Upgrading My Old Acer Nitro to a Legion 7i… What Are Your Thoughts?

I’ve been using my Acer Nitro laptop for over nine years. It came with a GTX 960M and an i7, and was great for gaming until 2019. Since I played mostly on my PS4, I didn’t feel the need to upgrade until recently, when it started having major issues.

Now that I’m starting my master’s this year, I needed a new laptop mostly for work, but I still want to game in my free time. I was saving for a Zephyrus G16 because I wanted something thin for gaming, but I found a great deal on the Legion 7i instead.

Specs: 32GB RAM, i9, RTX 4070, 1TB, 3.2K panel.

So far, I’m loving the upgrade! I’m still tweaking settings, so any tips or recommendations would be super helpful.

How on earth did an Acer Nitro last for 9 years?

Kai said:
How on earth did an Acer Nitro last for 9 years?

Honestly, I’m surprised too. But now it’s painful to use because of hardware and OS issues. It was pretty future-proof for a 2016 laptop with Thunderbolt USB C, an SD card slot, a hidden Ethernet port, and Windows Hello with an eye tracker. Plus, it has a professional design, unlike many recent Nitro models.

9 years… that’s impressive. Kudos to Acer Nitro!

Keats said:
9 years… that’s impressive. Kudos to Acer Nitro!

Yep, it held up well. I’ve swapped the hard drive twice, the battery’s dead now (so it’s basically a desktop), the speakers are rough, and some keys don’t work. But I did upgrade the RAM from 8GB to 16GB in 2022.

Congrats on the upgrade! Enjoy it!

Ren said:
Congrats on the upgrade! Enjoy it!

Thank you :slight_smile:

Great to see you got 9 years out of the Nitro. Also, in Lenovo Vantage, there’s a ‘Conservation Mode’ feature that limits the battery charge to 75-80% when plugged in.

Ember said:
Great to see you got 9 years out of the Nitro. Also, in Lenovo Vantage, there’s a ‘Conservation Mode’ feature that limits the battery charge to 75-80% when plugged in.

I’ll try that, thanks for the tip!

Nice upgrade! Totally worth it.

Quincy said:
Nice upgrade! Totally worth it.

Thank you!

I still have my 960M and use it daily. I’ve got a spare with a GTX 1050, and I consider that an upgrade, lol.

West said:
I still have my 960M and use it daily. I’ve got a spare with a GTX 1050, and I consider that an upgrade, lol.

That’s great! If it meets your needs, then why upgrade?

That’s a long-lasting laptop! My advice? Go for the RTX 4080 instead and pay the extra, but I guess it’s too late now.

Jess said:
That’s a long-lasting laptop! My advice? Go for the RTX 4080 instead and pay the extra, but I guess it’s too late now.

I did look for an RTX 4080 laptop, but slim models like the Zephyrus G16 and others are way out of my budget, and the Legion 7 Pro feels bulky to me, so I went with this one.

@Jesse
That’s an odd choice. The Pro 7i isn’t much bulkier than the 7i—same form factor.

image

@Carson
First off, yours looks amazing! Mine is in rough shape because I traveled a lot with it during university.

Ty said:
Definitely worth the upgrade! Enjoy it!

Thanks!

What was the cost?