Review of the Helios 500

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Comments

  • Coldsnap
    Coldsnap Member Posts: 4 New User
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Looks like you got a good model. Mine saw 100* CPU temps when gaming so I RMA'd it.

    What model did you have?

    Predator Helios 500. I took an evening and re-pasted the GPU and CPU with GELID Extreme. The CPU paste job from the factory was horrifying, about only 5% of the CPU was covered in paste. No wonder it was spiking to 100*C instantly. After re paste my temps are now 50-60*C gaming with max fans and 60-80* (peak) auto fan, needless to say I'll be keeping the laptop.
  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Looks like you got a good model. Mine saw 100* CPU temps when gaming so I RMA'd it.

    What model did you have?

    Predator Helios 500. I took an evening and re-pasted the GPU and CPU with GELID Extreme. The CPU paste job from the factory was horrifying, about only 5% of the CPU was covered in paste. No wonder it was spiking to 100*C instantly. After re paste my temps are now 50-60*C gaming with max fans and 60-80* (peak) auto fan, needless to say I'll be keeping the laptop.

    Wow what country did you buy yours from?
    - Hotel Hero
  • Coldsnap
    Coldsnap Member Posts: 4 New User
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Looks like you got a good model. Mine saw 100* CPU temps when gaming so I RMA'd it.

    What model did you have?

    Predator Helios 500. I took an evening and re-pasted the GPU and CPU with GELID Extreme. The CPU paste job from the factory was horrifying, about only 5% of the CPU was covered in paste. No wonder it was spiking to 100*C instantly. After re paste my temps are now 50-60*C gaming with max fans and 60-80* (peak) auto fan, needless to say I'll be keeping the laptop.

    Wow what country did you buy yours from?

    USA
  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    edited October 2018
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Looks like you got a good model. Mine saw 100* CPU temps when gaming so I RMA'd it.

    What model did you have?

    Predator Helios 500. I took an evening and re-pasted the GPU and CPU with GELID Extreme. The CPU paste job from the factory was horrifying, about only 5% of the CPU was covered in paste. No wonder it was spiking to 100*C instantly. After re paste my temps are now 50-60*C gaming with max fans and 60-80* (peak) auto fan, needless to say I'll be keeping the laptop.

    Wow what country did you buy yours from?

    USA
    Weird man, got mine from Microcenter 0 issues
    - Hotel Hero
  • UncleMikey42
    UncleMikey42 Member Posts: 28 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Looks like you got a good model. Mine saw 100* CPU temps when gaming so I RMA'd it.

    What model did you have?

    Predator Helios 500. I took an evening and re-pasted the GPU and CPU with GELID Extreme. The CPU paste job from the factory was horrifying, about only 5% of the CPU was covered in paste. No wonder it was spiking to 100*C instantly. After re paste my temps are now 50-60*C gaming with max fans and 60-80* (peak) auto fan, needless to say I'll be keeping the laptop.

    Wow what country did you buy yours from?

    USA
    Weird man, got mine from Microcenter 0 issues
    Same. Whole reason I got this specific product was because it looked like it was actually designed to stay cool, and so far, it has, without any tinkering. I haven't even cracked the case out of curiosity, let alone to actually modify anything! Weird.
  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    edited October 2018
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Red-Sand said:
    Coldsnap said:
    Looks like you got a good model. Mine saw 100* CPU temps when gaming so I RMA'd it.

    What model did you have?

    Predator Helios 500. I took an evening and re-pasted the GPU and CPU with GELID Extreme. The CPU paste job from the factory was horrifying, about only 5% of the CPU was covered in paste. No wonder it was spiking to 100*C instantly. After re paste my temps are now 50-60*C gaming with max fans and 60-80* (peak) auto fan, needless to say I'll be keeping the laptop.

    Wow what country did you buy yours from?

    USA
    Weird man, got mine from Microcenter 0 issues
    Same. Whole reason I got this specific product was because it looked like it was actually designed to stay cool, and so far, it has, without any tinkering. I haven't even cracked the case out of curiosity, let alone to actually modify anything! Weird.
    Same dude which is very strange for me, I usually repaste within the first couple hours of getting any rig.
    - Hotel Hero
  • WILKOgracz
    WILKOgracz Member Posts: 3 New User
    Hello dear ACER PREDATOR community! Below are my results with some questions that concern me a little ;P

    Eveything runs without any problems and stable when I set CPU and Cache like below:

    - XTU Normal Profile, CPU/Cache1.30V
    - XTU Fast Profile, CPU/Cache1.40V
    - XTU Turbo Profile, CPU/Cache1.40V

    As soon as I set the Normal Profile to 1.35 or 1.40V Throttle stop finds some errors when testing via its built in TSbench benchmark:


    I ran every test 5x times in XTU and ThrottleStop.

