Acer Predator Helios 500 review (PH517-51 model – Core i9, GTX 1070)

6 Comments

  1. Rachel Sweeney

    November 25, 2018 at 10:47 pm

    The keyboard on this definitely looks way better than the typical Acer laptop keyboard (had to replace mine twice on my old Acer laptop) but I suppose you'd kind of expect that when the dang thing costs $1900.

    >I can live with that, but I can’t understand the design decisions. This laptop is a Christmas tree, and not the nice kind.

    Because it's GAMER GEAR! The more blinking neon lights and garish decals on the lid it has, the better the graphics. Or it improves your win rate on Fortnite. Or something.

  2. julian

    November 30, 2018 at 12:16 am

    What should i choose betwen this one and Scar GL703GS?

    • Andrei Girbea

      November 30, 2018 at 5:02 pm

      Up to you, they are quite different. The Helios 500 is much bulkier, but should run cooler, while the Asus is thinner and lighter, which requires the fans to run noisily in order to keep performance at bay.

  3. Mike

    January 21, 2020 at 7:37 am

    Hi, which would be the better overall machine between this Helios 500 and the MSI GE75 Raider (heavy 12-15 hour daytime use with web browsing and then light gaming)?

    Which has the better chance of survival over a 4-5 year period (due to component quality, thermals, reliability track record, etc.)?

    Thanks!

  4. Michael Setzer II

    June 25, 2023 at 6:24 am

    Brother has a Helios Predator that he paid about $2000 for, and it is only a few years old. It now seems to be totally dead. Nothing happens when power button pressed. Think battery might have gone bad, but everywhere I've checked it comes back with battery out of stock?? No responses to any messages to Acer support???
    When it was working, seemed fine. Brother had selected option to not upgrade to 11, since it was fine with 10, but then one day after a restart it installed Windows 11?? Machine was very flakey, and Acer web site hows nothing for Windows 11 drivers?? Bought a new 1T NVME and swapped the original one. Speed of new one was about twice that of the original. Did the clean reinstall of OS, and only option was to do Windows 11, but it went fine, and seemed to be more stable than upgrade from 10 to 11 version, and of course had no Acer drivers. Got hit by Typhoon, and was without power for a week. Afterwards plugged computer in, and after about an hour batter light went from yellow to blue. Then tried power button, and get nothing at all. Tired booting without battery, and also nothing at all. Get no responses from Acer Tech Support. Using a much older Aspire E1-731 (VAG70_HC_0685_2.29) and it is solid as a rock, but was about 1/4 the price of the Predator, and have changed battery twice over years and upgraded ran and move to 1T SSD drive. So, don't know if Acer quality has dropped over years, or if they put so many bells and whistles in the Predator that it was doomed to fail.. Very disappointed with Predator and Acers lack of response.
    Retired College Computer Instructor after 37 years.

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