Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T Thread

so many contradicting statements... i seriously don't know what's best to choose atm

 

Where is the contradiction???It seems to me that everybody is telling you to buy the current generation of CULV equiped Acers...

 

There is no 1830 to buy "atm".

 

If you can, hold off on getting the CULV.

Unfortunately the i-core is leap and bound better then CULV, you going to regret it if you don't wait.

Reason why you should wait for i-Core
1. HT support, meaning that your 2-core cpu will act like 4 core, that realistically perform like 3 core. (50%+ performance boost)
2. Turbo Boost, For heavy single threaded programs, it can almost double the speed of a single core. So your 1.05Ghz i-core can act like 2Ghz+ cpu. (50%+ boost)
3. Intel HD GPU, it has been benched-marked at near Nvidia 9400m performance. according to document from Intel and Apple, Nvidia 9400m is more then 2x performance of Intel 4500MHD. (2x graphic boost)
4. Support for DDR3: compare DDR2-800 to DDR3-1333, (probably around 5-10% performance boost).
5. Lower battery usage: i-core UM series chip run at 18w TDP while CULV + 4500MHD run at about 22w-25w TDP (can expect 15-25% battery life boost)

So in conclusion i-Core UM series decimate CULV 2x+ boost in performance, 2x+ boost in graphic, and about 20% boost in battery life. If you can wait.... WAIT!!!!!

Oh this coming from someone who owns and love his Acer timeline 1410 SU2300 laptop. So i am not talking bad about the current gen CULV, but i-Core is just that much better.

 

Have you been reading the last couple pages about the i-cores in the 1830t? It could be a very long wait, or it may never even happen..

And judging from some of the benchmarks even with the i-cores it doesn't seem like the upgrade will be as significant as most of us are speculating. Personally I'm going to buy a 1410 to carry me over until Q1/Q2 2011.

 

I understand it could be a long wait, that is why i made the statement:

If you can't, then CULV is good laptop, but make no mistake about it, 2x processing power, 2x graphic, 20% battery life boost is A BIG DEAL

 

The new Intel graphics have not accomplished anything in real gaming benchmarks, just better scores in synthetics. Also you're talking about TDP's, maximum power usage. The Core i ULVs haven't been getting better battery life. Good battery life, but not better (based on Lenovo Thinkpads that have them now).

Also what are you basing CPU boosts on? HT is program dependent, and no one knows what the Core i ULV will preform like because it hasn't been benched.

 

or it may never happen. Read the last 2-3 pages. Lots of discussion on how disappointing the 1830t might be.

 

HT is not program dependent, it is a native functionality that is control by the OS. While programmer who know how to write multi-threaded code can utilize HT for performance gains, it is not require. Window Vista/7 will use HT to enhance thread switching within the OS.

HT is not a new technology, and its benefit has been know since P4 days, so we don't really need benchmarks to know what it can do for performance.

I would however agree that while on paper i-Core UM TDP is better then CULV, but most of the time the CPU won't be fully utilized, so we will need some careful benchmark to compare battery performance of i-Core vs CULV (still on paper i-Core is impressive).

As far as i-Core GPU, if you are into gaming, i-Core's GMA HD is better then GMA 4500MHD. It is just a matter of how much better, and from benchmarks i see from real games, 2x performance against 4500MHD is being generous to the 4500MHD.

Now granted if 1830t never comes out, or it won't use the i-Core UM series, then all this discussion is pointless. But if it does, and we have the luxury to wait, I think the i-Core 1830t is worth the wait.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-HD.23065.0.html
vs
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-4500MHD-GMA-X4500MHD.9883.0.html

 

IMO the answer to this that there is only a small improvement in the GPU.

The notebookcheck comparisons were interesting, but not very applicable. If you account for the huge improvement Core i processors give over the Core 2 Duo's, and then look at most of the processors that the 4500MHD is paired with, half of them are ULV processors or Pentium dual-cores. While all of GMA HD benches are from a minimum Core i3 processor, about the equivalent of a C2D P8400.

Yes there is an obvious improvement to the integrated GPU, but I'm just saying it's over hyped and at the end of the day you're not going to be playing many games that you couldn't play before.

 

aznguyphan well... yes and no. If the GMA HD is indeed in the same league as the Nvidia 9400M (ION), then we will have a integrated GPU that is capable of light gaming.

Look at this this way, both the Netbook segment and Apple has both hailed the ION platform as the saver of the small laptop/ultra portable market, and I tend to agree with them.

Look at another way, lower power consumption with 2x graphic performance, at a package that can fit into a 11.6 inch or smaller, and can run WoW in decent settings, there is only 2 game in town (with 1 more coming soon: ION 2).

 

Funny you should mention WoW, because it's the benchmark that is making me wary of the GMA HD's claim that it is as good as ION.

Laptopmag review of x201s, x201t, Asus 1201N (ION).

The Asus with a dual core atom gives almost double the frames of the heralded GMA HD.

