For those who missed the Lenovo IdeaPad 3060 deal. Similar specs on offer here.
This is also the best Nitro 5 3060 deal so far (counting the $100 gift card) given the previous deal for $1098 had a 10300H.
There is also a second laptop with what looks to me to be the same specs on the website: https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11…
Probs pretty pointless posting here on this deal then hey
Why is that pointless?
If it just so happens that multiple people have had bad experiences with a particular product, you gonna tell them to STFU so others don't hear about it?
Where did the above poster share a bad experience with this model of laptop?
You seeing something I'm not?
Man the internet is full of stupidity.
@Dvbargain: You don't understand that you're telling people to stfu if they had an implied bad experience? Man the internet is full of stupidity.
@Blitzfx: They implied nothing of the such, if that was their intention then they should have made it clearer. You are the one full of it this time.
@FabMan: Do you think everyone is going to write a long dissertation as to why they dislike a particular brand?
Plenty of people have left low quality comments which have been expounded upon by another user.
@Blitzfx: True and sometimes they get mocked, but they usually they don't have someone dying on a hill to protect their lazy comment though. I ignored their lazy comment, it is nothing, I found it strange you'd fight so hard for it though. Your first comment stated "had bad experiences with a particular product", they never did, they just attacked Acer with no constructive criticism, which is a pretty pointless comment as it offers no incite to anything. Reminds me of when you see a PlayStation post and XBox fans shit on it (or the other way around) without any intelligent insight, just inane waffle. I've written enough waffle myself to know, no need to defend crap.
@Dvbargain: I'm currently dealing with warranty on two of these that overheated.
Acer after a lot of pain admitted the entire Nitro 5 series have overheating issues.
Happy to publish messages if people don't believe.
@typhoonadventure: I believe you! That's shitty. Others seem to have great experiences with the same model too, interesting
@Dvbargain: it really seems to be luck of the draw on this one. People having issues either have it overheat or have it throttle uncontrollably.
The customer service with Acer has been a new bar set of total bs.
At one point they were telling me there was no knowledge of any of these issues even when I was linking them to other posts on OZB about it as well as reddit and other places including people posting pictures.
They then tried to tell me that I must have a faulty cooling fan that was preventing my system from having it's air cooled.
Yes you read that right, they tried to tell me that the fan would create cool air to pass through the machine…
After explaining how this just wasn't possible, they then tried a bunch of other solutions including absolutely smashing the fans on full setting making the laptop sound like a jet engine, removing my ram as my ram must be overheating… flashing my bios with one that wasn't approved by them off a chinese forum (which im sure would void my warranty) or to send both laptops off to them for 4-6 weeks for them to "run tests".
It's been an experience. I followed up with harvey's today after not hearing from them for two weeks over the issues after acer threw me back on them after admitting in the issues and telling me to get a refund via harvey, only for harvey to go we have to talk to acer and now today they're cursing acer out for not responding to them.
We're at a point here where when my father is in hospital watching movies on it, he has the thing shut down for 20 minutes in between movies to stop any isuses.
If I game or do anything other than websurfing on mine i'm lucky to see an hour out of it before I start to have issues. It's a mess.
@typhoonadventure: Definitely fubared. I know of people who even have mining farms of these! Like you said, likely luck of the draw
@typhoonadventure: @typhoonadventure - sorry to hear about the heat issues. Just curious about whether the laptop was placed directly on the lap/bed when it's being used in hospital? I'm asking this because I always have this unexplained paranoia thinking that if I ever place mine directly on my lap/bed, the air inlets located at the bottom would get blocked by the fabric. So I place a flat piece of board in between the nitro and my lap/bed. But yours sound like a faulty unit from the get go. Hope you get your money back.
@Polypterus: so mine which I use at home and work is either on a stand by a window with plenty of ventilation or just on a open air desk at work.
My fathers one when he is in hospital for treatment for a block of hours each time is on an overweigh / way not sure how it's spelt, it's a table on wheels that adjusts, think of a desk that can fit around a bed or a treatment chair, solid base with plenty of ventilation.
(a lot of cancer and dialysis patients do this).
@Dvbargain: I have the 10th Gen i5. Which overheated, cooked and needed a main board replacement.
I then bought a laptop cooler then repasted the GPU and CPU with MX-4. This seriously dropped the GPU around 15 degrees under load but the current cooling solution can’t handle much more than 25-30W through the CPU no matter what you do.
