4820T vs 4820TG

I'd rather have both. You can never be too rich, too good looking or have too much power.

Bronsky

 

Can anyone with the 4820tg, report its battery times?

 

On my flight home from Las Vegas back to Dallas, TX last night with a full charged battery. I watched Iron Man 720p MKV video file for 1 hour and 22 minutes. The battery life was at 54% (2 hours and 24 minutes left was what Windows 7 reported). I was using the Intel GMA with 30% screen brightness. Hope this information helps.

I'm starting to think the Windows 7 battery life icon isn't so accurate.

I'm estimating around 3 hours watching a 720p MKV video file.

 

Nice. How long does it last when you're just browsing, with the same settings?

 

yep, my point exactly

spend the money for REAL upgrades that are worth it

get an SSD and get a stronger i5 or i7 chip. i believe you will be putting in an i7 620? BEAST!!

 

Browsing with Wi-Fi on the same settings, I would estimate around 5-6 hours or longer. The Windows 7 battery life icon constantly changes from 5-9 hours.

 

My 4820TG (single venting system) with the Core i3 runs in the same temperatures as the Envy 14 (dual venting system) with the Core i5 in wPrime... (see max temperatures)
wPrime on Envy 14

wPrime on 4820TG




I ran 3DMark06 after..


P.S. My room temperature is 88F degrees.

 

Aylafan stop tempting me!

Local MC now has 3 of those 4820TG's with i3 for $800, and if using i3 350M means less heat I'd be very inclined to pick that, given small difference between i3 and i5. I'd still like to see i5 results in 4820TG for reference - I don't recall seeing that much temp. difference between i3 and i5 chips in the same laptops.

 

Dude - turn on the air Actually these are really nice temps.

 

So why are those 4820TG's on youtube overheating then? Are they running torture test benchmarks 24/7 with vents covered or something?

I highly doubt if any of the mainstream laptops were designed to take that kind of abuse though... leave it to desktop PC's for that kind of job (or 3820's )

 

He's running an I3 to start with. He's running a different test. Plus, there might be a fair amount of variability in thermal qualities frrom the factory or the internet units could be defective. Maybe the only ones that have posted anything are the ones that failed the test.

The burn test takes a CPU and GPU to levels that it will likely never get close to in everyday operation.

Bronsky

 

Not blocking the vents, but using the burn tests that produce the most heat (that's the point, right?). I don't think anyone was saying that the cpu was just overheating in day to day use.

Ambient temp is 25c



prime95



prime95 + heaven dx11 benchmark (as youtube vid)



CPU throttled at 86c CPU/82c GPU
(see CPU-Z current mhz @ 931)

Better than shutting down, though.

 

Can those of you who own 4820TGs, post your Windows Experience Index scores?

 

Actually surprised to see the CPU throttle at 86C. That looks more like a CPU issue than the cooling system. The I7-620M is still going strong at 89C in the burn test (ambient temp 30C) and doesn't throttle (3820TG). Anybody know the max temp for the I3. Wonder what the results are for the I5-450? I'd like to see an I5-520M do this as well.

Good job duplicating the YouTube conditions. You are corerct, nobody was saying that the CPU was overheating in everyday use but people were afraid of the Acer 4820TG after seeing the video. They didn't understand that this was a test intended to create throttling and extreme conditions. They took the failure to mean that the 4820TG had heat problems. I've seen no evidence of that.

Bronsky

 

Can you mod the 4820 to have backlit?

 

It's the same keyboard as the 3820TG - so, yea.

 

Prime95 is more CPU intensive than wPrime. I noticed that when I ran both tests.

I was just comparing the 4820TG wPrime test with the Envy 14 wPrime test since the Envy 14 owners wouldn't run the Prime95 test. I wonder why not...

4820TG tests:
Prime95 - 80C (ran the test for around 15 minutes & as you proved, it throttled at 86C)
wPrime - 74-75C (the whole test ran for 806 seconds)

For normal usage, I don't see the 4820TG shutting down or overheating.

 

It would be great if somebody duplicated this test procedure identically with an I5-450M in the 4820TG and posted the results here. I am very curious to see if the I4-450M throttles at the same point and temp.

I do agree that, given the operating temps we are seeing in the I3-350M, the chance that the CPU will heat throttle under normal operating conditions (except, of course, AspireAnt playing 3 intense games at once - he's the only person I've seen so far that made the I7-620M throttle) is extremely remote (lawyer's term for not-a-chance ).

Bronsky

@aylafan - they won't run the test because they're woosies .

Edit: just read something very interesting about the I3-350M. The maximum thermal junction temperature of the integrated GPU is 85C. http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SLBPK.html The CPU seems to throttle when it hits 86C. Are these realated? So, even if the max operating temp of the I3-350M is 104C, are limitations imposed by the max thermal junction temp of the integrated GPU? (pure speculation on my part, just trying understand what I'm reading and why the I3 throttles at 86C).