ION 2 looks very interesting though. Almost all usage cases it'll have involves switchable graphics, making it very practical.

 

Interesting result. Although I tend to put more weight on 3Dmark score then WoW benchmark, it is still very disheartening to see such poor score for a GPU with such potential. I just hope that Intel will release better drive for the GMA HD in the future.

 

Well that was a part of my original point...it's doing well in synthetics but very unimpressive in actual use. You can put as much weight as you want in 3Dmark, but the score is irrelevant if it doesn't translate to real world usage.

But maybe it is a driver issue. WoW isn't exactly a new game and GMA HD is still young

 

well ive given up waiting. not likely we will see it any time soon?

 

well, depends on your definition of soon.. as of now, I could only find the 1830T referenced on acer's France products list, and then again, one page says its got a core i5 and another one says it's a core2solo. so yeah, it doesn't look as though its ready to ship. And so we wait.......

 

within 2 months is soon to me, if its longer than that i cant literally wait.

 

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18388/41/

 

this is about new CULVs (which in itself is kind of a good news) but not about the core i5 that should be in the 1830T. But maybe ACER plans to include them, thus delaying further the 1830T until Q3 2010...
http://netbooked.net/blog/next-generation-intel-celeron-culv-processor-coming-q3-2010/

 

1.06GHZ and no turbo boost ?????Why do I get the feeling that we will be stuck with a 1410 with a ULV743 and a power(less) 1830T U3400 1.06GHz.At least until the sandybridge comes out.I hope we won't be talking soon about the "good old days"of the CULV processors.

 

If you need it, just buy it. If you wait for the next best thing, you'll never buy anything.

 

I just logged in on Acer's website for service partners and there is already 1830T listed and 2 versions of BIOS/Firmware available for download.....

 

Went to Futureshop yesterday...

Spent some time with the 1810T Olympic Edition for the first time yesterday and instantly fell in love with it. It's Beautiful.

Almost bought it but still in 2 minds about waiting for the 1830T.

After all these rumours/news in the last 10 days with the Core ULV Processors being delayed it's really confusing.

Just want to be sure for a few things....

1. Although the 1830T has been delayed... It will Eventually come out for sure right...???

Yes or No...???

2. Will it have Core i5 520UM...???

3. The 1810T is being almost sold out in most Futureshop stores and i dont wanna be in a place where the 1830T does not come out and i cant buy the 1810T Special Edition because it's sold out...!!

That would break my heart...!!

 

You will have to wait a minimum of 2 months before the 1830t ships, and 2 months is being generous.... The 3820t series is estimated to be 1-2 months and those are already showing up in other parts of the world, whereas news of the 1830t has been very limited so far. Some reports say you have to wait till July or later.

No one knows if it will ship with an i-core, speculations say no. The upgrade wouldn't be AS significant as you expected from a culv anyway.

Do yourself a favor and buy the 1810t. I'm sure you will be more then happy with it. I bought myself a 1410 to carry me over until 2011 at least. By then the next intel chip update should really make a difference in laptops anyway. By the time you *might* get the chance to buy a 1830t with i-core, you'll be waiting for the next update again... which is right around the corner of Q3/Q4 2010 and probably shipping out Q1 2011.

 

futureshop does seem to have limited quantities, but only on the su9400 (19 left) and on the lighter su4100 with only 2gb of ram (13 left). The 1810T su7300 doesn't seem to have reached this stage of limited quantities yet. It's still 600$ CAN but it seems like the best deal there is right now. And since you probably won't see the 1830T for some time, even maybe without a core i5, why wait?

 

I would say around August for the 1830T.

 

Get the 1810t and be done with it. Then you don't have to speculate on when the 1830T will come out and what specs it has. The jump in performance even if it's an iCore is hardly worth waiting for.

 

fstop & ck...

i'm quite keen on knowing on what basis are you saying that...

"The upgrade wouldn't be AS significant as you expected from a culv anyway. "

" The jump in performance even if it's an iCore is hardly worth waiting for"

1. Do you guys have benchmarks comparing the iCore CULV vs. Core2Duo CULV...???

2. How can you say so ...??

Thanks.

 

Someone had a preproduction 1830T with the I5-520UM and its performance was not anything to write home about. It is probably in this thread, but I don't recall. So, yes, we have seen performance data and it has not looked that wonderful. I think that is, in part, why there is such a delay, the UM chips have not performed as well as Acer had hoped.

Bronsky

 

The Core i5-520UM will beat the performance of all current Core 2 Duo culv's, including my SU9400 (and the SU9600?).

 

what will linux support be like? would i be better off getting the 1810t (which has been out for a while and is hence better with linux)?

 

1. By how much margin....?? Any estimate..??

2. So is worth waiting for Core i5-520UM over SU7300...??

I really dont care about the design of the 1830T over 1810T or any of the other things. All i really care about is the Difference in Processor Performance....!!

Thanks.

 

By saying that you know rana would ask a ton of questions just like he did above...