If you leave it on the default performance mode in NitroSense it will simply just bounce up and down at thermal limit. (90 odd degrees which is cooking)
Only when I’ve limited the CPU’s power draw have I’ve managed to get a decent balance of performance and heat management. Only other step would be to undervolt but seriously if you have to do all of this it’s not really fit for everyone is it.
I really wanted to like this laptop.
@darmz: I hear you and I was never actually implying that the model had issues or not, just that commenting on a post saying "I don't like Acer" it's.. Well.. Pointless!
Real life info like what you and @typhoon posted is of value to potential buyers
If you leave it on the default performance mode in NitroSense it will simply just bounce up and down at thermal limit. (90 odd degrees which is cooking)
I had major throttling issues when I had set the NitroSense power profile to High Performance (this is on the i5-11400H). It all disappeared when I set it back to Balance (Acer Optimised) tbh.
@CVonC: it really shouldn't be like that for an off the shelf product.
This is like when acer were telling me not to game on it as it strains the hardware.
It's like ok go buy a twin turbo, but never go above 60 on the highway!
@dv…… right on cue…… ozbargin warrior strikes again…..didnt you ruin whirlpool? now here shutting down comments you don't agree with…. nice life!
I'm not even ON Whirlpool haha hahaha wtf
You’re missing out. This is genuinely a great gaming laptop for the money. I used to own this exact model.
8GB ram but? You can buy another stick, but does it have to be the exact same model and speed as the pre installed stick?
Extremely easy to get an 8gb stick an install, 15 minutes tops
@khepri: yes i know easy to source and install. my question is does the new stick have to be the exact same as the old one but? In desktops installing different brands, speeds, etc. in a second stick can cause issues
@unahb: It should be, though if the timings etc are all the same as far as I am aware you should be fine - if they dont match you will lose performance but afaik it should still work.
Me, I bought two sticks and replaced them both on mine.
@unahb: Doesn't need to be the same model or brand, be aware that ram speed will drop to 2933mhz instead of 3200mhz.
Used to own? Why replace a laptop within 2 years if it's great haha?
Needed to move to a desktop but if that wasn’t needed then I would’ve kept it for sure.
Username checked out
Reasonable. This model has had many reported issues on deals in the past, mainly centred around it's ability to deliver power to it's components under heavy load for long periods of time. For the average/casual user though this is likely still a good deal so I won't neg the actual deal post
Agreed. I had 2 acer laptops that overheated and blew the MB. Never again buying that brand. Hey if a brand has a higher chance of being lemon, why take the chances?
I had:
2 Acer: (both blown less than a year)
2 alienware: (was still kicking before I tossed them to upgrade). 1 actually still alive to this day (m14x r2). still good for browsing, light gaming etc.
1 Asus: thermal issue after 2 years, dust was building up inside, cleaned then it was all good
1 toshiba (RIP): no issue
2 lenovo: current one, no issue so far
I'm not looking to buy right now, but I'm curious… What are your thoughts on HP's gaming range? Omen and Victus?
If I was going to get something, I'd go with a Lenovo. The IdeaPad Gaming laptops are more affordable compared to Legion. But HP tend to have slightly cheaper laptops, and I have known a few people who swear by them.
Personally, I've seen HEAPS of issues with HP desktops and laptops in the past when working to repair PC's, and that has put me off HP for decades.
I bought this recently at the last $1200 sale and can't fault it. I bought another stick of RAM and an SSD and haven't looked back
And yes previously I wouldn't have touched Acer (used to be a hardware tech) but in the last few years they've lifted their game to try and crack the EDU and SME market
Have you run benchmarks on it? Curious how it performs compared to the Ideapad I got. What were the results in 3DMark timespy if you’ve tested it?
Ive got the 15-11400H / 3060 version of this one also with the obligatory OZB RAM upgrade. Its Been stella for regular usage , light gaming.
Mine's all ETH or Flux all night while is sleep also. (It sits on Klim Wind cooling pad 24/7 - gpu never goes over 70c)
Did you replace the original ram stick? if not you should. Great bottleneck.
Hi, did you replace the old SSD or they have another slot for it? Thanks
It has 2x m.2 slots and 1x SATA
nice…..
Fair warning.
I had the i7 version of the laptop around Christmas Last year. Too many issues with power throttling. Had to return it for full refund at Harvey. Some weird issue with the power profile and the 180w charger.
