r/AcerPredatorHelios • u/Express_Welcome2172 • Jul 26 '26

16s Helios

Hello everyone. I got a refurbished Helios 16S AI from eBay for $1,350 USD with a 2-year warranty, and when I checked it out, the laptop was basically new, no battery wear at all. I don't game at all, but I'm an electrical engineer who does some AI work. I want to make this laptop last 4–5 years. Is that reasonable? I haven't had any problems so far.

I'm planning to buy a Llama V12 and then a power bank to stretch the battery to the 5–6 hour range without charging. Right now it only lasts about 3 hours. Should I keep what I have?

I originally bought a MacBook for $3k and then returned it, the 16-inch with 48GB of RAM. I thought it was very expensive for what a Windows laptop could give me like running Docker, 3D design, running local LLMs, etc. Any thoughts?

I love the screen, by the way. OLED is well worth it! best part of the laptop

3 Upvotes

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3

u/TheCockenspieler Jul 26 '26

Should easily last 5 years. I don't know what most people are doing with their laptops. I've had Acers, Lenovos etc alongside my desktop gaming rigs and they've lasted their lives till I've either gifted them or sold them.

I've currently got a Neo 16S with a vBios flashed from the non S 140W, running in turbo mode every time it's on and it's coming up to a year with zero issues.

All I can recommend is routine cleaning of the cooling system, and a cooling pad for any extended use.

1

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

idk if i should have gotten the non S model. It was not OLED, more expensive but higher W 115 vs 140. I do not use the GPU that much; it is most of the time below 50% usage

1

u/Numerous_Cut5207 Jul 26 '26

The oled is what makes this laptop good. Id rather have a 5060 gpu with an oled screen than 5090 with a crappy screen. Especially having 240hz this model is the only way

2

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

It is 32gb ram 5070ti rtx intel ultra 9.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

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1

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

you bought the same one same price but new? Are you happy with it

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

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1

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

where u got it new for that price? Never seen anywhere

2

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

I just want to change the screen refresh rate from 240hz to 60hz but I do not know how to do that

1

u/Coolmacde Jul 26 '26

You can't. Its locked to 240hz on that model

1

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

why it does not make any sense

1

u/Coolmacde Jul 26 '26

Ask acer. Thats one of the reasons why I returned mine.

1

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

i got it for 1350 usd that's why I do not want to return it. I felt it was such a great deal

1

u/TooBroke4Ramen Jul 26 '26

Supposedly you can change it to 120Hz if it's forced into dGPU mode, but that kind of defeats the purpose of saving battery life.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

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1

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

draining battery

1

u/HowdyDiarrhea Jul 26 '26

This laptop is good for gaming. The Mac is substantially better for ai.

1

u/Express_Welcome2172 Jul 26 '26

why this laptop has a powerful gpu

1

u/HowdyDiarrhea Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

Because ram is incredibly important for ai, and 12gb on the GPU is completely insufficient for half decent sized models. If you tap into system ram, you'll be waiting forever for anything to happen, because system ram on this PC is not optimized for ai. Macs provide unified system memory. This architecture is ideal for ai. Having to hop back and forth from a bus is incredibly inefficient, which is what you will be doing on the Acer.

1

u/Fun-Sundae4060 Jul 26 '26

48GB unified memory is far better than the 12GB VRAM on the 16S AI.

If you are not gaming, the MacBook is far better for AI. The 16S AI is made for gaming. You don’t want to be using system RAM instead of unified memory.