$800 for a GREAT gaming laptop? - Acer Nitro 5 Showcase

[CPotter]

Thanks to Acer for sponsoring this video! Check out their Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop on Best Buy at http://geni.us/yfLEa

 

Buy Acer gaming laptops on Amazon: http://geni.us/0Cvk3Wg 

[LHJKO]

much rather get the Dell G3  the acer is just so ugly

[Djole123]

I really wonder why he hasn't talked about the mediocre plastics that plagues any sub $900 Acer laptop...

 

Oh yeah it's a sponsored video.

[AskTJ]

No one cares if you're first.

 

It's a good laptop. 

[Alpha-Toxic]

I have one of these, so quick thoughts:

1. I have a version with i7-8750H, 32GB RAM, 512 GB ssd and a 1TB HDD. It's only a GTX 1050 though (not Ti)

2. I got it as a portable desktop/workstation replacement for software development (not many laptops with a 6 core cpu and 32 gigs of ram, especially at this price), so I can't really say anything about the gaming experience

3. the good: relatively cheap for the hardware you get, good IO (3xUSB A, 1x USB C), LAN port

Doesn't look too much like a gaming laptop.

Very easy access to the RAM and the HDD, relatively easy access to everything else.

Screen is nice

Keyboard is good (though I don't use it in the office)

4. The bad: kinda on the thick and heavy side.

Plastic

Some flex on the keyboard plastic

Very bad battery life, though this could be due to my config with that cpu and too much ram

runs kinda hot on the left side where the ram is (again could be due to the config)

AFAIK it uses the same cooling pipes for both CPU and GPU, so if you stress both, they will starve each other for cooling.

Getting Linux to run properly on it was more difficult than I expected, but once I got all the quirks fixed, it runs pretty well.

5. In general I'm quite happy with it, it's fast and I can run multiple VMs on it with no problems

[Max Voltage]

Love that Acer provided an expandable drive bay. I got a different acer model for my daughter going to college. I believe it had the 950 mx graphics card. Good enough for light gaming which meets her needs. In order to add the additional drive, you need to order a kit from Acer and then do some light disassembly/assembly to install the cable. I added a 1 TB (or was it 2?) Hd to go along with her 256 GB SSD. She loves the laptop.

[AngryBeaver]

For the price these will be hard to beat.

 

I mean who cares if it is plastic, if you want a metal body then you need to push your budget up in to the 1500 range.

 

For less than 1k these are a great value for what you get. I mean I hate gaming on a laptop in general, but if I had to do so on a budget I would give this a look at.

[Egg-Roll]

Hmmm just 8GB?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/648350/ This game requires a min 8GB...

 

It seems like a good deal if you like mobile gaming, but if all you are doing is mild gaming and mostly school work, buy a refurb/off lease laptop and save the money for a desktop.

[D13H4RD]

Looks decent but a lot of reviews remarked the build quality as kinda mediocre.

 

I mean, sorta expected for $800, but still.

[Nogr]

What is the model of test unit?

[ERM64bit]

Holy crap, not sure what has changed, or if it's just been a minute since I watched a video from LTT, but that was making me seasick. Just stick with a fixed shot.

[applebook]

Image quality of this video seems to lack contrast, and colors are muted too. What filters were used?

[danwat1234]

Good specs for the price, but could wait a few months and get more performance from an entry level 11 series nVidia GPU.

But if this laptop has thunderbolt, can upgrade the GPU that way. CPU is powerful enough. But I don't think it has thunderbolt.. You don't want it to become a consumable laptop; If you pick your hardware right, should last u 5+ years before becoming obsolete and a thunderbolt port really helps.

 

Alpha-Toxic, does it have 1 fan or two?

[D13H4RD]

2 hours ago, danwat1234 said:

Good specs for the price, but could wait a few months and get more performance from an entry level 11 series nVidia GPU.

But if this laptop has thunderbolt, can upgrade the GPU that way. CPU is powerful enough. But I don't think it has thunderbolt.. You don't want it to become a consumable laptop; If you pick your hardware right, should last u 5+ years before becoming obsolete and a thunderbolt port really helps.

That kinda depends on when NVIDIA launches the lower end of the spectrum. 

 

Usually, the x80 and x70 GPUs come first, followed by the x60 and then the x50 before the the x80 Ti. They could have changed it however. 

[thomy2000]

22 hours ago, Alpha-Toxic said:

I have one of these, so quick thoughts:

1. I have a version with i7-8750H, 32GB RAM, 512 GB ssd and a 1TB HDD. It's only a GTX 1050 though (not Ti)

2. I got it as a portable desktop/workstation replacement for software development (not many laptops with a 6 core cpu and 32 gigs of ram, especially at this price), so I can't really say anything about the gaming experience

3. the good: relatively cheap for the hardware you get, good IO (3xUSB A, 1x USB C), LAN port

Doesn't look too much like a gaming laptop.

Very easy access to the RAM and the HDD, relatively easy access to everything else.

Screen is nice

Keyboard is good (though I don't use it in the office)

4. The bad: kinda on the thick and heavy side.

Plastic

Some flex on the keyboard plastic

Very bad battery life, though this could be due to my config with that cpu and too much ram

runs kinda hot on the left side where the ram is (again could be due to the config)

AFAIK it uses the same cooling pipes for both CPU and GPU, so if you stress both, they will starve each other for cooling.

Getting Linux to run properly on it was more difficult than I expected, but once I got all the quirks fixed, it runs pretty well.