May be not an issue with it version due to low power requirements.
Had the exact same experience with the i7 11800h version too.
Did you have any trouble getting a refund?
Yep. They refused to refund and insisted they "repair" the fault but just held onto it for a week and returned the same laptop.
@jsediv: Christ. They are the absolute worst… Make sure you take them up with ACCC if you’re still struggling with it.
Minot inconvenience. Had to book time with the techguy who went through logs and confirm the issue. Took 3 days in total.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Can I ask what your experience was like with getting a return/refund from HN? I’ve had issues exercising my ACCC rights with them in the past… concerned about this, as it would be a relatively large expenditure!
Great. No dramas at all. You have to book time and go through the failure logs with the tech expert. No hesitation post sale, great customer service and refund was given immediately after conclusion.
I missed out on the Lenovo ideapad gaming $999 deal, should I buy this or pay more for Legion 5 pro?
The RTX 3060 mobile GPU is about 8x as powerful as the iGPU in the Ideapad $999 deal. I'm not sure which Legion deal you are referring to, how much more is it?
I hadn't seen that one, f*** that was a good price.
Be careful they give you the right model! I got this deal instore and they gave me the one with the RTX3050 instead of the 3060 (which were exactly the same price). Lucky I noticed as I got in my car to drive home!
Looking at the nitro 5 lineup on the HN website
It's a massive Mish mash of the following combos.
i5/i7 10/11th gen
Gtx1650 / 3050 / 3060
With pricing being within $500 of cheapest to most expensive..
Apart from someone not knowing any better, who is getting a i7 11th Gen with a 1650..
There are two with the $1195 price tag and same specs
ending in .007 = Win 11
ending in .004 = Win 10
Just remember the .004 one doesn't have TB4
@OssieA: During Nov/Dec we physically checked out the laptops to see if there was a lightning bolt on the USB C port.
Can't tell if the .007 one has TB4 unless some other seller stocks that SKU and lists the specs too. The Acer product details page for the .007 linked from the product support page doesn't state if it has TB4 unfortunately.
Yup, they did the same thing to me too before Christmas last year, the guy seemed a bit upset after failing to upsell me a 8gb ram upgrade for $350 and other numerous "upgrades". It was in Harvey Norman Woodville, SA.
Didn't you want a 100 to 200 dollar copy of norton? Ha ha
Bought this exact model just before Christmas last year for $1295 and can’t fault it for the price. $100 cheaper and the bonus gift card is an awesome deal.
Although, it was extremely difficult to willingly give old mate the sale but couldn’t pass it up at the price.
Core i5-11400H vs Ryzen 5 5600H Benchmarked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMeo7TGlY38
Looks like the i5 is the better cpu. Factor in the better screen and however much a 8GB ram of stick is thesedays and I reckon its a pretty good deal. I would definitely pay the extra $100 for the better screen
Unfortunately 11th gen is a big power hog and the HUB review doesn't properly take that into consideration. From experience the cooling system in the Nitro is not adequate and an i7 version I used to have would throttle a lot.
Hmmm anyone going to point out it’s HN?
It's causing me more grief than it should
Heads up currently dealing with warranty on this for both myself and my father.
Acer's support has been terrible as has harvey's.
Acer after quite a lot of bs admitted that the overhearing problems are known about for this model and the entire current nitro 5 lineup.
Harvey's are currently umming and erring about what to do so i'm being left with each side blaming each other.
It's 100% Harveys job to deal with, no matter how much they claim otherwise
Good luck, sorry you have to go through that
Seems like a great deal for those that missed out on the Ideapad. Another budget gaming laptop for an affordable price. There are some things to keep in mind in comparison to Ideapad.
Positives:
+Can bypass Optimus with external monitor to boost performance. This isn’t present on Ideapad and is a huge advantage
+144hz on this vs 120hz on Ideapad
+Intel 11400H is a slightly faster CPU overall than 5600H.
Negatives:
- 8gb on this vs 16gb on Ideapad (Both will need to be upgraded cause both are single channel)
- Faster refresh rate, but lower response time compared to Ideapad looking at reviews
- Worse battery life as Intel processors are terrible for battery
- Worse raw GPU performance. I had around 8,150 in 3DMark timespy graphics benchmark on Ideapad RTX3060. The Nitro 5 RTX3060 gets around 7,500.
