the problem though is 6k + is outside my budget .... i settled for a home laptop which isn't highend, but falls closer to budget home pc that doubles up as a good performer albeit 2014 tech.

This is why for me i felt that the Acer Black Nitro was the best choice. Got mine for roughly 3.7k Probably could have gotten much cheaper from lowyat forum i suppose

the model i got was 8gb of ddr3 .... the 12gb version was the older model with the older cpu which they phased out. they had a 16gb version, but it cost 4.1k+ ..... Also they had a ssd+1tb hd combo also 4.1k+ the ssd was 128gb i think, but considering you also get a 1tb that shouldn't be an issue.

Was kinda out of my budget, so i settled for the single 1tb hdd version. No optical drive so there probably isn't an option to later add in a ssd myself later, well unless i ditch the 1tb and use a ssd instead (but doubt i'd do that)


yeah but the y50-70 is using a tn panel right ? That is why i preferred the Nitro. As a gamer i do consider 4gb of vram to be important to have, but my laptop is mostly for home use general computing. So i'm not going to max out settings, so i reckon i can use 2gb vram for high settings or medium


this is the one i got. the other model was outside my budget sadly fuggin gst....


basically a nitro alternative with a refresh of the gpu with even 4gb vram at that.

tempting but i was kinda over budget when i bought nitro, so i don't think for me the few extra for the illegear would had been in my ballpark. But it's interesting there was a very good option close to it though, for others

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 14 2015, 09:17 PM

The new acer inspire v15 nitro black edition has a similar spec except the RAM is now 8 instead of 12gb. Also the graphics is the older Nvidia 860m GTX for roughly the same price.


and you confirm it's an IPS not tn panel ? (the older models i've seen were all tn panel). Because if that is the case then the Lenovo Y50-70 would win hands down.

The acer does have a model with a 128gb + 1tb hdd that comes with 12gb of ram, but that costs 4.1k +


So in the 3.6 k ish bracket the lenovo wins because of
1. better spec for same price as the acer
2. not acer brand (hard to buy anything acer these days especially laptop considering their past issues)



only minor quible left is whether the lenovo comes with a SSD option preferably 256-512gb option with m.2 support of course



This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 16 2015, 12:27 PM

then i think the acer v15 nitro black is better cause is IPS. I went to the store to compare ..... if gonna pay same amount i rather have ips 1080p 15.6 inch rather than tn panel.

even if it's a 860m vs a 960m


just wondering though, do any of these laptop monitors come capable of amd freesync technology ?

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 16 2015, 08:26 PM

ah thx for the clarification


by the way i read it's hard to open up the acer, so just wondering has anyone tried replacing the original 1tb hdd in it for a SSD alternative ? e.g. 512gb or 256gb ssd. Also does it have m.2 ? Or how can i check without opening myself


For example this is a guide showing the innards for the acer v15 and how to open it
http://www.myfixguide.com/manual/acer-aspi...1g-disassembly/

inside you can clearly see where the ssd is located.


but the model i got was only with 1tb hdd, not the version with ssd+1tb combo, so not sure about the hdd ports i got available, also whether it is possible to add in a ssd similar in the screenshots in the link i posted above.

Also i don't have a optical drive in the laptop, so not sure if adding a second hdd into the laptop is possible here.

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 16 2015, 09:01 PM

thx for feedback


well i mean does it look like this inside


specifically this bit


http://www.myfixguide.com/manual/acer-aspi...1g-disassembly/


the model i bought doesn't have ssd its a aspire v15 nitro vn7-591g-744n (black edition)


but you reckon despite that it has a m.2 port i can put in a ssd if i want ?

would it still have that spacing there where i can screw the ssd in place like shown in the screenshot ? Or will i need some sort of special ssd caddy to fit it in

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 12:33 AM

ty did you mean this link ?
https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=3427411&hl=


PS: difference my model and yours, they changes the cpu and reduced ram from 12 to 8gb basically. but i don't reckon this was a big problem for me



anyone else added in ssd ? did you have a screw to put for the ssd to fit in ?



and what budget performance ssd do people recommend ? preferably 256-512gb i saw these



http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/sa...iew-120gb500gb/

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/lat...-crucial-mx200/

http://www.liteonssd.com/index.php?Itemid=...08&item_id=2494

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-EVO-3-5-...9209259&sr=1-61

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-M500-480GB-6...ACDED7EGXVV8974

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS800-Sol.../ref=pd_cp_pc_1

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 02:42 AM

i read online the Y50 tnpanel used was by Chi Mei which was terrible. but i think their newer batches are from AUO but not really sure.
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3278136/all


