Helios 700 love/hate relationship (incl. Predator Sense / Audio/ Screen)

TimoFaust
TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
edited November 2023 in 2020 Archives
Hi guys, new to the predator forums (though I owned a Acer predator X34A before I had to RMA it 3 times ;) and wanted to share a few thought and ask a few questions about the Helios 700;


TL; DR: Amazing out of the box performance, but flawed audio, screen and Predator Sense profiles;
I need to be able to edit the Predator sense settings (fans and XTU profiles); If anybody can link me to something that acutally works with THIS laptop, I would very much appreciate it. Replacing the XTU profiles with renamed versions lead to errors "profiles did not match CPU" - even the original ones, leading to terrible default settings.
HotelHero's version of GPU OC still works like a charm with the Helios700;



So, I have been excited to buy one of these for a while now, as I like the idea of the cooling solution and hand-rest. Finally the laptop was available in Germany at the beginning of last week and I immediately ordered the 9980HK / RTX 2080 / 32GB Hynix 2666 / 1GB NVME version;

After testing / installing / tuning for a few days I came to these conclusions...



PROS:
GPU and CPU are super powerful ( Timespy 10250 / Firestrike 21000 with preset Turbo profile & Timespy 11000/ Firestrike 23500 after some manual editing)
Magforce keys are allright
Thunderbolt / lots of connection options
Draggable Keyboard

NEUTRAL:
Whish I could turn off the Predator RGB at the backside of screen. Use this laptop for gaming and business.
Thick bezels

NEGATIVE:
Predator Sense settings (OC/ fans)
Flashing keyboard until Predator Sense is loaded in WIN10 (you open the laptop in a meeting and you have a 15 second lightshow, not cool- at least you can turn the sounds off.)
Sound system: Instead of "oooomph" it is "squeeek"; Also: Pull the keyboard out and it muffles the front speakers.
Screen: Heavy bleeding, bad uniformity, contrasts are allright;




So, let me get into more detail about the things I wish Acer has done differently or wish they will update soon. (Feel like a beta tester with the laptop)

1. Predator Sense
I understand that the engineers want to make sure that every laptop delivered does not run into OC problems. That is fine and I understand your hesitation to bring the profiles to their limit. BUT: Why not give the user more options to fine- tune?

Right now, Acer offers you 4 profiles and one of them is absolutely useless. Profiles for keyboard in normal position are

Normal: CPU up to 4200MHz on all cores / No OC of GPU ; Fans constantly running and switching between non- audible / audible / woooshhhh
Fast: CPU up to 4300MHz on all cores / 60MHz & 133 MHz GPU OC; Fans at max speed

Pull out the keyboard and you get

Boosted: CPU up to 4400 MHz on all cores; 60MHz/ 266MHz GPU OC; decent fan control; This design is acutally quite well done. It gets a little louder in gaming, but is still less audible than my old Schenker.
Turbo: CPU up to 4500MHz on all cores; 100MHz/ 400 MHz GPU OC; fans at max speed

All profiles come with a 0.11V undervolting of CPU and different Watt targets between 45W and 90W;



So, what are my thoughts? First of all, I wish Acer would give us more options to adjust these settings to our liking. The things I want to be optimized are:

- adjustable fan controls: Please give me the option to set my own fan curve.

- adjustable XTU profiles: Predator Sense switches between 4 preset CTU profiles. Sadly, they do not like editing. Once you edit a profile with the newest version of XTU it will not be recognized anymore and the CPU switches to default mode without UC and gets quite warm. My CPU can easily run the settings of all 4 profiles at -0.13V, but hey. I am not allowed to. There are online guides how to circumvent this, but in the end, Predator Sense always resets my CPU settings no matter what to terrible default state.

- If we are not allowed to make our own, then change the CPU profiles so they make more sense! Right now, "Fast" is useless. It is super loud, the OC is barely recognizable and when you pull out to boosted you get a more powerful but less audible performance as well. This leads me to my wish: Make "Normal" -> "Silent"; Edit CPU max MHz to a value, where the fans can stay below 1400rpm, so they stay silent. Everything above is clearly audible. Replace "Fast" with "Normal"; Now you have a good performance with ok fans.

