Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have had this laptop for a few weeks, gaming on a daily basis and so far I am very impressed. The laptop is good with multi-tasking as it comes with the Intel I5-8300h quad core CPU. The included 256GB SSD drive performs well and the machine boots super fast. I did follow the advice on multiple reviews for this laptop and undervolt the cpu to -.125. This helps with keeping the machine cool at a minimal loss of performance. I am able to run ultra settings on The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt - 30fps. Skyrim Special Edition with texture mods - 60fps Red Dead Redemption 2 - 25fps on Ultra, 30-40 fps on High with some settings reduced slightly like water quality. Portal 2 - 90+ FPS on ultra Fallout 4 - 45+ FPS on ultra I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone who is looking to purchase a solid gaming laptop. Update - 5 months: I have upgraded the ram to 16GB as animating with Blender and Unity software would eat up the ram on this laptop (link to ram I used is below). I have put this laptop through some abuse with development, gaming and animation.. sometimes all at once utilizing multiple screens. I have purchased some new thermal compound mainly due to my mistrust in the manufacturer compound, but have yet to apply and the laptop is still running like a top. Definitely Recommend as an entry level gaming/animating machine! Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400 MHz DDR4 DRAM https://amzn.to/38zt74Q Update - 8 months: I just pulled the laptop apart to clean and apply new arctic silver thermal paste. Procedure went well and the laptop is running much cooler than with the factory paste. Everything else is still functioning flawlessly and I use this laptop daily to game/develop. Arctic MX-4 Thermal Paste https://amzn.to/2RkV7nb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FINAL UPDATE - I have sold this laptop and decided to build my own gaming desktop. Idea list can be found here - https://amzn.to/38wvVjg While I have had some fun times with the Acer Nitro 5, there is an issue that has been an annoyance. Thermal Issues - Most of the time using the Nitro 5 was a blast, no issues with heat and perfect performance... especially after the upgrades listed above. However... when gaming, temperatures can go from a cool 50-70C to 90C after a long period. I alleviated this issue by using a program called throttlestop, setting the profiles to disable turbo-boost on the I5 processor once 89C was reached. This did the trick but is not an ideal fix... The issue lies with the way the Nitro 5 cooling system is laid out (see image). Currently there is only one exhaust area for cooling. The issue with this is that the CPU is in the middle, so the GPU heat is being transferred to the CPU via the copper cooling pipes then the CPU heat goes further down the line to the exhaust fan. The ideal layout for this would be for the CPU and GPU to each have their own exhaust fan (similar to an Asus Tuff Laptop) This would ensure that the cooling system is dissipating heat to each respective exhaust fan rather than pulling the GPU heat across the CPU and then out of the case. I have reduced my review to 4 stars due to this issue. I still feel this machine is a great beginner gaming laptop but would recommend the Asus Tuff Laptops - https://amzn.to/36oqXnd for a more serious gamer that is in the same price range. -------------------------------------------------------- LINK SECTION -------------------------------------------------------- Acer Nitro 5 AN515-42-R5ED (Ryzen 5 with 1TB HDD, no SSD) - https://amzn.to/2GiHOx6 Upgrades Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400 MHz 16GB DDR4 DRAM https://amzn.to/38zt74Q Acer Nitro 5 AN515 (I5 with SSD, i5, 8gb ram) - https://amzn.to/38qUz4S Upgrades Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400 MHz 16GB DDR4 DRAM https://amzn.to/38zt74Q 2019 Acer Nitro 5 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop (12GB Ram + SSD) - https://amzn.to/2TRkOgU Upgrades You could update the ram to 16GB but this laptop already has 12GB. If upgrading go all in and grab 32GB which is the maximum ram for the laptop. Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2666 MHz 32GB (2x16) DDR4 https://amzn.to/38zt74Q Reach out in the comments if you would like to see more information! I hope you enjoyed the review! Happy Gaming!