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Acer Nitro 5 15.6-Inch i5-10300H/8GB/512GB SSD/RTX3060 6GB Laptop - $1,198 + Shipping (Free C&C) @ Harvey Norman

2480

Laptop with RTX3060 below $1,200 is a bargain!

The last cheapest one in the last few months was $1,149 (refurbished - not exactly an apple to apple comparison with this new one) at Acer refurbished site.

EDIT: Dont forget to claim the Marvel Guardian of Galaxy Digital Code from Acer

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  • +1

    Single rank vs dual rank

    https://youtu.be/R7CO9v9rpOk

    • TLDW?

    • Whats the best duel channel ram to get for this local?

      add anoth 8gb?

      mix the 8gb with a 16gb

      or buy 2 x 16gb?

      • Buy 2x8gb dual rank and remove the memory the came with it.

        • Not being lazy but as a complete noob can you link to the item or provide specs to search so I can try find one local?

        • The 8GB included in this model is already dual rank 1Rx8, no need to remove it.

          Just add another 8GB for dual rank, dual channel

          • +1

            @IamEzza: No need to remove the ram. It is already the best kind (x8, 3200mhz). Download CPU-Z, check the exact model of ram you have another stick of that. I had a different model of ram from other people who bought this laptop on the June sale… No need to buy two sticks

          • +1

            @IamEzza:

            dual rank 1Rx8

            But 1R is single rank..

            • @CVonC: Actually, that's true, but it was the terminology that everyone was using.

              The important part is the 1Rx8 vs 1Rx16
              there are 1Rx16 memory sticks coming out now that only have 4 memory chips and have a pretty big performance hit.

              This laptop comes with 1 stick of 1Rx8 which has good performance.

  • +1

    I just chucked another 8gb Crucial stick in and it’s registering as 16gb.

    However it’s telling me in task manager that there’s only 11.9gb available and when idle it’s 25% in use? Is that normal?

    • +2

      yes, that's normal, some memory is reserved, probably for the video card, and some is being used by the OS.

      • +1

        Thanks for that, puts my mind at ease! Seems like it's Windows Defender using around 7% and the rest is small system stuff.
        Memory upgraded, bios updated to 95w, ready to enjoy it now!

        • +1

          I pretty much uninstalled all the acer crap, other rubbish they pre-install, and norton.

          All i left was the acer Nitrosense(for the keyboard colours and fan speed controller), and customer care(for the bios/updates)

          So my memory reserved would be a bit less.

          • +1

            @Pittyh: Yep, me too! Wasn't too much bloatware on this one which was a nice surprise

            • +1

              @Lionheart: if you're using the machine predominantly plugged in there is an option in the acer software to cap the battery charge to 80% so that you are not stressing the battery as much.

              Many laptop manufacturer softwares aren't just bloatware anymore trying to sell you crap

              • +1

                @peter05: I only use it plugged in mate, where can I find this battery saving option?

                • +5

                  @Lionheart: its under "acer care center" and then you click the yellow box for checkup, then in the battery health area you move to the second tab and you'll get an option to turn it on.

                  i haven't noticed it kicking in thus far but i have this enabled on all my lenovos to conserve battery longevity

  • +1

    Thanks OP. I got it delivered yesterday and upgraded the ram and m.2 SSD. I'll give the vbios a try over the weekend

  • +1

    Did anybody not get a hdd cable with their laptop? I just opened mine and I only have the screws but not the cable.

    • i had one missing some manuals etc, if you're close by you're welcome to grab a spare i have

      • Thank you for the kind offer but fortunately HN said they will send be one after I told them it was missing!

  • +1

    still in stock

    • -2

      Makes sense, it is an Acer after all…

      • +2

        Not sure why you're trying to put this computer down with all of your comments. I assume you bought something more expensive with worse specs just prior to this deal coming out and are experiencing pangs of regret.

        Keep lashing out at the Acer brand… if it helps.

