Acer 3820TG North America Purchase Options

Scam!? Far from it. Different warehouses have different prices for their stock.

For those of us locked in at the 745, that price is from their vancouver/toronto warehouse (source #1).

They told me the only reason the price increased to 775 is because their website will automatically route the first 4 orders at the 775 price to the Guelph warehouse and will be shipped asap.

After those 4 sell out, the website should automatically default to the source #1 supply with the 745 price.

 

I emailed to ask about what was up with no shipment after Toronto said 9/27 and my ETA said 9/30.

Then about shipping:

 

100th post =]

 

Cendirect sez:

AS3820TG-7360 I3-370M 2.4G 4GB 500GB 1.3-WXGAG W7HP BLK BRUSHED $745.00 Shipped 10/1/2010

 

Looks like I get a 10/4 shipping date after all.

(Needless to say, I decided to continue.)

 

Tgoode and apowers,

When exactly did you guys order your laptops?

Date and time? Thanks.

 

Nice to see that they have them in and they are confirming that they are shipping to the US. If shark had not told me that they can repair my motherboard, I would have had one of these ordered already. You order yours Jay?

Bronsky

 

Their system says:

2010-09-27 18:31:58

I personally think it'd be radder if they shipped out today, but y'know.

 

@ Bronsky,

I ordered mine on 9/27 . ETA 10/4.

@ apowers,

I ordered nearly 8 hours before you but I didn't get that email from Tony! Lol

 

Maybe I just have an awesome rep!!

I feel like they would have had our units out earlier if they had gotten the shipment from Acer sooner. Seems like these units are an unknown variable to most vendors.

 

This morning there were 5 units lisetd as in-stock for Guelph ON and now it lists 0. I wonder if some units shipped.

The Vancouver location looks like it is getting the bulk of the order and it'll be shipping Monday.

Can't wait to see how these units work. Curious to see what clockgen thay have. Hopefully, it's one supported.

Bronsky

 

I plan on upgrading the CPU eventually anyway. What do you recommend as a good upgrade that doesn't sap battery too much?

Also, what do you think I could get for my 370m? Don't really see any on eBay.

 

Got off the phone with a few local sources.

There is 4 in all of Canada right now, which is the first batch, and they've all been allocated/sold. The next shipment will arrive October 9th, and then the supplier should have constant stock.

 

It's nice to be part of an elite group at *something*, I guess.

There's still only, like, <20 people in the US with this model so far, that we know of at least.

 

I ordered Sept 27, at 08:39

 

I had a 540M OEM in mine before i gave it a bath. I loved it. I was getting OC performance in the 3.6ghz range and was not yet on the perfect clockgen definition for my unit. I think a steady 3.8 is realistic. I would go with an I5-580M OEM or an I7-620M OEM (haven't seen a 640M OEM for sale yet). I would not expect to get a lot of $$ from the 370M since it's an entry level CPU and everyone who upgrades will be pulling these out and selling them.

Tgoode will have his replaced by Tuesday morning. Be sure to take pics and write down that clockgen #.

Bronsky

 

It's funny, I'm somewhat attached to my original unit, since it was the first 3820TG imported in the US. That's why I'm trying to salvage it - would hate to see it die. But seeing these new units shipping makes me want to order one.

Bronsky

 

I'd love to stick a refreshed i5 cpu in mine but in all honesty if the 370m doesn't throttle when I game heavily ill be satisfied. I'm gonna do my best to keep it cooled.

 

At least that way, you'll have an intact warranty.

Bronsky

 

On the specs it shows the 370m as having a 105c thermal limit. If that is correct, this new i3 should throttle at the same temp as the i5 chips.

 

Interesting ... that was always an open issue when we were looking at the throttling of the I3-350M and 330Ms. There was some speculation that the 370M would have a higher max temp. This is great news if it is accurate. Where did you get the temp specs?

Bronsky

 

I have seen it posted on quite a few sites. Here is one I just found from googling. I3 330M is first link 370m is second. Min/Max temps are located towards the bottom:

Intel Core i3 Mobile I3-330M CP80617004122AG

Intel Core i3 Mobile I3-370M CN80617004119AL

 

All this upgrade talk makes me broke without spending a dime haha. I picked up a backlit keyboard, and I think that'll be it for a while. The $1600 wisdom teeth extraction is swelling my credit card

 

You could have done that with a hammer, plyers, a quart of Jack Daniels and a willing friend with good hands. $1,600 down the drain.

Bronsky

 

I'd feel better reading it directly from Intel specs but this looks good. Nice find.

Bronsky

 

@ Armchair

That's the wrong socket type. The chips in these laptops are PGA with a max thermal temp of 90 C. Same as the older i3 chips.

