Acer Aspire Timeline Owner's Lounge

I'm just not sold on SSDs quite yet. I think in another year they'll have it down. It just seems like a lot of money for a 5-10% increase in speeds in most tasks. Some tasks are mondo faster, yeah, but others are the same speed as a decen platter HDD.

Maybe the coming gen of controllers will help that and I can be further convinced, but dropping 50% of the cost of the entire machine to pick up 5-10% in overall speed doesn't seem like a good tradeoff to me.

 

Intel's new 34nm 80GB ssd costs $225.

 

Yeah but 80 GB is not what were used to anymore. The least I could go down to is 256 GB but those are like 500-600 dollars.

 

But its replacing a 320gb drive in a $649 laptop...

 

Or a 500 GB HD in a 900 dollar laptop.

 

its all back to how you value it

 

I lived with 40GB in my Inspiron 9100 for 5 years (up till this year) and 20GB in my EEE for 1 year, so I know I would be fine with 80GB. The 500GB HDD will be used as an external drive. Who knows, I might not buy it but instead wait for cheaper and larger future ssd's.

 

The Acer 3810T-6415 is so close to what I want but not close enough so I haven't bought yet.

Hopefully something better comes out shortly.

 

What I don´t get is how you can get 8 hours of battery life with a battery that is only 56 Whr ?

56/8 = only 7 Watt/hour average consumption

According to http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/review-acer-aspire-3810t-354g32n-903

go to "testwerte" and you will see that power consumption is 20 Watt when surfing and using "word"

Someone can explain this ?

 

@Laptopaddict:

Im not sure what they are doing with the battery life on such a small battery, but I am seeing real world numbers of between 6 - 7.5 hours of battery life consistent on the 3810T-6415 without any tweaking at all.

 

Battery life on the Acer Timeline is excellent. No one has yet disputed this. This is the key to a true travelling notebook pc you can use anywhere even though it will be slightly slower than a Desktop PC.

As ULV CPU speeds go higher, speed will be less of an issue.

Ideally a SU9600 with ATI, SSD, Wimax, WWLAN and all the toys by Acer in the future.

Travelmate is made of magnesium alloy for better durability. Regular Timeline's dont have this.

http://www.slashgear.com/acer-travelmate-timeline-business-notebooks-break-cover-2450228/

Just hope it comes out in USA.

Acer got it 100% right! Specs include 80GB Intel X25M!!!!!!!!!!!! SU9400 or SU9600 as well.

WTG Acer. They know what their customers want. Bet TRavelmate 8371 sells extremely well. Magnesium alloy, matte screen, X25M, ATI, SU9400 or SU9600.

Pricing isnt bad either. Perfect notebook PC. No need to shop elsewhere.

Only thing missing on the current specs is Wimax but they did have plans for it in the past and WiMax isn't out yet in the USA so they probably decided to skip that for now. If I wait long enough I bet the models will include Wimax.

 

The one thing I really like about my 3810 is that it did not come with too much trialware, compared to my brothers SR the load is very light.

 

Did you check to see which software is trialware? I hated to remove anything until I was sure.

 

Aaccording to people, early production runs of plastic models are cracking but they didn't specifically say who the manufacturer/manufacturers was/were.

The Acer Travelmate is really what I want.

Magnesium Alloy is a must and the Travelmate line has this as well as other features I want.

Keep waiting for the Travelmates to come to the USA.

No Travelmate 8371 in the USA, then I will see if anything else hits the USA.

 

Of all the stuff that came with it, I left the Crystal Eye webcam software, Launch Manager (for buttons above keyboard), and Acer Powersmart. Everything else is gone, though I did create restore dvds with the utility installed before I deleted it.

 

Where did you see this? Link please.

In my opinion metal laptops are no better than plastic ones. The claim in that Slashgear article about the magnesium-alloy "increasingly durability" is clearly lifted from a press release--how do you objectively measure durability? In my experience a metal body only marginally decreases the odds that dropping your computer will cause it to break. The weakest spots--the hinges and joints--are still made of plastic even if the body is metal. All you pay for is extra weight (and perhaps very slightly better cooling due to the heatsink effect). I'll keep my $300 and stick with my Timeline.

 

timeline may be aluminum and not plastic possibly. But there were reports of plastic notebooks breaking.

Magnesium alloy is lighter weight than plastic, not heavier and is stronger.

I am going to edit the post because Im not sure what the Timeline is made of.

For me I want the matte screen, magnesium alloy, ATI 4330, Intel X25M, fingerprint reader, so its a wide array of features.

It is July 24th 2009. I will recheck availability of the Acer Travelmate in late August / September and see if anything else is new.

Seems like what I really want just isn't on the market yet so I keep waiting.