- Give us the opportunity to OC the GPU via Sense instead of editing it by text file. The GPU performs excellent at 160MHz/ 400Mhz at less than 70°C in boosted with chilled out fans. No turbo needed. Funny thing is, when you install Predator Sense, the profile comes with a more aggressive profile- an auto- update lowers these settings though.


Please give us also the option to change the keys from flashing like crazy until Predator Sense is applied in Win10; If one of my work colleagues is an epileptic, I might kill them by booting my laptop in a business meeting ( already disabled the sound effects on start up and boost, but there is no option to keep the backlight of keys out until PS kicks in)


2. Sound
Well, not much one can change here, but the moment you pull out the keyboard it covers the front speakers, muffling all highs / mids. Weird design choice.

3. Screen:
Please, better quality control. I do not want to send my laptop back just because it is bleeding like crazy. IPS lottery should not happen when you pay 3300 € for a product.

What are your experiences with this model? People who are thinking about buying, anything you want to know?

Have a great day!
Timo
«134

Answers

  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    I might give loosening the screws holding my panel in place a try to minimize backlight bleeding. Well, every new device turns you into McGyver for a while until you either overcome the issues, break the device or being broken by the device :p
  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    Update:

    Loosening 2 of the screen screws slightly lessened the backlight bleeding by a noticable degree. Still not perfect, but overall better than before.
  • Strako
    Strako Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    TimoFaust said:
    Update:

    Loosening 2 of the screen screws slightly lessened the backlight bleeding by a noticable degree. Still not perfect, but overall better than before.
    Nice. On my Helios 300 I have one bleeding spot on the top near the webcam so I might give this a shot as well. Hopefully I don't ruin the casing...
  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    Strako said:
    TimoFaust said:
    Update:

    Loosening 2 of the screen screws slightly lessened the backlight bleeding by a noticable degree. Still not perfect, but overall better than before.
    Nice. On my Helios 300 I have one bleeding spot on the top near the webcam so I might give this a shot as well. Hopefully I don't ruin the casing...
    Good luck.
  • belik
    belik Member Posts: 397 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    TimoFaust said:
    Update:

    Loosening 2 of the screen screws slightly lessened the backlight bleeding by a noticable degree. Still not perfect, but overall better than before.
    Yes but how do you remove bezel?
    Also, after you remove bezel and revert it back will it look as before ? Ie without gaps traces etc
  • belik
    belik Member Posts: 397 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    Also regarding initial review, this is very interesting 

    So you say that would consider 1400 rpm as inaudible? What is your rpm on gpu/cpu on idle? What rpm can you set minimal in PS, can you set it to zero? 

    Thanks
  • xapim
    xapim ACE Posts: 7,257 Pathfinder
    edited August 2019
    TimoFaust said:
    Update:

    Loosening 2 of the screen screws slightly lessened the backlight bleeding by a noticable degree. Still not perfect, but overall better than before.
    TimoFaust that about what i was going to suggest most of the times they are too tight causing really bad bleeding :)


    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11532543

    UserBenchmarks: Game 43%, Desk 61%, Work 40%
    CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ - 63.5%
    GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile) - 41.9%
    SSD: WDC WDS200T2B0B-00YS70 2TB - 71.4%
    HDD: WD WD10SPZX-00HKTT0 1TB - 93.7%
    RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR4 2666 C15 2x16GB - 76.8%
    MBD: Acer Predator G3-572

    I'm not an Acer employee. (just here to help in the best way i can)
    If my answer fixed you issue please accept it for any other users who search for it would find it quickly thanks :)
    If you want to learn more about undervolting/optimizing windows join the Predator fb group and youtube channel:

    Owner/Admin (HOTEL HERO/Red-Sand/Opoka Opoka)
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/PredatorHelios300
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJwGUHxSJ8FKqAhnOqQuAw
    Acer support:
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/service-contact
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/  


