Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

It has been a long time since I took thermodynammics but I think that the QM CPU would burn up under a dual core heat sink in a manner of minutes or at least hours of significant use. The heat sink from the dual core will not cover all of the heat transfer surface on the QM leaving entire areas left with no contact (possibly other than some thermal paste). With no contact on the other side of the sink, that area would have no place to dissapate the heat that builds up on its surface and would, IMO, overheat and eventually throttle the CPU in fairly short order.

It's not like putting a big block Buick Rover V8 into an MGB (it's been done) because, at least in the MG, you can properly duplicate all of the engines original systems so that everything works as planned. I don't think the QM will work.

Bronsky

 

Have a look at the dimension of the CPU head spreader and the cooler. If the cooler greater than the CPU headspreder, you can try it. But I think the cooler is not able to take 45W outside of the case for long time high CPU load. (I get my 3820 up to 99°C with a 35W CPU. )

But if the headspreader on the CPU greater than the cooler, forgot it. You will kill/damage your CPU on havy load.

 

You guys notice the omission of the i3 4820tg in the US model refresh? The PR lists new i3 and i5 models for the all of the T models (13" - 15") and adds the i7 UM foir the 1830T, but when it came to the 4820TG it's only available with the i5-460M, they've dropped the i3 option from the lineup.

Looks like a tacit admission from acer the shared heatsink models can't perform well enough to meet the i3 thermal requirements.

New Acer Aspire TimelineX Laptops - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

Core i3 has basically the same thermal requirements as Core i5 so it's not the cause.

 

Actually, the thermal requirement depends on the socket: PGA 988 or BGA 1288.
Intel® Core? i3-350M Processor (3M Cache, 2.26 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBPK, SLBPL, SLBU5, SLBU6

90C for PGA
105C for BGA

Ngaw, you seem unhappy with the Core i3. Did you sell the 4820TG yet? I'm still satisfied with the Core i3-350M because I've only faced the throttling issue when I push my 4820TG to the limits, but I have a desktop computer for demanding games. It works fine for college use and casually gameplay in Starcraft 2.

 

You're right. The Acer website does not list the I3-370M in a TG model. You might be right about that. There are about to be a lot of I3-370M 3820TG's sold in North America from Candaian retailers. It'll be interesting to see if the 3820TG cooling system can keep temps under 90C.

Bronsky

 

So what ati... sorry AMD driver are ppl using?

Are the latest 10.8 stable or is 10.7a still the go?

I am still on stock that shipped with item, will be updating shortly, just thought i'd get some feedback.

 

Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Il Diavolo 35.6 cm: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

 

Hey guys, Im thinking of getting one of these but its the regular 4820T (no dedicated ATi graphics, and a slightly slower CPU IIRC).

Its the cheapest out of all the laptops I've looked at, and is one of the better looking, but Im just wondering (as I dont have a huge amount of time to read through all the pages) is how the general population find the build quality, particularly if they've had it for a while.

Now, Im off to see what kind of power savings I can get from undervolting the CPU and popping an SSD in.

Thanks in advance

 

Undervolting is not possible.

 

Ah well, the SSD should give me a little extra battery life then. From my reading through this thread and it seems the battery life will be fine for me.

The reading continues

 

Those of you with the new i5 460M stock from amazon/newegg... can you pop open the bottom panel and tell me what brand HDD it comes with?

 

guys how's the heat in the 4820 with ATI 5650?

The Notebookcheck review talks about 90 C and down throttling. Is it really that bad? Are these issues real?

 

So I got the open box 4820tg in hand and I have to say this is the best acer laptop I have used. If I didn't have to pay taxes on this thing it would've been a steal. I already replaced the the hard drive with a 60 gig WD SSD I had laying around and did a fresh install of Win 7. My last upgrade is going to be the backlit keyboard.

Has anyone tested the battery life without the acer ODD power & ePower management? I installed it after the wipe but not sure its worth the extra 7 processes running in the background.

 

Hi guys,

Is it possible to connect 2 lcd monitors to this laptop via a docking station?
I haven't been able to find any docking station info? is their one available?

thanks

 

I noticed that the current 3195 model available at Micro Center is a black carbon lid model, and not the brushed aluminium. Anyone know where I can find pics/videos of the carbon black model. Or comment on how it looks.

Thanks

 

It was the original color. Most of the reviews show that model. I have the carbon black and prefer it to the silver (which I have not seen in person). The first page of the 3820TG thread has a pic of that model.

Bronsky

 

Carbon Black Lid from Micro Center means Black Brushed Aluminium. If that is what you are asking. Otherwise, Bronsky answered your question previously.

The 3195 model is out of stock, the only 4820TG model available in the U.S. right now is the 7805 model (Core i5-460M, 320GB HDD, missing Bluetooth).

 

Just updated ati drivers from stock to 10.7a from front op page and applied a GPU overclock of 700/1000.

Made a big difference, getting 10-15+ fps more in games that i play eg. BC2 and TF2, has added around 5 deg. in heat around 80-85 max temps, very similar temps for CPU as well. TF2 dosent push temps as far around 75-80 max.

Temps are very dependent on ambient.

On a whole this machine is alittle powerhouse... very surprised actually.

Spec's
i5 430m
4 gig ram
HD 5650
WD 640 gig HD
3G

Soon to add a Seagate Momentus XT 500gig drive.

 

Thanks Bronsky, I take it, that the model in your unboxing video is a carbon black model?

