Is this the best budget gaming notebook the money could buy?
INTRODUCTION:
PC Gaming isn’t that all too inexpensive, contrary to what most of us believes especially if you’re on a budget for a mobile yet capable notebook to game with. This has been a problem for quite a while personally, ever since my sister asked me to canvass a notebook for her studies – and gaming needs. Without exceeding the allotted budget of 30, 000 Pesos.
Long story short, and since I love my sister’s enthusiasm for PC Gaming, your dear author decided to opt with the first solution that came into my mind – The ACER Aspire E5-551G. There are many variants of this AMD powered notebook, and we got the 812L version with a decent specification for the price. It is by no means a “real” gaming notebook since it lacks many gaming oriented features such as an SSD, bloated RAM, and a display with fast response time, but it makes up for its core technical specifications with a quad core AMD APU coupled with a capable Mobile Radeon GPU.
Initially, we actually bought an older unit, known already as a discontinued product, the ACER Aspire V5-452G. It is a slim AMD powered notebook, almost comparable to the one we got here gaming spec-wise, comes in many colors and we simply love the elegant looks of it. And because that said model goes ape sh!t on us for the very first week (temperature problems), we decided to have it replaced by the bigger brother, with a more decent cooling solution and horse-power when it comes to features. Hence, the E5-551G. I tell you, I almost entirely ate sachets of Pancit Canton for a month for this.
WHY THE ASPIRE E5-551G SERIES EXACTLY:
We can actually choose any notebooks from the retail store to replace the V5. But, we are looking for a laptop with the exactly specifications. Why? Because AMD APUs and the mobility AMD Radeon GPUs are the real deal when it comes to budget oriented gaming.
Lemme get this to you straight. You don’t have to buy the best equipment to play your favorite games on the PC, nor to play the most recent ones. There is no need for an SSD, tons of RAMs, a backlit keyboard, gaming mouse, nor a “Killer” network card to game on properly. You simply need a good ol’ trinity of these basics: a decent CPU, decent amount of RAM, and a capable GPU to run your games with good visual fidelity. All of these could be achieved with just that. A proper balance. With this notebook, we are hoping to achieve that feat, all thanks to AMD’s latest Kaveri APUs, and Radeon GPUs.
FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS RUNDOWN:
The Acer Aspire E5-551G we got here features AMD’s latest, and recently announced APU, the A8-7100. It’s a quad core APU, bearing a base clock of 1.8GHz and a boost clock of 3.0GHz. That said, it’ll go as far as 3.0GHz whenever thermals and power permitted the APU. It is flagged under AMD’s UVL CPUs, meaning it has a low amount of needed power to run, hence the 19W TDP which is great for mobiles really.
This is the Kaveri part, manufactured using 28nm waffles and has its own integrated GPU, a Radeon R5 with 256 GPU cores running at 450 – 514 MHz. Although the GPU part sounds not so amazing, it supports AMD’s latest GPU features such as the support for Mantle API, TrueAudio, and Eyefinity. A shame really because it isn’t that great for immersive gaming.
But hold yer horses, as this notebook comes with a dedicated Radeon R7 M265 to the rescue. Meaning it actually has 2 GPU parts inside working with each other seamlessly. That said, the Radeon R5 could be used for graphically non-intensive games such as Blizzard’s Heartstone, while the Radeon R7 M265 could be utilized for games such as Battlefield 4.
The Radeon R7 M265 supports all the latest AMD features said above, while taking gaming grade specifications seriously with its maximum 2GB GDDR3 VRAM config. Bus speed is a plenty at 128-bit so there yah go nut heads about buswidth and VRAM ratio. In addition, the R7 M265 features 384 shader cores, with a core clock operating at 300 – 825 MHz. This, being an R7 card, features AMD’s latest GCN architecture.
Based on the specifications, it should be faster than the HD 8750M, and a hairline slower than the Nvidia GT 740M – A mobile GPU from the Green Team found on pricier notebooks and is actually a GPU “should-be” on my list had it just been priced a tad lower.
To be honest, those are the only things that mattered to me the most initially, but we were dumbfounded when we actually learned that this notebook has a larger display at 15.6 Inches, compared to the V5 with 14″ of screen space. Keyboard looks like full size too, with numerical pad and a good spacing between the chiclet keys. Slightly annoyed that it came with a damn optical drive though.
