Planing to buy acer predator 17. Your experience till now?

Vinter89
Vinter89 Member Posts: 1 New User

Like it's said. 
Im planing to buy acer predator 17 (gtx 980m) 
What are your experience till now, was it worth it, any problems after few months? 
Please write all your positive/negative experience, suggestions.

Thanks !

Answers

  • AJ-KW
    AJ-KW Member Posts: 68 New User

    I have Predator 17 & Predator 15 latest models,

     

    I've been using my G9-592-786M which is the Predator 15 for a month now, no problems so far!

    I purchased Predator 17 in April first, Model ( G9-792-71LZ ), First thing i did after i purchased is

    upgrade the BIOS, and drivers to be on the safeside, i was given a 15day replace/refund warranty

    + 1 Year fixing warranty incase of hardware issues, i was so happy with the quality and overall design

    The keyboard is great, as well as the backlit keys and the soundpound works well so do the frostcore

     

    I upgraded my rams on the Predator 17 from 32 to 64GB DDR4, the upgrade was smooth and no issues

    also upgraded my Predator 15 from 16 to 32GB DDR4, and this upgrade also was a success and smooth

     

    Gaming:

    The predator is really a powerful laptop when it comes to gaming, usually i game on it like 3-5 hours everyday, i noticed some tearing in some games and the monitor does not support g-sync, ( g-sync is only support on external g-sync monitor) because the hardware is overpowered, but i managed to fix it when i tweaked the settings to a lower quality setup you shouldn't have any problems in most of the games, as this laptop was built for hardcore games, and i was able to run most of intense games in the market without any issues that i experienced, the 1080p screen is really good and i prefer it over 4K..

     

    Cooling:

    The cooling seems to work well silently, i hear it sometimes when my predator gets hot, but it does not disturb me at all, the frostcore fan lowers the heat by 1-2 degrees max which is okay for me.. dustdefender as acer claims it reverses the fans to kick the dust outside your system so its like cleaning your laptop from the inside, i don't know if this technology works well with dust, but i don't see any dust inside..

     

    Keyboard:

    The reason why i got this laptop was the keyboard, i tried many other well known brands for gaming laptop, but i don't know the secret behind the acer predator keyboard, it just feels right and good

    when you type, and the distance travel between the keys is so PERFECT, try it yourself!

     

    Battery:

    On my Predator 15 the battery last 5-6 hours, and seems to last 4-5 hours on Predator 17, but it really depends on many factors, if you use it to browse only or game, and also your settings like brightness

    audio volume, and what hardware you have, all this can impact the battery performance..

     

    You might experience a very minor issues with software, but upgrading BIOS + DRIVERS to latest version should address everything, and the community here is amazing, always giving best tips and help when needed, i would say go for it! but pick your model wisely, go for latest model which is the G9-792 as i think it has less issues than the G9-791, and i wish you the best of luck, hope this help you decide the best for you, and i will be around to answer your questions, if you have anything else, feel free to ask!

     

    AJ.

     

     

     

  • Vinter8
    Vinter8 Member Posts: 14 New User

    And can you tell me betwen G9-791 and G9-792?

    I mean, what issues got 791? 

  • AJ-KW
    AJ-KW Member Posts: 68 New User

    They are almost the same, the 792 may be either the improved version, or just a middle eastern model, because all predator laptops here in middle east region have the 792 after G9, so don't worry about it, i have seen many issues in the forum, but keep in mind that those issues are very rare like fan problems making sound, or battery issues, freezing, sound and audio problems, and stuff like that, and i doubt if its a manifacture issue or user issue, because some people never care about driver upgrades, and other people they reset the original os and install different incompatible software versions which may cause problems like that, so either you get the 791 or 792, as long as you get a warranty you will be fine, make sure you check the system well from the first week to make sure you got a good unit, to be honest its the first time for me to go for acer, and i usually go for big brands, but even in the biggest gaming laptop companies there are always problems here and there, so don't worry about it, you'll be fine!

