Acer Ethos AS8951G/AS5951G Owners Lounge

US Acer Ethos Release date: 6/17/2011

AS8951G/AS5951G Specs:
18.4″ Full HD (1920×1080) or 15.6″ HD (1366×768)
CineCrystal Full HD and HD displays
HD discrete graphics solutions
DirectX 11
Dolby Home Theater v4
detachable touchpad that doubles as a MediaRemote
orientation sensor allows the touchpad to be used either horizontally or vertically
allows seamless media sharing via clear.fi
InstantOn Arcade key
Blu-Ray Disc or DVD optical drive
HDMI
frameless displays, Corning Gorilla Glass
brushed aluminium-magnesium alloy cover
back-lit chiclet keyboard
second generation Intel Core™ i processors
Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
NVIDIA GeForce GT500 series discrete graphics
USB 3.0 port
PowerSmart long life battery
HDD or SSD
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 (optional) and Gigabit LAN
Aspire Ethos 8951G comes with Acer CineSurround with five Dolby-tuned built-in speakers and Acer Tuba CineBass subwoofer
Aspire Ethos 5951G True5.1-channel surround sound output, two built-in stereo speakers and the Acer Tuba CineBass booster

 

Hi, nice, any news on the UK?
Chris

 

It would be nice to have a 17.3 inch version of these also.

Does the 18.4 inch have 2 USB 3.0 ports?

I have check the SSD options on that also

 

I bleive it has 1 USB 3.0 port but also a eSata port and firewire. I believe its also the same mobo as the 8950 and I added a SSD drive to it.

 

The AS5951G needs a FHD display option. What's Acer thinking?

Bronsky

 

Acer Aspire 8951G Notebook Specifications ==> Acer Support: Aspire8951G Acer Aspire 8951G Notebook Series

 

hopefully a better panel than the 8950 series.

 

acer updated their site today.
AS5951G-9694 | Product Model

and I found out that the laptop has a embedded battery. thats a definite down =/

 

Another down is using DDR3 video memory rather than GDDR5 which would give an real boost to the GFX performance of GT555M

 

The GDDR5 version uses a weaker core and a narrower bus meaning performance will be the same.

They should have used 1.5GB of memory over a 192bit mem bus rather than 2GB over a 128bit bus though.

 

Hey, there's an interesting info on Acer site:

Software Included

Microsoft Office Starter 2010: Includes limited-functionality Microsoft® Word and Excel with advertising; no PowerPoint or Outlook. Buy Office 2010 to use the full-featured software.

Bing™ Bar

Windows Live™ Essentials

so, does that mean that Acer ePower Management and other Acer bloatware that was on eg. 8943G isn't needed and can be safely uninstalled? (especially ePower management) ?

 

I disabled ePower on my 1410T and did not reinstall it on my 3820TG when I did a clean install. I don't miss its glitchy performance.

Bronsky

 

That's funny because it really helps my machine squeeze out a few extra minutes and I have not had any problems. Strange =/

 

ePower would shut down my Broadcomm Wifi card when ever my 3820TG went on battery. It drove me nuts. No matter how I reset the parameters, it would still do the same thing. When I had to replace my first 3820TG (industrial accident), I tested out the ePower with the Atheros adapter in the new 3820TG and there was no problem. Strange indeed.

Bronsky

 

Hmm ... this thread reads "owner's lounge", but the comments I read are all by non-owners. Am I the only actual owner around?

I'm not a gamer or multi-media buff ... I chose this laptop for the i7 multi-threaded CPU & 8Gb RAM (I work with VMWare a lot) & so far it's more than delivered on my expectations.

The 1st thing I did was to resize the system partition to 100Gb & create a 2nd one of 100Gb & then installed Windows 7 Ultimate ... much better for my purposes.

Likes:
The keyboard & backlight
The clarity of the screen
Battery life (have got 4.5 hours continual usage!) ... I usually don't bother shutting down, I just "sleep"
Dislikes:
HDD is a bottleneck (5400 rpm!)... will be buying a SSD as soon as I can afford it.
Chassis shows fingerprints easily
It's REALLY big! (the mass isn't THAT much greater than other laptops, so that's not an issue.)

My Windows Experience Rating is:
Processor: 7.4
RAM: 7.6
Graphics: 5.9 (Really expeced this to be higher!)
Gaming Graphics: 6.8
Primary HD: 5.9 (This is rediculous ... definitely upgrading soonest)

Overall, very happy.

 

Well it's not available yet in the USA. I recently bought the 8950G. I moved the HD to the second bay and installed a 128 GB SSD. I was told by Acer I couldn't do it yet the parts I purchased were Acer parts. My Windows experience went from 5.9 to 6.7 after adding the SSD drive. I then removed the page file and the score went to 6.9.

 

Ohh, just because my GPU is faster

We were talking about global issues across all models.

