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MSI GT783 hands-on
A sub-three-pound laptop? Been there, done that -- at least if you're MSI. Three years after bringing netbooks and other cute things to CES, the company is focusing on more robust machines -- so much so that while other OEMs are launching me-too Ultrabooks, it's trotting out a gaming box instead. The latest addition to the family is the GT783, a 17-inch beast of a portable rig we saw while making the rounds at CES. Chief among the specs is NVIDIA's top-shelf GTX 580M GPU with 2GB of video memory, though your $2,300 will also buy you a quad-core Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM (upgradeable to 32GB) and a matte, 1080p display. Rounding out the list are dual drives: a 128GB SSD and 750GB 7,200RPM HDD. During our demo, we took a brief detour into Battlefield 3, and though we didn't have Fraps at the ready to monitor frame rates, we can tell you it ran smoothly, even at max settings. The programmable backlighting is alright too, though we're not convinced 35 colors will do it for you like a yellow chassis.
MSI launches GT783 gaming laptop, burns through Battlefield 3 with GTX 580M GPU
Another day, another behemoth of a laptop packing some super-charged components for the demanding, but mobile, gamer out there. Underneath the hood of the MSI GT783 series is a quad-core 2.2GHz Core i7 2670QM along with a 2GB GTX 580M GPU for some pixel-punishing performance. Both machines also boast a 17.3-inch 1080p screen but, while the cheaper GT783R settles for 12GB of RAM and a pair of 750GB drives in a RAID array, the GT783 ups the ante to 16GB of DDR3 and trades in one of those spinning platters for a 128GB SSD. Both are pretty beastly portables (both figuratively and literally, at 8.6 pounds) and are also available as part of a limited edition bundle featuring Battlefield 3, a headset, a mouse and a few other extras. The GT783R and GT783 are available now for $2,300 and $2,500 respectively but, before you rush off to order yours, check out the PR after the break.
