Acer TimelineX 3820TG Owners Lounge. Info, benchmarks, tweaks, mods and upgrades

Nice score ... native settings?

Bronsky

 

tested my i7-5650 with burnintest for max temps, got 7 trillion+ processes for 10 minutes with zero errors, and the max temps for both gpu and cores are at 85-89C, is that normal?

 

I can't even perform 2 processes in 10 minutes sometimes :/

 

Your results are identical to the other I7-620M(s) that was subject to the burntest. I forget if it was one or two. I think we saw 89C before and no throttling at that level. Amazing cooling system and incredible processor. What were your ambient temps.? lower than 30C? Max temp for the core is 104C. At 89C you still have a 15C margin.

Bronsky

 

how much is max temps for the gpu part?
and if gpu crashes and it reinstall the drivers automaticly do the pci-e problem reapear? so you have to install catalyst drivers again?

 

^ im quite sure the ambient temp was over 30C, it's really hot in my room.

 

gpu and cpu temp was almost identical @ 85 to 89C

 

You guys need less high end notebooks and some more high quality air conditioning.

Bronsky

I think your GPU temps are a bit higher than we have seen before. It is probably due to your room temps.

 

you bet we need a whole lot of those! im afraid my notebook would melt because of the heat! but no worries, acer can handle pretty well

some of my games crash when overclocked to like 650/1050, dirt 2, sc conviction, ninja blade are just a few. battlefield bad company 2 seem to be laggy on high settings and resolution, but very smooth on medium sets. i think i saw my gpu temp rise to about 94C sometime when i opened and played two heavy games at the same time and with my browser on.

 

thx

Yeah, it's the stock config. Just installed ATI 10.5 drivers. I seem to get higher scores if I either switch back and forth between IGP and discrete or between battery and power supply... perhaps my 3820 is kidding me

I will try to reproduce this tomorrow...

Mmm... air conditioning...

 

nice you returned that m11x coz that's butt ugly as hell! its size is twice the 3820

 

I'm sooo jealous of you guys. I want this laptop in the worst way.

 

You guys really satisfied with the build quality? Just curious.

 

Yep, it's a bit chunky and is indeed larger (cubage) and heavier. Serveral known issues (see alienware forum) pushed me to send it back...

No big complaints atm Display could be better (brightness, view angle), but I've used in for 30 minutes in the train with dimmed display today. Had it on my knees... and if you keep the vents free the temperature is quite bearable. The floating keyboard is a matter of taste.

 

Hi Ponjornoh, I see you returned your M11x. How does this system compare in your eyes? Is it no contest?

 

As requested my last video:

Yes it can run BFBC2 @ 1080p on high

Video proof here: YouTube - Acer 3820TG / ATI 5650 BattleField Bad Company 2 1080p HDMI out test

 

where can I buy the 3820tg in the US?

 

Nowhere yet. Hopefully not too much longer.

Bronsky

 

3820TG (i5-450) vs Alienware M11xR1:

• 3820: lower noise (2 fans instead of 1)
• 3820: better fan control
• 3820: better discrete GPU shutdown
• 3820: lower weight
• 3820: less cubage
• 3820: more powerful CPU
• 3820: cheaper
• M11xR1: lower temperature
• M11xR1: takes less base area
• M11xR1: better keyboard
• M11xR1: better battery life
• M11xR1: less bloatware

The M11xR1 has serveral annoying issues... stuck fan, 15 minutes till powering down NVIDIA, keyboard scratches display...

Did some tests on the 3dmark scoring... if I switch to IGP and back do discrete GPU, score is at least 100 points greater. Disabling all Acer Services makes no difference, GPU-Z and CPU-Z report the same frequencies

 

I think that one minor difference is that the 3820TG GPU is a bit more powerful than the M11x and supports DirectX11. One good thing is that the M11x community has a lot of owners who are going to OC their GPU. It will be interesting to see how the two GPU's perform in the hands of capable OC'ers.