 

Is the 8gb in 2 sticks or 4? ie do I need to toss the memory to upgrade to 16gb, or just add 8gb.

Also, what does internal batter mean - not removable/replaceable - like a (horror) macbook????

Also, does this have the dumb "need a new cover for a 2nd drive issue"?

 

1. RAM ... mine has 2 x 4Gb ... but there are 4 slots, so adding another 2 would do the trick. (Not sure what the max RAM is ... can't find that) Edit: I see that 16Gb is max ...
2. Yes, Battery is non-removable. According to the blurb this is bacause the "new" technology is so much better that you'll never need to change it ... we'll see (so far I'm happy .... 4.5 hr battery time ... tested, not estimated)
3. Not sure what you mean by this ... mine has 2 x 500Gb HDDs ... there's just one huge "cover" on the underside that covers the battery, the RAM & the HDDs ... simple to open with a philips .... perhaps if you could rephrase I'd understand the issue.

 

Well the product wasn't available in the USA until like this week. Buy.com has it for around 1700.00. The model they have has 1 - 750 GB HD. I bet it's the same setup as the 8950 sold in the USA where the 2nd bay cover that comes with it will not fit with a second drive. I also assume a cable will be needed to added a second drive. in the link below the 7.0 MM cover is the one used with an empty drive bay and the 9.5MM cover is needed if a second drive is used.

Buy.com link:
http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-aspire...-core-i7-i7-2630qm-2/q/loc/101/221775671.html

Acer outlet link:
Acer Store by Jtec - Search Results for "8950"

 

Thanks for the reply!!!

The 8950g that people had been getting would only fit 1 drive unless you bought this:

Acer Aspire 8950G Series 2nd HD Cover 9.5mm Part: 42.RCN07.003 - Acer Store by Jtec

glad that is no longer an issue

Someone said they found this on buy.com, I don't see it?

 

what about temperature and system NOISE? is the image and sound cuality better then 8943G or 50G?

 

Hmm ... let's wait on the 2nd cover issue until someone buys it with 1 HDD and installs a 2nd one ... Sounds like we're prejudging the 51G by the 50Gs faults.

Temperature ... hasn't heated up on me once ... & I thrash the CPUs with my SAP BI VMs.

Noise ... the HDDs can be heard when they're busy, other than that no system noise I can hear.
The Sound quality is superb - admittedly I'm not a sound guru - but the 6 speaker Dolby 5.1 sounds great with music & movies to my uneducated ear. The laptop needs to be on a hard surface to get the best sound, as some of the speakers are underneath. [I use MediaMonkey & VLC]

 

They must have sold out because it's not there today but Newegg has it cheaper then it was at buy.com

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS8951G-9600 Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 18.4" 8GB Memory DDR3 1066 750GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M

@pmbellis

Well seeing a video the 8951g's drive location's are different and they don't have a separate drive bay for each drive. The 8951 has 1 big cover to the back of the laptop which looks like it's an easier access to components. No sure if you still need the cable to add a second drive like you did the 8950.

 

woohoo - just ordered one !

+ 256gb ssd
+ 8gb more memory

gonna be (or better be!) sweet!

 

I would have spent the money on those upgrades on a more powerful machine if you intend to game.

 

What brand SSD? Did you get it for under 500?

 

I went for a 256gb samsung ssd - 419$ at newegg ...

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 470 Series MZ-5PA256/US 2.5" 256GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Also, it's not for gaming, its for software development, so wanted the big screen and 16gb.

 

Do you need a special cable to use a second drive like you have to do on a 8950g?

 

.............

 

Hmm, I'd be interested in the answer to that myself ... is there any way of testing for it? (i.e. some software that'll check?) Anyone know ...

 

.............

 

How is the 18.4" screen on this?

In Canada I can pick it up for 1100 right now, and that's a pretty sweet price.

My only question is how is the 6850, and how is the screen? I do a lot of photoshop and maya (which sadly I won't be able to do as much now) and need a great screen.

How is the AMD 6850m?

Thanks, might be picking it up today, 18.4" is large, but I'm a desktop kind of man...

 

.............

 

There are not many 18.4" panels out there, so I expect it to be a similar panel.

 

An unboxing video on the 8951G - this one actually in English.

YouTube - ‪Unboxing The Acer Ethos 8951G Laptop‬‏

 

Where is it available for $1100?

 

@Rykoshet ... I've already commented on the display in earlier posts ... I'm not really a multimedia buff, so can't really give a in-depth review ... it's big [lots of space for excel, code, etc], it's bright [movies look good!], it's clear [fonts are crisp], very visible ...even from quite an angle ... I like ... better than any laptop display I've had before. [I've always had HPs, so can't compare to Acers]

@tempo123 ... Tx ... I've used HWInfo64 before, but forgotton about it!