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 64-bit |
| Processor Type | AMD A-Series A8-7100 |
| Processor Speed | 1.8 GHz |
| Processor Core | Quad-core (4 Core) |
| Memory Technology | 4GB DDR3L SDRAM 1/2 Slot |
| Memory Card Reader | Yes |
| Hard Drive Capacity | 500 GB |
| Optical Drive Type | Yes |
| Screen Size | 15.6″ 1366 x 768 |
| Display Screen Type | Active Matrix TFT Color LCD LED Backlit |
| Graphics Controller Model | AMD Radeon R7 M265 2GB |
| Graphics Memory Accessibility | Integrated + Dedicated |
| Wireless Standards | IEEE 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Ethernet Technology | Gigabit Ethernet |
| Bluetooth Standard | Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Communications | Webcam, Microphone |
| Number of Cells | 6-cell |
| Battery Chemistry | Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) |
| Battery Capacity | 2500 mAh |
BUNDLED ACCESSORIES:
No pictures here amigos. Just the plain table for what you will actually receive when you bought your very own E5-551G. We were fortunate to receive a free Carry Bag, and a damn A4tech mouse though via haggling, so bundle might vary. Just bring a cutie with you and let her handle the staffs when shopping. Thanks to Skyrim, we learned some merchant perks applicable to the real world.
Package Contents |
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THE ACER ASPIRE E5-551G-812L:
The E5-551G is by no means a gaming notebook if we are going to base on the aesthetic department alone. It is just a plain, almost generic looking Two piece contraption that slaps onto each other when not in used. Although simplistic, the E5-551G actually is a pleasant sight to see, with good curves, and metallic finish.
With a 15.6″ screen, the E5-551G surely is not your typical notebook. It is medium sized, weights at around 2.5 Kilograms, and features a full sized keyboard and a a wide surfaced touch pad.
The keyboard used by ACER on this particular notebook is of the chiclet type, meaning the keys are square with rounded edges. The switch used here are low travel scissor switches which is enough for most gamers. Perhaps what I like the most about the E5’s keyboard is the distance between keys considering the extra rows from the numpad. No finger cramming with FPS games using this one. Additionally, the trackpad is huge and has this tactile feedback which is annoying to use for the very first week since I heavily touch it whenever I do multi-point gestures.
The 15.6″ screen is no way fancy, just your average TFT LCD with LED Backlit with a native resolution of 1366 x 768 at 16:9 configuration. It’s somewhat leaning on the blue tone side of things, which could be easily adjusted via settings for better color reproduction. Though there are no futher info given as to what the response time is, it is decent for gaming even for FPS games. Do not bother using this outdoors though where the sun shines before you since it has a gloss panel.
When fully closed, the E5-551G is just about an inch and a quarter tall. It has little to no external branding and actually speaks of great build quality all over courtesy of its aluminum finish housing. I still like the V5’s sublime aesthetics and build quality though.
The underside of the notebook is made out of a single molded hard ABS plastic which is good for rigidity, but is a pain in the arse if you’re looking forward to upgrade the notebook without removing the warranty sticker. I was initially looking forward to dismantle this thing to see what’s inside, but since ACER did just that, we dunno the specific, nor where the HDD, the SO-DIMMs, and chipset are placed.
The e5-551G appears to feature a decent cooling solution via a down draft blower fan and flat copper heat-pipes to transfer heat from the APU, and GPU. It runs silent, without any audible noise even at full load. We just wished ACER included a software to control it so we could maximize the adaptive boost clock of the APU and GPU.
The battery pack is removable, and is a Lithium Ion pack with a 2500 mAh capacity. It should be enough for 4 hours of mobility, and is a better choice compared to the V5 we had with non removable battery pack.
The right side of the E5-551G features a power port, 2x USB 2.0 ports, and an optical drive. Other variants of the 551 family features an empty optical dock which is actually a better option should you want to expand the storage capacity of the drive. Initial cost should be lower too with just an empty dock inside.
The left side of the notebook features a Kensington lock, an old school VGA port, LAN port, HDMI with HDCP support, a single USB 3.0 (Thank gawd!), and a dual purpose 3.5mm jack for audio input and output. There is also an SD card port at the front that supports hi-speed SDHC cards.
Usually, gaming oriented notebooks and or laptops features a massive power adapter to make up for their sheer performance. Luckily, since the E5-551G is no gaming notebook in reality, and just happen to use a clever assortment of AMD technologies, it only need a handful of voltages to run, hence, the standard mouse sized power brick is used.
