It's barely a month of use but I'm still impressed.![]()
You gotta get used to the keyboard as it is a bit off centre to the left because of the numeric keypad- I used to be one key to the right in the beginning (i.e. "P" instead of "O") The keyboard is of very good quality though.
I don't particularly like the scroll zone of the touchpad- it works but I couldn't customize it the way I would like to- even though all the settings are available.
Then again I don't like touchpads in general and I've had this problem with other notebooks too (also only the scroll zone)
The rest is great- performance, screen quality, Wi-Fi card reception, sound quality (thanks to Dolby Home Theatre extensions), build quality, quiet and efficient cooling system and off course the performance and OC possibilities that HD5650 offers.
I used to own several notebooks and helped other people choose a laptop (in real life- forum advices not included) between 20-30 times.
I also owned IBM and Toshiba notebooks in the good old days when Toshiba Satellite could have been used as self defense tool- so when I say the build quality is good I'm not making anything up![]()
One thing worth mentioning is I bought this laptop specifically for GPU overclocking- I've searched other forums, compared temperatures and TDP for different ATI cards to assess how far I could go with OC.
I bought this one because I concluded that HD5730 level of performance can be achieved for a lot less $ and since memory seems to be limiting this card and the memory is more or less the same for both 5650 and 5730 I can pretty much match the performance of 5730 or outmatch it if it's not overclocked.
I can recommend this laptop- I already did BTW and the person who bought it is also impressed.![]()
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Thank you for sharing your opinion with us. It makes my decision even easier than before. Cheers
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The easy ones are those when you have some audio distortions while playing music. When it comes to audio distortions while gaming you never know if it's the game's fault or is audio driver to blame- but that is also pretty good scenario because you immediately know that it's audio related.
The worst case scenario and unfortunately not a rare one is when there is trouble with certain audio codec/drivers vs. game engine combination.
In these cases nothing hints towards sound- you can hear it but the game performance is terrible. GPU or game engine usually gets the blame but it's often caused by sound problem.
In order not to leave the post without any facts to back my statement up- from the old days Ghost Recon (it had terrible performance problems with all integrated AC97 chips though) and from the current ones Battlefield Bad Company 2 has issues with Realtek although it seems not with all driver versions/codecs.
So my recommendation is keep all drivers updated and live with the annoying beep sound. It's seems easier than playing stuttering (Ghost Recon) or crashing (BF BC 2) games.
EDIT: Also don't know if the Dolby Home Theatre sound enhancements work with the "default" driver but if they don't it's totally not worth it. -
Hey downloads, when you got your system, did you do a clean install Win 7 or did you leave it with the stock Acer installation? If you did do a clean install, how did you go about doing that? Did you install a personal retail copy of windows and then let Windows Update install drivers? Also, if you did, did you wipe out the partitions?
Usually with a system like this I would reformat/reinstall with a retail copy of Windows and then let Windows Update pull in necessary drivers. After that I head to the manufacturer website and install any remaining drivers that WU didn't catch. Sometimes (and this is really really rare) I will install applications from the DVD or backup media that comes with the computer if it is really fantastic and unavailable otherwise.
I feel as though a clean install on this system would benefit it more greatly than clearing out the installed bloatware, though I suppose the effective difference between the methods is minimal.
What did you do? What would you recommend? -
I'm too lazy for a clean install
I just uninstalled all these games and different useless things but I was pleasantly surprised that there are not too many apps that start with a laptop and you need them to keep it functional (I mean Acer Empowering Framework)
I'm down to between 40-45 processes running including AV, firewall and so on (that's after I disabled some equally useless Windows services).
I don't think there's gonna be much difference between cleaning the system and fully reinstalling it.
BTW there are no backup media included- you need to burn your own backup DVDs- thing you are prompted to do on startup.
It's 3 backup DVDs for Win 7 and additional one for drivers and utilities.
Be patient though- each DVD gets verified after burning so it takes a lot of time- some 13min to burn and the same to verify for each full DVD. And only driver/app one is half empty so do you need over 90min to get it done -
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Framework is... well just a framework- but you would need to keep it running if you wanted to keep any of those: Mobility Center Add-on, eDataSecurity Management Application; ePower Management, eRecovery Management Application, eSetting Management Application and possibly others too.
In the case of 5740G you can keep eRecovery or ePower Management but these are stand-alone apps- no framework needed.