  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    belik said:
    TimoFaust said:
    Update:

    Loosening 2 of the screen screws slightly lessened the backlight bleeding by a noticable degree. Still not perfect, but overall better than before.
    Yes but how do you remove bezel?
    Also, after you remove bezel and revert it back will it look as before ? Ie without gaps traces etc
    It is almost perfect. Even though I was super careful, there are 2 very small gaps between the plastic and the screen, I guess it is because the plastic gets deformed very easily and those were the 2 places where it stuck the hardest. But all in all, the result is very ok.
    Otherwise zero traces.
  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    belik said:
    Also regarding initial review, this is very interesting 

    So you say that would consider 1400 rpm as inaudible? What is your rpm on gpu/cpu on idle? What rpm can you set minimal in PS, can you set it to zero? 

    Thanks
    Well....

    I now have set up a User Profile that I use for Desktop work that lets the fans spin at around 1000rpm. This is where the system is totally silent. CPU between 50° and 65° / GPU around 50° and System around 50°; I activated cool boost, just in case ;)

    1400 rpm is a range where you can still hear the fans slightly but they blend in nicely. THis is the profile I might go to for office work in the long run. Still quite silent, yet slightly better cooling.

    The standard fan curve in the normal profile lets my CPU / GPU fans run between 1600rpm and 2000+ rpm; I still wonder why I need 2000 rpm for a short while when my CPU is at 55°, my GPU is at 47 and my System at 50°; But Acer thinks that's best for me.

    And yes, you can zero all fans. Something I am not a fan of.

    I just wish Acer gave us the option of a fan curve instead of set values in our user profiles. I guess that is because they linked the CPU / GPU cooling together.
  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    edited August 2019
    Update to what I posted above (missed the edit window, it seems ):

    Found out that my GPU was constantly running state 2, so constantly 1380Mhz/7000Mhz;
    Now my idle temperatures are finally where I want them; The results above were still acceptable for a laptop, but I expected more. Good that I found the culprit. Gotta love these first days with a new system, where you are constantly trying to bring it close to perfection ;D

    CPU now idles around 45 on Desktop / GPU & System slightly below 40; Fans automatically shut off at the point ( Will have to check if that is actually so or if the software just bugged out ;) )



    We are slowly getting there :)

    I think at this point, for office work and all easy tasks, my 1000 rpm user profile should be totally ok, will have a look how often the fans turn on/ off in auto, as they jump to around 2200 rpm when reactivating.
  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    edited August 2019
    Here are some performance tests I did while running Turbo profile. Keep in mind that I edited the GPU values to +160MHz/ +1000MHz for this (though overclocking the Mem from +400 to +1000 does not really make a big difference);
    The Turbo mode easily breaks 60dB and I was not sure if my laptop just activated the fans or if a fast car drove by my house. So, Turbo is great for benchmarking, but I guess Boosted is where my real gaming will be at, as the fans produce a soundstage where you can almost play without headphones.

    If I now could also adjust the CPU values then I might be able to get a little more out of it. Sadly, with XTU breaking the profiles for me, that is out of discussion at the moment.  Would love to use 4.5GHz on the CPU with -0.125V on the Boosted profile, but 4.4GHz with -0.110V are allright, too (factory UV);



  • Yason
    Yason Member Posts: 8

    Tinkerer

    You can turn off the opening sound of slide keyboard in Settings in PredatorSense.

  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    Yason said:
    You can turn off the opening sound of slide keyboard in Settings in PredatorSense.

    Yeah, one of the first things I did.
  • belik
    belik Member Posts: 397 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    If you are going to take it to meetings, what if the meeting is long, say 3-4 hours

    How much time you expect to have on battery?
  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    edited August 2019
    belik said:
    If you are going to take it to meetings, what if the meeting is long, say 3-4 hours

    How much time you expect to have on battery?
    Meetings can be even longer. That's why I have my trusty 3 m cable power cable ;)  (you can also use the brick for biceps curls or shoulder shrugs in between )
    Battery longlivety is rarely the strong suite of a gaming laptop. Manage your energy profiles well and you get like 2 hours out of it in a meeting.

