Acer Nitro 5 15.6-inch i5-11400H/8GB/512GB SSD/RTX3060 6GB Gaming Laptop
This is same as previous deal, but look like they have a new model for $100 more below? Anyone know the difference? Previously they had 2 model 1 with thunderbolt port 1 without.
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11…
RTX3060 is faster than the one on Lenovo one.
Lenovo 3060 is 115W + 15W (dynamical boost)
This one: 80W + 15W (dynamical boost)
no sure how come this one is faster than lenovo legion 5
Lenovo one is quicker and has optimus switch.
Optimus = cannot use RTX GPU output HDMI gaming to TV. Only APU therefore if you plan to use this laptop as an alternative to gaming desktop then you'll be very disappointed
@vinni9284: Optimus or MUX switch only impacts the laptop screen. HDMI port directly connects the dedicated GPU.
@ruanjiangongren: Thanks. After some research I have realised that Optimus can be turned off by a MUX switch in the BIOS settings of the laptop. Not sure if this Acer laptop has it? Cheers
@vinni9284: No, this laptop does not have a MUX switch. If you want to disable Optimus, you will have to use an external monitor or TV through the HDMI port.
@ruanjiangongren: Thanks. My previous thread was referring to older units as no switching was available. Obviously they're options now. Cheers
Its not Lenovo is much faster
55R8 vs 54ZA - the only real difference I can see is the more expensive one has 100mhz lower max cpu and mentions 8hour battery life. can't really find anything that goes over the differences between the 55's and 54's
I think PD page could be wrong from comments in the previous posts, they don't really list the difference
I'd be curious to know how many watts these Nitro 3060's run at?
I believe these run @ 95w. Some models came from factory @ 80w and were bios upgradeable to run @ 95w. This one should come from factory @ 95w.
why this is important? doesn't seems much for 95w and 80w and 80w seems more power efficiency?
Imagine wanting to have a faster car and being able to do a BIOS update to increase its speed despite it using more petrol
The GPU is restricted by the input voltage so an increase to 95W is an actual increase in performance. I owned this laptop until I sold it on, I was getting about the equivalent performance of about a desktop rtx2070 with fans blasting.
For the price it is a decent portable gaming laptop.
Thanks mate!
I own this exact laptop (upgraded to 16gb ram), happy to answer any questions you guys may have.
How is the screen on this laptop?
Recently purchased the Lenovo from the officeworks deal. Wondering how this screen would compare to that if anyone knows?
Screen was pretty average tbh. 144Hz but the colour and brightness weren't the best.
Yeah the screen being not so great is a big reason why I'm thinking I won't bother.
If I'm buying a laptop which I can game on, I want the screen to be solid.
@Shaunzki: I’ve bought the same Lenovo OW deal but don’t think you can really game on that one anyway, right? Compared to this Acer at least?
@donkeydoc: That's such a non answer. The plan for a gaming laptop (for some) is to game on the move. I don't plan to disconnect my monitor form the monitor arm in my setup everytime I go away from home.
The legion 5 has a perfectly fine screen for gaming, for example.
Yeah a fairly average IPS panel with 144hz, probably not very colour accurate but looks decent enough
Haha I did the same thing before I sold mine on. One of the great things about this laptop was the room for additional ram and storage. It can fit 2x m.2 and one 2.5"ssd.
What’s the screen quality like? Any little things that have bugged you with build quality etc since you bought it? In your opinion, do you think paying ~$700 more would be worth it to go with a Legion 5 Pro instead of this if budget could stretch that far? Any feedback is appreciated. I’m a total noob with all this.
Build quality is decent though not great. Decent keyboard though not quite lenovo gaming laptop tier. Not sure if it's just my unit but I struggle to get 2.5 hours of battery life doing a mix of Web browsing and officework. Also the keyboard is actually RGB unlike what's shown in the stock image on HE'S site
Screen quality - have not compared side-by-side with other premium screens. If budget weren't an issue (i.e rich), go for Legion 5 Pro for the extra luxury. Unfortunately I had a budget, so I had to accept the fact that I should only get what I need, and not what I want haha, knowing full well that any tech gadgets I buy now will be obsolete soon. Based on past experiences of using TN screens from older IBM thinkpads and newer Dell 27"DGF IPS external monitor with pretty good colours, I was half expecting this Acer to be closer to a TN quality given the negative comments on washed out colours, but i was wrong. It looked decent, i.e. colourful pictures are colourful (very different to TN panels, which are usually washed out), and as far as brightness goes, I have to dim the brightness to the 2nd/3rd lowest brightness as I only use it indoors (and mainly for office productivity). Full brightness seem bright enough for dark scenes in movies (for me) - but it really depends on each person's use case and expectations.