This is why for the price you pay for a Acer Aspire V15 black edition your getting incredible value for a Rm 3.2 /3.6 /4.1 (depending on where you buy from, cheapest was sellers here on lowyat which i saw was 3.2k, more expensive is at shops like digital mall, and more expensive is the higher end models of this series which come with 16gb ddr3, 128GB SSD with a 1tb HDD variant)

At the shop i saw the lenovo G50 and HP Envy tn panels. I wasn't impressed at the same price point can get same or slightly better specs for the same price and comes with IPS panel on the v15 nitro black edition

I think the lowyat seller is cheaper because they selling the older v15 with only difference being the previous i7 cpu which is the i7-4710 rather than the i7-i7-4720HQ. But i'm not 100% so just double check the cpu of the V15 nitro black edition they are selling

there's barely much difference in specs
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4720...-Core-i7-4710HQ


but if the difference is 3.2k vs 3.6k+ i'd definitely get the 3.2k if the only difference is the cpu



Moogle's Acer aspire v15 nitro black edition review

Pros
great value for the price you pay for the specs which other brand models just can't match at this price point 3xxx-4.1xx except maybe perhaps the illegear z5 which is a strong contender to compete against the nitro black edition, but it seems that the cheapest illegear z5 is rm 4.1k ish which means that it's competing against the higher spec variant of the nitro v15 nitro black edition VN7-591G-72K6 which has a nvidia 860m 4gb gddrvram, 128gb ssd + 1tb hdd and 16gb ddr3ram
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/series/aspirevnitro
http://www.lowyat.net/2015/04/illegear-z5-...x-960m-or-970m/

overall build quality seems good

has a m.2 port for SSD. this is extremely good, because this interface is fast and ssds will benefit greatly from this port. Also it has an option for you to add in a SSD yourself at a later date (i didn't open up my lappy, but from the evidence i've seen so far it strongly points that this is the case)

main selling point for specs is the IPS panel for 15.6'' screen. The reviews didn't say it's the best ips, but me watching in person on netflix, desktop browsing, web browsing, youtube etc.... i have no issues with this IPS panel at all. And i even own a Dell U2413 AH-IPS with a gb-r backlight 24'' wide screen monitor for my desktop.

has keyboard lighting.

NVIDIA 860m GTX mobile graphics. Good enough to play games at 1080p medium/high setting with 40fps+

Quad core i7 4th generation cpu which is good enough for pretty much everything especially multi tasking. The cpu you get is either the i7-4710 or i7-4720HQ depending on if it's the older or newer batch of this model.

chiclet keyboard. This is pretty good for laptop. Sure there are mechanical keyboards on laptops which are even better, but those come at a really high premium, and honestly is probably not good value on laptops. This coming from someone who founded the mechanical keyboard club in Malaysia first But if your rich go for it, but you'll have to look at a different laptop than this to get it.

Has a FN function key which is very convenient. You can configure touchpad, hibernate laptop, back/forward music say on foobar2000. Very useful, but you'll have to read the manual to see what the FN combo functions are.

8gb, 12gb or 16gb ddr3 ram depending on old or new, and which variant you get. the older batch came with 12gb. The cheapest but newer variant sports 8gb. The more expensive variant sports the 16gb. To me, whichever you get doesn't matter. 8gb is good enough for most people. If your not happy with it, you can always buy 16gb yourself and later install it yourself, so there is that option.

very good cooling. has 2 fans, whereas other brands like lenovo g50 comes only with 1 fan. And from goldfries testing he says the laptop comes under 70celcius even under stress which is good for a laptop, which basically means you won't feel heat from using it.

the speakers are really good for a laptop, it's beats audio brand. This coming from someone that owns an Aktimate Mini hifi stereo which i use for desktop, Monitor Audio M-Bronze 5.1 surround sound i use for HDTV, as well as Audio Technica ATH-A900 headphones. Maybe another audiophile can give more critical analysis of the beats audio speakers on the laptop, but at this price i think these speakers are really good. I tested using foobar2000 playing flac (maroon 5 - sugar) music, youtube 1080p videos , and netflix 1080p videos.

comes with original Windows 8.1 (not pro). Will be able to update to windows 10 for free when that becomes available.

the unit i got i tested the ips panel. dead pixel test came out negative so was ok. i also didn't detect any bleeding. so either i was lucky, or this is the normal standard you can expect of this laptops ips quality. i didn't do any more indepth testing because my colorimeter doesn't support led backlight, but there is a review on google that does.
http://jasonfarrell.com/misc/deadpixeltest.php