On a side note - I am lovin this Mobile Workstation with the I7QM. It is fast as hell. I can rotate 3D models in real time with no lag. It is amazing. Satellite images are DL and displayed in nearly real time as well. My Acer 1410T feels like a toy when I get back on it for email and wordprocesing. I have to adjust to the keybaord all over again. If this thing was not as heavy as a small Scion, I would seriously like one of these on my desk. Not enough in the budget, however, for a mobile unit and a desktop.

Bronsky

 

thanks. sorry for the noob questions. The specs on the 3820TG are definitely better than the m11x.

Does acer always release first outside the US? Will the US version be an R2 with fixes on whatever issues were found so far from the initial release?

 

can you play BFBC2 on high settings? with highest resolution?

 

Hendrickson, could you please tell me what SODIMMs you have in the 3820TG.
Supplier,Freq.,Latency.

Best Regards

 

There has been a CPU upgrade since the release. The I5-450M was added, as was the I3-350M. There have really not been too many issues with the TimelineX series so far, other than the typical Bios or driver updates.

It is hard to figure Acer's distribution strategy from our vantage point, but in reading sales figures, Acer has increased its sales by 40% over last year by focusing on the emerging asian consumer markets. It makes sense for them to make sure they are supplying their most active customer base first. They have, however, indicated that they are committed to bringing a full range of the TimelineXs to North America. We shall see.

Not only are the specs better, the 3820TG has been in the hands of owners for quite some time and its performance is nothing short of amazing. The build quality also seems to be above average for a unit of comparable cost. The refreshed M11x needs to be vetted a bit more before any conclusions can be drawn.

Bronsky

 

Funny, my 430M scores 6.6 .

Is the 450M really 0.2 / 0.3 points superior?

 

Sorry, got 6.8, not 6.9 with my 450M.

0.2 points are just 3%...

 

@Hendrickson - Hey, I was reading on the Envy 14 site somebody saying that he knew someone who OC'd their I5-430M by utilizing SetFSB. If he could do it to his I5-430M wouldn't the same settings work for every I5-430M. They are identical, no? Or is there something in the nature of each computer (or bios or drivers, etc) that prevents the generalization of OC settings from one unit to another.

Bronsky

 

If its got the same chipset, sure we could do it. We just need to know the clockgen to use in setfsb or the dev to support it.

If you got any info on it, let me know and I will try it.

 

hendrick i see the settings you used on BFBC2 are all high and its 'playable', would that playable mean you can run around and aim and cover and dodge bullets without getting dizzy? i mean can you control the character smoothly? cause mine cant seem to take the gfx and lags alot so there might be something wrong. and that is with the gpu oc'ed, otherwise i can only play it smoothly on medium setts native or oc'ed clocks.

 

Hi AspireAnt, yes, it runs well. Even with 24 players online. And even at 1080p!
Just watch my videos are proof of this. 100% playable fps.

YouTube - Acer TimelineX 3820TG Battlefield Bad Company 2 - ATI 5650 benchmark [HD]

YouTube - Acer TimelineX 3820TG Battlefield Battlefield Bad Company 2 ATI 5650 SP benchmark [HD]

YouTube - Acer 3820TG / ATI 5650 BattleField Bad Company 2 1080p HDMI out test

I'm running cat 10.5 drivers and 680 Mhz / 1060 Mhz clocks on my 5650. Maybe run fraps and see if your FPS match mine? Or maybe your i7 is throttling?? Run CPU-z and check to make sure its not.

 

man, i got to fix this up. this i7 is starting to disappoint. would the bios have anything to do with it? i still have the stock bios which is v1.05. i have the 1.13 downloaded on acer's site and tried installing it through windows but it fails to update in the end. wonder why? also, the acers ati vga driver is the same as 10.5 catalyst from amd website right? cause when i installed the acer ati driver it showed v6.8 (i think) then i overwritten the files with the 10.5 catalyst but when i checked on the driver details it still has the same v6.8? is that normal?

 

AspireAnt: where di you get your laptop?

 

Hm... the latest ati driver from acer's site is 8.713.3.3000, latest official from ati is 8.732.0.0.... as shown in device manager.