Battery life for normal office work?
I own this laptop, everything is great for price except battery life. Its horrendous. Will last you around 2 hours for normal office work and web browsing.
How's the screen man? Is it as bad as people have stated?
That's normal for a gaming laptop. You're not going to expect a Ferrari to have great fuel economy. For that price it seems very good. Lucky to get a second hand Alienware with a clapped out GTX1060 for that price
Saw this comment and unplugged my 54ZA to test. 3 hours and 45 minutes later, (with 2 hours of Youtube in between while I was away on lunch break to stop the screen from turning off), it now says that there is 2 hours and 10 minutes left on my battery. So i think without Youtube, it could push past 6 hours. I switched graphics settings so that it only runs on the integrated graphics, use 60hz and dim my screen to less than half the brightness. If it runs on "Auto" mode and with 144hz, i usually get an indication that there is 2.5 hour battery remaining on a 100% charged battery (but i have not physically tested with this auto/default mode before).
I havent tried on 60hz but on 144 even with battery saver turned on at 50% i get 2 hours
@eastwood27: I feel you. I was sad seeing only 2.5 hours battery remaining at its default mode not doing any heavy duty processing stuff. I found that going into Nvidia Control Panel, manage 3D Settings, and choosing Integrated graphics (instead of letting it AutoSelect) and lowering the refresh rate to 60hz seemed to have some positive effect on extending battery life just a bit more. It is still far from ideal for a portable device (I wish it had 8-10 hours like some other brands do), but doubling from 2.5 hours to 5-6 hours is better than nothing.
Actually HN raised price of the previous $1287 model (AN515-57-55R8) to $1395. Here are the differences between AN515-57-55R8 and AN515-57-54ZA.
AN515-57-54ZA has a Thunderbolt 4 port but it comes with a crap Kingston 1Rx16 RAM (ACR32D4S2S1ME-8).
AN515-57-55R8 has a data only type C port (No Display Port) but it comes with a good Samsung 1Rx8 RAM (M471A1K43EB1-CWE).
Obviously, there is no reason to pay $1395 for AN515-57-55R8.
BTW, if you want to upgrade it to 16GB RAM and don't care about the difference between x8 and x16. You can get this one. It's still a 1Rx16 RAM but performance is much better than the pre-installed Kingston
I bought the crucial you linked to combine with the pre existing 8gb. Is that a bad idea? 8gb crucial + whatever is already there.
Whats the maximum RAM this can be upgraded to?
32GB according to the HN specs on the link provided for the deal. https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11…
I'm running 2x32gb corsair vengeance 2rx8 @ 2666Mhz (18-18-18-43)
There is an odd amount of comments from people that have sold on the device, care to share why you did so?
Was it just an impulse buy?
Issues - screen, fan noise, thermals etc?
The screen gets so many comments but if this was 3 years ago it would be a premium device screen - it’s suitable for most users so I’m unsure why it gets so much negative attention.
can't speak for others but I bought mine as a stop gap between not having a discreet GPU in my gaming PCs (stock and prices) but still wanting to game.
once I got my gaming PCs (mine, wife, kids) sorted with GFX cards, I no longer had a need for a gaming laptop and sold it.
edit - as for screen, it didn't matter for me as I used the HDMI port to a monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged in, so effectively this was more a console that could play PC games.
finally!! it has thunderbolt 4 thank god I can actually use this with my monitor and storage array.
Do note only the cheaper one has TB4 (54ZA)
how are you getting that price? I opened the link I got 1395
Just check the link and I got as below.