BUNDLED SOFTWARES:
If there is something I hate about this laptop, other than coming pre-installed with the Windows 8.1 as the only OS, it’s the gawd darn bloatwares. Basically, upon booting it up, you will be initially greeted by the apps below. Don’t hate me for this ACER, but a majority of your apps are just a waste of time excluding the recovery management, Quick Access, and the CyberLink Power Director. Adobe Reader? SRSLY??
HOW WE TEST:
First and foremost, testing notebooks requires a lot of time – patience actually, in order to precisely gather results, more so notebooks actually differs from each other spec-wise. Rest assured, we will run our tests / benchmarks with an updated operating system of the notebook, along with updated drivers for its hardware. To actually receive the results that we wanted, bloatwares are removed, along with other softwares that could hamper the results. There goes your free copy of Norton and McAfee.
The R7 M265 and its latest drivers aren’t fully compatible with the GPU-Z yet, thus GPU-Z is displaying some weird specifications. The displayed 32-bit Bus Width is a good example, along with an unknown memory size. We do know the exact specifications which is 128-bit, with a 2048 MB DDR3 memory interface.
Since we’re focusing on gaming, you’ll see more games than synthetics here. Also, we haven’t tested notebooks for quite sometime now, so we don’t have a comparable notebook to compare the results. Instead, we are going to test this notebook’s gaming capabilities with the different graphical presets found in the games themselves. Do note that the FPS results shown are the averages taken from FRAPs and in-game benchmarking tools.
GENERAL IN-GAME SETTINGS | |
RESOLUTION | 1366 X 768 |
ANTI-ALIASING | Game Default (2XMSAA-FXAA) |
V-SYNC | OFF |
WHAT IS FPS ANYWAY?
For refreshment purposes, let us talk for a moment about FPS or Frames Per Second. Also known as Frame Rate, FPS is the general unit of which we measure a graphics card’s capabilities. Generally, the higher value, the smoother the gameplay should be, since higher FPS means higher frames are rendered each second. Higher FPS doesn’t just improve your gaming experience, as it also helps you to react faster especially in First Person Shooter & Racing Games. Please do note that Resolution and in-game settings has a huge effect too in any system’s frame rate. Better yet, check out the difference of 30 and 60 FPS here: LINK.
BELOW 30 FPS: Abysmal gaming experience. You either need to tone down in-game settings to achieve a higher FPS count or just don’t bother gaming at all.
30 – 40 FPS: Playable, albeit some issues might arise including performance hiccups on some levels / areas of your game. Tone down graphical settings if needed.
50 – 60 FPS: Good gameplay experience. Usually the sweet spot of mid-range GFX cards. Noticeable improvements over 30 FPS.
ABOVE 60 FPS: You have ascended into a being far beyond human recognition with silky smooth gameplay experience. You are now a part of the PC Master Race.
CPU PERFORMANCE:
Since we’re focusing on the gaming aspects of this notebook, we only tested the E5-551G’s CPU performance with the CINEBENCH R11.5 benchmarking tool from MAXON, the creators of Cinema 4D. We added the results from the AMD A88X motherboard review to get a perspective about the performance of the mobile APU. Do note that the said board is using a much more powerful AMD A10-6800K APU with a beefier RAM capacity too running at dual channel configuration.
The notebook’s CPU performance seems to be leaning on the okay side of things, thanks to the 4 core CPU side of the APU running at 3.0 GHz when boosted. Nothing to complain here but I think it could be better with a dual channel memory which we will check out later.
MEMORY PERFORMANCE:
Memory performance figures are a courtesy of AIDA64’s Cache & Memory Benchmark. It should allow use to check out how the memory works with the APU.
I wasn’t expecting this result, but it turns out that the memory performance of the notebook seems to be abysmal for my preference. For an instance, and if compared to its older yet more powerful sibling; The A88X with the same memory frequency, this is 3x slower, and has far more latency – also thrice slower. Do note that the Aspire E5-551G is running a single stick of 1600MHz DDR3 SO-DIMM in 4GB configuration from Kingston. Two of this stick will undoubtedly provide a better performance.
STORAGE PERFORMANCE:
Crystal Disk Mark is our benchmark of choice for the storage benchmarks as it is easy to use and could be configured to suit our needs. Download it HERE to check out your drive’s performance.
As expected, the storage performance from the 5400 RPM drive is not particularly the best. Kinda frustrated to see these figures but on an average this is what you should expect from a drive with a slow RPM. Had this been an SSD in the first place then I’ll be a happy chap. By the way, boot speed is around 35 seconds. Could be slower had we retained the stock applications.
