Burz

What are the worst things about the Acer Predator Helios 300?

I plan to buy it, and the LTT vid pretty much showed no flaws on it, but I'd like to double check with anyone that might have owned it for a while lol.

Edit: What about https://www.amazon.com/GL502VM-G-SYNC-Gaming-Laptop-i7-7700HQ/dp/B01MS14CQH/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1515463127&sr=1-2&keywords=asus+strix+gl502vs

Edit 2: I know the helios 300 (if you buy the one that's 1000 bucks on amazon and add on a 2tb drive) would have much more space, but if it's not going to last, I won't be able to fill that space in time lol

4 hours ago, Nizo_GTO said:

Good cooling + Quadcore + carryable laptop +$1000 = very hard to find.

 

I honestly have no idea what you could get, you might be able to get your hands on an intel 6th gen CPU laptop with your specs, but I would recommend buying a cheap laptop with your ideal CPU, I'd go for Intel i5 or i7, and something like a 960 or 950 in it, then buy the HDD and SSD and replace them yourself, will probably be cheaper and more effective than buying the whole laptop ready to use.

 

If you don't know how to wire an HDD or SSD, it's super easy, you screw it in, and plug in the ports where they fit and Voila!

No need to be small, but definitely not a desktop pc lol

Also I might or might not be able to do that. We'll see but I have to order it from a relative who is coming from the us in february. So basically I cannot return it once I get it

I'll go to the point. I can get a laptop for around 1000 bucks. (Could go a bit higher.)

I just want it for running games at non 8bit graphic settings as well as streaming from Youtube or Netflix and some other lighter programs.

Requirements:

Quad core 2.5+ GHz CPU

Nvidia GPU (I'll settle for something like a 960 but the newer 1050-1080 series would be preferred)

8GB RAM (DDR4 preferred, DDR3 acceptable)

+-1TB HDD

Small SSD (No more than 256GB, just for OS and basic programs)

GOOD cooling

1080p display is fine

Non glossy display if possible

If you can find better specs for the same price do tell of course

Thanks. I'll be searching myself, but I normally dont find good options.

http://dynamia.uy/store/factory-refurbished/967-notebook-asus-rog-gl752-core-i7-6700q-16gb-1tb128ssd-gtx960-4gb-173-win-10.html

I'm in Uruguay, so most things cost double what they do in US retail prices (Amazon shows 775 dollars for the price, but here it costs just under 1400)

I just want to know if it's worth it or not. This is a huge investment and I want to make sure my father doesn't end up spending all that money on something that just won't serve me.

Also, sorry if I sound like a spoiled brat I know I'm not, but this is a very very special occasion for several reasons, and he's the one who took the initiative.

If anyone has suggestions for alternative laptops, all I specifically need in terms of specs is:

A 1TB HDD + a small SSD (128 or 256 GB)

Dedicated graphics (Not VR ready or anything, just as long as it's better than integrated)

Quad core CPU (From what I see, the standard is around 2.5 GHz base clock - 3.1/3.6 GHz max. I'm fine with those speeds)

8GB RAM (DDR3 even, though DDR4 is preferable)

Decent cooling (Not extreme but good enough to place on a bed or thick cloth and not fry the components)

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: How bad is it to buy factory refurbished laptops? Not knowledgeable on that term, I'll be looking for info myself but if anyone can explain it to me like I'm 5 years old, I'd be grateful

2 hours ago, dragoon20005 said:

i see no point of repairing this PC because chances are they will sell it off to feed their weed adiction

 

you are going to waste more time cleaning the PC and trying to get it to work

 

smoke actually corrodes PC components

The last point makes sense, the first two I don't fully agree on. But as I've said on other responses, she's not the addict. Just her boyfriend. And he's extremely introverted and shy so I don't see him trying to sell stuff anytime soon lol. She has been pushing hard to get him into a job and there's some slow but steady progress on that. But my main reason to do it is the gesture, not what they use it for. If I wanted to give them something useful, I'd be trying to get them a mini fridge or building materials to expand the house.

2 hours ago, robotsalad said:

if you send me 55 USD I will send you an optiplex with a e8500 and AMD HD 5570 or something.

That's either a scam or a funny joke lol If you were serious thank you for the initiative but I can manage haha

I mean, they don't need the computer. I'm doing it more as a gift than anything else.

1 hour ago, dragoon20005 said:

no point sending them money

 

they are going to use the money for weed

 

these ppl should be sent to rehab for their own good

Her boyfriend is the smoker. She "doesn't" (I'm pretty sure she smokes with him occasionally but I know she's not like, really really into it.) That said, I agree he needs to get out of that circle. But the first step is a stable home, and as I said, he lives in a tiny room where he cooks, sleeps, and does everything except going to the bathroom. And my cousin is a very smart person when it comes to "modern survival" lol. She's gotten and installed a fence for him to keep their cat and dog in, she cooks for the two and keeps encouraging him to get a job. So I think they're on the right path. They're not well yet, but working on it.