Amazing Deal
$1295 SAVE $300
Get the JBL Quantum 400 Headset for $99 when purchased with a selected Acer Nitro or Predator Gaming PC! Details here
checked it again it says this
AMAZING DEAL
$1395 SAVE $400
Get the JBL Quantum 400 Headset for $99 when purchased with a selected Acer Nitro or Predator Gaming PC! Details here
I think you are clicking the link in the post description which is $1395 for me as well. If you click the link in "Go to deal", it is $1295.
AN515-57-54ZA = $1295 = https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11…
AN515-57-55R8 = $1395 = https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11…
@bazingaa: ok I see now the cheap model doesnt' have thunderbolt 4 but the 1395 verison has. cool.
so for me its still the 1395 version since the 1295 version doesnt' have thunderbolt 4.
@kungfuman: na people who bought it stated the version which has the thunderbolt 4 is the $1,295 laptop not the other.
great deal!
I bought the Lenovo, seems like if I want a GPU I have to walk away with a worse screen, less ram, heavy laptop, slower CPU I believe and I assume a worse battery plus $300 more
Granted 3060 is a good GPU
:/
Which Lenovo?
It's posted on here somewhere, but it's more of a work station laptop.
The one from Officeworks that orders just got cancelled for?
I assume you were talking about the Lenovo sold by Officeworks (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/670861).
RTX 3060 itself is worth much more than $300. Also the Lenovo does not have Thunderbolt 4.
Besides, i5-11400H is not slower than Ryzen 5 5600H. In fact, i5-11400H is slightly better. https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-11400-vs…
I'm not saying that this one is better than the Lenovo. It all depends on what you need it for.
Fair enough
You're right, it's a good GPU.
After looking at used laptops, only 12 months old that originally was $2500, this still had a way better GPU than 2080 etc
But those other laptops have 16-32gb ram, way better screens etc
So what's more important? Hahaa fhd vs qhd vs 144mhz vs 200+MHz and video cards etc
I have one of these from 2019 and the build quality is absolute dogshit. I'm scared to plug anything into the headphone jack because it's so tight I have to basically tear it out.
Heard it's been improved recently but would still be wary with how poorly made these things were in the past.
I have a similar model, don't expect it to be quiet when playing games. It gets very loud. The 3060 maxes out at 85W. I believe one of the bios updates takes it to 95, but the most recent one does not. GPU sits around 76C under heavy use.
Hi, will adding 1x8gb stick of ram solve the ram issue for gaming, or will the fact the ram is 1Rx16 still severely gimp the performance?
Should I switch both ram sticks to 2Rx8 ? in which case should I get the i7 version for $200 more?
Thanks.
The pre-installed Kingston (ACR32D4S2S1ME-8) is a crap even comparing with other x16 RAMs (e.g. Crucial CT8G4SFRA32A.C4FE).
https://www.memorybenchmark.net/ram.php?ram=Kingston+ACR32D4…
https://www.memorybenchmark.net/ram.php?ram=Crucial+Technolo…
It will be ideal if you can get a good x8 RAM (e.g. Crucial CT8G4SFRA32A.M8FRS). However, you cannot tell the difference until you install the RAM in your laptop (unless it's mentioned in PD or on label). Also some bad x8 RAMs have lower score than some good x16 RAMs.
https://www.memorybenchmark.net/ram.php?ram=Crucial+Technolo…
Anyway, I removed the Kingston and installed 2 Crucial CT8G4SFRA32A.C4FE RAMs which I paid $68 on Amazon.
Thanks for that info. Did you notice any improvement in Frames per second with the better ram? I remember from Jarrods Tech video he was getting ~25% improvements to FPS when switching from crap 1rx16 to 2rx8.
Now I'm using two 8GB Crucial 1Rx16 RAMs (CT8G4SFRA32A.C4FE). The price is pretty good ($34 each) and the performance is similar to some 1Rx8 RAMs according to memorybenchmark. I don't have two 1Rx8 RAMs to compare the performance.
I bought the previous model Acer Nitro 5 15.6-inch i5-10300H/8GB/512GB SSD/RTX3060 6GB Laptop in Oct and i m happy with it. ($1198).
As previous posts mentioned, updated video bios and running at 95W but it is super loud when you play game. (I play game with my headset on, so it is not a big deal).