 

Good find on the integrated GPU limits. Another tool I had been using was reporting the i3 350M TDJ as 90c and a different page on that site seems to agree with that ( 350M specs: Minimum/Maximum operating temperature (°C) 0 - 90). I'm surprised by that as the TDJ for the i5 450M is reported as either 100c or 105c depending on where you look and I would have thought those two CPUs would have essentially the same thermal characteristics. Perhaps that's one of intel's ways of binning the chips.

I wouldn't have thought the GPU max temp would figure in as it should be turned off while the ATI GPU is running, but who knows. I suppose it's getting about that hot whether it's running or not. I was thinking that acer had simply lowered the throttle temp based on poor cooling reports from the earlier 4820tg's - but it may simply be that the i3s are supposed to max much lower. A third option is that they could be checking for some combined temp between the cpu and discrete gpu - marcos had mentioned that as what could have been happening to me.

I'd be curious if anyone had a 3820tg with an i3 and the 5650 and if it throttles around the same temps as well.

 

Very true, I also run Prime95 overnight after OC'ing for stability.

As far as CPU throttling is concerned, I'm also curious how it ties to that 85 C GPU throttle limit. Either case at that or any hotter it can't be healthy for the system. I think it is definitely some sort of CPU binning scheme.

 

I have a question about battery life regarding T vs TG models.

I read some reviews and under normal usage, TG models seem to provide upto 5 hours of web surfing and ~3 hours of DVD playback. I was reading a review of 3820T on Amazon and the reviewer says he gets way more battery life than that. I thought Acer claim similar battery life times for both T and TG models, no?

 

Asked about the possible throttling of the I3 due to GPU limits in the Hardware thread and got an interesting reply. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6443949-post2.html

 

Well, for my 4820TG. I actually used it for 5-6 hours with Wi-Fi enabled on 30% screen brightness before it hit 10% battery life. However, Windows 7 constantly reported a different battery life every 30 seconds or so. The battery life wouldn't stay at a specific time. One minute, it reported 9 hours and 25 minutes, the next minute it reported 5 hours and 37 minutes, the next minute it reported 6 hours and 35 minutes. I think you get what I am saying.

The reviewer probably didn't measure his battery life in real-time like I did.

 

True, he said he surfed web for 2 hours with fully charged battery and Win 7 said it had 8 hours left.

 

Interesting - thanks for the info.

Aylafan - do you see a BIOS setting that enables this sort of thermal throttling on your 4820TG? I know I have it in my i5 desktop but I don't have any idea what BIOS Acer uses for their laptops.

 

Not resolved yet. Just a Nick on the 3820TG owner's thread says that Throttlestop does not work on Core I processors and is for the Core2Duo units.

Bronsky

 

What would be a good hard drive for this laptop other than an ssd or is the hard drive provided good enough?

Are most of you guys that bought the 4820 buying it because its the only one available?

Any other great mods to do this laptop? So interesting!

 

Even if it did work, or if there was a function in the BIOS (there isn't, just checked) I'm not sure I see much point in disabling the throttling. The temps climb to 85/86 within seconds after being unthrottled, so I have no doubt they'd climb much higher if left alone. Probably would just end up duplicating the youtube video precisely - it'd go into thermal shutdown instead of being throttled - and I'd prefer the throttling wouldn't you?

I noticed in the PROCHOT thread you seem to have missed one of the nuances, which is that the i3 350M shows a max operating temp of 90c instead of the 100c the i5 & i7s seem to have. (see Intel Core i3 Mobile I3-350M CP80617004161AC ). So if I'm getting throttled at 86c that seems about right, as it needs to throttle before it hits max temp. The i5 in the youtube vid powered down before 100c as well, I think it was at 95c or close.

 

At 5400rpm it does seem clear the included drive was chosen for budget reasons and it is one of the lower WEI numbers. I'd be surprised if it's really getting in the way though, it's faster than a 2 year old 7200rpm drive in my desktop. People seem to really like the Momentus XT, seagate's hybrid 500gb of 7200rpm drive and a 4gig ssd that gets dynamically populated with your most used data (os files, etc). It's pretty cheap for the speedups it gives.

I wasn't dead set on one model or the other, I could see advantages to both so when it became clear the 3820tg wasn't US bound it made the decision easy. Didn't want to deal with the issues related to an import. One of the things drawing me to the 14" was the reviews that indicated the screen was better than the 13" and the 15". I don't have either of those models to compare to, but it is a nice screen than an x300 here and my old cpq. It looked notably brighter seemed to have less angular fall off than the other acers and other brands nearby when it was on display at microcenter. I like the screen size more than 13" as well, though I could live without the optical it certainly isn't unportable at 4.5lbs.

As for mods, from my reading it would seem like you could easily replace the optical with a second hdd and a factory faceplate - I believe some 4820 models ship this way, or at least some review units did. Might be slick to have an ssd + magnetic. I know I'd be hard pressed to fit everything inside 128GB long term. And I'm sure you can replace the cpu & keyboard like the 3820 owners have/plan to.