    Does this have something to do with the higher (better?) TDPs for the fast and turbo profiles? Thank a lot for any help!

    Additionally... are the HWinfo values ok to be 0,143v instead of 0.140v? :dizzy::)
  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    Hello dear ACER PREDATOR community! Below are my results with some questions that concern me a little ;P

    Eveything runs without any problems and stable when I set CPU and Cache like below:

    - XTU Normal Profile, CPU/Cache1.30V
    - XTU Fast Profile, CPU/Cache1.40V
    - XTU Turbo Profile, CPU/Cache1.40V

    As soon as I set the Normal Profile to 1.35 or 1.40V Throttle stop finds some errors when testing via its built in TSbench benchmark:


    I ran every test 5x times in XTU and ThrottleStop.

    Does this have something to do with the higher (better?) TDPs for the fast and turbo profiles? Thank a lot for any help!

    Additionally... are the HWinfo values ok to be 0,143v instead of 0.140v? :dizzy::)

    If your using XTU and throttlestop at the same time that will cause conflicts.

    You should set undervolt values the same for all 3 XTU profiles and changing voltages on the fly can cause issues.

    HWinfo showing -0.003 more than what you set is normal. 
    - Hotel Hero
  • WILKOgracz
    WILKOgracz Member Posts: 3 New User
    edited October 2018
    Red-Sand said:

    If your using XTU and throttlestop at the same time that will cause conflicts.
    You should set undervolt values the same for all 3 XTU profiles and changing voltages on the fly can cause issues.
    Thank you for your answer HOTEL HERO :) I kinda was thinking in the background, that this could cause issues like you wrote, but was alone in the dark
    with this one. THX! 

    I'll set all CPU/Cache to -1.40 restart and test everything separately !!!
    So if XTU makes the stress test than I should be good to go?

    My XTU values for anyone having doubts (mine worked at -1.40v, yours maybe lower, iterate each step slowly as i patiently did) :)



  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    Red-Sand said:

    If your using XTU and throttlestop at the same time that will cause conflicts.
    You should set undervolt values the same for all 3 XTU profiles and changing voltages on the fly can cause issues.
    Thank you for your answer HOTEL HERO :) I kinda was thinking in the background, that this could cause issues like you wrote, but was alone in the dark
    with this one. THX! 

    I'll set all CPU/Cache to -1.40 restart and test everything separately !!!
    So if XTU makes the stress test than I should be good to go?

    My XTU values for anyone having doubts (mine worked at -1.40v, yours maybe lower, iterate each step slowly as i patiently did) :)




    Yes although it's always better to run a graphics bench test as it draws for power for GPU as well as CPU (a CPU intensive game such as PUBG would work good).

    Your profiles look exactly like mine do and I have had zero issues. 👍
    - Hotel Hero
  • techiesmart
    techiesmart Member Posts: 4 New User
    If you look around Acer has some perfect launches in top laptops and they are doing pretty well.
  • navasjm
    navasjm Member Posts: 2 New User
    Hello everyone!

    I’m between the AMD model and the I7 model.

    I understand the AMD doesn’t have thunderbolt, also it comes without hard drive meanwhile the I7 version comes with 1tb, am I right?

    So, what do you think? for gaming and video editing which of these two models would be better?
     
    Maybe @Red-Sand you can help me clear my mind here!

    thanks 



  • WILKOgracz
    WILKOgracz Member Posts: 3 New User
    navasjm said:
    I’m between the AMD model and the I7 model.

    IMHO Gaming + video = i7
    video = AMD 

    Thunderbolt is needed for monitors, usb type-c heck even powering a high quality multi USB mini hub. I recomment the i7 one .. well.. my model :D 

  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    edited November 2018
    It's kind of split between what you want @navasjm.

    The Ryzen will work better for video creation but the Intel will be better for gaming.
    Depending on what you do more those would dictate which model to get.

