The MSI GT70 was one of the most well received gaming laptops of 2012, featuring internal guts which would make even the most hardcore of PC gamers take a second glance.
It makes sense, then, that MSI's GT70 Dragon Edition 2, the company's follow up to last year's success, tops their previous iteration and then some.
You see, the GT70 Dragon Edition 2 will be one of the first gaming laptops to feature both Intel's newest Haswell processor and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 780M graphics processor in one frame. For those who aren't familiar with those terms, know this: this is a laptop designed for high-end, graphics heavy, video games on the go - not for office work.
According to Forbes contributor Jason Evangelho, who received a review copy of the laptop, the machine is capable of supporting up to three external displays in addition to its internal one. Evangelho said he believes the laptop also features an overclocking "NOS" ability, which draws power from both the machine's battery and a nearby power outlet to overclock the CPU up to 10 percent.
The MSI GT70 Dragon Edition 2, in a maxed-out configuration, features a 17-inch 1,920 x 1,080 LED matte display, a 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700Q CPU - Intel's new Haswell quad-core processor - a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M dedicated graphics processor (itself containing 4GBs of GDDR5), 32GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive.
Those stats alone ought to drive home the reason why the Dragon Edition got its name, but its weight and size help too. The Dragon Edition comes in at a hefty 8.6 pounds in a 16.85 x 11.34 x 2.17 inch frame. The machine also features a front facing camera, onboard Wi-Fi, three USB 3.0 ports in addition to two USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, and HDMI port, four audio ports for audio line-in, line-out, headphones and microphones and a Blu-Ray capable optical disk drive.
All of that can add up to one hot laptop, especially on graphics-heavy games. But, as Engadget notes, the machine features a cooler boost fan to keep it from overheating, especially useful as Engadget reports the laptop can get heated under its main left-side.
This could be a great gaming machine for hardcore gamers who'd like a more portable gaming-dedicated machine, but those who're content with gaming consoles ought to save their money for either the Xbox One or Playstation 4 (or both).
The MSI GT70 Dragon Edition 2 retails from $1,499 to $2,799.