        • +1

          I have to say I'm no fan of Acer but this deal was too good not to give it a chance … I may regret it in 6-12 months time but so far I'm quite impressed with this machine so far… Personally I think it's got better than expected build quality and really appreciate that it's easy to upgrade/customize (added 8gb team and an extra 1tb ssd and upgrade the gfx to 95w)….

          Prior to getting this I would always tell friends looking for advice not to buy Acer, I may re think my recommendation now ..

  • I got the cable and chucked in my old 500GB HDD from my Alienware m11x.

    Upgraded the ram as well.

    Deal was prefect timing my GPU died on my comp and bought this as a desktop replacement. Should last the next 2 years :)

  • obviously different price points but do people think Gigabyte G5 KC 15.6" i5 10th Gen RTX 3060 Max-P is worth the price difference for $1649?

    • It is not worth. Really. Check the comparison on YouTube

      • Literally watching reviews on both right now haha

        Looks like the main downfall of this is 4 cores

  • +1

    I don't know if this is normal, but the screen doesn't seem bright enough on mine? I got it today and when I've got it turned up to 100% it still feels like it's 60% or 70% brightness compared to my old laptop.

    • -1

      This is an Acer… and not Asus unfortunately. A crappier screen is to be expected among other things too.

      • I'm not sure if I'll get used to it, but I'll give it a go. I usually have it set to 1 zillion percent brightess level, so I'm not used to this. I need it so bright it's burning my eyes. It's almost like it's on adaptive brightness at the moment.

    • I'd say find out the nits of your old laptop on its spec sheet and compare it with what acer claims this laptop has. Personally I found the nitro to be very bright at full brightness when sitting indoors under some lights.

  • +1

    Anybody upgraded this acer to windows 11? It gave me an option to upgrade.

    • +1

      Yep I upgraded to win11 on the laptop. No issues

    • Decided to wait, but I was 50 50

    • I upgraded and the taskbar is annoying me. They need to give us the "Never Combine taskbar buttons" option ASAP.

      • Thanks for this info, I will wait then. "Never combine taskbar buttons" is something I dont want to lose for now.

    • Upgraded. No regrets for me, about a week in. I actually had an issue on W10 that was resolved with the update

  • Vídeo showing the 62% left on the table when using 8gb single rank on SoTR

    https://youtu.be/CSlNPBsLtTA

  • What fps do you guys get with BF V? On ultra 1920x1080 I'm only getting 60-70 fps… I've got dual channel, 95w update. On Witcher 3 I'm getting 110-120, I'm not sure what's going on with this particular game.

    • Try turning off DXR?

      • Never had it on. But weirdly the game now works with 100< fps. Weird, I have no clue what went wrong

        • maybe it was thermally throttling?

          • @CVonC: Potentially. I never changed anything, but I noticed my GPU usage went from 60% to now 99%. I was only running basic analytics, so I could see GPU usage not heat but I'd love to know why it only did that for bfv. Thanks for your suggestions tho guys :) have a good one

  • Just checking if I have the same specs in the laptop as others:
    - for the 2x NVMe 2280 slots - one slot has the WD PC SN530 NVMe SSD 512 GB. Looking at the SSD seems to have Scandisk parts.The other slot is actually occupied by an Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 card. That means to upgrade the storage, you either have to replace the SSD card or use the 2.5" SATA.

    Noticed when I got the laptop in the box @ HN, it has all the seals but you can tell that it has been opened and re-sealed.

    • +1

      WD is Sandisk and vice versa.

      There is another m2 slot with the connector next to the ram

  • a good deal

  • Shopback has 7% gift card. Has anyone used it?