I dont really need fingerprint reader but it won't hurt. I don't think it does too much for security if someone really wants access to private information.

 

Notebook.de now lists the 1810T and a 3810TG, both equipped with 3G-UMTS WWAN.

 

Haha there's the rub. The problem with electronics is that there's always that cool new feature coming next quarter or new edition shipping in a few months. By the time what you want now is on the market, you'll want the next (unreleased) thing. At least that way you save money!

 

3G is useless at least for me. My Cellphone is Wireless 3G with Bluetooth therefore I don't need 3G on my laptop.

4G LTE and Wimax are not useless however. I take it WWAN is just built in Cellphone chipsets to access the data of the wireless networks.

I need Bluetooth and 4G LTE and Wimax would be nice since I don't have a 4G LTE Cellphone at this time. 3G WWAN's are useless at least for me.

I thought I needed WWAN before, but I don't. I just need Bluetooth which can access via cellphones the datanetwork of the provider I have plus Wimax which is part of the Intel standard to allow for Clearwire usage since essentially there will be 2 standards, Wimax AND 4G LTE for USA wireless coverage.

So my ideal notebook:

Acer Travelmate 8371 with SU9600, Wimax, Intel 80GB SSD new model, 4GB Ram, Windows 7 Business, Fingerprint, Matte sceen, Camera, ATI 4330 switchable video and Bluetooth with the Magnesium alloy case.

And any other features that it could come with. DVDRW not necessary on a travelling laptop and I doubt this one comes with it. I assume battery life will be the same with the switchable video disabled and with wireless off as the Acer Timeline. The ATI is good to have but wont be the primary usage when travelling.

As to price, if it comes out to the USA market, I would hope the price isn't too bad. I would hope it could come in at less than $1500 USD.

In my case its not like there is a next cool big thing. In my case the 8 hour battery life is really the kicker since traditionally it hasn't been able to be that great in the past as well as the 1.6GHZ CPU speed. A laptop in 5 years from now wont entice me cause when I forward proof my system I expect it to be able to last many years and I plan on using the one I buy for a long long time.

It doesn't even have to be an Acer but the thing is only the Acer is hitting the high battery life figures from what I can tell and other makes are higher priced.

Acer is able to provide cost efficiency and provide highly rated products with excellent driver updates to boot.

Seems like every day there are more updates to the Acer's.

I hope by October at latest when Win 7 comes out I can find a Travelmate with the specs I want to buy in the USA.

 

Right now I am following the undervolting guide, and I am at the lowest voltage and it is still stable! I have gone down about 6C in temps.

 

He probably just lives in Canada like me where laptops come out a year after they do everywhere else, and they're always butchered with watered down specs.

 

Plus better battery life to boot on an already impressive notebook. For true stability reasons though people won't want to even remotely risk the BSOD.

Is there a way to actually tell system stability to see if it could even possibly cause a BSOD beforehand? What tests can be run to ensure stability on the system?

I will probably just leave it alone since the battery life is good enough if I get a Travelmate. No need to fool around with stuff I am not familiar with.

 

The same thing happens to be going on with the USA market as well right now on multiple models with laptops and even monitors.

NEC is introducing a 23" IPS model to Europe, but wasn't announced to the USA.

Same with Acer Travelmate. And with the Timeline, it appears as though Europe gets Hitachi 320GB drives while USA gets 500GB Toshiba drives.

Also Europe gets the ATI option as switchable video while the USA does not from what I can tell.

I can't understand these weird configs for each nation.

Jaya you have a Toshiba or a Hitachi in that 3810T-6415? I could have mixed it up. But I think Toshiba is included in the 6415 models.

Kinda weird why Europe vs USA has different parts sans power adapters and keyboards.

 

I have the Toshiba HDD.

 

Ok thanks. I wont ask how performance is since I want the Intel X25M even though it is just 80GB. I would rather a faster and solid state drive in a notebook PC which also should add more battery life as well considering there is no motor to spin the HD but rather solid state circuitry which has much faster access times and uses less juice.

Intel has a high quality and one of the lower price per GB on the market for SSD right now. They have a 80GB and a 160GB version. As time goes on prices will drop even further on them.

I am trying to hold out till October before I get something.

FYI: That newegg item which was $310 is now cheaper at zipzoomfly (which I have used before)

More X25Ms are getting in stock and price is down to $223.25 now with free shipping.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010797&prodlist=froogle

I am happy now. With the drives finally getting in stock and in bulk, Acer needs to include these soon. Only missing component for Acer is the Windows 7 so I dont know if anything other than the OS could change by the time Windows 7 emerges.

 

Strange... I have the 3810T (ASIA) and it comes with the 320G Hit (Really fast ) but the AOU display the EU models seem to come with an Samsung Screen

Computer>Device Manager>Monitor>Hw Ids...