 

Ahhh ... BGA mount. Correct, that increases the max temp on the I3. Now I recall that. I guess 90C is it. That means that the IGPU is still limited to 85C.

Bronsky

 

Ah. I'm not to familiar with mobile CPU sockets. So, I'm taking it that the BGA one is newer with better thermal characteristics?

 

No ... it's actually an older style of mounting. The pins are soldered in-place. That is why it has such better thermal properties. The Acers use a PGA 988 socket which fastens over the CPU, holding it in place. It can be easily swapped in a PGA 988 socket and is impossible to change in a BGA mount. All of the ultra-low powered units like the I3-330UM are BGA mounted.

It's funny, now I remember this about the 370M. We were looking at it when the 370M was going to be offered in the Envy 14.

Bronsky

 

Thanks for the explanation Bronsky! Being able to switch out the CPU significantly outweighs the lower thermal limit, especially b/c the i5 can handle more.

For the lucky ones who got 1 of the first batch shipped and live in the US let us know how customs is (time wise and if there are any extra charges). If it is smooth sailing I'm going to pull the trigger.

 

So, would you say there's a huge incentive to throw an i5 in there? Can the i3-370m be safely (and effectively) overclocked to match the performance of a better CPU?

 

I think we're about to find that out.

Bronsky

 

Kind of having second thoughts on this order...

The 4820TG (i5 460) for $749 out the door is so tempting.. lol. I spoke with a newegg rep. They will waive the shipping for me again .

I usually give my laptops away to a family member after i'm done using them after 2 years or so... my mom would need an optical drive for sure...

If I go with the 3820TG i'm pretty much committed to using it for a longgggg time.

Hmmmm lol

 

A member at RedFlagDeals(Canadian version of SlickDeals pretty much) has just received his in the mail.

[Comp] Acer Timeline X 3820TG-7360 Pre-order - i3 + 5650 - $749 MSRP - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

Link

 

Lots of links floating around for these. Anyone can compile them?

 

I have the Op's information so I can revise the first page. As soon as I get the time, I'll update it. Hey ... nice sig.

Bronsky

 

I'll do it for $500 plus travel expenses.

 

1) Sell the laptop and use the money to get your Mom a new laptop.

2) In 2+ years we might not be using optical drives anymore for anything.

 

Is the keyboard swappable? Can we buy USA version of the keyboard to replace the french one?

 

1) True.

2) Try telling that to anyone over 50, LOL.

 

The keyboard is bilingual.

 

Anyone know of a good place to purchase this for California buyers? Also, what's the rough price for shipping?

 

Try telling anything to anyone over 50 .

Bronsky

@Dookie11 Cendirect's inventory seems to be on the west coast. Shame their price went from $749 to $775 already. http://www.cendirect.com/main_en/tech_specs_JO65876O.html

 

The first page of this thread is updated with the current information on the Canadian 3820TGs.

Bronsky

 

Thanks Bron! What's with the i3 cpu though? Are there any i5 options available besides Euro or Taiwanese?

 

Negative. I3-370M is all she wrote for the moment w/an HD5650 GPU.

Bronsky

 

Sorry to drop on it also, but I've been wondering what is more difficult in your experience of modding your 3820 bronsky: CPU soldering or keyboard modding/OS language?

On a side note, all the canadian sites doesn't list bluetooth, while pchome does (as 3.0 none other). Are there other key differences we should know of?

I'm trying to figure the best course of action to buy a 3820TG: buy an i3, mod the cpu and change the HDD, or buy a taiwanese i5 and all its necessary mods. Right now, I'm leaning towards the canadian i3...

 

The only soldering I had to do in my unit was the backlit keyboard power/switch. The CPU is in a PGA 988 bracket and can just be swapped by loosening 4 screws.

If you follow the procedure and put everything back where you found it, upgrading the CPU is not all that hard. The keyboard took a lot of time but the only scarey part was soldering the + - posts on the USB port.

Bronsky

 

Ahh, what a nightmare!

My bank imposed a kinda jerky $500 limit on card purchases, so every time I tried to run the card yesterday it was denied. I eventually had to go to my local branch and do an international wire transfer, which added a fee. Final price was $815 USD.

CenDirect told me that as long as the transfer completed before noon their time, it would ship on Monday, but since my bank doesn't open 'til 1 EST, I doubt that'll happen. Either way, I'm crossing my fingers for the end of next week. For their part, CenDirect has been very helpful and cooperative.

 

Bronsky, do you recommend I3 processor for a college student? I don't play games like sc2 but do watch a lot of HD videos. Also is the battery the same for all models (Canada and Taiwan)? And how long does it last? Thanks in advanced