Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

Hey everyone, I am new here and I have been lurking the forums. I am also a new owner of the 4820tg w/ i5 core. Does anyone here think that the fan is noisy? Its not extremely loud but its not quiet either. I can hear it as I type.

 

dang. and my i5 from microcenter just shipped this morning. I think I would have been happier saving about $190 after taxes and shipping for dropping down to an i3, even if I had to wait another week or 2.

I wonder if the 15% open box 'restock fee' applies even if the box is never opened

 

Well, it specially said "open box fee" and not "restocking fee". I doubt you will be charged with the 15% open box fee if the box is unopened. Just return it and see what happens.

 

no fee for boxes that aren't opened

 

Picked up my 4820TG from the post office today, and boy was I nervous opening up the package after some of the posts about screens and throttling!

First impressions: screens nice, keyboard is probably the best laptop keyboard I have tried (not tried many ) and seems fast and silent. A bit hot under the left palm if doing intensive stuff.

Screen is made by Chi Mei Op (CMO) and seems fine, the laptop is a batch manufactured on 31.05.2010 and came with 2 identical power cables ? oh well guess I don't have to worry about losing one.

After making backup discs and setting up a wireless network it was time to test how this baby runs (i5-450m / 5650):

Stock out of the box with all the acer extras 3dmark06: 7640

and cpuz shows both cpu cores at 2,661 constant under load, which is a bit disappointing since I expected it to turbo to 2,93. Do I need to manually turn one core off to get the max turbo boost? Or is notebookcheck just wrong about the turbo .

I decided to push the gpu a bit to get some idea of where max OC is, but didn't really push to the absolute limit: 794/1118 on the 5650 gave a 3dmark 06 score of 10,082!! Quite happy with that score for this pricerange!


edit: temps are ofc the problem with only 1 fan, my cpu seems to throttle at 101-102C, which is fine by me because I wouldn't want it hotter. GPU max was 86C while overclocking, a bit high =/

 

I finally decided to register and actually post. I wanted to thank everybody for their enthusiastic discussion on such a new product. I'm a very particular consumer and study every piece of literature I can find before settling on a product. This laptop has really caught my eye.

I went from exceptionally excited after reading about the thin stature but killer performance to exceptionally terrified after seeing some of these screenshots depicting heavy pixelation.

Regardless of my final purchase decision - this website and its community should be proud to be such a fantastic guiding light for consumers. I know most of the masses on this website already know, but there are many more like myself who aren't actively involved but read and sincerely appreciate everything from the technical analysis to the comedic banter.

Thank you all for your time and effort on this site.

 

Which game or benchmark did you use to test the GPU? I can't seem to get my HD 5650 (stock speeds) temperature above 80C with the heaven benchmark or 3DMark06.

 

just 3dmark, it was without stable clocks though (at one point I got halfway through with 850/1150

 

Hopefully they start popping up on eBay for international resale.

 

At 700/1100 my GPU failed and reset during 3DMark06. Still scored a 9422.

Bronsky

 

Hey everyone, I am new here and I
have been lurking the forums. I am
also a new owner of the 4820tg w/
i5 core. Does anyone here think
that the fan is noisy? Its not
extremely loud but its not quiet
either. I can hear it as I type.

 

So it seems most users are doing okay with temps on the 4820TG. I posted a video somewhere of the system shutting down when doing a benchmark. A couple of reviews also mentioned heat issues, but one suspected their unit had some faults.

Since I'm extremely turned off by HP's downclocking of the 5650 GPU in the Envy 14, I may turn to the 4820TG in the next couple months if the 3820TG doesn't make a stateside appearance.

 

Yes, I remember that YouTube video. I believe that 4820TG is faulty in that video. Me and another member both ran the heaven benchmark a few times and even left the demo running for at least a half hour. The CPU/GPU did not go above 80C on both of our 4820TGs. I have a Core i3 and the other member has a Core i5.

However, the Core i5 member has gotten his GPU to reach 89C running Left4Dead2. I will try to test the game on my 4820TG at the end of this month.

 

I'm using a 4820TG i7 and I don't really hear the fan at all...

 

There aren't many reporting heat problems with the 4820tg because there aren't many testing for them. Everyone who has tried to get their cpu to throttle has been able to afaik. While playing l4d2 my cpu is clocked down to 900Mhz almost 50% of the time once it's gotten hot, and my GPU clocks down to 100mhz occasionally.

I'd at least wait a bit to see how things shake out as more people get their hands on them. If it wasn't for microcenter's 7 day return policy mine would have gone back and I'd have an envy or import 3820 on the way.

 

there is a i7 4820tg model in the us? Anyone mind to show me?