GAMING PERFORMANCE:
Resident Evil 6, is a survival horror video game developed and published by CAPCOM. It also has a built-in benchmarking tool to measure your PC’s graphic performance.
Tomb Raider (2013) is the fifth game, and the reboot of the Tomb Raider series. It is developed by Crystal Dynamics, and published by Square-Enix.
Company of Heroes 2 is a WWII based real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sega for the Microsoft Windows platform. We disabled AA on this setup.
GRiD 2 is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters and is the sequel to the award winning Race Driver: GRiD. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on May 2013.
Battlefield 4 is EA and DICE’s latest first person shooter utilizing the all new Frostbite 3 game engine featuring better tessellation effects and destruction compared to its predecessor.
Dota 2 is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) video game developed by Valve and is the stand-alone sequel to the Warcraft III based Defense of the Ancients (DotA) mod.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a spin-off of the Metal gear series featuring Raiden as the protagonist. It is a hack and slash game from Platinum Games.
Gaming performance wise, the ACER Aspire E5-551G never fell short when it comes to my expectations providing a generally good gaming performance across the benchmarks. We could play the latest games with acceptable frame rates at low to medium presets without even tweaking the settings. That said, you could play with the settings yourself to get more out of the notebook. I suggest disabling anti-aliasing or toning down the texture quality since those Two alone eats a huge chunk of frame rate.
AUDIO OUTPUT, WEBCAM, & MIC PERFORMANCE:
For years, ACER is known to provide a measly audio solution when it comes to their notebooks, but it seems not the case with the E5-551G; At least on our model’s case. It provided a capable stereo solution be it for movies, or for casual gaming, albeit it is still better to use a gaming headset when it comes to serious gaming needs. Check out my Final Fantasy XIII gameplay below captured via a camera.
[youtube=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fydkRiEFZ7E”]
As for the audio input, the mic itself is enough for calls, but don’t expect miracles since it could also pick up the audio from the speakers. It’s only good when paired with a headphone if you don’t have a headset. As for the webcam, it’s fairly decent, a huge upgrade from ACER notebooks from the past if you’ll ask me.
TEMPERATURE & POWER CONSUMPTION:
Laptops and or notebooks are notorious when it comes to temperature, even though they have considerably less power output compared to desktops. This is due to their size and compact nature.
The ACER Aspire E5-551G runs pretty cool and quiet through the stress testing. It never even throttled down to keep temperatures at bay which is an indication that its cooling unit is working properly.
Power consumption seems to be pretty good across the power options tested. Balanced and High Performance power outputs seems to be the same which is mainly due to the AMD Power Play option we configured.
VALUE & CONCLUSION:
So back to the question; Is this the best budget gaming notebook the money could buy? Perhaps it is, and perhaps it is not technically. It is if we’re talking about the stock gaming performance alone, as we could literally enjoy playing the most recent games with modest settings. And when tweaked, lets say dumb down the resolution to 720P, disable or tone down AA and lessen the texture quality on certain games, then you’ll certainly get more out of it. At the moment, we are using it to play Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Storm 3 with a fluid frame rate out of the box, while Battlefield 4 multiplayer needs to be tweaked to achieve a healthy 40+ FPS without loosing much of the desired graphics fidelity.
Now for the nope part, I don’t see the reason why ACER decided to go with an optical drive instead of opting for a dual channel DDR3 configuration. With two sticks instead of one, this notebook will surely perform better. I mean the performance of the memory seems to be low enough to raise an eye brow. I see that ACER never intended this notebook to become a budget gaming machine in the first place but come-on, voiding the warranty just because you want to upgrade the RAM and storage drive yourself is just a recipe for a headache. ACER Philippines assured us that we could upgrade the said parts without voiding the warranty if done at one of their service centers.
There is a fair balance of what to like and what’s not to like with the ACER Aspire E5-551G. But, since it tingled my senses for mobile gaming, it’s all good to me. I mean for a notebook 29, 995 (25, 995 current market value), this is the real deal. I could easily recommend it for its sheer value but you have to take the stock memory configuration into account. You could get a DDR3L SO-DIMM with the same specifications at around 1, 500 pesos easily though.
There are notebook manufacturers who pretends that their machines are good enough for mobile gaming, and then there are manufacturers that does not even spend a dime to flaunt their gaming capable devices. The ACER Aspire E5-551G-812L is a good example of the latter by offering a decent mid-range mobile gaming performance without breaking the 30K Peso mark.
THE ACER ASPIRE E5-551G-812L NOTEBOOK RETAILS FOR AROUND 29, 995 PESOS AND IS BACKED BY A LIMITED 1 YEAR MANUFACTURER WARRANTY.