    I know the Ryzen model is a socketed CPU (maybe upgradable in the future?!?). Not sure if the i9 is socketed though.. I think it is?
    - Hotel Hero
  • navasjm
    navasjm Member Posts: 2 New User
    Thanks so much for your replies guys  @WILKOgracz, @Red-Sand, I think I’ll opt for the i7, waiting till Black Friday to see what discount I can catch!

    thanks again  
  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    navasjm said:
    Thanks so much for your replies guys  @WILKOgracz, @Red-Sand, I think I’ll opt for the i7, waiting till Black Friday to see what discount I can catch!

    thanks again  

    Good choice 😁
    Good luck bro!
    - Hotel Hero
  • finch5
    finch5 Member Posts: 17 Troubleshooter
    Hi Red Sand,

    Am new to this forum and I am unable to drop you a PM. 

    I read your review and it convinced me to drop the bomb on this laptop today as micro center is selling it at $1700 and they have a 15 days window for returns and price matching and i can fight for further refunds if I could find better deals within the next 15 days. 

    My system is still on the old predator sense and bios and I would like to know how you got the latest 1.14 bios. I read in some other forum that the bios update got rolled out during a windows update, please advise if this is true. As I read that you revert back to windows version 1709 as the latest version increased temps, I disabled auto windows update altogether. Did you get your bios update through windows update as well?

    Does anybody know if there are other means to update the bios without updating windows? This is my 1st gaming laptop and I am really stoked about tweaking and undervolting this beast. Loving the hardware of this beast so far and I have no regrets buying it! This laptop's hardware is amazing so far!

    If anybody has any answer to my question, please enlighten me,  a huge thank you in advance for replying!
  • Red-Sand
    Red-Sand ACE Posts: 1,892 Pathfinder
    finch5 said:
    Hi Red Sand,

    Am new to this forum and I am unable to drop you a PM. 

    I read your review and it convinced me to drop the bomb on this laptop today as micro center is selling it at $1700 and they have a 15 days window for returns and price matching and i can fight for further refunds if I could find better deals within the next 15 days. 

    My system is still on the old predator sense and bios and I would like to know how you got the latest 1.14 bios. I read in some other forum that the bios update got rolled out during a windows update, please advise if this is true. As I read that you revert back to windows version 1709 as the latest version increased temps, I disabled auto windows update altogether. Did you get your bios update through windows update as well?

    Does anybody know if there are other means to update the bios without updating windows? This is my 1st gaming laptop and I am really stoked about tweaking and undervolting this beast. Loving the hardware of this beast so far and I have no regrets buying it! This laptop's hardware is amazing so far!

    If anybody has any answer to my question, please enlighten me,  a huge thank you in advance for replying!

    Ok so after I made this review a few things have changed.

    I am currently on Windows 1809 and everything seems to be working quite well just like 1709 was (maybe slightly higher temps but not as bad as 1803).

    In any case here is what you do if you decide to stick with 1709.

    1. Update the BIOs from Acer's website (mine didn't install from Windows).

    2. I would recommend creating a Acer Recovery pendrive using "Acer Care" to be able to revert to factory including all of Acer's drivers in case in the future you want to go back to that beautiful stock setup. (The recovery uses current files to create drive so make sure your on stock Windows OS)

    3. Go ahead and update to the latest Windows update build and see of you like it. If it doesn't update to 1809 and stays on 1803 then I don't recommend keeping it.

    4. Use Windows built in option to "Rollback" your OS version instead of not having your system update at all.
    The reason for rolling back is so that you can still leave Windows update active and recieve security updates while staying on the OS version you want.
    To rollback after you decide you don't like a specific Windows update just go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Rollback.
    - Hotel Hero
  • finch5
    finch5 Member Posts: 17 Troubleshooter
    Red-Sand said:
    Hi @Red-Sand
    Thanks for the great review and info. I was especially interested in the past about edited the XTU files. I'm pretty new to this stuff and had a bit of search on Google and couldn't find any info about this. How do you edit these files?

    Appreciated the help

    Thanks
    Mick

    Additionally....&nbsp;<br>C:\ProgramData\OEM\PredatorSense\i7-8750H<br>I could then open the XTU profiles and see what tweaks they had.<br>I was quite surprised to see Acer added a built-in undervolt<br><br>course I tweaked these values to -0.140 CPU core/cache on each profile then exported/overwrote current ones (Yours may not be able to handle my !).undervolt<br>Now I have a automatically undervolted laptop without needing to have XTU or Throttlestop installed! (XTU Service runs profiles)<br>AND power package management without having to unlock BIOs!



    Hey brother.

    Basically you just install XTU (Intel Extreme Tuning Utility) and then navigate to the folder I listed in the review and open each profile one at a time (which opens in XTU).