1 hour ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I salute and respect you for trying. I personally would've probably done something diabolical like tell them what the problem was and leave it up to them to fix it and keep it in working condition they wanted it that badly.

 

That said, that is one heck of a job there. I would start by cleaning every inch of every component thoroughly. And then make sure it's all dry before trying to get it to post.

 

Shop around the used market and see if you can grab 4Gb DDR3 for cheap, and then throw Linux on the HDD.

 

 

Hey thanks man. While it's easy to judge them (and maybe even me) from the little story I wrote, my cousin is a good lady. She's been through a lot and getting a boyfriend helped her escape a lot of issues. I ended up acting like an older brother (Though we're the same age) and supporting her on everything I can, so that's why I want to fix it. I agree, they're not in the best situation and sending out someone else to fix it for them is not always right, but I'm doing it because I want to. Thanks for the help though, it was more or less what I was thinking of doing.

11 minutes ago, dragoon20005 said:

OP mentioned both are high on weed

 

so my guess they just use it other than a PC.

 

 

Only the boyfriend is high lol

3 minutes ago, Bcat00 said:

My god, i really gotta wonder why your cousin would be into someone like that. 

No wealth and poor self control on drug.

I'm guessing he's a rockstar band player? LOL

He doesn't have a job Love is blind I guess?

1 minute ago, Himommies said:

It's probaly cheaper to just buy a Optiplex for 50 bucks  then fix that

Uruguay prices are normally double the prices in North America, but I'll look into it. Thanks.

There was no ram, the picture is the PC just laid out on the table. I know that's part of the reason it doesn't work lol. As for replacing, They basically don't want to spend a dime on it, so if  I can add RAM, plug in the hdd and get it working I'll probably give it to them for free. Christmas spirit and all

Buckle up.

So yesterday I had my drumming exam for my first year learning drums. Later the same day, my mom and I (She has a car, I'm too young to drive at 17 in Uruguay,) had to pick up my cousin (17, too) from her boyfriend's house and take her to her home, AND back.

All was fine and dandy until we got back, and she casually (but purposefully) told me they had a computer that wasn't working. I instantly offered help suspecting it was something stupid like the cable being half-plugged or something. So for clearance, my cousin's boyfriend is REALLY poor and lives in a house the size of a small garage, and they were extremely excited because they had just gotten an oven, the size of a microwave, for Christmas, from my aunt (cousin's mom.) That's the level of wealth they have. Also for clearance, her boyfriend is into weed, as is almost stereotypical of poor people where I live.

So I go into their house, again, tiny room, and get impregnated by the thick and sweet smell of cannabis. Great welcome. It was late at night so I didn't pay much attention to what was around (Except they had a friend over.) I picked up the case, which by the way, already had the side panel removed, and got back in the car.

As soon as I get home, I pick it up and realize the case itself strongly smells of weed. This is when I start to joke around how "happy" I will feel when actually checking it out the next day.

I woke up today, rather late, in fact, and my mother, a teacher, had to prepare a guy from the school for an upcoming chemistry exam. I had left the case on the table so she had to move it away for class time. Once he was gone, she told me what she had to deal with. Not only did the case STILL reek of weed, she found a condom wrap inside along with a bunch more trash. This managed to pique my curiosity so I got up. Sadly, I tend to have a bit of a shitty short-time memory so I forgot about it instantly and didn't see it. Until about 30 minutes ago, when I remembered it was still there and I needed to see it. So this is what I was greeted with:

Yes. The HDD is not plugged, the PC has no RAM at all, AND there is a bunch of McD dressing wraps along with the remains of a seemingly fun time with a strange balloon.

Now I have to fix it. I think the reason it won't turn on is the condom wrap is broken. Should I replace it maybe?

Also, on a serious note, I hope to be able to get it working and cleaned. If I do, I will update this post. As for the replacing condom wrap question, I think it would be a funny little gag to leave a few condoms inside once it's repaired, see how they react.

56 minutes ago, ricksteendam1 said:

yes i thought that you could easily buy ram and storage were you live as it does not matter what brand it is and that it would be cheaper then buying it from the us and pay lots of import tax 

You might be right, but import tax is still embedded on retail prices here haha. Thank you though. I'll look into it

I'll take as many suggestions as possible, if anyone has good leads please post them! Thanks.

32 minutes ago, ricksteendam1 said:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315926&Tpk=34-315-926

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154734

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8S16KG4256

Thank you, but what's up with the Eluktronics laptop? "No Storage, No RAM, No Op Sys"

Edit: Ah, because I said I could upgrade those later. Lol thanks. I do need it to come with the hardware preinstalled though so I guess for now I'll look at the other options

So my 18th birthday is coming up in just over a month, and my dad decided he wanted to give me something around 1k dollars in price. We live in Uruguay, so this means US retail prices are often multiplied by 1.5 to 2.0 once they reach here. I didn't really want to ask for anything specific but since he had no idea, he asked me for help. We concluded a laptop would be best. I'm visiting him on 12/10 and we'll look at options there. My idea is to start compiling a list now to make it easier to check with him.