  • +4

    Don't know if this was commented, but you can apply for a "Intel Gaming Bundle (Pick 1 of 3) Ubisoft" when you buy this laptop by clicking on this link: https://softwareoffer.intel.com/Campaign/LearnMore/9951920E-…

    • It is denied as HN currently not running a promo on those. The current promo is for Guardian of Galaxy

      • That's sad…I much prefer riders republic rather than guardian of the Galaxy

      • +1

        That promo is because of Acer, while the one I commented is because of Intel. I have successfully applied to both

        • +1

          Cheers mate…. i gave it a try and i guess now it's a waiting game (up to 10 days) to see whether it get accepted or rejected….

    • Get denied by Intel, because promotion finished 31 August.

      • Yeah I just got an email saying that but the promo clearly says november is the cut off date for purchases so I sent them an email back

        • It is said in their t&c, the date depend on each participant retailer.

          BTW, what email address you used to contact Intel, can not find it in the T&c. I may send them a email too.

          • @couger: Where does it say cut off date is August?

            • @wippy: the denial email I got from Intel.

              • @couger: Ok… Guess I'll get it soon then

          • @couger: doh… just got my denial email jsut now…..who and/or where did you guys send an email to? the noreply email address they sent the rejection from?

        • This is what I got from the auto email of denied claim
          The purchase was made outside of the promotional dates for the Ubisoft Pick Your Game promotion, April 12, 2021 through August 31, 2021

          Where did you send the email to @sTein0

  • can anyone comment if external monitors which support amd freesync only (not supporting nvidia gsync and not on nvidias list - eg. Dell S3222DGM ) will work for freesync via the hdmi port on this? some mixed info around as to whether freesync only works with nvida gpu over displayport or not, and this nitro only has hdmi video out…

    • Hmm good question, the dell support page says the S3222DGM actually supports G-Sync via DP. Checking the manual, it says it will support Freesync (144Hz) only via HDMI 2.0 which this Nitro 5 apparently has.

      • Yeah definitely nvidia gsync compatibility is supported on display port for freesync monitors, but that port not on this nitro. I read the user manual and searched on key words and couldn't see the bit you mentioned? Also not sure if that wording about HDMI would be only for AMD GPUs and not including Nvidia GPUs.

        • I read the user manual and searched on key words and couldn't see the bit you mentioned?

          Page 16

          Maximum preset resolution
          * 2560 x 1440 at 144 Hz with HDCP 2.2 (HDMI 2.0)
          * 2560 x 1440 at 165Hz with HDCP 2.2 (DisplayPort 1.2)

          Also not sure if that wording about HDMI would be only for AMD GPUs and not including Nvidia GPUs.

          Hmm yeah I've read further into your question. It does seem to be the case that Freesync will only work via HDMI for AMD GPUs. Or you need HDMI 2.1 on both ends :/

  • +1

    Holy shit, gaming laptops have gotten so cheap. The laptop I am currently using is a 2016 dell inspiron 7559 with a 960m. In 2016, the cheapest 960m laptops cost more than $2000. I paid $2000 for this laptop but with a $250 discount.

    • That's also my current laptop and I got it from a deal like this one for $1119 https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/238048 It was this price several times in 2016 when I bought it.

      • My one is the one with the i7 6700HQ and M.2 SSD. I was pretty much locked into getting it from JB HI FI because my old laptop under Dick Smith warrenty died on me and they only gave me the option to put it towards another laptop at JB.

  • +1

    Good review here if anyone wants a nice video to look at on this laptop.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHo7WyEXFSo

    Spongy keys is a deal breaker for me but not end of the world.

    • that same youtube channel (Rick's Tech) also has a number of other great videos on this playlist covering updating v/bios, mining, game performance, dual channel difference and a few other things.

      • oh wow nice find

        great channel

      • ^oh meant to say, the above linked video playlist is all specifically relating to this exact i5/3060 configuration of Acer nitro 5

  • +12

    Just bought this laptop today and had it setup within the hour and mining at 43Mh/s with a collation of steps taken from this thread.