Cons
battery cannot be easily removed. my old laptop can press a button to quickly release the battery. It's actually better to leave the battery outside and just leave plugged in so you don't wear out battery by overcharging. This is not possible on the Acer. So either kept overcharging 100% which wears it out faster, or drain the battery until low before plugging in to recharge. Annoying.

no optical drive. Personally i don't really consider this a downside since when was the last time people needed this ? But if your the type buy original bluray discs and wanna just pop in to watch a movie, well you can't. I use netflix, torrent and digital format videos like mkv over my NAS, so this is a non issue for me. Also if you want to install windows you can use USB flash which is faster than optical drive anyway.

doesn't seem to have an aluminium front face on the palm side of the laptop like my previous asus laptop had. But honestly this didn't bother me much because, i didn't feel any heat when typing on the laptop. So although i'm more biased towards and aluminium front face, i don't mind the plastic since it's well done and doesn't give off heat.

There doesn't seem to be a way to toggle off the keyboard lighting. I checked the manual but there isn't a FN function key to enable/disable that. The only way to turn it off is to unplug the power cable.

CPU is not the newer fifth generation Intel I7 which have better battery savings. Performance wise isn't an issue with the cpu, the only thing you lose out on is the battery savings only which improved with the fifth generation i7 cpus.

the nvidia 860m gtx mobile graphics card sports 2gb vram (although i think it's gddr5 but not fully sure). These days gaming requires 4gb vram for the newer titles especially when your cranking up the settings for better higher quality textures. Though tbh 2gb is fine as long as you trial error at what gaming settings you use. If it isn't enough, turn down the texture quality settings from high to medium, and that will probably solve any texture pop in issues if you get that problem. If 2gb vram bothers you, then you probably should look to a different laptop. though personally for a budget gaming laptop this is a concession i'm willing to accept especially at this price point and all the other specs combined.

acer has a very bad reputation when it comes to their laptops, as well as their batteries. that said, me and other people who got the V15 Nitro black edition and tried it ourselves were impressed by the specs you get for a really good price that no other alternative can match. Not to mention there is hardly any other major issue with the build, other than maybe the integrated battery (which for me personally, even if it died it wouldn't matter to me cause i keep the power plugged in anyway). This is a GEM of a laptop most people who don't read reviews or tech savvy will most likely miss out on due to Acers bad reputation for past products (and rightfully so).



Summary
This is the best laptop for....

1. good budget gaming performance laptop. i7 quad core cpu, 8gb ddr3 ram, 1080p resolution 15.6'' IPS panel, m.2 SSD port available (regardless which hdd variant you get), has available either SSD with 1tb HDD or just 1tb HDD; 2 cooling fans, nvidia 860m gtx mobile graphics card, beats audio speakers

2. general use budget performance laptop

3. best budget performance laptop that fits into a category between budget and high performance bracket. This means don't expect the best specs, as this just simply means getting a laptop you can play on medium/high settings and still enjoy but at the lowest budget possible in order to pay for these types of specs. Has very good value for something that feels like a premium laptop imho

4. people not interested in paying for slimmer ultra notebooks, who are fine with the classic notebook. So if your mobile and carrying around laptop all the time, you better try this in the shop to see if the weight is alright with you first. the shops where you can find this was at digital mall. the one i got was from AONE Plus.

5. best laptop for budget performance laptop and this specs within the price bracket of RM 3.2k to 4.1k. No other brand can beat this as far as i can tell. I think someone posted an alternative with a similar spec that also has IPS, but comes with a newer nvidia 960m GTX mobile graphics card but for 4.1k+ But i read that 960m isn't that much better than 860m though, which you can see in this comparison sheet yourself
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-960M-vs-GeForce-GTX-860M



though if your lookin at rm 4.1k bracket, a closer comparison between illegear z5 and Acer Aspire nitro v15 nitro black edition VN7-591G-72K6 needs closer examination to see which comes out the better deal in terms of specs for roughly the same price. I think the illegear z5 has a newer gpu, though i'm not sure how much vram it has, or whether that comes with ssd + hdd combo like the acer or not at that price point.

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 03:14 PM

i bought mine 2 days ago. it has 860m 2gb vram. aspire v15 nitro vn7-591g-744n (black edition)


your 3999 is gst already included ?

Do you reckon i should ask the guy to replace or is it too late :{ ? 860m vs 960m big difference ?

