Acer Aspire TimelineX 5820TG Review + discussion.

but the 3820TG doesnt got the same specs, and it wont be able to run GTA IV for example.. or latest games

Btw... It´s told that the Acer support, is really poor... why is that?

 

I've never had to contact Acer support so can't say anything on that but there are 3820TG with higher and lower specs but they all lack an optical drive (because of the size). There are different models of 3/4/5820TG with different combinations of Core i3/5/7, HDD size, RAM size, with/without 3G, and GPU (5430/5650). Maybe you don't have the 3820TG with higher specs in your country.

 

LOL no. I've had my 5820TG for a few weeks now and played some real intense games on it (blops, crysis, crysis warhead, nfs hot pursuit, tes oblivion, starcraft ii, two worlds 2, etc) while having the ATi 5650 highly overclocked, and the laptop NEVER ever overheated.

Part of the reason is, with the 9-cell battery sticking out, it has inherently great ventilation.

Anyway, the standby temps are ~35 C / 40 C for CPU/GPU. CPU goes up to low 80s in the most intense games, while GPU up to 65 (stock clocks) or 75 (overclocked by 175 MHz) celsius.





@morrislee,
what screen is yours? is it also AUO40EC?

 

Friend of mine whose HP fried 2 weeks ago and bought this got an email today from NCIX saying it's discont.


It seems that the 5820TG has been discontinued at most stores in Canada now. I wonder if they're getting ready or the refresh (480M / 6550) or are just plain discontinuing it.

 

BTW, Consumer Reports says that Acers generally run the coolest of all the brands they test.

 

okay guys here's my dithering examples

my screen is a SEC3030 and i'm using ATI Mobility Catalyst 10.11 and Intel 8.15.10.2182.. colour settings have not been touched from default.. from my observations.. the dithering happens on BOTH gfx cards and it is worse on the Intel (you can see horizontal bands, check the picture @ 100%, where as you can't on the ATI).. for reference sake I included test pictures on my Dell 2209WA 22" IPS panel (connected with HDMI via ATI of course since Intel gfx doesn't support HDMI out)

Angled (ATI/Intel/Dell)


Front on (ATI/Intel/Dell)

 

Hey,

(Un)fortunately I found out today that this dithering is normal - it occurs on all laptop screens if the contrast and/or brightness is pushed too high in graphics control settings, mainly for red and green RGB settings. If you tune those two down the dithering would disappear but also the screen loses some brightness.

The problem now is, at least for my screen, the screen at brightness levels low enough to lose the dithering is too dim...the whites are so dim they're greyish, and all the colors are nonvibrant and dull.

 

i checked on a HP DV2023TU 14" QDS005C via Intel 945 iGPU.. same thing as our 5820TG's iGPU.. it has the horizontal bands too

i also checked on a HP DV9218TX 17" LPL2388 via nVidia 7600 Go.. same thing as our 5820TG's ATI.. but not as bad (perhaps due to the panel)

i read on the 5740G thread that you'll be replacing your 5820TG's screen.. what are you replacing it with?

 

I'm thinking either the Samsung panel (basically yours, the SEC3030, also known as Samsung LTN156AT11 A01) or the LG panel (LP156WH3 TLA1) mainly because I'm afraid of running into any compatibility issues - most laptop screen dealers specify no returns allowed for incompatibility - and those two panels are the only ones I KNOW are in other 5820TGs.

All I'm asking for is a panel that's much brighter than the AUO one in mine; if it's bright then the pixelated feel will be gone, so would the "dithering" be a non-issue (I can just adjust-down the brightness to remove the dither, without making the screen too dim). I just need some solid proof of one of those LG / Samsung panels being inherently brighter.

 

does it really bother u that much? i don't see the point of changing screens unless u'll get one with a higher resolution.. i've seen AUO screens and the brightness level doesn't seem as bad as you make it out to be.. do you often use the laptop on the go? cos a more cost-effective and less troublesome option is to just buy an external monitor.. but I'm guessing you're primarily using the laptop's screen

are there any specific test pics you'd like me to take with my panel?

edit: i've also just checked on an MSI EX625 15.6" SEC304C via ATI 4670.. the dithering is like on the 5820TG's iGPU (the horizontal bands).. but even worse cos you see this continuous right to left movement that goes across the whole screen :S

 

Guys.. just FYI, there is a display model here (same specs as the one in my sig) at one of my local Officeworks stores in Sydney, Australia. They have it @ a clearance price of $989.10AUD. There is also a $169AUD cashback with Acer Australia if purchased before 31st January 2011. $820.10AUD for this laptop is a bloody steal!