    The steps I used:

    • Update the bios to 2.06 by completing the following:

    1.1 Navigate to https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers
    1.2 Put in the model ID, located underneath the laptop
    1.3 Disable Windows SmartScreen and Windows Defender
    1.4 Make sure your laptop is charged and plugged in
    1.5 Download the 2.06 BIOS
    1.6 Unzip the Program and run the Program (restart PC upon completion)

    • Update vbios to unlock the 95w TDP (instructions inside the download file)

    2.1 Disable Windows SmartScreen and Windows Defender
    2.2 Download, Unzip and run the program: https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/Firmware/Firmw…

    • Setup Fan Curve and setup MSI Afterburner

    3.1 Open NitroSense Application and check off the Auto fan buttons, set fan speed slider to your preferred settings (I'm using 50%)
    3.2 Download and install MSI afterburner: https://download.msi.com/uti_exe/vga/MSIAfterburnerSetup.zip?token=exp=1635228072~acl=/*~hmac=33df2e1085f411c12cddd3cafc8bebd44b20cb6eafbf36850510641152092cca
    3.3 Once MSI Afterburner is installed, set Core to -150 and Memory to 1800
    3.4 Check Windows Power settings, ensure your laptop wont go to sleep :)
    3.5 Use preferred mining program and check the temps, hashrate etc… Should be 41-43Mh/s

    Hope this helps someone.

    • +1

      I don't know why you were negged. Legit very insightful and will be helpful for people looking to recoup some coin from their laptops.

    • Hope you can help, since I am a bit noob on this.

      I've got the BIOS + graphic card driver upgrade (so I guess up to 2.2 on your list), but haven't done anything with Fan Curve and MSI Afterburner.

      However, my NitroSense seems to not detect the GPU temperature anymore. I did a trial run with nicehash overnight, and NitroSense keep saying my GPU is idle, even though nicehash say it's running on GPU, and the GPU fan got quite high. Even NVIDIA GPU Activity program say nicehash is using it

      Noted that I haven't upgraded my RAM yet, and got a 4K external screen connected. Not sure if these have any impacts on mining efficient (I think I've got only 32 MH/s, way too low compare to others here)

      • This is my primary laptop for business, gaming and browsing. Is it worth to use them for mining overnight? I heard mining can shorten the lifespan right? Will it mean I may need to buy another one in two years time?

    • Thanks for the detailed steps, I'm trying to do the same on windows 11 but I can't seem to edit the voltage on afterburner. Were you on w10 for that to work?

      • +1

        Windows 10 and only changes core and memory clock. No need to touch voltage.

  • Acer outlet now dipped to $1149 again :) just like when I bought mine

    comes with free expedited shipping (received mine next business day both times I ordered from them)

    https://online.acer.com.au/refurbished/refurbished-gaming/ac…

    also there's this option (same everything but 8C/16T 11th gen Intel CPU) for $1400:

    https://online.acer.com.au/refurbished/refurbished-gaming/ac…

    • Does it come with all accessories in the box? Curious as it is a little tempting to get the 11th gen version considering the price.

      • both units I got, the box had:
        - laptop
        - power brick
        - SATA cable for internal 2.5" SATA slot

        all you need, basically

    • I think better buy the 7% discounted harvey norman gift card from shopback, then buy from HN. Cheaper and brand new. Though many people don't like HN including me.

      • +1

        yeah, but seriously screw him

      • It was only 4.5% for me, maybe they uped it

        • I got 7% yesterday, used 2x500 and 2x100 in person no issues

          • @Theyellowbatman: if you have sunsuper, last time I checked they also offered HN giftcard at 7%. I regretted not buying the giftcard first as I thought the giftcard may take 24 hours to be delivered and all the stocks would be depleted within 24hrs.

      • Definitely better to just buy it new with discounted gift cards.

        Does anybody know if there's a limit to how many gift cards you can use in an online purchase? Shopback has run out of the $1000 gc

        • +1

          previous forum post has comments saying 10 have been used without issue online. although harvey t&c page says you can use up to four at once online. you could always call the store to check. although the shopback 7% goes back to 4.5% in 3 ish hours.

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