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 03:30 PM

my laptop i bought was Rm3700 GST inclusive. So this newer one is 3999 GST inclusive. And from your benchmark, it doesn't seem to be a big difference for me to want to shell out 300 ringgit more for it. Not to mention it also is only 2gb vram If it was 4gb i would be more inclined, but not for the same 2gb vram for sure


The 4gb vram 960 gtx cost rm 4599 inclusive of GST. definitely out of my budget

Also i heard the Illegear Z5 which has roughly the same specs has said they will not add in GST price until middle of this year. So could be cheaper deal than Nitro in the Rm 4xxx bracket
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3395857/+1380

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 03:39 PM

just wondered if i made right choice or not i'm curious in tech, so i just want to double check.

i'd would had been more thorough before i bought but i only had 1 day notice to do my research lelz....



i was wondering about this .... o well ... guess i missed the gravy train.

maxwell version has M appended behind ? mine says it's 860m 2gb vram


actually i was thinking closer to this
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-EVO-3-5-...9209259&sr=1-61

Samsung 850 EVO 120 GB M.2 3.5-Inch SSD (MZ-N5E120BW)
85.47 USD = 310.248 MYR on Amazon. Couldn't find a local seller price

Point is can get low capacity ssd but has a feature like turbowrite which doesn't impact performance as much if it didn't have that feature when compared to higher capacity SSDs
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-247...turbowrite.html


maybe there is other brand m.2 ssds with a similar feature maybe closer to 256gb for budget performance segment but not familiar enough xd. The one that comes with Acer if buying the expensive option is a liteon brand m.2 ssd 128gb




This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 04:46 PM

waiting for prices to drop.

Heck maybe in 5 years, can get a 512gb or 1tb ssd on the cheap That is what i'm mostly waiting for before upgrading a ssd into the empty m.2 slot (presumably this port is future proof for ssd as far i know)

In my spec sheet it says my 1tb hdd comes with a 8gb ssd hybrid. Does that mean the OS is installed in the 8gb ? confusing, how to check lelz I'm not too familiar with hybrid drives.



By the way can the FN on the laptop disable the keyboard lighting ? I read the manual couldn't find ....

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 04:56 PM

i'm blind

it's FN+F9 to toggle the keyboard backlight.

I'm the only gamer in my family so i don't mind the lights lelz, but the others they don't like it now got solution.



anyone know how i can manage the graphics on this acer laptop ?

i read because of dual gpu, only can use 1 at a time. or setup a profile to auto depending on application used.

so how do i just switch to the nvidia gpu ? i couldn't find any documentation on this


*update

think i found it.

Under nvidia control panel, manage 3d settings.

it has a preferred graphics processor auto, nvidia or internal gpu. I'm not sure how effective auto works, so i just set prefer nvidia.


*update

i don't think it works correctly. because in the taskbar there is the icon for nvidia says no gpu activity. also under nvidia control panel applications for mpc, it says preferred intel and it's greyed out not sure why :/


under applications, its split between some apps under auto will select nvidia/intel (not sure how they decided that), then the other options is preferred nvidia or intel manually selected.

Anyway my hearthstone is locked on nvidia so no problem.

The problem is MPC-HC which is locked on intel. How do i change this ? It's greyed out

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 05:54 PM

no i don't mean SLI. i meant the laptop has 2 gpus, one is intel and the other is nvidia 860m.

but the problem is HC-MPC which i use to watch movies is defaulted to intel integrated. It's greyed out and locked :{ can't change to nvidia.

It shouldn't be using intel integrated for mpc media playback :{ i donno how to fix that.

this definitely would explain the dropped frames when playing a hl5.1 10bit encoded 1080p anime of redline. Even with medium settings on KCP codec pack



*update

managed to find someone else with this specific issue
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/52...issue/?offset=9

apparently nvidia driver locked this setting for media players like vlc, and mpc. Why they do this i don't know.


but what someone said caught my eye



the other solution they mentioned is renaming the mpc.exe to something else, then adding a profile for the renamed mpc.......






Or actually i can try reinstall the gpu drivers by using DDU and install intel first, before nvidia and see if that fixes the issue.



This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2015, 07:21 PM

actually i'm getting massive frame drops in mpc when it uses the intel gpu. i think that is a valid enough reason to want to use the nvidia gpu for video playback

i did some research on how to go about doing that.

In nvidia inspector can force it to make mpc use nvidia gpu. this worked however i get a 2nd issue, which is a black screen.

looking further it's either a nvidia optimis driver issue, or a madvr issue. either way, neither has come up with a fix. madvr by madashi in a previous release did try to fix the issue for nvidia optimus, but it doesn't seem to fix it for me.

By the way i was using kawaii codec pack MPC version.

In the end i switched to kawaii codec pack mpc-BE version. also i changed the
video renderer in mpc-be to video mixing 9 renderless which seems to work without issue.