    But on the other side. Name another laptop at the moment that manages to run an hour of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw while your GPU constantly runs 2000+ MHz / 8000MHz gently touching 63° while running the fans at moderate speed ( no turbo needed); I love the power. Where most 2080s in laptops struggle to maintain 1850MHz this laptop is like "Wait, your performance can drop below 2k MHz?"
  • xapim
    xapim ACE Posts: 7,257 Pathfinder
    TimoFaust youre completely right the H700 its a complete beast probably the worthy successor of the H500 which is still a king in the gaming laptops 


    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11532543

    UserBenchmarks: Game 43%, Desk 61%, Work 40%
    CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ - 63.5%
    GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile) - 41.9%
    SSD: WDC WDS200T2B0B-00YS70 2TB - 71.4%
    HDD: WD WD10SPZX-00HKTT0 1TB - 93.7%
    RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR4 2666 C15 2x16GB - 76.8%
    MBD: Acer Predator G3-572

    I'm not an Acer employee. (just here to help in the best way i can)
    If my answer fixed you issue please accept it for any other users who search for it would find it quickly thanks :)
    If you want to learn more about undervolting/optimizing windows join the Predator fb group and youtube channel:

    Owner/Admin (HOTEL HERO/Red-Sand/Opoka Opoka)
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/PredatorHelios300
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJwGUHxSJ8FKqAhnOqQuAw
    Acer support:
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/service-contact
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/  


  • bbronco66
    bbronco66 Member Posts: 2 New User
    Where is this laptop available for purchase?  I can't seem to find it anywhere online or in retailers here in the US.  Thanks for any info you can provide.
  • TimoFaust
    TimoFaust Member Posts: 65 Devotee WiFi Icon
    bbronco66 said:
    Where is this laptop available for purchase?  I can't seem to find it anywhere online or in retailers here in the US.  Thanks for any info you can provide.
    Can't tell you about the US, it is out in parts of Europe and Asia, as far as I know. Acer does not release it globally on the same date.
  • bbronco66
    bbronco66 Member Posts: 2 New User
    TimoFaust said:
    bbronco66 said:
    Where is this laptop available for purchase?  I can't seem to find it anywhere online or in retailers here in the US.  Thanks for any info you can provide.
    Can't tell you about the US, it is out in parts of Europe and Asia, as far as I know. Acer does not release it globally on the same date.
    Thanks for the reply.  I did just see on Acer's twitter that the laptop is supposed to be available here in the US sometime soon, supposedly before the end of the month.  Just seemed odd to me that there were review units going out as early as April yet it still wasn't for available for purchase.
  • xapim
    xapim ACE Posts: 7,257 Pathfinder
    edited August 2019
    bbronco66 check the acer page from your country to see if its already available there if its not there it means its not available yet the twitter page will not tell you where its available its just a media news/info page only the acer web page for each country will if you wish you can contact acer support directly to find out more about the availability 


    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11532543

    UserBenchmarks: Game 43%, Desk 61%, Work 40%
    CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ - 63.5%
    GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile) - 41.9%
    SSD: WDC WDS200T2B0B-00YS70 2TB - 71.4%
    HDD: WD WD10SPZX-00HKTT0 1TB - 93.7%
    RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR4 2666 C15 2x16GB - 76.8%
    MBD: Acer Predator G3-572

    I'm not an Acer employee. (just here to help in the best way i can)
    If my answer fixed you issue please accept it for any other users who search for it would find it quickly thanks :)
    If you want to learn more about undervolting/optimizing windows join the Predator fb group and youtube channel:

    Owner/Admin (HOTEL HERO/Red-Sand/Opoka Opoka)
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/PredatorHelios300
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJwGUHxSJ8FKqAhnOqQuAw
    Acer support:
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/service-contact
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/