Acer Aspire 8950G Owners Lounge

2gb Ddr3 Vram

 

so if you don't mind me asking orlbuckeye what are you using the laptop for I heard its not quite suited for gaming so what is it exactly good for besides watching movies? becuase theres cheaper laptops for that use for 1500 dollars i think the laptop would be worth 1500 for a reason besides multimedia

 

Well I'm in the computer field and i love a high powered machine. It can be used for gaming but there are better machines in it's price range. When I added the SSD drive it's superfast. It boots in 20-30 seconds. What taked the longest to come up after boot are the gadgets that used the internet such as the weather gadgets. I use for movies and other multi-media music and video. The reason for th 1499 price is the 1080p, the i7, 8 gb expandible to 16. It's cheaper then the Asus 18.4 and the Toshiba Qosmio for basically the same components. The Asus is over 2000 and the Toshiba is 1799. The thing that holds this model back in gaming is the GP uses the DDR3 and not DDR5 memory. If i wanted a gaming machine I would stick with Sager, Alienware ,MSI or the 17.3 Asus screens. It seems all the laptops with the 18.4 screens are entertainment/multimedia machines as opposed to gaming machines.

Laptops aren't priced for what they are used for. These are priced by the components that the system contains. Multimedia isn't just watching movies. It covers a big area such as stream online HD video, Video editing, Music. I wouldn't spend 1500 just for a Bluray player to connect to my HDTV (I can get one of those for 200 that can even plays apps). I use my laptop to remote into work to do work on my servers. I use MS office and others things I could do on a 400 computer.

 

thanks orlbuckeye that was a really good explanation appreciate your time I might get this laptop but idk yet

 

one more bad thing with 8950g, you can't use a 5.1 system with this notebook, on my old 5542 i plug the 3 cables (on speaker, line-in, and mic jack) on the 8950g you can't do it, you can't choose to use line-in jack as rear speakers jack, or mic jack to center/bass jack...
if someone can make it work please tell me...

EDIT: Well i make it work but with other drivers from realtek, now i will try with the original again

EDIT2: I'm sorry, my bad, broken cable...

 

Those are the parts, what is funny is I Googled "8950G 2nd Hard Drive" this morning and JTec's site is the first result. When I did that same search last week they never showed up. Yes you will need the 9.5mm as it gives the necessary clearance once the hard drive is installed.

When I registered mine with Acer it shows up as AS8950G-9839, very odd...

 

Yes I entered my serial number and the model AS8950G-2638G75Bnss popped up. I think mine was the first one sold after the sandy bridge fix (By Newegg) which may be the first sold in USA.

Did you order the cable? I checked yesterday and they had 3. When I ordered last week they had 1 so they must have got a shipment. It's weird because 2 weeks ago I found a place in Europe that carried Acer parts and I ordered the parts for the 7745 but they told me the wouldn't work so i cancelled.

So its seems like the part is rare and in England they may be selling the model with 2 750 GB dirves or they just haven't received the parts.

I believe they just got the part in at Jtec so thats why the google search didnt work last week. The cable will arrive tomorrow by way of UPS. I will go ahead and order the 9.5 drive cover.

 

i just ordered my 8950g today they finaly are getting them up here in canada. been trying to figure out though if they will work with a sata3 ssd drive though. been thinking ordering a new ocz vetex but not sure if i should get a vertex 3 or a 2. i tried to get an awnser out of acer but they siad they didn't know that they never tested them with sata 3 hard drives. can anyone find out for me if these will work with a sata 3 ssd if not its not worth paying the extra for the vertex 3 if the laptop can do sata 3 speeds.

 

I added this one Kingston 128GB SSDNow V Series SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drive, Notebook Bundle - SNV425-S2BN/128GB it was 214 with 75 rebate, That is closed anyone can get to 1.00 per GB at this time.

The cable came in today and I ordered the cover today. The drive will definitely not fit with that door. It has these thiings that stick out that if they weren't there the drive would fit.

The cable you get is hard to put in as its small and i have big fingers and the connector is small.

 

an ocz vertex 3 ssd is a little over double the speed of that kingston drive but if the 8950g don't have a sata 3 port it won't matter

 

Yes its even an older Kingston Model but my system boots in 20-25 seconds. If I didn't have Gadets it would be like 15 seconds.

 

i wissh it was possible to change the video card ram of 8950g to ddr5 instead of ddr3

 

what about this? Acer AS8951G ===> http://www.digitalstore.sk/?Mode=Sti&StiId=182011

 

It looks like the only differences are it comes in black and uses Nvidia graphics cards still with DDR3.

 

At least it uses a 192bit mem bus.

Is the touch pad reversible on the 8950g too?

 

What do you mean by reversible? I don't ever think this model will make it to the USA.

 

ya there is barely any information on it from the states

 

Remember they had the 8940 and 8943 here but the 8942 was neved sold here. I did a search on that model and it comes in lots of configurations. It had i5 processors or some and lower resolution screens. Acer website doesn't even show the 8950 is available in the USA.

