Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 News?

Hi all,

So I'm in the market to get a new laptop and after researching for the past week or so on all the review sites, this model seems like the best fit for me. However, when I went to buy one, I could not find it being sold anywhere...or even any news about it for the past 1 1/2 months...or any mention on Acer's website. Yet it was reviewed on all the major sites back in March. Any idea what's going on with this model?

 

In Hungary it's in stock. One of my "friend" just ordered it. ETA 2012.05.10
I'm als looking forward to buy one.

 

Are the models in Hungary coming with Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge CPUs? If Acer follows its usual pattern, they will simply upgrade to IB when it is available. Acer typically releases in the EU first and North America a few weeks later.

 

Sandy Bridge with Kepler GT640M. I'm waiting now for the Ivy ones but the Sandy is a great deal now with 3 year international guarantee. (Acer usually gives 1 year here, except for the current newest TimelineX which is always debut with 3 year)

edit: and yes, its already HM77

 

Looks Good, I have ordered one, it due for delivery by the 14th

John.

 

I've purchased my current notebook because of benchmark numbers. All the reviews said that this msi is overheating in extreme situations. Now I have it for 2 years upgraded to the maximum and it never overheats.

I don't want to choose my next notebook because of points in benchmarks. I want a portable yet 15" notebook and this Acer looks really good for me.

 

If somehow you could change screen in M3 it would be an ideal laptop - 2kg's, able to play games, nice screen...

 

Yeah, a 1600x900 screen would be great...

 

Since the M3 only has 1 so-dimm slot will the M3 take an 8gb stick?

John.

 

Officially the chipset supports it, but the cpus are limited to 8GB total. Maybe there's an option for 10GB (2+8) not only 6 (2+4).

 

That`s 2gb on the board???, non removable, plus whatever you put in the slot.

John.

 

2GB on board and one slot.

 

All the ones i have seen advertized were 4gb , a lousy 2gb so-dimm.

John.

 

Here you can get it without the additional ram. i3 + HDD + intelHD + onboard 2GB. The cheapest one.

 

What`s "intelHD" ??? , do you mean the built in graphics.

John.

 

yes 10char

 

Mine has shipped today, hopefully i will get it tomorrow, I have 7 day`s to try it out, if i dont like it and want to return it.

I just hope the screen is not as bad as some of the reviews make out.

John.

 

Yeah- I hope so too. Looking forward to your opinion on the screen.

 

I just order an Crucial M4 SSD , Normally you remove the battery before you install an HDD, RAM, ect , but on this notebook you cannot, is there a procedure?

John.

 

Turn off the notebook, swap hdd, turn on.

 

There should be a battery disconnecter inside when you remove the service hatch- like there is on x830 series.

 

I have been looking at a few pictures with the cover off the bottom, and i cannot see any connector big enough to disconnect, one small one, with thin wires, I wonder if it disconnects the battery when you remove the cover, it would be nice.

John.

 

Here you go:

 

I received my M3 yesterday, but my telephone line has been down.

I was shocked to find my brand new SDD would not fit, as it is an standard 9.5mm high, and the M3 can only take one 7mm high or less, so i took it apart and fitted just the circuit board, between two silicon sheets, and it works fine.

My M3 came with an 20gb miniPCI card, which i removed as i am using an SDD anyway, also it will reduce the power consumption a bit.

The Sound is very good for a notebook with only two speaker and no subwoofer, and that is compared to my old laptop had four speaker with beats audio.

The display, mine has an AUO screen "MONITOR\AUO32EC" , it has good color, but not a lot of brightness, thinking about outside use, the viewing angles are normal for an cheap notebook screen, one slight problem is a slight vertical graininess, I have seen this a number of times, and seen worse, it`s not really a problem at normal viewing distances, also the screen is very glossy.

Graphics, I got on 3dmark06demo at 1280x768, just over 10.500 points, using the GT640m.

That`s all for now, any questions just ask.

John

 

What do you think about the notebook? Heat problems? Battery runtime? "Weight in hand?" compared to your old notebook.

 

As i said i ran 3dmark06 , the max temp was 72c , runtime is hard to estimate, I have battery bar pro, I would say 5-6hrs when watching video, browsing the web via wifi, i am only on my fist discharge so it`s hard to tell.

It comes with an small 65watt psu , I was pulling around 50watts when running 3dmark06 , idle is 10-15watts

The fan is quite quiet, though it is a little bit squeeky at low revs, I hope it will fix it`s self, this is in a silent room.

I was watching a 720p video on youtube for 30min and the fan was totally silent throughout , this was on battery.

I don't really travel with my notebooks to the weight is not a problem, though it is quite light.

The only metal is the back of the lcd/lid the rest is plastic

There is no way to disconnect the battery, without taking it apart, though there is a battery reset button.

Also the Intel AES-NI encryption is enabled and working, verified with TrueCrypt

Any other questions.

John

 

Thank you for your answers. Hope I get this machine in the near future.

 

Neither cpu-z or hwinfo64 will give me any info on the built in 2gb of memory , the one and only slot had in it an "2GB Elpida EBJ20UF8BDU0-GN-F DDR3 SO-DIMM (1.6GHz) PC3-12800"

John.

 

The on board ram is Elpida.

 

How do you know the ram soldered to the board is "Elpida"? , as i said the ram in the only slot is "Elpida" , it`s written on the chips, I would be surprised if both were the same make.

 

It makes sense that both would come from the same manufacturer if possible.

How is the screen though?

 

Notebookcheck's shot of the motherboard:

 

So they have, nice find, I did not see that review.

I wish they had put a 4gb stick in the slot, 6gb would have been great, oh well a 4gb stick is only £17 or so.

John.

 

How bout a 13" version of something like this, all notebooks are more or less the same until someone decides to stick a real video card into it...

 

See post 24, if you need more info, just ask.

John

I have decided to return my M3, there are a couple of reasons, the main one, is it not being compatible with standard 9.5mm high hdd/sdd drives, also with it having a built in battery, I was expecting it to have software to extend the battery`s life, the same as Samsung and Sony Notebooks, to stop the charging at 80-90% so your battery lives longer, but there is nothing

I will stick with my HP DV6 for now.

Thanks

John.

 

im new to this forum.. i have an M3 too, the i5 version.. i would like to upgrade the memory to the max, so i guess i will add 6Gb.

my question is, based on your posts i read. it says elpida ram are used to the onboard. does it mean that i have to buy same brand? or just same specs on any brand? tia

 

Same or higher specs (higher specs will fall back down to what the on-board memory is). It doesn't have to be the same manufacturer either.

 

thanks downloads..

about the ssd, cann i use it as a boot drive? cuz i believe it was used as cache drive. or can i replace it with higher mSATA ssd and use it as boot/OSvdrive?

 

It is used as a boot drive or at least it can be.
Some M3 configs sport only a mSATA LiteON 256GB SSD and 2.5" bay is empty so there is an option to boot from mSATA.

On an unrelated matter- who the hell thought it would be a good idea to place all those connectors on the back?!
One USB port, LAN and HDMI- that can be explained, but three USB ports on the back and a headphone connector- that's ridiculous.

 

^ actually it is insanely awkward at first.. pulling and attaching usb devices at the back. but as time goes by, you will get to memorize the slots cuz you can peek between the hinges. i find it easy by now.

 

I used to have a notebook with USB at the back and I always found it inconvenient to use with pendrives and such.
As for the headphones I really can't find word to describe it.

Not that any of these "faults" are enough to make a good notebook bad but still ...