Drive Interfaces SATA 3Gb/s (2 x HDD) & 1.5Gb/s (DVD)
(If I go into the main screen & look under Motherboard, then SATA Port 0 & 1 show 6 Gb/s ... so not sure if the 3Gb/s is the HDDs limit, as they are only 5400rpms ... 2 x Hitachi HTS545050B9A300 ... Is the "Drive Controller: Serial ATA 3Gb/s" part of the drive itself, or the Motherboard's interface to it?

... the "monitor" is a "N184H6-L02 CMO" ...
The nVidia Graphics card is:
Chipset: nVidia GeForce GT 555M (GF106)
Memory: 2048 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM
Bus: PCIe v2.0 x16 (2.5 Gb/s)
Geometry Unit Clock: 50.5 MHz
Shader Unit Clock: 101.0 MHz
Memory Clock: 135.0 MHz (Effective 270.0 MHz)
Memory Bus Width: 128-bit
Number of Pixel Pipelines: 16
Number of Unified Shaders: 144

 

I read that the battery is integrated in this model. Here is an excerpt from one article on aksgeek.com

"The integrated PowerSmart long life battery ensures prolonged battery performance over a longer period of time. With conventional batteries, power capacity starts to fade after 300 charge cycles. The new battery with the long cycle life formula can retain 80 percent capacity for over 1,000 charge cycles (about four years of charges), about three times more than when compared to traditional notebook batteries. "

My question is this...Is that a smart idea in the long run? In @ four years, it would have to be sent in for service if the battery begins failing? I would assume so at least...the cost would be much more than just buying a new battery...

Would having an integrated battery on a laptop this size and cost keep you from purchasing this computer? Pros and Cons if you mind sharing...

Here is a shot of the bottom of 8951g...it appears to have a lock button for the battery but descriptions I have read tell me otherwise

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS8951G-9600 Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 18.4" 8GB Memory DDR3 1066 750GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M

find it in the pics (scroll)

 

We'll have to wait for the long run to see, won't we?

It's not a lock button, it's an on/off button ... if you switch it "off", it disconnects the battery terminal internally, but you can't take it out.

Edit: I just took the back cover off & had a look ... the battery is definitely NOT accessable ... while I had it open I took a few photos ... anyone want them?

 

Good info! Thanks! I really like the improvements Acer has made to this model over the 8943g.

 

Got my 8951g yesterday, added my 16gb and ssd.

Thoughts after 1 day...
- very solid
- very good display
- keyboard feels very nice
- quite happy
- quiet/cool

Annoyances
- all usbs are near the front, would like 2 near the back
- home/pgup/pgdn/end instead of home/end/pgup/pgdn
- no cable for the 2nd drive, very annoying
- lan drivers not found by windows 7 sp1 ultimate disk

 

Please let us know what your Windows Experience scores are ...

Questions:
1.) What ssd did you get?
2.) What have you done with the special Acer partitions?
3.) What's your boot-up time?
4.) -no cable ... did you manage to get one? What did it cost?

Comments:
-usbs ... I think that's very personal ... I'm quite happy
-home /.../end ... err ... seems more logical to me ... it's a continuum
-lan drivers ... I created a driver backup disk with the installed backup software & then just re-installed from that when I installed my Win 7 Ultimate OS ... no problems.

 

I have a 8950G and I added a SSD drive also and I found the cable here.
Acer Aspire 8950G Series HD connector Cable Part: 50RCN07002 - Acer Store by Jtec

I called Acer 2nd line support and the said my mobo doesn't support a second drive. I knew that couldnt be since the sold the same laptop in Australia with 2 drives or 1 drive. The part has an Acer part number.
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The best USA price is Walmart.

Walmart.com: Acer Black 18.4" AS8951G-9600 Laptop PC with Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor and Windows 7 Home Premium: Computers

 

Great - have had 2 keys fall off, the period and the 3. Both have part of the plastic broken so do not stay back on. 2011 and you can't make keys that don't break off????

 

Review ==> Review: Acer’s new Aspire Ethos is a monster - The Globe and Mail

 

How does the fully upgraded Acer 8951G compare to a fully upgraded Dell XPS 17 3D? Im looking at both and want to know the major and minor differences. Ive poured over the specs of both, but raw stats can be decieving...

 

Well the cost for the Acer is way cheaper and it doesn't have a 3D screen.

 

I'm having a question about the sound system. I've just received my Aspire 8951G,... Now it has Dolby Home Theater v4 on it,... But çlicking on the desktop short-cut, I can only choose from the 3 sound options, MUSIC/MOVIE/GAME,... is there anyway to open up a graphic equalizer, or any other sound settings you can play with?. (which DOLBY says is coming with DBHT v4... I just want to know that, since I love tweaking it...

 

Review(Who to believe?!!!)==>>1- Acer Aspire 8943G Review - SlashGear 2- Review Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews