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Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition VN7-593G - Discussion and Musings

17K views 28 replies 8 participants last post by  Butter Chicken 
#1 ·
Hey folks,

After pouring over the reviews for this laptop at UltraBookReview and NoteBookCheck I decided to pull the trigger on this model as a replacement to a well-worn Lenovo Y570.

I enjoyed a quick unboxing of the VN7-593G-76SS tonight (with an adult beverage). The short and skinny: budget build Kaby Lake (7700hq) and Pascal (GTX 1060 6GB), a decent IPS screen and Thunderbolt.

And a slightly cramped NumPad.
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This configuration comes with a tortoise-paced 5400rpm 1TB drive which was immediately removed. An OCZ RD400 NVME drive is assuming sole storage responsibility until I add a SATA SSD. Note: You WILL need a screw to install an M.2 drive as it isn't provided with this model. The RD400 was detected in BIOS and a fresh copy of Win10 Creators Update was installed along with Toshiba's NVME driver. CrystalDiskMark results below:





As an aside, removing the bottom panel is a snap, well, several snaps, after you remove the Phillips head screws. When re-installing the bottom cover, I couldn't for the life of me get the HDMI and USB C ports to line up with the case. Rather than having the laptop sit on the lid to install the bottom cover, I had to open the lid (90°) and place it on end, with the power port, HDMI, USB3, and USBC ports sticking up in the air. That allowed me to flex the case and motherboard enough to get the ports to line up with the cover.

I was expecting heat to be an issue with this laptop and was proven correctly. I've been on a HL2 kick recently so I decided to fire up Lost Coast for some Combine killing action and ran the built-in benchmark twice before starting the level. Maxed settings for 1080P without a frame limiter. After an hour of use I was looking at 88°C on the CPU and 90° on the GPU, with ambient temp currently at 26°C in the homestead. These are stock speeds/voltages, OEM TIM, and without the use of a cooling pad.

As time allows in the coming week(s), I'll be tweaking settings, applying some NT-H1, and testing the fan configuration of my CM NotePalU3 cooling pad. Before / after test results will be posted here.

All said and done, I'm impressed with the packaging and presentation, build quality, unassuming looks, and powerhouse hardware that's in this laptop. Adding an SSD is an absolute necessity for a snappy system. I'm looking forward to stretching its legs and mitigating the cooling shortfalls.

Alright friends, it's late and I've got the daily grind bright and early. More on this later. For now, here's some eye candy in parting.



 
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#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by dblade View Post

Thanks for posting this. Joined just to comment
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Mine's coming in tomorrow. I purchased the -73KV model which comes w/a 256GB SSD but I'll probably move a Crucial MX300 1TB in there. I'm interested in seeing your future updates on your experience.
You're very welcome! Thanks for joining and posting! I'm curious what kind of numbers the included M.2 SSD will net. It's a solid laptop though, I bet you'll enjoy it.

Life's getting a little crazy right now, working seven days a week and wrangling in a new job/moving so I'll try to keep my word of posting some temp benchmarks in short order.
 
#4 ·
Have you done any (particularly repasting) of the mods yet on the Acer? I own the same laptop and while I really enjoy it, it does run very hot (97C after 4 minutes on Prime95) and I had to aggressively undervolt it to get the CPU temps around 83C max on full load (77C in ultra for FFXIV, which was the hottest it got on a game). My GPU temps are also quite high and I've been using MSI Afterburner to undervolt, but I would like to see what kind of temp changes (if any) other people have had with repasting.

Are there warranty stickers on the pipes? I may wait to repaste if there's any danger of voiding the warranty for now.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by angomy View Post

Have you done any (particularly repasting) of the mods yet on the Acer? I own the same laptop and while I really enjoy it, it does run very hot (97C after 4 minutes on Prime95) and I had to aggressively undervolt it to get the CPU temps around 83C max on full load (77C in ultra for FFXIV, which was the hottest it got on a game). My GPU temps are also quite high and I've been using MSI Afterburner to undervolt, but I would like to see what kind of temp changes (if any) other people have had with repasting.