I keep ePower Management running (although I updated to a newer version that's linked in second post of this thread), eRecovery is installed but not running at all times- it can be started manually though. -
just a btw, I'm selling this laptop if anyone here is looking for it. I'm in US here's the ebay link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120551197786#ht_3117wt_1165 -
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People are already scared of it like it's some kind of plague -
Do you think the VGA bios will ever be updated on this system like it was on the 17 inch? Or do you think maybe the v-bios change in the 17inch was to decrease clocks and thus decrease heat output? -
Another matter is that at this point we have three people who have solved the problem by installing 10.3 drivers so it seems quite likely that this has been related to memory chips but caused by Powerplay not by hardware fault.
The only real source is this techenclave link that gets posted again and again as a proof that we have a problem but you gotta keep in mind that this laptop had been available in Europe before it got to the States. There is a Spanish thread about the notebook where they are currently at post number 779 and no one even mentioned the problem once. (I used to follow the thread closely and now I'm only monitoring it from time to time but I still think I would have seen a discussion about such a serious problem)
So let's keep it cool and keep the drivers updated -
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Could anyone here who owns 5740g try to cut HD (720p or 1080p) video? I'm curious if that Core i5 can handle it. Thanks
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Thanks for th offer, but as long as it's delivered and my order isn't canceled, I'm happy.
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downloads, whats your rating in Windows Experience Index?
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RAM 5.9
Aero 6.7
Games 6.7
HDD 5.8
Although it doesn't mean much i.e. RAM score is low because it's below 4GB (3.86GB usable) -
Well.. then i think im gonna get the
# Intel i3 330M 2.13GHz
# 4GB DDR3 1066MHz, 320GB 5400 RPM HDD
# ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470 512MB DDR3
# 15.6" WXGA 1366x768 LED CineCrystal,
# 2.8kg, 6-cell 4400mAh
# Windows 7 Home Premium
too bad the resolution isnt that good..
MSI GX623X got 1680x1050 whats wayy better for photoshop/gaming. -
If you intend to play a lot I'd recommend HD5650- it's at least 50% faster. -
4670 is faster than 5470.
But 5650 is a little better than 4670. They seem to have same performance.. Damn.. hard choice.
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Well HD 5650 has 400 pipelines compared to 320 in HD 4670 but lower clocks.
Since mine is overclocked to 670MHz and HD 4670 is clocked at 675MHz 5650 should be mathematically 20% faster but you gotta include the benefit of DX11 and 40nm manufacturing process (compared to 55nm in HD 4670)
Still I don't know why are we talking about HD 4670
We were comparing HD 5470 to HD 5650 a minute ago.
Look at these game tests at the bottom of the page: HD 5470 and HD 5650
In case of 5650 disregard the slowest benchmark for every test as it is Sony notebook with GPU clocked at 450MHz instead of 550MHz -
That MSI laptop had 4670 ati, thats why i was talking about that... The price for MSI is also lower, but it has ddr2 not ddr3.
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I just got my 5740G-6395 yesterday and set it up today. Everything looks fine but to my dismay, I seem to have an RMA-worthy issue.
Anyone else's 5740G have a constant hissing noise coming from the left channel when they plug in headphones to their headphone jack? Yes I plugged it into the black jack closest to the front of the laptop, and I tried 3 different headphones, all with the same result. The speakers sound fine (no hiss that I can hear) so it looks like I have a faulty headphone jack. Unless someone knows of some setting in the Realtek HD Control panel I need to change (note that everything is on stock settings as I just started using the laptop today).
EDIT: Actually, the hiss is coming out from both left and right sides. I just have to turn up the volume all the way to hear the hiss on the right side. -
I sold my 6979 and now I need to do a system restore. Didn't make a restore disk, what can I do? lol anything?
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I've just ran a few rounds of Prime95 on top of 3dMark06 and all seems stable. -
Howdy, I have one of these laptops with it a ATI 5470 and a i3 CPU, and liking it lots so far
very fast.
I have a question, though. Is there any way I can tweak the graphics a bit? I know of 'mobility modder', but apparently it doesn't support the 5xxx series of cards. Not really sure what I can do! I don't mind too much if I can't tweak the graphics, but it'd be nice
thanks!
Edit: Oh yeah I should mention, things like Rivatuner/ATI Tool don't tend to work properly (can't overclock), and ATI Tray Tool gave me a nice BSOD
Also I'm using the stock graphics drivers. -
I would like to share some of my benchmark scores with everyone. These were done at 725/990 @ native res + default settings. I have yet to do a clean install of win7 this computer. Using stock driver that came with factory image not 10.3
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I just my 6979 a few weeks ago and love almost everything about it. the beep when you unplug it is annoying but its easy to just hit fn+f8 whenever you unplug it.