 

The pictures showed it was removable on the 8951g.

Or is that what acts as the remote? I assumed it had a media side and then a proper matte touch pad.

 

The touchpad on the 8950 when you push athe round button it but it into media mode to play music and videos. I think those pictures are prototypes of the 8951 since I know Intel has to have their sticker on it when they sell it. It was funny I got one of those Chrome CR-48 laptop and there is no Intel sticker but there was a card inside the box that said Intel inside.

 

Do you guys think the Aspire AS8950G will ever get a 14 or 15 in variant in the United States? I know there were some overseas....

 

5950g but maybe acer changed their plans with after the bug.

 

Acer AS8951G is not prototayp ,it is REAL and will be on sale in Germany and other European country ==> http://www.digitalstore.sk/?Mode=Sti&StiId=182011

 

I'm note saying its a prototype I'm saying that picture is a picture of the prototype. Intel wont allow it to be sold without it's stickers on it. That was the first give away. Yes i looked it up on the Acer site and it's being sold in Hong Kong also.


Intel Inside

 

555m looks to be weaker than the 6850 GDDR3 however.

If they had been bold and slapped a GTX460M in there, that would have been interesting.

 

If anyone is interested machine processor temps mostly in 40's - low 50's C running all day.

 

Looks like they are sold out at Newegg of the 8950G. They still have them at Comp USA.

 

i don't know why but there aren't many places who sell the 8950g i have no idea why tho

 

It's the same with all of the most powerfull Acer laptops.Their most powerfull machines seem to be sold via mostly internet stores and their less powerfull machines (mainstream products) are sold through the Best Buys and Office Depots of the world. If they only valued marketing as much as Apple does they would be the number selling laptop company.
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I forgot to mention another issue i had when I cloned the HD to my SSD drive. The SSD came with the cloning kit (external USB case). I put the HD in the external case and ran the Software (Acronis came with kit).Acronis couldn't see the USB external drive. I thought about it and remembered the usb port I was using was USB 3.0. Once I moved the drive to a USB 2.0 port it found the drive and cloned it to the SSD.

 

Looks like Comp USA and Newegg are both out of the 8950. I wonder if the 8951 makes it to the USA. My guess is it doesn't.

 

I had an issue today when I shutdown/powered up the laptop the Acer opening screen cam up and stayed for 10 minutes or so then the windows bootup screen came up. I emailed Acer and at first they told me to do a system restore. I wrote them back and said no the problem isn't with booting it when its doing the bios check at startup. They told me to hit F2 and go into setup then

Hit <F9> to enter the menu of setup defaults and hit enter
hit <F10> to enter the mneu of save and exit to save the modifications then exit

then restart the system after 15 minutes and see if the probelm is corrected.

 

Please ,those who bought cable for seconde hard drive, tell me if it work or not?

 

Ok I got it too work without pausing for 5 minutes. I changed in setup disable quiet boot and i could see the checks at bootup before Windows was loaded. When I was having problems i didn't see the check for hardrives. Well after transporting the laptop now I see that it checked the drives is showing then it goes into booting Windows. I rebooted almost 10 times and it booted fast every time. I'm going to add the second drive today so i will give you a report when completed.

 

Yes it worked the drive cover was ordered separately and I just got it. The connector was a little tricky because it's so small. I was trying to connect it the wrong way (Make sure the little pull tab on the cable is facing the back of the drive bay and not the front). I turned it around and it fit right in. There are no brackets or screws to hold the drive in as it fits snug into the spot and is secure. The cover is a little more curved then the one that came with it and it doesn't have the plastic spacers. So if ordering get the connector and the 9.5 cm cover it is like 24 for the cable and 29 for the cover.
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Again the parts needed to add a second drive to the 8950G.

http://www.aceroutlet.ca/products/Acer-Aspire-8950G-Series-HD-connector-Cable-Part:-50RCN07002.html

Make sure you get the 9.5 MM it's slightly curved and doesn't have the plastic spacers attached to the cover like the one that comes with the 8950.
http://www.aceroutlet.ca/products/A...es-2nd-HD-Cover-9.5mm-Part:-42.RCN07.003.html

The only place i found these parts are at Jtec which is in Canada but covers the USA and Canada. Acer themselves said It couldn't be done with the model sold in the USA.

 

I am interested in this computer, but it seems it has gone missing from the U.S. market - not available from Newegg, Tigerdirect, B&H, or Amazon. Has this computer been recalled, pulled from american market or in such high demand that Acer can't keep up with orders?

 

I noticed that also. Well the Acer website never showed it as being available in the USA. It got alot of press before the sandy bridge recall. They also have released the 8951 which is basically the same machine but with an Nvidia graphics card. The 8951 is not available in alot of places either.

 

Where in the world do you buy this thing? and is the 2720qm flavor available anywhere? Seems odd to have so much press and then poof - not available at amazon or newegg.