From my video playback testing using a 1080p 10bit hl5.1 encoding profile video redline anime, i do not notice any stutter or frame drops. is very smooth. and this is on KCP highest preset.

Though to be fair i think highest preset had MADVR in mind ......

But in the filter, lav video/audio/splitter, xysubfilter, reclock all loaded. only thing missing was madvr.


That is the best i can do for now until either nvidia driver or madvr come up with a fix for this issue



In summary

1. can use MPC-BE using nvidia 860m maxwell 2gb vram to watch my videos
2. no stutter, lag, drop frames watching high profile video encoded content

downside
1. can't use madvr for now. but considering all the other filters i needed work, i'll live though i hope either nvidia or madvr come up with a fix.
2. in a separate matter, i read nvidia optimus will switch between intel and nvidia for youtube. but i did not observe this, so i manually set chrome to use nvidia. So not sure if switching auto for youtube is true or not :/ but i would have preferred that. But for now i'll use HWmonitor to check the temperature.

PS: i used DDU to cleanly reinstall intel and nvidia drivers to their latest version. also total uninstall to uninstall KCP, as well as ccleaner to fix the registry during this entire test try process

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 18 2015, 12:55 AM

Uh.... no ? lel. I'm not going to download 720p 8bit content for anime, when there is 1080p 10bit .... it's kinda like telling an audiophile who listens to flac to instead listen to mp3s

i don't belittle others who like mp3s ... but to each their own. In this case it doesn't make sense why i would buy a nvidia gpu laptop and not be able to use it for my video media playback


the acer don't have a woofer like the illegear z5. i don't mind. what bothers me though was the consistent and huge frame rate drops at medium settings on KCP I think even lowest setting also the same.

BUt to be fair i think it's a bug in either madvr, or nvidia driver, i'm not sure which is the culprit. Madashi who develops madvr said in a previous release he fixed the black screen issue but it isn't so. Using the latest madvr and nvidia drivers (clean install).

Even my solution i end up not being able to use madvr, as i'm resorting to MPC-BE/KCP with renderer EVR-CP as a temporary and still acceptable solution for now. But at the very least now after using nvidia inspector i can use nvidia gpu for playback on either MPC-HC or MPC-BE.

Now watching videos using mpc i don't see any frame rate loss, which is pretty much what concerned me the most out of this debacle

no problem

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 18 2015, 01:18 PM

well the encoding isn't the issue cause i can playback just fine on my desktop. the issue here is the media playback configuration issue due to faulty software that doesn't work correctly in this case affecting optimus laptops which have a combo of intel + nvidia gpus (in my case a 860m maxwell)

yeah it's not really an acer specific thing, because it seems this 860 issue is also affecting other branded laptops. Or more accurately any laptop solution with a dynamic switching similar to nvidia optimus technology, when it works in conjunction with say intel integrated gpu.

i think even ati is affected somewhat, though i didn't look too much into that. As to what exactly causes this in madvr i can't pin down, i only regurgitate what others mentioned on that.

Also the issue isn't in regards to budget gaming laptop. the issue is software

Anyway i'll notify madashi on doom9 forum and see if he can work this out. i'll post a fix if it ever comes along

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 18 2015, 01:58 PM

all affected. Here is the bugtracker for madvr regarding this issue
http://bugs.madshi.net/view.php?id=233


basically the drivers for both ati and nvidia mobile laptops that have dual gpu switching e.g. nvidia/intel on optimis or similar, are having a black screen if using madvr as renderer.

affected players are vlc, mpc, mpc-be, etc. Doesn't matter what player you switch to, can't use madvr basically.

I have no idea when nvidia is going to fix this ....







This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 18 2015, 02:23 PM

if you don't care why even bother replying ?


u lel oo and a troll at that


Anyhow it's related though not tbh like i said not specific only to acer but to a wide range of laptops with integrated + nvidia gpus combination using stuff like optimus.

But seeing as i own this laptop hence i post here. Yes i may have posted extensively, though originally i was just going to briefly mention it, but i ended up just replying to the other person who was discussing this issue with me.

If you not interested, don't even bother replying. Don't act then come here and troll, nobody cares about you trying to create a problem over nothing ok kid You already have a bad rep for doing nonsense like this, i already shitlist you ages ago LEL.

I cited a temporary workaround for those of us who own this laptop or any with a similar setup in order to get video playback working with the integrated nvidia gpu (using nvidia inspector). So while i'm contributing positively, you are the one only comment is to troll... get a life my 50cents.

Anyway caught me by surprise because i was not expecting madvr not to work on a laptop with such a gpu setup

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 18 2015, 05:41 PM