 

320gb WD scorpio blue

 

Thanks peanut. Have you experienced the annoying HDD stutter in games?

 

It sure is.

Bronsky

 

Hello I have this notebook 4820TG and my sound is "crackling" , I think it has something to do with the wifi :S

 

It is the current of the hdd. Put the volume lower in your application and higher with the soundcontol next to the clock in thhe systemtray.

 

Hi,

Real docking stations don't exist for these consumer laptops due to the lack of capable connectors.

Michael

 

I replaced my HDD with a Seagate 160GB 7200 RPM drive the second I unpackaged it - temporary until I get a SSD

 

That review is kinda old... with a very early model... plus the i5s shouldn't throttle at that temp... i think a lot of us were kind of baffled at how/why their review model throttled.

I don't think anyone else with an i5 has experienced throttling at 90 C in this thread.

 

Thanks Michael. Are you aware of any 3d party ones that would work?

I recall seeing some picture a while back showing external monitors being connected to the laptop so I assuming their is some way to do it.

Thanks

 

The notebook has a HDMI and VGA port.

 

I reached 91 C i think one day and i havent seen any throttling yet with the i5 430m.

 

Anyone else thinking about going blu ray in their 4820?

I'm thinking about removing the HDD-ODD caddy and replacing it with a slim blu ray drive. Slim blu ray drives are around $200 right now, which isn't bad at all.

Once the G3 Intel SSDs drop, hopefully 320GB SSDs will be more affordable by then so I can go with a single hard drive setup.

 

Have any of you guys tried an external graphic card on your laptops before ?

 

An external for playing games is not possible. Only the USB ones for Office work.

 

Oh yeah ... Damn it. Just realized it doesn't have a PCI-E slot.

 

My unit gets hot really fast, after playing some mafia 2, it got 100-101 degrees. gpu reached 86 degrees.
If i go to acer service center will it be fixed? and how do I prove that the unit gets too hot?

have anyone gone to acer service center because of heat issues?
please advise me!!!

 

Did you overclock your gpu ? and how long do you usually play Mafia II before noticing that it gets too hot ?

Hmmm... There was a time when I played mafia II , strangely the laptop shuts down by itself. Maybe the weather was too hot. I never see this happen when my air conditioner is turned on.

I'll check out this one for you ...

 

no, i didn't OC. never tried actually.

it gets hot right after i start playing. in 10-15 minutes it becomes unpleasant to play as left side of keyboard and left hand-rest get really hot.

thanks man

 

LoL. Same sh!t happens if I don't take care of the temps. My laptop will just auto shut down after a while when playing mafia II. I must say that my laptop feels pretty damn warm.

However I don't see this happen when I did everything to keep it cool. Switching on the air-conditioner, putting it on top of a cooler and blowing the fan next to it. LMAO :laugh:

FYI: Our laptops has only one fan and heatsink which is connected to both the cpu & gpu. Maybe that is the reason why it heats up so much.

I suspect maybe the thermal paste has dried out or something and needs to be replaced or you can just do what I did with the cooling ahahaha xD

 

My guess is that the thermal past has poor contact. My CPU showed factory past touching in only a couple spots. Did I read somewhere that the 4820TG has a thermal pad somewhere?

Bronsky

 

BTW.... What processor are you using ?

You can tell when the cpu gets too hot when it is reaching near its maximum temperature. Every cpu has its own max temp. You can googling for your cpu specifications to find out its max temp.

 

Thermal pad on its GPU.

 

Wow! So is the GPU installed with a pad and no thermal paste or is the pad sandwiched in the paste? That means copper shim? Anybody figured out the right part? No thermal pad on the 3820TG. Another plus for the dual fan/sink setup IMO.

Bronsky

 

I'm not too sure about the thermal pad, but I' have a strong feeling that it is placed on top of the GPU. I've heard it somewhere in a forum which states this.

If you wanna take a look inside a 4820tg, I would recommend this website here. Skip to picture 39, it will show you the gpu and picture 37 if you wanna look at the heatsink. Don't forget to give your opinion, whether or not it was covered by a pad.

Its in chinese, so you gotta translate it. Use google translate, I can't read chinese either.

 

I sent my i3 in for service because it was overheating but unfortunately it came back unfixed - they didn't even disassemble it to look for a problem. Hopefully you'll have better luck.

A few pieces of advice:

When dealing with tech support, request level 2 asap - they are the only ones who can give you an rma and level 1 wasted nearly a week of my time with borderline nonsense.

When you send it in, print out a sheet explaining the whole situation and exactly how to duplicate it - the bench techs don't seem to read the notes on the account except for the one sentence RMA reason. They appear to test for overheating with a program that only stresses the CPU - make sure to emphasize that the GPU has to be active as well (ie, gaming) for it to overheat.

Don't send your original box & packing material if you want to keep it. I sent it in with all the original packaging and it was sent back in a plain box with some recycled foam cut to fit a 3" thick laptop.

Good luck.

 

Doesn't it have an internal PCI-e slot for the wireless card? I wonder if a modder could figure out how to tap into that.

 

There is one and room for another. An owner soldered another mPCIe slot into his 3820TG. There are pics on the owners thread. He was going to put a mPCIe SSD in there but had some wiring issues.

Bronsky

 

Mine is i5-450m.
thanks man.

I guess the first thing i gotta do is taking my pc to service center and asking to change thermal paste.

 

thank you for you advices, now i m ready to fight with acer service center guys.

 

I mean a PCI-E slot for external graphics.