THE VERDICT |
PROS:
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CONS:
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So fcking awesome, your review is. Complete review. Dang, thanks man! I
am in the midst of reading your post and I would like to post a comment
first before I finish reading it. :) Thanks again! Ito kasi plano kong
bilhin.
This one Versus the Lenovo G480 (i5)
-Glenn Posadas
Lenovo G480 with the Core i5 + GT635M might be just a little slower to the E5 when it comes to general gaming performance since it’s paired with a capable processor. However on graphics card heavy games (GPU reliant), or if the game is based on AMD’s Mantle (BF4, Thief, Civ5, etc.), then the R7 M265 is the absolute winner.
Purpose is programming, so you actually need a favorable screen space and a full size keyboard so that’s another check for the E5. DOTA 2 is easy peasy with this. Just play with the settings. I suggest disabling AA and ambient occlusion for 50+ FPS gameplay on medium settings at 1366×768.
Lenovo’s offering is good, and might be better on some games with more CPU overhead. It’s one of my choices but it’s too bulky for my taste z-height wise. :v
Last one sir Leo, 3 of my colleagues are saying that ACER LAPTOP battery sucks! Geez, I’m buying a new laptop this weekend or next week. I’m about to change my mind again. How’s the battery of the E5 so far?
Glenn
What ACER laptops are they referring to? Laptop battery sucks, especially if you’re going to use the laptop unplugged when gaming. 2.5 Hours of continuous gaming is already a feat for most @high performance configuration.
Hi bro. Sorry I forgot to reply to yah T.T
Battery of the E5 is still good. I guess I just take good care of the E5’s power pack. Remember to remove it if you’re expecting to play / use the E5 for an extended period of time.
How to remove the bloatware tho?
Uninstall them in Control Panel.
Bloatwares could be removed via the “Program & Features” menu at the Control Panel. However, it is advisable to check out the included browser too for bloatware extensions or add-ons.
hello, just like to ask how is your notebook’s cpu temp? i just bought one last december and my cpu temp is at an average of 98 C
Hello Book User,
Mine stays around 40-ish. 98C is too hot, so you’d better have your unit RMA’d. Provide them a screenshot of the temperature for reference.
Get it replaced ASAP, bro.
I really like the review :) thank you a lot. i'm thinking that the specs is good. I'm just wondering if this would be a good performing laptop with dota 2 and video editing?
Would be good with DOTA 2 especially with the latest drivers and updates but for video editing it should somewhat suffice. You have to upgrade the memory kung balak mo mag video editing dito BTW. :)
DOTA2 will play fine with this notebook if you will keep the settings at Medium. Ambient Occlusion should be disabled tho as that eats framerate a lot.
Video editing seems to be fine, but yo have to use OpenCL supporting softwares for the Radeon R7 M265's performance benefits to kick in.
Hi guys, Dota2 is fine with this laptop. Even in MAX settings, you can enable all the graphics settings and still get 25 to 30 fps, just be sure that your ram is 4GB and up :) – From a Dota2 player. :D
Sir Leo, share ko lang for Acer Laptops na walang led notifier ang keyboard: http://prettyitgirl.blogspot.com/2015/03/keylocks-notifier-v12-release.html
Many thanks, PrettyGirl and Glenn! You’re helping the community a lot!
Glenn Thanks a lot for the input!
Sis just disabled Tesselation by the way, and games were wayyyy smoother. Also, it's better to upgrade into dual channel (4+4) instead of a single 8GB stick. Dual channel is a must for performance improvements.
Glenn Thanks a lot for the input!
Sis just disabled Tesselation by the way, and games were wayyyy smoother. Also, it's better to upgrade into dual channel (4+4) instead of a single 8GB stick. Dual channel is a must for performance improvements.
i have this exact laptop, and the r7 m265 is not being used. benchmark testing games only use the r5 kaveri .GPU-Z says AMD CrossFire disabled (crossfire available). Anny advice?
Hello Midnight Sun,
Make sure to enable dual graphics / swicthable graphics at the Catalyst Control Panel.
Check the dedicated graphics options (switchable graphics), and manually enter the application’s executable there. That should do it. :)
hello sir… kabibili ko lng ng ganitong laptop pero ung processor nya ay amd fx-7500… pag nag lalaro ako ng world of tanks with lowest graphics 30-32 fps ang highest kong nakukuha… pag medyo may action na bababa pa ung fps xD… i already update my drivers for m265 naka high performance na dn ang settings sa catalyst… sa tingin ko dagdagan ko ng 4gb ram, any other suggestions for higher fps?