 

Hey Guys!

Thank you very much for the review, really liked it. But still I've got a question: I'm thinking about getting a new laptop. It should have a 15.4'' or 15.6'' screen, at least 500 GB HDD and 4GB RAM, i5 or i7 and a decent GPU (ATI 5650 seems to be perfect for what I need, since I'm not a (hard)core gamer). And another thing I would really appreciate is a touchpad with multitouch-gestures, because I have been using a MacBook Pro for the last two years and I wouldn't want to miss it anymore. (Although I read none of the Windows laptops has a touchpad such as the ones of the Apple MBP's.)

I've got 2 notebooks on my mind, which seem to be appropriate to what I need. There is the Acer Aspire TimelineX 5820T (which the review is on) and the recently introduced HP Pavilion 3298eg.

Here is a link: HP Pavilion dv6-3298eg Entertainment Notebook (LE527EA) Spezifikationen - HP Privatanwender Produkte

It is a German link (since I am German) and I guess everyone should be able to identify the most important specs of the laptop, but if you've got a problem with that I can try to find an English link.

So my question is - since there are no reviews on the HP Pavilion out now yet - whether I should get the Acer or the HP. Maybe you've got some useful advices for me - I'm opened to everything. Maybe you even have got a totally different idea on what I could get. I would be thankful!


P.S. I'm sorry, if someone already asked a similar question, but I have to admit, I didn't read all the 27 pages.
---------------
Okay, I'm a jerk! Just found the English link of the HP. Here it is: HP Pavilion dv6-3298en Entertainment Notebook PC (LE524EA) specifications - HP Home & Home Office products

 

If the specs are similar, then don't get the HP. It's a dv6 which ALWAYS has heat issues (they never seem to address it through the numerous generations of dv6), which leads to hot laptops that brick earlier than most other laptops. The Acer will most likely last much longer than the HP because of that.

For example, my 5820TG has standby temperatures of CPU - 30~35, GPU - 40 (already overclocked). The vent isn't even warm.
And when gaming there is hardly any chassis heat issues, maybe left palm feels ~35 degrees after long gaming sessions but that's a nonissue (HP ones might heat up to 45~50 degrees at which point your skin would start to feel pain).

My suggestion is, not get HP unless you're getting the high-end lines (Envy, or their business lines). They may look fashionable, but you'll regret it.

 

Okay, thank you for your response! I went to a store a few days ago to take a look on the Acer and I have to say, although the appearance of the TimelineX 5820TG didn't blow me away, it looks pretty decent. It's a little businesslike, but who cares?!
The HP, of course, looks awesome, but I have to force myselfe not to judge the book by its cover.

Soooo, I think I'll go with the Acer. Thanks again for the quick response. Just a few questions, so that I'm 100% sure:
I read lots of reviews and all of them say the Acer's good for gaming concerning the specs (GPU, etc.), but how about the screen? Is it alright? I've been thinking the solution is kind of low with its 1366x768.

And how about the multi-touchpad? The touchpad of my Apple MBP is really awesome, but I just need a Windows PC for gaming, software and so on. Mac looks decent, but this is it for me. So, how do you like the multi-touch-gestures?

 

The Acer's screen, unfortunately, will be like most other brands' screens, and f you came from MacBook it might be a downgrade. Still, unless you're very picky, it shouldn't bother you a lot - think of it this way: other than Apple Macbooks, Sony Vaio, Dell XPS, and some smaller brands, all the other laptop brands use similar grade screens, so unless you're willing to pay double the $$$ for the same specs, you won't get the better screens.

The touchpads, again, are more or less basic. Most of us who never used a Macbook before don't really need the touchpad other than the occasional usage anyhow. It's a Synaptics 2.0 touchpad that millions of other laptops use. At least it's quite responsive. Hey, if you're gaming, I don't think you'll find yourself doing too well using the touchpad you should get a serious gaming mouse haha.

 

Got a problem with upgrading my graphic drivers after reinstall of everything. It's just impossible to do it seems.

And yes i've installed the 8.713.3.3000 driver from Acer. Switched to discrete mode in bios and installed "Catalyst_10.12_CCC2_Preview_Win7_Dec7" from 3dguru, restarted. restarted again and switched back to switchable in bios.

But the darn old driver is still there.

Any suggestions of what I am doing wrong? This drives me crazy...

Would appreciate any help or solutions.

 

i can't install 10.12's.. only 10.11 :/

 

Thank you again! You really helped me.

