Acer Predator Helios 16 gaming laptop | 13th Generation Intel Core i7-13700HX | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 16-inch G-SYNC 2560 x 1600 165Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 16GB DDR5 1TB 4th Generation SSD | Lethal Class 6E Wi-Fi | PH16-71-74UU
My gaming rig is nearing the end of its life, with an old i5 CPU, a GTX 1060 graphics card (which I bought cheap off eBay) and 16GB of RAM, so my partner and I talked about what to do with the rig. Next computer buy C. He is. After a lot of searching, I found that the Acer Helios 300 has a good integrated graphics card (3060) that can run older AAA games on Ultra and newer games on High or Medium, with mostly minimal use of the native overclocking settings. I recently played Diablo IV Beta and Resident Evil 4 on high settings and it looked great on a 1920 x 1080 screen.
Sometimes I connect it via HDMI or Mini DisplayPort to an LG 4K monitor or 4K TV in the living room (which increases the screen resolution to 3840 x 2160). This is where overclocking tools become more useful. Yes, the fans are a bit loud, but that's normal for these devices. To get around this issue, I pair my Apple Airpods Max or Razer THX headphones via BT while gaming on the TV. I also used a cooling pad that has two fans at the bottom to dissipate the heat.
I also use this laptop for school and it pairs easily with everything in Office 365. For Zoom calls and proctoring tests, the built-in webcam and microphone suffice. That's too much for a school assignment. (This is just an added bonus.)
I also use Adobe Premiere to edit some videos and rendering the video files is much faster than on my old computer. I'm not great at content creation, but I imagine this computer would be perfect for large 4K videos or other more complex projects.
Finally, the device has many options for upgradeability and future testing. Since purchasing it, I've upgraded the RAM to 32GB and added a second SSD (using the included adapter). If you decide to add a third hard drive if necessary, I'll be happy to know there's an empty M.2 slot available.
I have no concerns about the price and think it is very fair for what is on the market today. This is a powerful mid-range gaming laptop that can keep up with the latest titles. With chip shortages, supply chain issues, and not to mention Bitcoin miners hijacking all the graphics cards, which in turn drives up prices, this doesn't make sense. I traded in my old gaming gear for this laptop instead of hoping I could afford a better graphics card in the future.