Disable mo bro tessellation sa catalyst, and check mo maigi yung dedicated graphics settings, mukhang di nagagamit yung M265.
pano po ba i checl kung nagagamit ung video card?
Check mo swicthable graphics settings sa catalyst. Then i-check mo kung yung executable ng WoT ay ginagamit yung integrated or dedicated GPU.
Sir pano po maglagay ng Video Controller dun sa Device manager, nireformat ko po kasi yung OS ay Enterprise lang then saan poba ako pde makakuha ng driver for video
Just get it here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download and you are good to go. :)
Boss Leo, mag-uupgrade po ako at gagawin ko pong 4GB ang Memory Ram ng Aspire E5-521-205Y ko po ang tanong ko po ano pong klase or match Memory Ram at Specs ang bibilin ko po para sa Aspire ko po. Salamat po….
Download CPU-Z and check the model of the current RAM on that app. I’m sure you’ll find it and if you do, that’s what you’ll want for 100% compatibility. :)
Na download ko npo, pero wla po kong nakitang description man lang ang nkita ko lang po kung ilang GB lng?Yan po ung mga nkita….
Punta ka bro sa Memory tab, then send a screenshot here :)
paano po ang pagpunta sa Memory Tab?
Boss nakita ko na kaso medyo naguguluhan lang ako, sbi kasi sakin ng Acer mismo dapat daw po DDR3L ang bblin ko pra low voltage, eh ang nkalgay po dito sa cpu-z na DDR3 lang po…..
DDR3L is still DDR3. L stands for low voltage which means DDR3L = 1.35v across all frequencies.
Your DDR3L RAM / SO-DIMM is the “Kingston 2GB 1Rx16 PC3L-12800S DDR3 1600MHz SO-DIMM”. That’s just around 850-1000 pesos.
I-upgrade ko po sana sa 4GB baka po meron po kayong alam kung saan ako pwede makakabili ng ganyang Ram? May nirecommend po skin na brand ang Acer tulad ng APACER, SAMSUNG, HYNIX, NANYA, KINGSTON at ELPIDA. Na yan lang daw ang pwede kong bilin at ikabit sa Aspire ko! Pwede ko po bang kabitan ng ibang brand pero same specs ung Aspire ko? So ano pong Specs ang hahanapin ko at bibilhin ko po? Salamat po….
Check out tipidpc.com for the ram. ;)
Maraming Salamat Po…
You’re welcome :)
Sir tanong lang po kung mag-upgrade po ba ako sa 4GB Ram may posibilidad po ba na bumilis ang pag bbrowse ko po, kasi po napapansin ko po pagnagddownload po ako at pagsinabay ko ang pag-fb bumabagal po ang speed. Samantalang ung dual core desktop nmin kahit 4 n website ang nakaopen mabilis naman po 2gb ram lang po.
Absolutely bro!
Salamat po Sir Leo
No problem :)
Hey there! I have the same laptop, and i have some issues with GtA V
I can only play, with the R5 card. I already tired everything. control center (intel-amd tricks etc)
Did you run this game on this?
Hello Bence, yes I have a copy of GTA 5, bought specifically for my sister to enjoy. Sadly, even with the recent patches, Rockstar refuses to fix the problem with switchable graphics.
Sir pwede po ba ang e5-551g-812L na acer laptop para sa nba 2k16? Kung gagana po na ito ng maayos salamat po in advance
Hello Cyrus,
We only tried NBA 2K15 with the notebook but I’m pretty sure it could handle the latest title of the 2K series but with lower graphical performance. Tessellation and anti-aliasing should be lowered or disabled.
Thank you po!!! Last question na po. Pano po ba idisabled yung tessellation and yung anti aliasing. Thanks po ulit sa help
Kung sa lumang drivers, go to catalyst control center then look for the graphics / gaming menu tab. Andun yung settings which you can override.
For example, you can set anti-aliasing and tessellation to lower values manually kung i-uncheck mo yung “AMD Optimized” and “Use Application Settings” boxes.
Sir leo, pano po gagawin ko para di mag lag yung laptop na to pag naglalaro ng cs go. Medyo nakakainis po kasi eh hahahaha thanks po sir!!
Get every settings to low. Start ka muna dun. Then enable mo multicore rendering. Make sure na off any forms of anti-aliasing (MSAA & FXAA).