    It will then load the configuration Acer has setup and you can tweak the values you'd like to.
    I tested extensively on my own system as to a safe undervolt value to be sure the value I set wouldn't cause my system to shut down (i.e. too much undervolt) because with how Predator Sense auto starts at boot you would enter a bootloop as the undervolt is reapplied every startup.

    A good safe value for my laptop is -0.140 like I had posted above. You can test by opening XTU standalone (it will detect current undervolt values) and add additional undervolt. Ive heard many users say -0.140 works great and even of you can undervolt past -0.140 Ive heard it increases temps after that point.

    I do not recommend changing package power limits as the values Acer has set are perfect.

    Once you've opened one of the profiles... let's say you opened the Normal profile, you would then make adjustments in XTU then go to the profile section and save the profile. When saving the profile you need to give it the same name as the profile you had just opened.. then just export the profile to your desktop and repeat for the other profiles.

    Once you have all the profiles extracted to your desktop I suggest going to where the original Predator Sense profiles are and copy paste them into a new folder somewhere and name the folder PSense XTU Backups (or whatever you want to name it) and copy them there...just incase you want to revert back.

    Once you've backed up the original profiles you can then transfer the ones you customized and exported to your desktop to the actual Predator Sense folder and overwrite them.

    Then just reboot your system and you're done. 👍
    Thank you so much for your seriously fast reply! Managed to go to ACER support page through the ACER Care app and managed to find the latest BIOS which is currently 1.16 right now. Not sure what are the improvements, but managed to get the CPU power limit option to appear in pred sense and managed to  undervolt all 3 profiles by -0.140 as well. And its true, CPU temps did not go past 68 celsius and freq utilization maintained at 100% at 3.9ghz throughout the stress test! Cinebench score was also 12xx with no throttling at all throughout the test.

    Windows updates only showing 1803 update available now, do you have to update to 1803 before the update to 1809 is available?
  • finch5
    finch5 Member Posts: 17 Troubleshooter
    Red-Sand said:
    finch5 said:
    Hi Red Sand,

    Am new to this forum and I am unable to drop you a PM. 

    I read your review and it convinced me to drop the bomb on this laptop today as micro center is selling it at $1700 and they have a 15 days window for returns and price matching and i can fight for further refunds if I could find better deals within the next 15 days. 

    My system is still on the old predator sense and bios and I would like to know how you got the latest 1.14 bios. I read in some other forum that the bios update got rolled out during a windows update, please advise if this is true. As I read that you revert back to windows version 1709 as the latest version increased temps, I disabled auto windows update altogether. Did you get your bios update through windows update as well?

    Does anybody know if there are other means to update the bios without updating windows? This is my 1st gaming laptop and I am really stoked about tweaking and undervolting this beast. Loving the hardware of this beast so far and I have no regrets buying it! This laptop's hardware is amazing so far!

    If anybody has any answer to my question, please enlighten me,  a huge thank you in advance for replying!

    Ok so after I made this review a few things have changed.

    I am currently on Windows 1809 and everything seems to be working quite well just like 1709 was (maybe slightly higher temps but not as bad as 1803).

    In any case here is what you do if you decide to stick with 1709.

    1. Update the BIOs from Acer's website (mine didn't install from Windows).

    2. I would recommend creating a Acer Recovery pendrive using "Acer Care" to be able to revert to factory including all of Acer's drivers in case in the future you want to go back to that beautiful stock setup. (The recovery uses current files to create drive so make sure your on stock Windows OS)

    3. Go ahead and update to the latest Windows update build and see of you like it. If it doesn't update to 1809 and stays on 1803 then I don't recommend keeping it.

    4. Use Windows built in option to "Rollback" your OS version instead of not having your system update at all.
    The reason for rolling back is so that you can still leave Windows update active and recieve security updates while staying on the OS version you want.
    To rollback after you decide you don't like a specific Windows update just go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Rollback.
    Hi Red Sand,

    Do i have to install 1803 update before 1809 update is available? 

    And i also realised that during the stress tests in xtu with the max and turbo profile on, the timegraph shows that the cpu frequency maintains at 3.88Ghz at 100% utilization most of the time and only occasionally spiking up to 4Ghz for short moments only. Is this expected or should i be expecting the CPU to be maintaining at 4Ghz? There were no power nor temp throttling whatsoever reported by XTU during the stress test. Does yours maintain at 3.88Ghz as well? So sorry for all these questions as this is like my 1st gaming laptop and very 1st time tinkering with XTU and undervolting.

    Really appreciate your review and time in explaining everything!
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