Are there warranty stickers on the pipes? I may wait to repaste if there's any danger of voiding the warranty for now.
You were able to undervolt you laptop GPU?

MSI AB normally doesn't allow voltage adjustment to the GPU.
 
#6 ·
#8 ·
If you're talking about ghosting, I read a few reviews that said it was pretty bad. That being said, I don't play FPS games so it wasn't a concern for me. It is definitely bright enough (over 300 nits) and even throughout, no noticeable backlight bleed on my unit.
 
#9 ·
I have one! The version with the 256GB SSD, to be exact. I'm probably going to replace it with a larger M.2 SSD, though I'm not sure whether I want an NVME or SATA drive yet.

I went for it cause it was equivalent to the prices of 1050Ti-equipped machines where I got it from (Hong Kong) so it was pretty much a no-brainer. Haven't had the time to game on it yet so I can't say what temps are like but everything else seems to be great so far.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by angomy View Post

Anyone repaste theirs yet? I've been waiting for OP to post temp results but they haven't posted since. Curious to see how much of a difference repasting will do for this laptop.
I wouldn't hesitate and just do it ?. If it's anything like their Predator, it'll take 45 minutes tops.
 
#16 ·
hey man... while you're at it would you mind checking if that HDMI port is 2.0
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don't make me go buy one of these things just to return it
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the Dell XPS I have my eye on is only x2 lanes on the Thuderbolt but the M.2 on it is full PCIe... I am kind of boiled down to one or the other because of portability (something I need in a laptop)
 
#19 ·
Full potential Thunderbolt 3 is what we've all been waiting for, even those who don't know they want it yet... Even two lanes is still quite a beast but with a full 4 lanes then external graphics boxes should not experience that 10% drop in performance. Thunderbolt will allow most gamers and designers and editors to buy one nice laptop which can be taken on the go with you anywhere but then instead of building an entire PC for when you get home we will begin to build just external GPU boxes... You can also daisy chain on Thunderbolt like old SCSI systems and have a hard drive server sitting on the end of that eGPU... 40Gbps (4 lanes) of Thunderbolt would make all that a reality but right now they are just figuring out how they want to diddy the technology out to the consumer and how they can keep the ball rolling by giving us little at a time turning external porting into generational architecture and revision crap (when they can give it to us all at once) instead of this Gen 1, Gen 2 and Rev 1, Rev 1.3 yadda ya crap like we have to go through with every other port or bus on a computer (USB for example) what are we on Rev 3.1 with USB now @@ Thunderbolt 3 at PCIe x16 speed over USB-C has been around since 2013 and implemented currently on Macbook Pro (gawd I hate Mac's)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#External_GPUs

https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/24/intel-opens-thunderbolt-3/

You see the potential here of being able to buy a laptop that'll give you 10+hrs of battery life and no dedicated graphics, and that extra cost can go towards other things like the best screen and max memory and CPUs, or one can even buy a Xeon based laptop but also have it be a gaming machine when you get home.

external graphics are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the possibilities with Thunderbolt = (external hot pluggable PCIe X16 architecture)



 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by BucketInABucket View Post

I'm not sure how to check tbh, might just shoot Acer an email asking about this.
oh... you can probably try Sisoft Sandra or HWInfo and see what they report about the Thunderbolt port... should be much better than using device manager alone to look into the specs.

http://www.sisoftware.eu/download-buy/

https://www.hwinfo.com
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by BucketInABucket View Post

I have no idea how to check that sort of thing
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not used to having to do it haha
HWinfo is pretty straight forward and simple... but it's no problem, I'll go pick up the VN7-593G-70U4 tomorrow on my day off and figure all the specs out. It's highly unlikely that Thunderbolt port will give a full x4 lanes but it just may... although considering the $2000+ Dell XPS only gives you x2 lanes gives me some doubt.

the XPS is a much smaller form factor motherboard so that may be in favor of the V15 having a 4 lane port.
 
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