 

Thanks for your insight! Which ssd is recommended in this laptop? So you are saying the 3820tg will not come to US? And the 4820 is the only one that has the option to dual a hard drive?
How do you replace the optical drive for a another hd? That is the only way you can dual the hard drive right? Or you have the option of putting the ssd in the optical area?

So many questions haha =P

 

I sold my Acer Aspire 5740G laptop and brought the 4820TG. Because I needed something smaller and more portable for summer school. However, the 5740G was a great laptop and it ran a lot cooler than the 4820TG. It was perfect for playing games and the temperatures never rose high enough for it to throttle down.

Also, I read somewhere that Acer used that specific 5400RPM harddrive in the TimelineX models because it uses 30% less energy than previous Timeline models.

P.S. I doubt there is thermal throttle settings in the BIOS, but I will get back to you on that when I have time.

 

You're right ... I missed the 90C max temp. Nice find. Makes a big difference. That makes the throttling about right. The head space is just less than the I7. What about the I5-450M. Max temp?

Bronsky

 

According to this spec sheet it looks like it's 105c. I'm pretty surprised there is such a difference between the two. Though I can't imagine running the cpu in your laptop at 100c for very long would be good for anyone involved.

As I understand it, yeah the 3820tg isn't coming to the US for now at least. And I'd assume you could pull the same dual hd trick with the 5820 if you want. Generally I think you'd be needing a new bracket and faceplate which should be available from acer somehow. For the rest of the questions, hopefully someone whop knows better will chime in as my info is at best 3rd hand.

 

Thanks! What are your full system specs?

 

At least, I know my Core i3 is throttling down instead of having the laptop shutdown automatically like the Core i5. 95C in the youtube video is quite hot for a laptop. You can probably cook eggs near the vent. haha

 

Agreed... anything above 80C would be unpleasant for all the components involved. I would personally prefer to keep everything at low 70C's under normal usage.

 

It's the US i3/5650 stock model from microcenter.

 

Thanks again!

 

The 4820TG looks good, but I wish the 3820TG would be released in the United States. It just seems like the ideal size. But, based on the configurations online at Acer USA, it doesn't look like Acer is planning on releasing it in the US.

To current 4820TG owners: How's the flex on the keyboard? I read a couple of reviews online saying that there was a lot of keyboard flex underneath the cd drive. (sorry if this has already been mentioned.)

 

My 3820TG is at the post office. If they don't have it on the truck tomorrow, I goin' in to get it.

Bronsky

 

Watch the sympathy turn into jealousy and envy when you do

Why can't more manufactureres try to put capable GPU in 13.3" laptop while ditching ODD is beyond me. Who lugs around DVD's these days anyway?

 

Intel G2 SSDs are regarded as the most reliable choice for consumer SSDs. But keep in mind more and more SSDs are coming out that beat the G2 in numerous benchmark tests. Nonetheless 99% of users won't be able to discern between any speed differences in day to day usage.

The 3820TG will not be coming to the USA in the near future, if ever.

Any laptop that is big enough and has the space will have the option for dual hard drives.

You replace the ODD with another HD via optical bay caddy. Check out NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

You can put the SSD into the ODD caddy, but it's recommended that you make your SSD your primary drive, and move the original HDD to the ODD caddy.

Apparently, the majority of the notebook market lol. There's a reason why HP put back the optical drive in their new Envy 14/17. The general public is not yet ready to go ODD-less.

WE ARE THOUGH!!! lol hahaha.

 

To USA 4820TG owners, can you take a picture of the bottom of the laptop and post it here?

I would appreciate it greatly. Thanks!

 

You may say that using a USB flash drive, an external harddrive or an external DVD burner is ideal, but I like having an ODD in my laptop for everyday convenience.

I don't have to waste my time ripping DVDs from my desktop computer or carry around an external DVD burner. I can just put in a DVD movie and watch it on an airplane without any hassle (complete DVD seasons come into mind). Also, I can easily use a CD/DVD software disc without wasting my time ripping it to an image file and running it in Virtual CloneDrive or Daemon Tools on the laptop.

 

Mine looks exactly like this. I got this photo off a website.

 

@ aylafan

Thanks a lot!

I'm trying to figure out which screw releases the optical drive... is it the one screw that we can barely see, at the corner of the sticker? Can you check your laptop and confirm if that hole is actually the screw for the ODD?

And are the ODD 9.5mm or 12.7mm? I'm guessing it will be the 9.5mm since these Timeline's sport the "slim" bays... but want to make sure.

 

I have no idea which screws releases the optical drive because the screws are used on the main frame of the bottom of the laptop (there are 2 screws near the optical drive). However, you might have to unscrew the entire bottom of the laptop to remove the ODD.

The ODD is very thin (not sure of the exact size). However, it is much thinner than the ODD on the Sony NW series or Acer Aspire 5740G laptop.

 

On most laptops, the ODD is held by one screw. This video shows what I mean:

YouTube - How to remove the Optical Drive

I circled where I think the ODD screw is located. Can you confirm that there is indeed a screw there? Thanks.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

There is no screw located there. It's just a spec of dirt in the photo.