The only downside i figured out after my purchase that the USB C doesn't support video out, i have to use HDMI to connect to my monitor which only run at 60 Hz which i am using a LG 167 Hz monitor. (Which is ok since i don't play APEX / CS or driving games on pc)
I bought extra 8GB Ram from MSY (Very easy to install). And the purchase also eligible to claim the Steam version of Guardian of the Galaxy. IMO, pretty good buy.
The Thunderbolt 4 port connects to the integrated intel graphics card. You don't want to use it for gaming even if you have it.
Can you provide a link regarding this please as it seems to be a pretty major issue if that is the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaDawQ2bLM
I won't call it a common practice. However, many laptops have Thunderbolt port connected to the integrated graphics card.
So the HDMI-OUT on this laptop only supports 60Hz? is that correct? or do you mean the HDMI-IN on your LG monitor only supports 60Hz?
If the former then that's a deal breaker for me as I would buy the laptop as a desktop replacement to mainly use with an external monitor, ~probably a 4K monitor and use DLSS, but I would want up to 120Hz.
This laptop can't do 4k 120hz gaming unless you're playing non-demanding games. It should just barely do 4k 120Hz on HDMI 2.0. You'd need a laptop with 2.1 for higher than that. I assume the above commenter may have been using a HDMI 1.4 cable or had a software issue if he was locked to 60hz
The i7 version + 16gb memory for $200 it is a better deal imo.
Link?
tb4 model?
any idea what ram type is in the i7 version, 1r16 or 2rx8 etc? I am tempted get the i7 version if I can avoid needing to swap rams.
Another question, which would be more favourable for casual gaming for the same price, this or the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i? Portability isn’t overly an issue but with the build quality concerns many talk about on this, would the Lenovo be more suitable for the build quality alone?
Anyone know what fps you can get on warzone using this?
I have the 54ZA model with TB4.
Just a little warning for those thinking of upgrading the storage. Done some pretty exhaustive testing with this.
A Crucial MX500 prevents the laptop from booting unless you disable the VMD controller in the BIOS (default is enabled). This generally slows down the CrystalDiskMark write speeds for the installed WD PC SN530. Not that that really matters too much.
If you connect another NVMe drive (specifically I tried a Dell OEM SK Hynix 512gb) in the spare m.2 slot along with the MX500, you can have VMD enabled and the laptop will boot.
If I then swap the Dell OEM SK Hynix with a Samsung 970+, VMD enabled, it will boot with the MX500 connected but the 970+ does not get detected in Windows even though it does show up in the BIOS. If WMD is disabled then the 970+ does get detected in Windows.
The laptop seems to be super picky with the MX500. Other users have noted exactly the same issue on the Acer forums (which is where I got the tip to disable VMD). And yes the MX500 has the latest firmware on it.
Good info thanks.
I was thinking, if I buy this laptop.
NVME Slot 1: Boot OEM SSD
NVME Slot 2: Kingston A2000 1TB gaming drive
Plus maybe:
2.5" Slot: 2TB 7mm 5400rpm HDD general storage.
does the tb4 port support usb-c charging and what wattage?
Doesn't support USB-C charging unfortunately :/
OOS
Ordered it yesterday got a call that they don't have it. But have the same one with 16gb just for 200$ extra. I told him I would be replacing the ram anyway, and you could get the i7 for that price.
He told me I would be voiding warranty if I added my own ram lol.
Anyway I called to different HN shops and one guy told me that they upgraded these 11400h 8gb to 16gb and they have no more stock anywhere.
HUH? sounds like BS, I ordered 1 today at lunch and got an email saying ready for pick up in 2hours.
Well (profanity) me I guess
which laptop is better to buy between the one listed in this post and this one here :
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-10…
The $1295 is the best. Don't know why they're even listing the $1395 one when it doesn't have TB4. The one you linked to is a 10th gen CPU with only 4 cores and doesn't have TB4 either. The i5-11400H is 6 cores.
thanks for the reply :)
Besides the better screen on the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, how does this compare to both that and the regular Legion 5 series with similar specced Ryzen?
Only just getting into gaming on PC and all these different specs are killing me trying to decipher them.