 

I found a few units of this laptop at some Canada Computers stores for $849.99, is it worth it? Buying it there would mean no returns or exchanges as it's not a big or reputable store, but big box stores like Best Buy would never carry models like these.
I was wondering if there are any problems with this laptop during normal use and casual gaming (the most intensive gaming I'll do is Starcraft 2 on high settings, which I think a 5650 should be able to handle), if I'm not very picky about top-notch performance? I'm not really great with computers, but I do want everything to be updated and in stable shape (like drivers and software), but the thread starter mentioned something about the ATI driver in the laptop not being able to upgrade without messing with the bios? Also because this is a thin laptop, does it risk overheating? I know that the HP DV6 I used before, although much thicker than this TimelineX, overheats very often, the palmrest gets hot within minutes of gaming, and sometimes even during normal usage.

Exactly.
Lol my DV6-3073CA bricked in 6 days, and I only played Starcraft 2 for 1 day and Oblivion for 2 days, the other 3 days were normal usage. And the completely bulls*** customer service at HP doesn't exactly help with their poor laptops either. I would agree that no one should buy any low-med level HP laptops to be used for any gaming, unless they feel lucky and have perfect confidence in getting a DV6 with superb quality that won't brick in a few days/weeks/months.

 

My 4820TG does not run hot, even after hours of gaming. It exhausts a ton of heat out the back left fan exhaust port, which is a good thing, as it's getting it out of the laptop. It's never once throttled down while running because of the heat. And I'm talking hours of crysis, or halflife2, or Battlefield 2 Bad Company and so on. Even with an overclocked GPU it doesn't overheat.

 

Yep, TimelineX are well-designed machines.

 

Anyone managed upgrading to 10.12 as mentioned in the above message?

 

Yeah I got mine to install 10.12 on the first try. It did disable the screen brightness adjustment key though (not that I use those...with this darn screen the brightest setting is barely enough for me). I did that installation like 2 months ago.

I did what you did, except I used the Catalyst 10.12 from AMD site (be sure it's for 64-bit), not from 3dguru. And it worked like a charm.


Edit:

Aw no way, the 5820TG with i5-480M and 6550 is starting to being sold by NCIX too:
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58435&vpn=LX.RAF02.041&manufacture=Acer
And only for $799!

I fricking pricematched my 460M/5650 5820TG down to $799 when I bought it only 2 months ago! lol.

 

There will always be new laptops with slightly higher specs released every few months.

If it helps any, the HD6550 is not really any better than a HD5650 seeing as how it is basically a renamed one:

AMD Radeon HD 6550M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

New screens sure are expensive! I've been looking around Ebay for the Samsung LTN156AT11 A01 screen, and this seems to be my best bet:
A+ NEW ACER LK.15606.008 15.6" WXGA BV LED SCREEN - eBay (item 160532216641 end time Feb-13-11 00:22:11 PST)

(the Lk.15606.008 is Acer's part number for the Samsung LTN156AT11 A01 screen)

Cheaper than the other ones I've found (over 150$ mostly), but still $100 though.

If anyone else with an AUO screen is suffering from low brightness levels, here's a photo generously uploaded by Apex84 of the 5820TG samsung screen side-by-sdie the auo screen (him and his bro both bought one):

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4787/100ati.png

I don't know about you guys, but the samsung screen looks to be several shades brighter, also whites are cleaner, same color depth, but less visible dithering (because of the boosted brightness). It's a no-brainer which one is better by a whole stretch...

 

Hm, I was wondering. The slightly refreshed 5820T with the i5 480M and the 6550 advertises "TFT Display 15.6" HD 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, high-brightness (220-nit), TFT LCD".

Any chance that they might've fixed the screen?

 

It's the exact same description as previous 5820T/Gs. The AUO/Samsung/LG screens used in 'em are all 220-nit brightness, all LED-backlit, interchangeable super-slim LCD panels. The Samsung and LG panels have better contrast than the AUO (500:1 as opposed to 400:1) which results in better brightness and deeper blacks.

 

Ok here's something bad that's been happening to my 5820TG which really screwed up just now.

It at times (totally random, maybe ~2 times each week) would completely lock up for 3~5 seconds while I'm just using the internet / doing light work on the laptop, then unfreeze as if nothing had happened. I thought this is just the WD HDD being moody.

It happened again just now, except this time the AMD display driver crashed and recovered (a 1-second blackscreen after the locking-up, then recovery). Does that mean this whole issue has been a display driver problem after all? Anyone else had this happen to them?

I'm using 10.12 official AMD drivers.