And kung video card po ang problema ano po yung affordable pero suitable na for gaming yung di na sya naghahang. Thanks sir laki po ng tulong nyo sakin.
Tanong ko lng po, pano po ba maiwasan mag lag habang naglalaro. Dinisable ko naman po yung aa eh.
Anung game bro?
Ano po steps para ienable yun sir? Sorry sir newbie here
Okay na po sir salamat try ko po kung umaayos po salamat po
Gaano po kataas yung RAM na kayang itake nang laptop na to pag in-upgrade? kaya nya po bang i-handle yung 16GB ram or hanggang 8GB lang?
Not sure but we’ve tried 8GB only. Would be enough for most games though, and you’re better off with an SSD as an upgrade. :)
Ah ganun po ba? So mas maganda na i-upgrade ko to SSD?
Ano po ba yung most recommended nyo na SSD para sa laptop na toh tsaka how much would you think is it going to cost?
Yup. Sakin kase, ang config ko is 128GB SSD + yung HDD. Bale ginawa ko, inalis ko yung DVD Drive, at pinalitan ko ng SATA Drive internal enclosure. Upgrade ko is worth 4K for the combo. Not bad.
Ay tama nga estimate ko. Sige po salamat ng marami :D
hi Leo,
na mention mo na you removed your dvd drive, did you do it yourself? i would also like to replace my hdd to ssd (if possible) or install another disk drive like you did
Hi,
Although I could do it myself, I had the service crew of the store where I bought the notebook take care of it. That way, you wont be troubled with a voided warranty sticker. Same thing applies to the installation of an SSD and RAM.
i updated my gpu drivers and all im getting are poor framerates even on a browser game, any ideas how to fix it? also i couldn’t figure out how the switchable graphics work. r5 should be able to run browser games at least. but it couldn’t
Hi Nap,
Try to use the first Radeon Crimson Driver. The latest ones are kinda buggy.
this dual graphics settings with and APU is really frustrating right now -_- for some reason i am unable to play almost all of browser games at least on some games i tried, it couldn’t even play candy crush LOL. my gpu drivers are dated 02/3/2016. i might be using the wrong driver for my gpu though, what version of amd gpu drivers are you using?
Have you tried the 16.2 hotfix? Also try to clean your drivers before installing a new one via Display Driver Uninstaller.
i kinda figured it out, it seems that AMD catalyst is restricting my browsers and forced to use power saving graphics. I was using the 16.2 hotfix at first but the new radeon crimson 16.2 has lot of negative feedbacks so most of its users reverted back to CCC and that i did. everything seems ok now. im using the amd radeon crimson 16.1.1 driver version currently
Oh I see, I thought you’re using blustacks or something earlier. Glad you found the solution for yourself :D
Hi Leo,
I noticed that after upgrading to windows 10, i am getting really low frame rates to the point where turning off all of the available settings in graphics and only switching texture quality to medium/low doesn’t make any difference (dota 2, switching texture quality to low and/or medium don’t have any difference, 20-30fps avg.) i have read in some comments that you guys can actually achieve fluid frame rates (50fps+).
Hello Nap,
In that case, use the same drivers you used on Windows 8.1 and have the automatic updates disabled for the GPU. Had the same issue with the OS. Damn Microsoft.
Hi, i would like to ask your recommendation between this acer e5-551g-812l and dell inspiron 14 5455 (5000 series). I’m really having a hard time choosing between the two. which has better overall performance? (i mean when it comes to computing power, not gaming since i will be using the laptop for software development purposes and i am on a tight budget)
Hi Nap,
We actually reviewed the DELL Inspiron 5455 (AMD) and you can read it here: http://techporn.ph/dell-inspiron-14-5000-series-review/
If both notebooks reviewed are compared, then I suggest the ACER Aspire E5-551G-812L. But if the DELL Inspiron 5000 Series you’re looking for is the Intel variant, then you’d get more with its CPU despite the less powerful GPU.
Yup, i was referring to both units reviewed by your website. so Acer is it? can you give me a quick run through? i’m not that much knowledgable when it comes to hardware.
Acer’s notebook with the A8-7100 APU is better over the latest A8-7140 APU of the DELL Inspiron model since it can use dual channel memory configuration, has extra 2MB L2 cache, and has a higher turbo boost (together with higher Temp threshold). Both are great, however I’m leaning more towards A8-7100 due to its flexibility especially if you have a good cooling solution and expects to upgrade the DIMMs for extra memory capacity and performance. The A8-7100 also supports more instruction sets.