What do you have ?

 

Yeah what screen type is coming on the USA timeline 3810T-6415? Im curious.

Toshiba vs Hitachi. Toshiba has more GB. Hitachi is 320GB, Toshiba is 500GB. I bet speeds are prolly on par with each other.

Sorta weird how Acer changes configs for each nation.

 

are the processors in the 14 and 15" Timelines upgradeable to something more powerful that will handle youtube HD?

 

No, they don't. They're soldered


There might be SU9600 models, bot nothing more is known as for today.
About YT HD, ppl report that SU9400 does the job.

 

Anyone knows any tool to undervolt SU2700?
RMClock doesn't work for SU 2700
Overclocking as well.
Thanks

 

I'm using an Acer TravelMate 370 (12.1", 1.4 GHz Pentium M, 768MB Ram, 40GB HD @ 5400 rpms, 3.6lbs, etc.) which I bought in Taiwan 5 yrs+ ago. The laptop is now slowly having hardware issues due to many years of use so I'm now in the market for another laptop; it was a great investment and I'd do it again anyday ... go Acer

I would like to stay in the 12-13", ~4lbs, 4hrs+ battery and LARGE HD (one of the main reasons the TravelMate is being replaced). I made a big mistake purchasing a Dell Studio XPS 13 last week; I thought the performance (P8600, 500GB HD @ 7200 rpms, NVidia VC, etc.) could justify the weight @ 5.1lbs however I was wrong as it was bulky and the battery life was ~2hrs ... the Best Buy sales rep told me the battery was good for 3.5+\- hrs. I returned the Dell w/out any issues; my mistake of listening to retail sales reps and swaying from my original focus.

I've had my eye out on the Timelines way before the Dell exercise. I'm in a dilemma between the 3810 (4880 vs. 6415). I don't think it's necessary to pickup something I'll never use however I don't want to be caught off guard over the next 5yrs. The Acer TS and retail sales reps are not helpful so I just decided to pickup a 4880 yesterday; I was hoping the 4880 could satisfy the requirements.

I've read the majority of the replies throughout the 65 pages of this post. I've updated the BIOS, updated video driver (addressed 100% CPU usage), removed Mcafee, removed other startup task items, etc. The quick summary ... I don't see any differences in performance compared to my current TravelMate 370! I also think Vista might actually be slowing things down compared too XP or even Windows 7. I did test the HD Amazon clip on YouTube on both the TravelMate 370 and Timeline 3810-4880; watchable but choppy. I also tested Counterstrike (1 of 2 games I might play 2/month @ 15-20mins) and the video was actually more choppy on the Timeline 3810-4880 compared to the TravelMate 370; I think it's because of the higher resolution w/ the Timeline. The only real difference I've seen is the faster wireless connection ... a/b > a/b/g/n.

Are these results expected/normal comparing both the specs of the TravelMate 370 vs. Timeline 3810-4880? Did I have too high of hopes to think there would be a big difference? Would the Timeline 3810-6415 big a HUGE performance difference/upgrade compared to the TavelMate 370 of Timeline 3810-4480? Thanks.

 

Pentium M 1.4 has a Passmark CPU score of 321 ( http://www.cpubenchmark.net/low_end_cpus.html).
SU3500 has about 500 ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=388133&page=13).
So your SU2700 should be a tad less than 500.
SU9400 has about 930 something.

Therefore my guess is that you did upgrade you laptop, but still both laptops are not powerful enough to play HD flash contents smoothly.
Is watching Youtube HD contents an important factor for your computing need?

 

Evilid, I appreciate the quick response. Watching HD is not a priority as I only used it because other's on this post seem to it as a test. What exactly is a Passmark CPU score?

Humm ... so in short would it be safe to state that the Timeline 3810-4880 is just a "newer" version of my current TravelMate w/ no real performance gain. I wish I had paid the same amount for my TravelMate back in 2004 as I did for the Timeline yesterday; then it would have been a steal. I think I might need to go for the 3810-6415. Do you think I'll noticed a HUGE performance difference going w/ the 3810-6415? Thanks.

 

Passmark PerformanceTest is a tool to benchmark computer performance.
http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm
It can benchmark a machine as a whole or individual components such as CPU.
The scores I referred were CPU scores.

I am not a Timeline owner, but I believe a Timeline will be a good upgrade with faster CPU, faster and more RAMs and faster HDD etc.
Especially in terms of the battery runtime and the thin-and-light factor both of which are the major selling points of this laptop, I believe.

Since you seem to own a laptop for a long time, you will better off with a Timeline 3810-6415.
However if you are not into all-day-long battery runtime and thin-and-light (but more care about performance), you could look at other laptops.
Just my 2 cents.