- Quality control and build quality generally seem better on Lenovo laptops. Also, the gamer design is pretty bad compared to the business laptop looking design of the Ideapad.
-$100 more expensive
Overall, they are very comparable devices in this price range. If you play lots of esports titles and intend on connecting to an external screen, I would personally recommend this over Ideapad due to the ability to bypass Optimus.
On your advice to connect to an external screen - this generation is prone to running out of power (causing massive framrate drops) when pushed on an external monitor (i.e. >60hz 1440p), as the CPU/GPU uses more power than the brick can supply.
The 5600H runs a lot cooler, which is incredible in a laptop. The Nitro 5 still has a decent cooling solution that keeps it's temps controlled though.
I’ve tried looking this up and I can’t find any instances of external screens dropping fps. The screen should be connected to the wall, so I’m not sure how issues with power draw would occur.
IMO for my personal case, the Ideapad is overall a better package. Well cooled, better performance on the laptop screen, ok battery life, sleek design and great build quality for the price. I actually really dislike the Nitro 5 design and would personally not want to take the risk with build quality/thermal issues on the Nitro.
But, connecting to an external screen on the Nitro should bypass the igpu and give a performance boost. This has a massive impact in esports titles (e.g. Fortnite, CSGO). So, if someone is playing these esports games and primarily playing connected to an external monitor, the Nitro would be the better option.
Haha it’s not the external screen power itself - it’s just the extra effort of high resolution and frames uses more power and the laptop power delivery fails after 4 hours or so (11th gen models only). My Nitro would run out of power even just playing Dota 2 at 1440p and require a reboot. Check last years deals and reddit. I personally had a smooth return to HN who complained that they had had a couple of other returns that week for the same/similar issue
@Lukas: Is this because it is drawing power from the battery and power brick at the same time and once the battery discharges the power brick can't supply enough power?
I have an older Alienware M17 with a GTX 1080 and was contemplating a cheaper upgrade, but with some reasearch, it's a sidestep and not worth it for me.
Looks like this is the model without the TB4, can anyone confirm, whether the thunderbolt logo is on the USB-c port..
The second link in the OP (NH.QEUSA.004), does not have TB4 confirmed in this thread.
The OP link (NH.QEUSA.007) is newer because it comes with Windows 11 Home (instead of Windows 10 Home like on the second link). But the specs tab is actually incorrect. It has "AN515-57-52E0" as the model variant when it should actually be "AN515-57-54QC" according to Acer's product page. The 52E0 variant is supposed to be for the 3050 confirmed on Acer's product page
But sorry I cannot answer whether or not the 54QC has TB4. I have the 54ZA which has TB4 but no longer on the HN website.
I have one of these https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/703148 sitting here. I'm yet to open the box as I learnt it doesn't have USB-C to charge and use a dock with external monitors, and will probably sell it off. I'm on the lookout for a similar spec with this USB-C port I want. Does this laptop have it?
Bugger it, bought one, stupid gerry. Will swap ram out for the first 32gb kit I find cheap, and happy days. Astrophotography, Plex and Minecraft with mods up and running
Thanks op
Bought the Lenovo and just bought this Acer as well lol
Anyone can link the ram kit they used to swap out? Whats best, buy a new 16gb kit or just x1 8gb stick? Its cheaper to buy the 8gb
Any ram would do. I would just buy a Crucial ram that matches the original specs of the factory ram.
You should replace both, original ram is x16 in the Acer
Yeah I'd like to see some recommendations for kits, esp 32gb
The one in the laptop is an x16. You need to purchase 2 new x8 Dual Rank Ram to take benefit.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Beware-of-the-single-rank-x16-…
Awesome info, thanks
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i9-11…
Would be a good option for some who does not want to be bothered about swapping ram
You would still need to add another stick of ram here for dual channel. Specs say it is 1x 16gb.
You'd need to replace the original stick too. The original stick is x16 which is very slow
Would not recommend. That’s getting into Legion territory price, which would offer better performance, screen and build quality over Acer
Wow even Acer use Intel killer WiFi, shame on lenovo for cheaping out.
I bought a legion 5 pro and it came with a Mediatek MT7921 which is known for its notorious connectivity issues.
I've replaced it with Intel ax200 and haven't had a drop out since.
Just depends on availability. There are friends of mine that got the same gaming laptop with different brand network cards.
thanks…… just wouldn't touch acer