 

Well it was released back in February or early March (newegg sold at least 1 as there was 1 review) and then the Sandy Bridge recall. It was released and I received mine in the beginning of April. I did have issues getting 2 drives installed but all that is over and done with and I have a 128 SSD drive and the 750 GB HD in the second bay. From the looks of things most of the 18.4" laptops available at Newegg are the 1st generation i7 processors.

 

Where did you order yours? That is exactly the setup I am looking for with ssd+bigspinning+16gb, but no one wants my money?

 

Thats Acer's issue for not getting their product out. Comp USA and Newegg will sell them as long as they have them.

My configuration came with the 750 GB HD and I purchased a Kingston SSD from Buy.com. I really got a deal it was 214 with a 75.00 rebate. It also came with a kit with Acronis software to clone the drive. I rceived the laptop and put the SSD drive in and the opened the 2nd bay and there was no standard SATA interface. I started this thread around the same time. I had some give me part numbers for a different model and was told to call Acer and ask for the part. Well Acer said it isn't compatible with your mobo. Then i looked at a place in Europe and they said it would fit my model. Then somehow i found this place jtec and they had the part and they were for the 8950. I ordered the cable and it fit and i saw i needed the bay cover so I ordered it. Both orders took a week but when i connected i had a work second drive of 750 GB. I was happy but then i had a problem with it pausing while booting. I diabled quiet boot in setup and i could see the various checks at reboot. I contacted Acer support and they told me to restore and another told me to goto setup and set to restore to default setting under f9. Well nothing worked. It did boot but just took 5 to 10 minutes. I took it to work and it booted right up. I tried rebooting 25 times and everytime it booted with no pause. I brought it home and it paused again. So i removed and devices connected and tried again still paused. Then is watched the screen and the laptop at boot.

The message came up about bios version and all the Acer copyright stuff and paused but right before the message about dirve information came up I saw the hard drive light come on. Well that sort of made me eliminate what I thought the problem with it being a drive. The only other think it could be was my Epson wireless printer. I shutdown and turned the power off on the printer and restarted. No pause and it was the printer that was causing the problem all along. Now it boots but and i love it. I won't go to 16 gb for awhile.

 

Can this be purchased anywhere...?

Acer Support: Acer Aspire 8950G Series Notebook Specifications

Specifically, this flavor?
Intel® Core™ i7-2820QM processor (8 MB L3 cache, 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.40 GHz, DDR3 1600 MHz, 45 W)

 

You could up to a week ago. It was a Tiger Direct and Newegg had it for about a month. They have been out since last week. Don't know what's going on with it. They have released the 8951 in a couple of countries.

I've not seen any models with that processor. I've seen with the Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM and also some with an i5. The 2630 is on most of the pre-configured laptops for sale. It's easier to the 2820 on configurable laptops. Acer only sales pre-configured.

 

Canadian stores finally got a shipment of aspire 8950g-9487 in stock. just got mine today. i installed a 60 gig ocz vertex ssd. 16 gigs of kingston hyperx ram and swapped out the wireless card for an Intel 6300 card. only thing i don't like so far is why the heck did they have to use that stupid glossy plastic for the track pad that stuff is just a finger print magnet.

 

I have a wireless mouse so i try to limit the fingerprints. But I have screen swipes close by for the fingerprints.

 

I have a 8950G 9479 and I can't switch from touchpad to media console...anyone have any ideas. If I can get this to work, it is a very awesome laptop. This is my second 8950G and seems like this one is better. My last laptop was a 8940G and the video card died...I sent it away for warranty work and it could not be fixed... they sent me back a 8950G

 

i can't seem to get the botton to switch to console to work either. my guess is that inorder for it to work there must be some software u need to install i just haven't bothered to figure it out sent it probly won't ever use that.

one thing i noticed about this notebook that my old 7745g didn't have. is when i removed the bordcom wireless card to replace it with an intel 6300 card. is that under the mini pci-e slot that the wireless nic installs into there was a second mini pci-e slot that was empty i didn't see a screw down spot for the secound slot though so not sure how that slot would be used.

 

Hey Buckeye, I have a 8950G 9479 and when I push the button to switch to media console, nothing happens...any ideas?

 

Hi I was looking for a notebook with AMD 6850m graphics but wanted to know if quicksync is supported since the Intel HD3000 looks to be disabled on this laptop. Anyone tried using Badaboom or other video encoders can confirm if quicksync is supported on this laptop?

 

..............

 

I'm about to pull the trigger on this: AS8950G-2638G1.5TWnss | Product Model

It's the 18.4" Acer AS8950G-2638G1.5TWnss with two 750GB hard drives.

I have two questions that I'm hoping someone can answer:

1. Does this have a compatible docking station or is the only way a USB / PCI Express solution?

2. Can this laptop drive 2 external monitors via HDMI and VGA ports, without closing the laptop lid? (3 screens including laptop screen)