So the thing about modern laptops
is that there isn't a whole lot
that's designed to be upgraded about them,
except for one thing
that most people probably wouldn't think of.
Some laptops out there
can actually have their displays upgraded.
So we, and by we, I mean Alex,
ordered a replacement screen for our Acer Predator,
whatever this thing is.
What is this?
Something Helios 300?
So we can go from 1080, 60 Hertz to 1080.
120 Hertz.
Also a bigger color game.
Really? Yeah.
Well, why don't we do just that?
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So much like many of Alex's videos these days,
he doesn't appear to have done a whole ton of planning.
In fact, he hasn't even opened the package
for the replacement screen,
but you validated that this works?
Forums have said it should work.
Okay, yeah, hopefully.
I figure if this one doesn't work,
we also have a Dell G3 that also should work, so.
With this?
Yeah.
There's a couple of key things
that you need to look out for.
One is the actual physical size
of the display that you're buying,
but there's more to it than just,
oh, I've got a 15.6 inch laptop.
I buy a 15.6 inch panel and bippity boppity,
because there's also the mounting points
of which there are many standards.
Also, there are a shocking number
of display interfaces for laptops.
So hopefully we're gonna have some luck today.
Why don't we, should we unbox this first?
That's the one thing iFixit kits don't have.
I don't know.
I think this will work.
Ha ha.
It said on the eBay listing
that it should also work for this and some Dell laptop.
So we'll see, I guess.
I mean, especially given that back
when we reviewed the Helios 300,
as I recall, we said pretty much the only issue with it
was that the screen wasn't
that great.
Yeah, pretty much.
So you guys gotta remember
when you buy an LCD display assembly like this,
it includes the front glass,
the actual LCD in the middle and also the backlight.
So we should be able to address the fact that it's 60 Hertz
and the fact that the backlight isn't particularly bright.
And then this says, don't touch.
Oh, like was I really not supposed to touch it?
I figured we might as well liquid metal it
while we're in there, so.
Let's just replace the display and call that the project.
But it can be just a bit quieter.
It's not even a loud laptop.
Have you like Googled anything about this?
Do we need to pop these rubber doohickeys off
or like what's our deal here?
I don't know.
I'm good, I'm clear.
Why are things assembled with clips?
Hold on, hold on.
Well, that was easier than I expected.
This might be the shortest Linus and Alex
do a weird thing adventure yet.
There's no way it's just that easy.
Cool, okay.
So those mount points look pretty similar.
That interface looks pretty darn similar.
So you can check that out there.
Still plenty of time for us to break this.
Should we get some more tape to put on there?
Yes, based on that it just slipped out.
The other cool thing about this
is that there's lots of reasons
why you might want to replace the display in your laptop
other than being on the lookout for a performance upgrade.
Like, oh crap, that's not the right spot.
Oh shoot.
Like for example, it's a pretty common issue
to end up with an outline of your keyboard
scratched into your glass.
So for 55 bucks, you can get the thing as good as new.
That's freaking awesome.
Okay, hold on.
We may have spoken too soon.
Is it a touch wider?
No, it's the same.
Okay, what's going on here?
Maybe I just didn't pay close attention
to how this came out.
Oh, I think it just shifted a little.
Yeah, these just shifted.
Oh, okay.
So that's fine.
Yeah, if you wanna hold that.
So you just wanna make sure before you screw it in,
these little pieces right here,
you make sure those are popped all the way through.
So you can see the frame, like the brace thing here.
It's not quite aligned.
See, now it's popped through.
So we should end up with a nice flush mount now.
So we don't even have to put the bezel on in order.
What?
No way.
That easy.
Dang.
All right.
So first thing we'll test is the brightness buttons then,
I guess, right?
Wait, are they working?
It doesn't look like it's doing anything.
But let's go ahead and change it to 120 hertz.
See if it works.
So this is a handy dandy little utility by ToastyX
called custom resolution utility.
And as far as we've been able to find,
it's the only one that allows you to actually set
custom resolutions and refresh rates
when you have Intel integrated graphics
and an NVIDIA dedicated graphics card
running in like hybrid GPU mode.
It's really frustrating.
The Intel utility has an interface for it.
You can key it in.
And then from my experience anyway,
it just spits out errors.
For the most part.
Yeah, it just says like bandwidth not available or something.
Which is ridiculous
because you could even set something lower in some cases
and it'll be like, oh, maximum bandwidth exceeded.
Oh, for crying out loud.
Why always?
Didn't even warn us either.
I just hit restart.
One eternity later.
Quick, quick, get over here.
It rebooted once already, but it's...
What?
That is definitely 120 hertz smoothness.
Look at that.
Isn't that beautiful?
It's beautiful.
So we can go ahead and pull this off.
That is a much, much nicer display
than what was on here before.
We should probably like fire up a game or something then.
Right?
Oh, for crying out loud.
Oh, I managed to walk into a trap already.
That, okay.
Gaming in 2018, ladies and gentlemen.
So there you have it.
There's not really much else to say.
Everything that's good about high refresh rate,
120 hertz gaming is now officially good about this laptop.
And all you have to lose.
is 55 Canadian rubles, about a half an hour of your time,
assuming that you're totally incompetent,
and well, brightness adjustment,
which is sort of the biggest problem,
but something that if your use case is predominantly gaming,
I think you still might wanna consider.
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I can't believe how smoothly this went.
It almost takes the fun out of it, almost.
I mean, this puts the fun back into it.
This is great.