 

I'm tired of people asking me the same questions over and over. I'm going to add a "Myths & Facts" section at the end of my review to answer these questions.

 

i wouldn't trust engadget as much i used to like their opinion anymore.

anything that ISN'T APPLE doesn't get 5 stars.

 

Actually, that's a good idea. The build quality comment gets me. My 3820TG could not be built better.

Bronsky

 

more acer for us

less acer for them

ignorance FTL

 

I just took the plunge and bought the Acer 4820TG from Mico Center in Houston, TX. I called earlier before I went and asked if they had one out on display. They didnt, but they also had no problem putting one out. I played with the display model, and I could see the build issues people had, but I did not see them as "major flaws." The screen is so thin, which makes sense why there is some flex, but it should hold up fine. Also, I saw minimal flex in my keyboard (more on the display model, but not a huge amount, not noticeable when I type). I have been really busy, so I have not had much time to play with the laptop, but so far no issues. The screen seems fine for its resolution. It is a great machine, good purchase.

Thanks for the recommendation Bronsky!

 

Glad I could help. Did you get the I5-450M model?

Bronsky

 

Wait so were you only running L4d2 to get your 4820tg to throttle? or benchmarks in the background as well? Is it the i3 version?

This worries me because l4d2 is the exact game i want to play on the i3-350m 4820tg :/

 

After i had the 3820tg the only issue i had really was the screen, but it was fairly sturdy laptop built well.

i am sure the 4820tg is built exactly the same way

 

Just l4d2 alone - no other heat sources. Yup on the i3 version. I see it throttle in borderlands as well (though less often) and gta iv - When I have the time I'm going to test a few more games as well. It's definitely not exclusive to l4d2 though - it's just the one I made the best fancy charts of.

 

so what happens when it throttles? gameplay wise

 

It probably depends a lot on the ambient temperature but I was unable to throttle it after 2 hours of back to back gaming with DiRT 2 and BC2 with 75-77F room. GPU was at 79 C and CPU at 81 C.

 

FPS drop, chunky at times. A bit more lag in multi-player when a lot is going on on the screen.

Aren't you using a laptop cooler? I'm in air conditioning, and while it's not the coolest room in the house it's not higher than 26c.

 

Yeah unfortunately laptop cooler doesn't seem to be doing much because 4820TG doesn't have CPU/GPU vents under the laptop. I took it to work with me (@ 69 F ambient) it was actually cooler running Prime95 there even without a laptop cooler.

 

ngaw u think the cpu would still throttle with a laptop cooler

I was deadset on getting the i3-350M 4820tg due to my budget and lack of 3820tg options but this heat issue is putting doubts in my mind again

also i thought there were vent underneath the 4820tg for the cpu/gpu in a picture a few pages before.

-edit-

This one: http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/7939/dsc00734a.jpg (arent the vents on the right side of the pic the cpu/gpu?)

 

There are very few i5 temps posted even though there have been very many i5s received, and many requests for them.

based on the idea that the majority of these forums are tech support/complaints then I am going to infer for us all that the i5 models do not have throttle issues.

you can buy it feeling assured now.

 

I updated the "Myths & Facts" section in my review to answer the most commonly asked questions on the 4820TG. If anyone wants to correct the section or add more myths & facts, please tell me. The CPU/GPU heat output and screen quality is discussed throughout this thread. So, I don't feel the need to address them again in my review.

I will no longer spend my time answering commonly asked questions. I will direct them to the "Myths & Facts" section if the question can be answered from there.

 

I was thinking that it would help, but apparently maverick is saying that it wouldn't. There are vents in the front and left halves of the bottom. And while I was on the phone with acer l2 support he made sure that I wasn't using it in a way that could be blocking the vents.

As far as "there are few reports so assume it's fine" I think that's pretty optimistic. I mean you have people here with the identical model that I have, who have been able to throttle their CPU with synthetic benchmarks and haven't ever run the games I've shown problems with - spending pages trying to argue that it isn't happening or isn't a problem. So if the psychology of denial there is so powerful it's no surprise others might choose not to check or not to report any issues.

 

Alien Swarm is a new game from valve that you can get for free on steam. Should make it pretty easy for those who aren't seeing high temps or throttling during game play to post their everest logs (also free trial) and show how much cooler they're running.

As you can see in the chart as the heat peaks each time the CPU Mhz (dark blue) drops down to 933 four times to dump heat.


(also see charts for heaven+prime95, borderlands, l4d2)

 

Hi,

Got a brand new 4820TG, can someone tell me if it's possible to control the fan speed of CPU or GPU using software like SpeedFan or AfterBurner for GPU ?

TY

 

I did get the i5 model.

