Acer Nitro gaming laptop - noticeable upgrade from Alienware Alpha for gaming?

[stuman74]

I bought this Acer Nitro gaming laptop for my son for Christmas. Was on sale at Best Buy for $600 on black friday. He currently uses a little Alienware Alpha 1st gen box plugged into a TV for gaming. Just want to see if anyone has this particular Nitro laptop and if it's noticeably fast or if it has any real issues. He mostly plays Steam games. Thanks!

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-53-55G9 Link

 

[fralexandr]

1st gen alpha uses an nvidia ~860m, so the 1050 ti should be ~2x the performance
The laptop also has a faster cpu.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Nitro-5-i7-8750H-GTX-1050-Ti-FHD-Laptop-Review.321110.0.html

 

[VirtualLarry]

I bought this Acer Nitro gaming laptop for my son for Christmas. Was on sale at Best Buy for $600 on black friday. He currently uses a little Alienware Alpha 1st gen box plugged into a TV for gaming. Just want to see if anyone has this particular Nitro laptop and if it's noticeably fast or if it has any real issues. He mostly plays Steam games. Thanks!

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-53-55G9 Link

While I cannot comment on a comparison between that laptop and an Alienware Alpha (as I've never owned or used one), but at least just spec-wise, that laptop's not too shabby, and for only $600, I think that you got kind of a deal.

 

[stuman74]

Thanks for the comments. Yeah, I think per the specs this should be way better than that old Alpha. Found some reviews and looks like cooling may be a concern, but supposedly I can re-apply better thermal paste to cool a lot. Hopefully he wants it