Among the products MSI will be launching during CES are a couple of notable new gaming laptops—and at the high end is the GT80, a beast of a laptop announced back in late October that sports an 18.4" screen (1920x1080), an 980M SLI GPU configuration, and a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches.
Though the GT80 has some impressive specs (and an equally impressive price tag—the configuration shown, which had a Core i7-4980HQ processor, 24GB of RAM, and a "super RAID" configuration of two 128GB M.2 SATA SSDs plus a 1TB 7200 HDD, was estimated at roughly $3500), more notable is just how much of a desktop replacement MSI has designed it to be. You'll be able to easily swap out most components on your own via the removable panels above the keyboard and along the bottom of the laptop. The only thing that MSI doesn't intend for users to replace on their own is the GPU; buyers instead will have to send their GT80s to one of MSI's partners (like iBuyPower or Xotic PC) to have that done.
In person, the GT80 certainly feels like it could be a worthwhile splurge if you've got the cash to spare. The screen's generously sized, and the brushed aluminum chassis and the steel keys feel good. The trackpad also cleverly switches between serving as a 10-key number pad (with haptic feedback for key presses) and a mouse. And if Cherry MX Brown switches aren't your thing, MSI says they're looking into offering Cherry MX Red switches as an option as well.
On the flip side, the 980M SLI configuration could be slight overkill for the 1920x1080 screen (at least for now, anyway), and this power-hungry system will give about 1-1.5 hours of gaming time on battery. The latter's expected with something this beefy, but it's just another reminder that though this is a laptop system, it's not as portable as something less maxed out.
If this still doesn't quite meet your requirements for portability plus desktop gaming performance, the other standout of MSI's gaming laptops, the GS30 Shadow, might be more up your alley. And of course, we'll be bringing you more gaming hardware reveals from the show
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