I installed first the latest one by acer and then the latest ati. Hope that helps

 

got it from singapore.

i actually did that, installed first the acer ati driver, restarted, pressed f2, set switchable to discrete, saved and exit, went to device manager, updated driver by searching for the the 10.5 catalyst, but it says driver is up to date, so i opened the 10.5 downloaded from amd site, installed overwriting the acer driver, restarted, f2, set dicrete to switchable, save and exit, back to device manager checked on driver details, and its still the same.

 

where can u buy one of these online that'll ship to the US???

 

Hi! I've made an ICC profile with a Spyder 3 pro
Hope you like it! 2,2 gamma and 6500K (I think it's the standard)
Általános 6500K.icm

 

I think there is a lack of good review videos of the 3820TG on youtube.

 

Yeah, it's funny, the German retailer I got my 3820tg from upgraded me from an i5-430 to a 450, although I doubt it makes much difference.

I have been having a weird bug though with this laptop, although I'm not sure if it's a Win7 problem or a laptop specific problem though. What's worse, I don't know how to go about troubleshooting the problem myself, or what search terms to use to find similar cases.

Basically, when I leave the laptop to idle for a while, it dims the screen and eventually turns it off (I set this to be after 5 minutes). However, after I re-waken the laptop by moving the mouse, the laptop is completely frozen. Sometimes, it'll break the freeze after a few seconds, but this morning, when I flipped it on it was completely stuck for more than 5 minutes, so I rebooted.

Anyone else had similar problems with this laptop, or is it a documented Win7 problem? Thanks, I didn't know where else to ask.

Question: is it possible to replace the 8600m GT on most motherboards or just some? I ask because I have an Asus G1S that broke down and Asus customer service have been giving me quite the run around and I'm thinking about ways to salvage the rig as much as possible right now.

 

8600M GT in G1S is soldered...
and as for the system frozen, might be fixed by bios 1.13.
description: Fixes USB port no function and hang when system enter S3 if disable CRID.

 

Whats this for? Is this for the screen, how do we use it?

 

Did you already try to install it manually via device manager?

Yes, it's a profile to standardize the color space on different devices. This one is for 3820's screen Just search for color profile in the start menu search.

 

any ideas how can i install the new 10.5 catalyst dirvers without installing the old ones from acer website first?

thx

 

You need it to be able to switch between the AMD and Intel card.

 

Thanks for the suggestion dude. I checked in my bios when I first got the laptop and it said it was already version 1.13, so that can't be it.

And yeah, that's what I heard about the G1S originally, but I figured if someone had managed to replace an 8600m GT on a different motherboard, then it might be possible elsewhere. Nevermind that story of fail and misery.

 

We all have our tales of torture at the hands of NVIDIA's 8600M GT. You are better off putting all of that behind you.

Bronsky

 

Hey, can anyone recommend a good 250 or 256GB SSD? Thats not too expensive? I'm fulling up my 120GB pretty quick, since some steam games are 15GB..GTA IV etc.

Are the Samsung 256GB SSD's any good?

Oh got my ZeroShock III protective case from Japan today by the way. Its a perfect fit and I'm 100% happy with it. Looks great and protects the unit well. I even feel like testing with a drop test. But I won't heh

You can get them from here: Amazon.com: Black ZEROSHOCK III 13.3" Laptop Notebook Sleeve:…

Or my seller here: 12.1"-13.3" Laptop case Black/Zeroshock III ZSB-IB015BK - eBay (item 310223601120 end time Jun-11-10 10:26:03 PDT)

Photos:

 

Hi all,

after doing the reinstalling of catalyst drivers, my WEI score dropped to 4.5 and i am unable to switch to discrete graphics with the error message "Switching the graphics processors cannot be performed at this time due to the current display configuration"

what is the problem here?
thanks in advance for any advice!

 

You need special switchable drivers.

 

special switchable drivers??

sorry please tell me more

 

could you post a vid of you playing GTA 4 at native res with high settings, fraps and poice chase thank you