I am trying to run AMD GPU Clock Tool but after I install it I get a message saying "Failed: no valid devices found."
I am using the Catalyst 10.3 drivers from AMD's homepage (10-3_vista64_win7_64_dd_ccc_wdm_enu). I don't really need to overclock it but I get choppy framerates when I try playing Wolfenstein at native res with all the settings maxed out. maybe I'm asking for too much
thanks for the thread download, there is so much info here! -
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I was able to achieve 9102 3DMark06 @ native res default settings with 725/990. setting the core @730 freezes my computer up; setting the mem clock @999(highest mem u can set) produces artifacts. temps never get higher than 70c. After a clean install win7 with 10.3a drivers this should be able to achieve ~9500 3DMark06 which is what my gateway 6831fx with a Nvidia 8800M GTS has @ default clocks. This laptop oc's like nothing I've seen...
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I have got ACER 5740 with i330m CPU with 3 GB DDR. I installed Win7 Ultimate x86 on it. I also installed epower 4 as well as 5 but nothing shows up no tray icons. However epower management service shows in the process list. What wrong can some one help ?.
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I ran the benchmark just now and had some trouble getting Prt Scr to capture what I wanted but eventually got some results. Now it says an average of 16 fps but having watched the number the entire time it showed 20 fps 90% of the time with a 10 or 15 second stint at 15 fps and a similar period at 30 fps so I am confused.
I didn't feel like unplugging my monitor to benchmark so I ran at the closest resolution which was 1400 x 1050. Hope that's not too much of a problem.
Temps after the short benchmark, benchmark, and screenshot attached.
EDIT: I couldn't turn of AF so I turned it to its lowest setting 2x.
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Hi,
Just wanted to know if these temps are fine for this notebook:
Idle:
CPU - 50
GPU - 52
Load (gaming):
CPU - 68-70
GPU - 74
Thanks a lot. -
Bought the 5740G-524G64Mn. Anyone knows what's the difference between this model and the other ones?
Edit: Ahhh, read the first post:
52 = Core i5 520M
4G = 4Gb Ram
64 = 640Gb HDD
Ok, ok lol -
Yeah, the naming system is a tad confusing
I've a question! How safe is it to use AMD GPU Clock Tool to overclock the ATI 5470? Any less safe than overclocking on a desktop? I've never overclocked laptop graphics before, is there anything I should look out for/be careful of? -
Otherwise, just the same and just as fun! -
My temperatures seem to be pretty good normally (never higher than 65c), so I'm gonna experiment with OCing -
I have a question on the Acer eRecovery Management. When creating a Drivers and Applications Disc, what drivers and applications does it save?
Does the factory default disc save the OS and the drivers too? So do I really need the Drivers and Applications Disc? -
Full Windows 7 backup already contains all drivers and additional applications, however there's no way to choose just the driver- using the 3 disc backup set means full system recovery.
Additional driver & app DVD lets you choose just the one driver you need- it's more or less the same set as the one available at Acer support site.
I'd burn it just to be on the safe side (I did actually)
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Oooo awesome, that makes it a lot more convenient
Thanks! -
downloads can you tell how good is screen ? i mean there are any problem's with screen ?(and how is screen for watching and gaming?) Because i have read review of Acer 5942G and laptop owner's said that they have a problem with Display,and they sent it back.
Sorry for my eng i'm from Russia. -
I've never seen news of any screen-related problems with 5740G neither have I experienced any so I can pretty much guarantee it's OK.
The quality is good and the display is bright. I like the colors too. As for viewing angles it's more or less typical for glare displays- not too good vertical angles- but that's nothing specific for this display.
If you have ever owned any glare display you know what to expect from viewing angles- this display is no exception. The rest seems above average- but it's just my personal opinion.
EDIT: I see you've edited 5940 to 5942. I thought your question concerned 5942G anyway so it doesn’t change anything in my answer
BTW I realize it’s the same exact screen but as I sais the problem is 5942G-specific. No owner of 5740G reported any problems concerning LCD. -
Hey downloads, do you use the McAfee Security Center that comes with the laptop?
I wanted to install Avast! antivirus but I'm not sure which is better. -
It is always a much better idea to install AV you are familiar with and that you know will stay updated.
Avast, MSSE, AVG, Any of that stuff. -
Thanks Storm. I knew I had a bad feeling about McAfee
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Hi to all, i want to ask you guys if anyone have the 3d version (5740DG) or have any experience with it, what do you think about it and do you think it is worth ? Is it really that good ?
Acer Aspire 5740G Owners Lounge
Discussion in 'Acer' started by downloads, Mar 16, 2010.