5. In general I'm quite happy with it, it's fast and I can run multiple VMs on it with no problems

I was wondering if the American power brick supports 230 V ac which is commonly used in Europe. If it does, I will also buy one.

[RioMinax]

I want to know "is SSD comes inside it a NVMe SSD and the USB type C port  is a thunderbolt one" ?

[Dissitesuxba11s]

4 hours ago, RioMinax said:

I want to know "is SSD comes inside it a NVMe SSD and the USB type C port  is a thunderbolt one" ?

The SSD is a NVMe (PCIe) SSD but the type-C port is not Thunderbolt.

 

Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/acer-nitro-5

[Alpha-Toxic]

On 7/6/2018 at 11:10 AM, thomy2000 said:

I was wondering if the American power brick supports 230 V ac which is commonly used in Europe. If it does, I will also buy one.

Well, I'm in Europe and the powerbrick is european, so I can't say anything about the US one. It's a laptop though, so I'd be really surprised if they don't work with both grids. If you can wait till monday, I'll tell you exactly what my powerbrick is rated for (I left the laptop at work).

 

EDIT: It's 100-240V

Edited July 9, 2018 by Alpha-Toxic
Additional info

[travisjunky]

I've been using this laptop for a few months now.  I have the i5-8300H with the 1050 Ti and the 256GB SSD 8GB Ram.  Other than running a bit warm it's been decent.  I ended up re-applying the thermal paste and gained a few degrees on the cool end.  I've been playing MechWarrior online, Diablo 3, and just a touch of Fortnite.  I did sliiiiightly overclock the GPU (didn't touch the voltages, just clock speeds) and got a tad bit more performance, but left it at that.  

 

I will say, any laptop with similar specs and price will win over this one, if it runs cooler.  I do thermal throttle when gaming, although it's not constant and only at peak temperatures (after re-applying thermal paste).  That is my only complaint at this price point.  It does seem like they try to make up for it with their "Nitro Sense" program which lets you run fan speeds at max at the trade off of decibels, but that's a cover-up for bad engineering. 

[Mrvkull]

I'm from BC Canada, literally the same place as Linus Tech Tips. Why am I not finding this laptop for 800 bucks? was it a sale? The cheapest I see it is over 1000 bucks

[Tobimaru]

A good budget laptop for intermediate 1080p gaming. I will concede that mine (AN515-51) was improved greatly by re-pasting CPU/GPU as well as under-volting the CPU to reduce temps under load. IF you can handle a bit of tweaking, and possibly voiding the warranty, you can get your money's worth out of this laptop. I regularly see similarly performing laptops at $100-300 over the cost of the Nitro 5.

From the factory I was seeing mid 50C idle temperatures and high 80C to low 90C load temps on the CPU. This was right at the limit of thermal throttling. The GPU was slightly cooler at mid 40's idle and mid 70's load. If you know how Pascal works though, you'll know 70C's are far from ideal for maximum boost clocks. You can enable an Acer feature (CoolBoost) to boost the fan profile under load, and all of my testing was with the feature enabled.
I followed a YouTube walk-through to re-paste the CPU/GPU with Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste which was a fairly simple 30 minute job that cost me $8.00 USD in total. After re-assembly the temperature differences were immediate. The CPU idle is now in the mid 40's at idle and mid 60's to low 70's load. The GPU is even more impressive at mid 30's idle and never cresting 65C load. Ambient temps 20-23C.

Then using Intel's free Extreme Tuning Utility I managed a stable -0.115v under-volt for my i5-7300HQ. I was also able to change the Intel Turbo Boost settings to 'Unlimited' and raise the TDP limit of the processor. Interestingly enough, when you under-volt you further lower the power usage of the CPU and you will almost never reach the TDP limit of the processor when gaming. YMMV

Also using MSi Afterburner, another free program, I found the included NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB to be an overclocking beast! Typical for laptops, the power limits and voltage controls are locked out and unchangeable. However you can still overclock Core and Memory, and with a little prayer, you'll get some performance gains. I found my card was equipped with Micron memory modules (as opposed to Samsung) and they are apparently ready for the whip even on factory voltage and power curve.
I managed a stable 200MHz core and 1000MHz memory overclock on the card. Verified over hours and hours of benchmarks, gaming, and various system tweaking. In-game (and with maximum fan profile enabled) this 1050 Ti runs at 1880MHz core and 4500MHz memory speeds! Granted, it is loud. If you sacrifice some fan speed, temps are only slightly higher and the core steps down accordingly.

So, to wrap up, after the thermal re-paste, Intel XTU under-volt and tweak, GPU overclock, and various other system tweaks (BIOS, PredatorSense, NVIDIA optimization, etc) I feel this is a laptop worth every penny and more than it's selling price. I even got mine refurbished at a lower price than even Black Friday deals saw, and it's performed beyond my expectations. If you're willing to put in the work, you can make the Nitro 5 sing a sweet little tune.

[rocketgeek13]

I have one of the AMD models: Ryzen 5 2500U, Radeon RX 560X, 8 GB RAM (upgraded to 24 GB with the random DDR4 SODIMM RipJaws sticks I had laying around in the house), and a 1 TB HDD. Sadly, my screen broke so I've been using as a desktop for the time being until I have the money to buy a replacement screen. Also looking to get a M.2 SSD to install in it for a boot drive, and then format the 1 TB HDD and dedicate it to my games. Personally love the machine, but I would like to upgrade one day to a gaming laptop with more power... or even a desktop with a Ryzen 9 3900X in it.