 

Monitor LGD01F7.

 

I've noticed something about the processor in my Aspire Timeline that I wonder may be contributing to increased battery drain.

I have a 4810T with a Core 2 Solo u3500 processor @ 1.40GHZ. I've been keeping an eye on my core speed and multiplier in CPU-Z and have seen the multiplier fluctuate from 6.0x - 8.0x, causing the core speed to fluctuate from 1.1GHZ to 1.5GHZ, respectively. Oddly though, the default resting state for this processor seems to be a multiplier of 8.0x with a core speed of 1.5GHz. At times I've seen that it will settle on a multiplier of 7.0X, with a core speed of around 1.3GHz, but if I open even one application, the multiplier jumps to 8.0x and the core speed to 1.5GHz (which, by the way, is higher than the rated clock speed for this processor!). For example, right now I have only CPU-Z and Firefox open, and CPU-Z is reporting a core speed of 1596.0MHz and a multiplier of 8.0x.

What gives? I assume this is part of the Intel SpeedStep technology that lowers the core speed when the computer is in an idle state to reduce power consumption. This is what happens on my desktop. Why isn't the same thing happening with this processor? Are other people noticing this? I can't understand why the default rest state seems to the a multiplier of 8.0x and a core speed of 1.5GHz, especially when the rated speed for the processor is 1.4GHz.

One last thing to note that perhaps throws all of this off: CPU-Z reports that my "Core VID" right now is 0.900V. Interestingly, when the multiplier and core speed DROP, the Core VID increases to 0.910 and 0.920. Does this mean the processor is actually consuming LESS power when the core speed DECREASES? If so, that really confuses me.

Any enlightening comments on this very welcome!

 

Speedstep mate speedstep... its the evil peoples at intel that have had thier way with your processor they are working together with that arch villan SmallSoft to make it this way ... !

 

anyone please suggest me useless software to uninstiall from my timeline 4810t my system is still slow even while browzing it take time to load or unload the program or software please suggest.

 

Vista.. move to windows 7.. sorry mate but u did ask

 

LGD01F7 is LG which is arguably the best panel maker.

 

1. What settings are people using to achieve 8hrs+ battery life ie: Balanced, Brightness @ full, Aero = Yes, etc?

2. I ran the Passmark benchmark test however I get a "video card must support at least 4x anti-aliasings to run this test ..." error? I can still continue to finish the test however'd I'd like to know why this error message appears.

3. I updated the Intel video drivers from Acer's ewbsite and now when Vista restarts, I keep getting the "Open File - Security Warning" for hkcmd.exe, igfxpers.exe and igfxtray.exe. even though I unchecked "Always ask before opening this file" and clicked run.

4. Where do I find the Bluetooth settings?

 

What is the running consensus on battery life between the SU3500 and SU9400 versions?
Any significant difference?
Also, I would like to use this on the road with my slingbox running some HD content. Can the SU3500 handle that?

 

Based on the huge amount of postings, the Acer Timeline is selling even better than I could have imagined.

Results show the growth rates of sales on the Acer's as being super high. I can confirm Acer has a winner, and for me would gain a sale IF it came out with Travelmate 8371 to USA.

All the posts are exactly pretty much what I am looking for and we are all thinking aloud with similar things such as Im thinking the fingerprint reader, matte screen, magnesium alloy and ATI along with the X25M Intel SSD and Wimax and SU9400 or SU9600.

Acer is KING if it comes out with a Travelmate with the 8 hour + battery life and if no competitors come out matching or exceeding this.

 

How to get tons of battery life and speedier machine:

1. Get rid of Vista and install Windows 7 RC

2. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5115093&postcount=588

 

Yep but get intels experimental drivers for w7.. chip & graphics

 

Graphics chip on Timeline is not capable of 4X AA, so you are getting the error. Just ignore it.

Solution for 3.
http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/forums/viewthread/99093/

 

Hej, guys since thursday i´m also owner of an Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T with SU9400 and 4500MHD, yesterday i grabed the WWAN module from my ASpire One A150X an installed it in my time line, put my simcard in the simslot installed the software from my Aspire One, conneted some WLAN Antennas i had laying around, and surprise it worked so i orderd the bluetooth module, WWAN Module and some WWan Antennas at this point the Timeline is a very great notebook

 

hi everyone,

has anyone with the ati4330 installed win7? i can't seem to get switchable graphics working, which is really hurting battery life

 

I think you have to reboot at the moment, I read on a German Forum that the switching tool does not work at the moment on 7, so select and reboot seems the way to go, my other half has a Z190 sony and thats what she has to do ... but then again she is looking at my 3810T with loving eyes thats why I cant wait for the 1810T with ATi to hit the shelfs here )