever built.
Curiosity sparks
"One day, it just dawned on us, and we thought, "Why won't we just integrate it?'" Chun quipped, noting the idea came in a moment of serendipity after using mechanical keyboards day in and day out for both work and play.
"The final straw was when we conducted a survey among our customers, and a massive 79.2% of the group told us they'd love to see a mechanical keyboard in a notebook," he said. "We simply had to create one."
Of course, it wasn't an easy birth for this over-the-top gaming machine. The MSI team went through dozens of designs working closely with Steel Series to build a laptop that could deliver the same tactile and responsive mechanical keyboard experience desktop PC users enjoy.
Hit the keys!
SteelSeries is one of MSI's earliest partners, and together the companies have had a long relationship of building special keyboard with a tactile feel, despite not being mechanical. Developing a switch-driven mechanical keyboard, however, was a whole other ordeal, according to Chun.
The mechanical keyboard featured on the GT80 doesn't just look the part; underneath each key cap are real Cherry MX switches, which most gamers prefer for their precision and responsiveness over the springy rubber dome keyboards found in most offices.
"We wanted end users to have the exact feel of using a real mechanical keyboard," Chun said. To that end the Titan is the same as a standard desktop mechanical keyboard, down to the same height and width. Even each row of keys slowly descends at a slant to perfectly replicate the desktop gaming peripheral.
"We pushed the keyboard all the way to the front and push all the components up to where the screen side is at," Chun explained. "We didn't want to raise the keyboard to make it too thick, so the layout was optimal, although unusual."
In another shake up to the traditional notebook, the MSI GT80 Titan also features a tall trackpad where the number pad would usually rest.
"It was probably the largest gamble we took in the design phase," Chun said. "We didn't want to make the notebook any larger than possible, and at the same time it's no use designing a mechanical keyboard that's smaller than standard."
After mulling on what to do for weeks, it became clear the solution was to create a touchpad with an integrated number pad. This way users could have a small surface to could control their computer without a mouse, while also offering a number pad that provides haptic feedback in the place of clicky mechanical keys.
Easy access panel
Of course, with nothing underneath the keyboard, you might ask where all the components have gone. Right above the GT80's signature keyboard is a large panel that hides all the laptop's internal goodies. The metal sheet spans the entire width of the machine, and just by removing two screws you can remove this cover to get to nearly every replaceable part including the system memory and solid-state storage drives.
Chun recalled [one user submitted a photo of his modded machine after he replaced maxed out his system with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage arranged in Raid 0.
"We always have some crazy end users that just want to show off how they modded their machines," he said with a laugh.
"Ever since we did the GT72 we were already doing the upgrade panel in the back.In this one we've made it even easier with just two screws, and then the whole top front opens up giving you access to everything."
"When people are spending $1,800-plus on a gaming laptop, this is not a small chunk of money," he said, likening the GT80 to an investment.
By giving users easy access to upgrades, MSI hopes to make its gaming laptops something its users can keep using for three years or longer when most machines only last one to two in an age of constantly advancing in graphics card technology.
A system ready for the future
Ready for the long haul
The Titan takes this upgradable concept to the next level, even giving users the option to replace the rig's two graphics cards. It's an unconventional move; the laptop's two Nvidia GTX 980M GPUs aren't soldered permanently to the motherboard. Instead, they're connected via removable MXM cards, which plug into the machine's logic board like express ports on a full-size desktop.
MXM cards, of course, are not new. In fact, all of MSI's laptops models were originally built with the technology until the company started producing its thin and light GS line of gaming machines. The swappable graphics connection isn't ideal for every laptop as it requires a minimal height to make room for the connector and cooling unit.
However, this isn't a problem for a 1.93-inch thick machine such as the GT80 Titan. To take advantage of this modular architecture, MSI offers graphics card upgrades for users who want to keep their machines up to date.
Unlike a soldered connection, the graphics cards in the Titan can be removed completely and replaced using a MSI GPU upgrade kit to keep up with modern technology. But upgrading your graphics isn't just a matter of adding a new circuit board; these upgrade kits also come with a new thermal cooling module.
"The whole reason we use a different thermal model is depending on the motherboard and the chipset, sometimes there is a tiny difference in height even if the MXM card's width is the same," Chun explained. "We wanted to make sure the thermal models that ship along with [the part] are not so high that it's not touching the chip and if it's too low, then it's really crushing the chip."
"We've left enough room to make sure the heat dissipation will be good enough for the next generation [of GPUs] as well."
Scaling the giant
The MSI GT80 Titan already holds accolades for being the first-ever gaming laptop with a mechanical keyboard and for being extremely upgradable, yet oddly enough it isn't the biggest 18-inch laptop in the world - the Alienware 18 still holds that honor. Meanwhile, MSI boasts the Titan is actually smaller than some 17-inch laptops.
In fact, the Titan was meant to be a 17-inch gaming laptop one point.
"We originally wanted to put this inside a 17-inch gaming laptop," Chun said. "But the width of the unit was not big enough and we did not want to make the unit fat or too thick with a 17-inch chassis."
However, going with a bigger chassis also presented the challenge of making the machine inherently bigger.
"The first generation when I first heard about this was, like three years ago, really was like a brick," Chun recalled.
"All the product managers were like, 'We can't sell something like this.' We all knew this was a beast of a laptop, but we took a lot of time trimming down the internals and figuring out better heat pipes."
"That's why we spent so many years on designing it and laying everything out," Chun said. "It wasn't easy, to tell you the truth."
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