 

@ngaw you have an i3-350 which isn't designed to go above 86 degrees, it would make sense that underclocking would occur to not fry the chip.

notebookcheck noted the same deal for their i5, but didn't notice any slowdowns in their games. The i5 wouldn't need this underclocking since it can handle higher temps. Could this be misinformation then? Do we have any field reports of an i5 4820tg dumping like this?

also, have you tried setFSB as a possible override?

 

The i3 350M and the i5 430M are both 32nm chips with an on chip IGP, designed for a 35W TDP, use the same process and likely the same line. The different TJMAX values are almost assuredly binning - there isn't any technical reason 90c will fry one of them but 100c is well inside safe operating ranges for the other.

The i5 4820tg has been out in the states for what, 2 weeks? I'm not sure if I've seen anyone post any temps from one here. The only places I've seen any temps posted for the i5 with a single fan are the youtube shutdown vid, the notebookcheck review that mentions throttling and the i5 5820tg review posted in this forum that also had throttling.

A cooling system is deigned to dissipate a certain number of watts of heat. It's simple science that using the same cooler and a processor that generates more heat isn't going to make the problem better. The extra heat will just build up inside... a bit more may radiate into the circuit boards and plastics but there is a reason you don't use plastic and substrate to build heatsinks - they don't conduct heat well.

At worst the extra 15c of TJMAX will mean a higher incident of capacitor damage, plastics deforming or heat related solder failures ala the nvidia recall or the xbox rrod.

Setfsb override what? Underclock it you mean?

 

nvm, I guess I misunderstood what the problem was.

Thanks for the response.

 

I would have to disagree, I am using the Zalman NC1500 cooler, the temperature difference is around 10 degrees. I am sure the quality of the cooler matters.

 

What do you guys think if you use the Xpad passive cooler for this kinda of laptop?

 

Ngaw, I went to the bios and set it to dGPU, after that I managed to install the new ATI drivers. But when I rebooted the machine and set the gx option back to Hybrid, I got the dreaded blue screen of death when windows reloaded... Any clue?

 

Hi Guys,
After long consideration I finally decided to go for this acer 4820tg.
I ordered the model with i7, 5650 and intel 160gb x-25 ssd fresh out of germany (not available in the netherlands where I live).
Very happy with this laptop so far but I do have one (big) problem which i really hope you guys can help me with.
When I keep a (random) key pressed (hold it down) i am not able to move my mouse anymore!? Which makes games pretty much unplayable.
The only key it doesn't happen with is the "windows key"...
I did replace the german qwertz keypad with a qwerty for a 4810tg but dunno if that's the problem (didn't test it with the qwertz keyboard and don't feel like replacing it again if i don't have to)

Hope you guys can help me out! Maybe reinstalling the synaptic driver might help (brainstorming myself atm), hopefully i've got some time to test that this evening.

 

i think that's a standard "safety" feature where it prevents the mouse moving via touchpad when typing.

u should be able to disable this in the touchpad settings

 

Hi everyone,

My first attempt to replicate the throttling problem on my i5-430m.


Couldn't get it above 82C in around 20 minutes of Alien Swarm.

Will try a longer test although the throttling was evident within this timeframe for others.

Josh

 

A much longer attempt with the i5-430M.

Got it up to 86C this time with no sign of throttling.

The CPU slow down in the middle is loading the next mission and not temperature related.

I'm pretty happy this is either an issue with the cooling on particular machines or an i3 issue.

Josh

 

Thanks a lot for taking the time to post your results Josh. It's really helpful to have something to compare my temps to. It sure makes it look like the i3 was a bad decision as presumably an i3 would have clocked down when you hit 85c.

The most striking thing is the GPU temps - while our CPU temps are in a similar range, your GPU stays at least 10c below mine the entire run.

Thanks again for posting, it gives me hope acer may be able to do something about my temps.

 

notebookcheck.net reported that the i5-430 also throttled, but not during normal load, only during furmark+prime stresstest.

 

Guys, I haven't a clue what I'm at here, but going by what a couple of the members have done to show temps & stress tests, I thought I could upload a couple of stats. I only have Borderlands to test with, BTW.
If you have any more questions or advice, please don't hesitate!!
4820tg, bought in Ireland
Win 7 ultimate (fresh install)
cpu = core i5-520m
gpu = ati 5650
HDD = 500gb @5,400rpm
P.S. I might not be the fastest to reply, cos I'm constantly on the go!

[/URL]

[/URL]

 

As a side note: I had my reservations about the screen before I bought it, sight unseen. You needn't worry, cos it's perfect. 720p & 1080p .mkv's play perfectly on this machine, without any evidence of pixelation from normal viewing distances, as shown earlier in the thread