Hi Leo,
I just purchased ACER Aspire E5-551G-812L yesterday, so far im impressed. the only thing that annoys me are the bloatware that comes with the unit. running it on fresh boot and leaving it idle consumes 49% of the available RAM already and i think it wasn’t suppose to be like that. have you tried uninstalling all the software that came with the unit? is it safe?
Hello Nap,
Yup, you could remove the bloatwares definitely. Had the bloatwares removed right away and doing so improved the performance. :)
Sir, san po ba pwedeng mag pa upgrade ng laptop na to. Sayang po kasi kung mag build ako ng pc eh.
Storage (up to 2 SSD or HDD), RAM up to 16GB (8GB tested). Yun lang pwede mo upgrade bro. Otherwise, look for notebooks with MXM modules kung gusto mo pati graphics mapalitan.
what is the latest graphics drivers? mine was dated 12/5/2015 and when i try to update it on device manager it says its already up to date
That is the latest from Windows Update as far as I know which is not really the latest from AMD. I think it’s a problem on Microsoft’s side, so you’d better download the pre-crimson drivers or get the latest crimson driver directly from AMD.
i’ve installed the latest drivers. Now everytime i turn on this laptop it say “hardware settings have been changed. reboot blah blah”. i reboot it several times, it still does exist.
Have you tried using DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller)? Download it, run it (boot in safe mode), have the drivers unistalled, and reboot the PC. Afterwards, download the latest drivers (including the chipset driver) from AMD.
Good morning po Sir. San po pwede makahanap ng instruction o guides po pano po buksan at palitan HDD or Ram Sir? Thanks in advance po sa reply.
If under warranty pa unit mo, dalin mo siya sa service center, or sa any branch na pinagbilhan mo kasama ng pang upgrade mo na parts para di masira yung warranty seal. :)
Freaking awesome review! Hanggang sa comments section malaman! Mabuhay ka sir!
Salamat ser, kahit medyo outdated na.
sir pinormat ko ung acer e5-551-f57k ko para installan ng windows 10 (dating windows 8) tapos naging 2.1 ghz nlng (pero 3.3 ghz dati). ano kaya pwedeng gawin para bumalik sa dati?
Check power options. Make sure it’s on high performance. Also, please check your CPU frequency at Task Manager while the system is on load.
thank you Sir Leo, now the speed is at 2.7 ghz, but the maximum speed is still at 2.1 ghz and it gets too hot. still can’t run autocad on high graphics.
one more question sir, is there anything upgradeable (chip, ram, anything) in acer e 15 (e5-551g-f57k)?
You can upgrade the storage and RAM of that notebook. However if you need more 2.5″ hdd space, you buy an adapter that could replace the optical drive bay. :)
sir kakabili ko lang po ng acer aspire e5-551g-812l
kaso wala ung amd catalyst. How can I enable the r7 graphics when I’m using intensive softwares?
Anong OS gamit mo? Try updating the notebook via Windows Update. Luma na kase Catalyst, pinalitan na ng Radeon Software.
okay na po, nainstall ko na po ung bago, ano po ba settings for global graphics sa r7 para maging smooth? I play rules of survival and lol po eh, thanks in advance
Make sure to disable vsync, then set everything else to performance / optimized.
bro, I have recently played league of legends in my laptop but i get lower framerates 30-40 and it gets even lower to 15 when in clash, how can I get higher frame rate? I even upgraded my ram to 6gb beforehand. It’s kinda irrirating, can you help me please?
That’s too low even for the notebook’s hardware specifications. May I know your in-game settings? Also make sure to play on high performance mode.
it’s currently on medium settings, the fps stays the same even if I put it in high or low settings. I’ve set the graphics to r7, all settings are in amd optimized, off and performance
Looks like there’s an issue with the game. Try running it again then check out what graphics card is running via task manager. The R7 should be on load, nothing else.
how should i know if the r7 is the one running league of legends?
in my task manager it says r5 is in the gpu 0 and gpu 1
GPU 0 and GPU 1 should be two different models. Better check it out with GPU-Z then. Also make sure to update your OS down to the latest. It helps with issues such as this one.
how am i gonna do that? my windows and drivers are already up to date. I don’t know what should I do right now
1) Download GPU-Z, check the GPU utilization on that software while you are playing.
2) Make sure to play on full screen and disable v-sync.
3) Power Options > Power Plan > Maximum Performance
is it also because i often get high pings so my fps gets low?
That’s also a part of the reason why your framerate is jumping around. Try playing using your LAN port instead.