  • AJ-KW
    AJ-KW Member Posts: 68 New User

    Vinter pm'd me couple of days ago, informing me that he purchased the predator g9 linux version, and installed win10 with drivers, everything seems to work really great for him, welcome to the club brother, i hope you are enjoying your predator now, as much as i do, if you need further assistance i will be happy to assist you!

  • Vinter8
    Vinter8 Member Posts: 14 New User

    Ok, I have been using my predator 17 G9-791 for 2 weeks now and everything works great.
    Like AJ-KW said. In my country Predator laptops come with Linux. 
    I have instal Win 10 and delete linux from it. I didnt have any trouble with instaling Win, drivers nor bios, everything went without any problems same with all other programs that i have instal. 
    My thoughts so far:

    GAMING:
    It really is a beast. So far I was able to run every game on ultra and they all run smoothly. I had older PC before and now Im able to play every game that i couldnt play before.
    I love display, 17,3", amazing colors, just great. Im really happy with preformance.
    I game maybe 2,3 hours, when im free sometimes more.

    COOLING:
    Cooling is pretty good. On normal use it's around 34° - 36°C (while charging 40°) without fans. 
    When gaming (depends on games) I usualy have around 55°C with fans and 60°C while charging.
    Honestly I didnt try frostcore because I didnt have any reasons. I will try it later to see if there is any difference.
    You can instal Predator Sense app from CD you got with laptop or from acer web.

    BATTERY: 
    Considering it's 17,3" laptop and really powerfull, battery life is solid. 
    On normal use I get around 4 to 5 hours. Since I travel alot i can easily use it without any care of batter running out.
    On gaming it's not that great but than again it's not any better or worse than any other gaming laptop. I get 1 hour, max 1 and half hour.

    KEYBORD:
    I LOVE it, just perfect. One of the best if not the best keybord on laptops.  Really you need to check it for yourself. 

    Overall, im really happy with predator laptop. It's very powerfull machine and it gives you everything you need. 
    I was very fortunate because it was on summer sale, almost 350 euros on disscount.
    Soon I will upgrade to 16 gb ram and get one more SSD. 

  • AJ-KW
    AJ-KW Member Posts: 68 New User

    Happy to hear the positive feedback from you, keep in mind when upgrading your ram, get compatible good quality rams, DDR4 SODIMM 1.2 VOLT , C15, i upgraded mine from 32gb to 64 gb, i choose the valueselect corsair rams

  • Vinter8
    Vinter8 Member Posts: 14 New User
    64 gb of ram? Do you really need that much? It's kinda a overkill. I think 16 gb is more than enough
    Or you dont just game on your laptop?
  • ChevyCam94
    ChevyCam94 Member Posts: 178 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    I'll write up my review tonight when I get home. I have the G9-791. Pre-writeup?......AMAZING!
  • ChevyCam94
    ChevyCam94 Member Posts: 178 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon

    I posted my review in a new post.

    I also have my own website, where I might add a dedicated section for the Predator 17.  Im not allowed to post links to my site publically.  However, if you want the address, PM me, and I'll give it to you.

     

    Mods, if this is also not allowed, by all means, let me know.

  • ChevyCam94
    ChevyCam94 Member Posts: 178 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    Vinter8, some of the reasons for having so much RAM, are things like video editing, 3D modeling, and Virtual Machines.

    I personally kept Win10 as my base, and run Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint 17.3 inside of VirtualBox. I upgraded from 16gb to 32gb of RAM. I dedicated 10gb of RAM to each VM (when running). So even with both VMs running at the same time, I still have about 12GB of RAM for my host OS (Win10).

    As of right now, that's plenty, but I'll be upgrading to 64gb of RAM here in the next month or two. That way I can allot more RAM to other systems, or apps.
  • ChevyCam94
    ChevyCam94 Member Posts: 178 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    Forgot to mention, both of my VMs are running Android compilers. Ubuntu builds my old Gingerbread source, and Linux Mint builds my KitKat and newer source.

    Almost no lag at all with both VMs running their compilers, and playing a PC game inside Windows.

    I'm telling you, this laptop is a BEAST!