The specifics should be:

• Budget: around 750 dollars max for US retail (shipping costs would raise the price to a bit over 1k here)

• Future proofing: I need it to be fixable in the future. Probably not a soldered CPU for example, and possible RAM and HDD/SSD upgrades (I'm cool with only having space for one drive, just wanna be able to take the old one out and put a new one in)

• Basic gaming specs: Basically any graphics card, as long as it makes a real difference vs no GPU, a quad core if possible, and at least 6-8 GB RAM

• Size doesn't matter

• Battery life is important but not priority

• Not a huge need for I/O as long as I can plug in a mouse and headphones (Though being able to add an external hard drive would be great)

• If possible, not a glossy screen, lots of sunlight where I live and it can get annoying.

EDIT: I'd be using it for gaming, probably programming, and music creation.

All I have checked are the Razer Blades but it seems none are in my reach, unless I missed something. I'm not very knowledgeable in laptops.

Thank you!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll update this post with submitted options to have it organized.

• https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154733&Tpk=34-154-733

• https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315926&Tpk=34-315-926

• https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154734

• https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8S16KG4256

34 minutes ago, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

Anyone selling high value gaming hardware on a social media site is a scam, I suggest you flag the account. 

That was my guess. I sent them a message asking how they were getting the stuff. Maybe they'd be honest or have an obvious lie. I'll flag them now haha, they didn't respond to my message yet.

Found this account @GamingGearPlug on Twitter. It claims to sell hardware at cheap prices and the tweets show so (Prices are 50% or lower than Amazon.) Seems like a total scam, but just the prices don't seem like enough proof of that. Any opinions? I mean, if it turns out to be legit, that's pretty decent for anyone here. Doubt it is though.

https://twitter.com/GamingGearPlug

Glad to know it's just that guys. Thank you lol

 So, I recently bought a bluetooth speaker which I'll link down below. It's got great interface, great volume and looks, but seemingly a terrible battery life(800 mAh, though it boasts 10 hours of approximate life). First time I figured the battery was down was not because of any alarm of sorts, but because the audio started cracking down from the phone to the speaker (Both right next to one another) and the video I was watching started slowing down, sometimes being completely still while crackly audio played.

  Plugging the speaker in fixes the problem after a few seconds of charging, as long as I keep it plugged. I found this to be completely fine as I often have a charger around.

  But today, having left the speaker turned off on my desk for 4 hours (After having used it for roughly an hour or two without any noise cracking issues) I come back to the issue appearing again. I just plugged it and tested, and it works well now. This leads me to believe the battery is being drained while the speaker system is off.

 Could this be a factory issue, normal thing, or some sketchy spying conspiracy?

https://www.energysistem.com/en/products/music_box/music_box_series_/42651-energy_music_box_b2_bluetooth_black

On 6/28/2017 at 1:09 AM, Daniel Z. said:

The Athlon is quite old and is basically an A10 without iGPU, the Pentium far outshines it in gaming. DDR4 is just newer and a small generational increase in performance, and all four cores are really weak on the Athlon. The AMD has no upgrade path while the Pentium can go up to an i7.

Thanks for the info. I was misinformed

35 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

bth I would go used, but get this if you can't go used

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($74.89 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: MSI - H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($46.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($54.88 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.44 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 2GB ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Rosewill - FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA - 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.69 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $383.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-27 21:07 EDT-0400

So far I'm kind of preferring the AMD CPU build by aisle9 because it seems to be better balanced. I don't think my friend will need DDR4 memory (I still have DDR3 and never had any issues) and a quad core seems a bit more beefy. I did tell her that the AMD based build will mean more upgrades in the future, but I think she might prefer that over a rather unbalanced build. I do appreciate the input though, I will still be relaying this info to her.

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Just check on PCPP for the US. The best build for this budget would be a B250 mobo or an H110, if you can find one with an updated BIOS), a Pentium G4560 ( basically a 3.5GHz i3 for $60), and 8GB RAM. Maybe squeeze a 1050 in there.

That doesn't sound bad. I'll relay the information to her. I'm still looking for more suggestions though, just in case.

Quick rundown: I have a friend in the US who knows nothing about PCs but needs a new one for studying and possibly playing some games, for under 350 US dollars.

Budget: $350

Location: Arkansas, USA

Aim: Web browsing, Minecraft, Steam.

Peripherals: 1 Monitor, 1 Mouse, 1 Keyboard, headphones (Not a problem, already gotten)

Reason: She has had other older PCs earlier and they have fried. No point in upgrading those.

So, I know this should be pretty easy to do. But I don't have good access to US prices, and I am terrible at browsing for that on the internet. I figured it might be a good idea to post here.One of my recommendations was to try and get a random working pc with a Core i3 or something and then buy a used GPU for it, but I know that's not going to fix her issue due to the lack of experience with it. If anyone has tips on how to lead her the right way, let me know.

It's a really basic rig she needs so I know it's not going to be hard to get. I'm just unaware of what exactly is available and for which prices around there.

Thank you,

-Burz