 

Hasn't happened to me. I'm on the Acer 8.741.1.6 drivers. I haven't seen any performance increase (I think it even decreased by a few fps) with newer drivers and there hasn't been any game specific fixes that I need so I keep using the drivers provided by Acer. But I can't use OpenCL. Btw in what situations is OpenCL used? I haven't been able to find any specifics, only that it will use the GPU to increase performance, but not anything on what programs.

 

install streamsdk 2.1 which installs the opencl drivers.
acer has not updated their drivers release yet to the versions that do have the opencl drivers integrated and they are mighty due to update these drivers (they're still using catalyst 10.6 as base and its already moved to 11.1 now)

 

I know where to find the drivers and how to install them (btw OpenCL is not compatible with driver version 8.741.1.6), it's just that I don't know how and in what situations OpenCL is used. Do any PC games utilize OpenCL or is the GPU too busy handling graphics while gaming or is it just programs like 3ds max and CAD that benefit from OpenCL?

 

ah, ok i thought you were asking about the drivers.

opencl 2.1 works fine for me. i had it detected by everest, and was even able to benchmark opencl performance on the card and was able to utilize gpucaps to show some opencl demos running

 

That's what I mean. There doesn't seem to be any practical application in consumer level applications. I also tried the GPU Caps Viewer demos with catalyst 10.12 but that seems to be all there is at the moment, demos.

 

See this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...rks-tweaks-mods-upgrades-424.html#post6645955

 

I use that, it doesn't do anything. Also, note how in my description of the lock-up yesterday, I mentioned that the screen turned black, and afterwards said "AMD display driver has recovered". Surely it wasn't a HDD issue.

 

man, what have I missed!! I just took almost an hour reading all the post I have missed - HAHA.

I never think it was the screen issue as the intel card displayed everything properly, I managed to upgrade to 11.1 catalyst flawlessly by switching to Discreet in bios, install driver, and switch back to switchable.

One thing I noticed, it seems that it is dithering regardless of booting with ati or not, so i think it is just how ATi renders stuff. However, it never really bothered me until I saw the forums, HAHA

@jerg,

I think that is due to your overclocking, that happened to me too when i OCed too much, so just lower it, or don't OC, i don't see much difference other than crysis, HAHAHA.

I am trying to order a 6 cell battery, you guys think it should hold well?

 

Oh, never mind then. Misread your post.

 

OMG GUYS, INSTALL 11.1 ATI DRIVER! It makes screen brightness control keys work again!

Don't even need to switch to discreet etc, just install and restart.

 

Where to download?

EDIT: Got it

EDIT 2: Can't install, it says that my card isn't supported.

 

make sure ATi is enabled over intel, see if that helps

 

I downloaded from another site and it worked. Nice UI.

 

Well I say as JarJar in star-wars did: ME GIVE UP ME GIVE UP!!

I've tried every possible solution. The VGA_AMD_8.713.3.3000_W7x64_A(1) driver and tried to install 11.1 over that. No success.

Tried my old driver that did come with my comp, and install over that one (made a recovery disk when I got it) No success.

Tried the new VGA_AMD_8.741.1.6_W7x64_A from Acer and install over that one. No success.

The only drivers my comp allows me to use or install is the three originals from Acer. And yes of course I've used discreate in bios when I tried to install 11.1 from Amd.

I dont know what I am doing wrong, and this just drives me crazy. On top of all the Norwegian acer site is down at the moment. Beautiful when I got the time to sit with this now. Cause I also thought about upgrading my bios. Think it's v1.05 what I have. Could that maybe make the difference?

Else I guess I'm stuck with the newest acer drivers 8.741.1.6.

 

May I ask which site you downloaded it from? Might be worth trying out.

 

Now I got 8.812-110104a-111990C-ATI , is this the newest one?

 

Yes it is.

 

Didnt work out. Got bluescreen. Had to format my comp and install everything again. Luckly I do know the importance of backup.

After a reinstall I trided to upgrade to 11.1 again. But my comp simply refuses to let that happen now. The funny part when I run the ati installer, is that it says I already have the newest driver installed, even when it's from jan 2010. And the installer program simply skips installing the 11.1 driver (and it's also not possible to select it manually, since it's grayed out). It's just so stupid and makes no sence.

I've also tried to install in safemode. But then I get an error saying catalyst installer cant load driver/card detection.

 

If you got the driver from ATI official website, then it didn't work for me either.

Go on Guru3D website and install the 11.1 driver from there, that's what worked for me.

 

But is that driver from Guru3D the mobility driver?

 

There are both, find the one with "mobility" in its name.

 

Bloody fantastic! I finally got this to work!

Found the mobility driver on Guru3D. That did the trick. Tnx alot for your help mate!