Yes, it will beat the current generation of CULVs but the amount is probably not significant enough to wait 4 months for. Rana has been asking questions for the last month waiting for the 1830t... its not coming any time soon, and its not worth waiting for, if you're waiting for it. There's no problem if you don't plan on buying a laptop in the future, just wait. Then once the 1830t arrives have fun asking answering a million questions for Rana about the 1840t .

 

Hot date with the silver beauty!!!

 

Well, I'd say it is still worth it to wait, at least for me. Once a new processor family is out there would be no way I'd buy something with old processors in it.

 

In processor history the new was always much better than the old.Now for the first time people are not so sure if the new is that much better or just a "cosmetic" change just to fatten up Intels wallet.After all we have here succesful processors(people like them) that lasted just a few months before being retired(su2300,su4100 etc.).

 

at first I wanted usb 3 ports, then a core i5, then DDR3 RAM, then a 11.6' matte screen (this I would kill for), then I realized that such a laptop didn't exist yet, that it wasn't even going to be on sale in the near future(if ever!), and that I would probably never buy one if I waited for the perfect one to come along. So I set my mind on a 1810T and I felt peace at last...

 

I doubt you will have any trouble with either. There are very few issues with Linux on the 1410/1810 and I doubt there will be any more with the 1830.

Here's a 1810/Linux thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=434638

 

Lenovo Thinkpad x201? Not as slim or light as the 1810 though. But you get some sturdiness with the exchange. Also the processor is full power, but still good battery life with a 9 cell

 

thanks for the reply. i was worried the hardware on the 1830t might be too new.

 

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water ...

This news from the UL30JT thread:

"IT APPEARS THAT rumours of Intel delaying its ultra low voltage Core i5 and Core i7 UM-series processors were off target, as the announced models will be appearing in notebooks this month. Fujitsu already has a 12.1-inch notebook on sale in Asia with the Core i7-640UM processor and other manufacturers are getting ready to launch their new notebooks.

The Digitimes story from a couple of weeks ago was referring to the yet to be announced models rather than the ones that have already been launched. However, there seems to have been a lot of confusion in the media as to whether or not any ULV Core i5 and Core i7 processors were to launch until the third quarter this year. This is not the case, as the Core i5-520UM and the Core i7-620UM and 640UM should be readily available in a wide range of notebooks."

According to the thread, the UL30JT is now in preorder in Asia. Maybe the 1830T is not as far off as everyone feared?

I am waiting to see some of these ULV processsors paired with an Ion 2 in an 11.6" device. Make that device a convertible tablet and make it as thin and light as the LG X300 and you have market domination.

Bronsky

 

http://review.zdnet.com/product/laptops/fujitsu-lifebook-p770-core-i7-640um-12-ghz-121-tft/33995037

http://shopper.cnet.com/notebooks/fujitsu-lifebook-p770-core/4014-3121_9-33995037.html

 

Yea ... people had seen the Fijitsu models but assumed that Fijitsu already had theirs before Intel allegedly anounced its intent to slow down production.

 

meh still no news really on the 1830t though ;-(

 

Since you folks are talking Asus, I just posted this in the Arrandale Thread...
These are Acer i3M, i5M, not UM.
And no sign of an 11.6" update.

Just returned from an electronics expo in Taipei.
Many vendors are selling the Acer Timeline X series, although
I was not able to get my hands on one. Some said they
were in stock at their stores.
I've scanned the Timeline X series page in the new Acer catalog.
The prices in Taiwan dollars are in red at the bottom of each model.
Notice only one of the models has the ATI HD 5650 graphics.

$36,900 nt converts to $1,208 USD.
But computers typically cost 20% to 30% more here than in the US.
I'd guess the 3820TG i5-430m with ATI HD 5470 will be $899 in the US.

BTW.. the number "130" just over the price refers to a 1.3 web cam.
Be aware.. features can differ from country to country.

 

Thanks! I lost the leaflet on my way back, last Friday. I did get to put my hands on the 14" and 15" models, but they were turned off, and I couldn't even get a feel for the keyboard (still under its plastic wrap). The 13" model was nowhere to be seen, and to be honest, with the specs it has here, it didn't interest me much anyway. Such a shame. Had they been selling the same 13" model as in Singapore, I'd have probably shed the bucks on the spot, even though, as you said, computers here are 20 to 30 % more expensive than in the States.

 

so they've gone back to 2gb or RAM and are now using ATI for graphics??

 

instantcoffe be aware,these models don't use low voltage i um processors.They have regular i processors are not light and thats why the ATI card.Don't expect to see um processors with ATI cards.

 

So we won't be seeing a price drop on the 1810T models until July or August?

I should have bought the TZ on sale yesterday I don't want the new technology, I want the older at a great price.

 

The Fujitsu is a completely different beast... it's noticably thick with the DVD drive. Not to mention 4x the cost of the 1810.

Going slightly offtopic, is the 1820PT even available in US yet? Looking at the release timeline for new models this might come out end of the year if we're lucky.