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

My 3820TG is a work unit. The OC'd CPU is almost a necessity when running models or simulations. Although the OC'd CPU seems to obstruct 3D gaming, it looks like it doesn't have that problem working in 3D rendering. I wonder what the difference is?

Bronsky

 

I just got mine on Tuesday.

I played a bit of Crysis Warhead (maybe 15 minutes?) with no problem. I'll see how it goes with longer gaming sessions and let you know.

 

/Hello, guys/
Can someone help me?
After i reinstall Windows 7, my battery life decreased to 3 hours.
What it could be?

Acer 3820tg(just bought) with Windows 7 Ultimate 64x

 

I figured.

Bronsky

 

I am not seeing gaming performance drop off with overclocking CPU, although I'm sure in many games it might.

In 3dm2k6 (not a definitive benchmark), I am seeing scores go up roughly 400 points for every 100MHz you can crank up the GPU core or memory. With a stock GPU speed of 550/800, you can see how important GPU is. Bump up core to 650 and memory to 1000, and you add around 1200 to a base score.

For the CPU, 3dm2k6 scores only go up around 300 points when going from 133MHz fsb to 166MHzfsb.

The stock scores I had with these was
3820tg with i3-350m (2.27ghz) = 7407
3820tg with i5-460m (2.53ghz) = 7557
which shows the CPU is not helping much in this benchmark

 

Ok just did over 2 hours of prime95 stressing on my new i5 580m and I must say I;m impressed. While it maxes at 85 degrees. This was before the max fan speed kicks in. Once its running the fan at full it sat at around 80-82 degrees. Its about 7 degrees cooler and consumes less that my i5 450m

I've also seen idle speeds as low as 36 degrees

 

@RobTV Why windows 7 32bit? Does it help improve your overclocking? I can't see how?

 

@RobTV Why windows 7 32bit? Does it help improve your overclocking? I can't see how?

I've created a thread on the i5 580m upgrade and my results all in one place for future interested users. That way all the info is in one place. As this thread is massive! http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...rade-info-temps-overclocking.html#post6794640

 

Great question, and I'm sure I'll get slammed for my answer, but testing here is what does it for me, not reading or drinking the koolaid passed around.

It might not help overclocking, but does it look like it hurts overclocking?

One of the myths about 64bit, is that it will be faster.
Not really a myth because someday, it will be faster for all.
But hey, if it helps MS, HP, Dell, Samsung, Crucial, etc, pretty much all hardware sellers of systems and parts, then it MUST be good and needed. That is the real reason we have 64bit out today. Money. Yes, there are a select few running many memory intensive apps at once that can take advantage of it's use of memory, but the other 99.99% will see no improvement with 64bit over 32bit "today".

Google 64bit memory gaming performance. With the vast majority, 2 gigs is way more than enough, and 3 gigs pretty much meets almost everyone's gaming need (unless doing things like watching videos, burning DVDs, creating videos, all while in the middle of a game of Crysis).

Actually did extensively testing with both TimelineX models running clean install of Win7 64bit, then went with 32bit and much smoother and glitch free. No more strange lags or pauses doing simply things. Saw the BSOD a few times when running them 64bit (a good test is stock out of the box, switch Bios to Dedicated, then run WEI and see it BSOD with the stock 64bit drivers). I also had an Intel USB Microscope that was no longer supported after XP, but does work fine with Win7 32bit. Then there are the little things like delete button on menu bar that doesn't require editing registry with 32bit. Sure, driver updates will keep making things better. But why? It seems to me that the 32bit drivers and software are more forgiving and less critical.

But main thing is as shown. Does running 32bit hurt? Nope. Works great!

As a tech with MS technet sub, I get to use all their OS's, so when things don't work as smoothly as I like, Format and try another.

 

nice one mate. Is 3dmark06 score in your sig with default gpu clocks ?

 

Im about to get a thermal paste but not sure which one and how much should i get. I'm stuck between Arctic silver 5 and Diamod. Will 3.5 grams enough for CPU,GPU and AHCI(mobo chipset?) . Cheers

 

how do you guys determine the LCD manufacturer?

 

can any one make a video of the build of the 3830tg? Like 5 or 10 minute long video going over it all inside and out? Id like that very much, something similar to what xoticpc does.

 

I was strongly considering the M11X until I found out about the 3820TG. I don't think there's any other laptop out there right now that can offer this much power in the same form factor and price.

As an aside, when you change your brightness level, does an icon pop up on the screen? When I change the sound level, there is an icon, but I don't see anything when I change brightness. Sorry if this has been answered already, but it's tough to search through this giant thread for the answer.

 

ive been having a weird problem with my laptop, sometimes, some apps like my web browser and my im client will just freeze for a couple seconds and restore to normal functionality, i can still right click the task back but the actual apps are freezing. Also ive had to launch startup repair recently to get it to boot into windows. Im not really sure what caused this, the only new app i installed was visual stuidos and onenote 2010

it seems that after half an hour of use, the problems dissapear which is odd, i suspect it may be the hdd but i ran chkdsk /f /r at boot and it found no bad sectors and still persisted with the same problem.

 

no icon appears when i change brightness on mine, it does with sound so u r all good there

 

Theres been some recent developments with the m11x's cpu's for i5/i7's. The thread is called How to Supercharge the M11x with Core i5/i7 UM CPUs . It starts on page 20, people are geting 40-50% more speed out of there cpu's. People are geting close to 9k in 3dmark06 and remember the m11x only has ULV processors for better battery and gaming on the go.

 

Thanks!

Cool I glanced at that thread a few days ago, but didn't realize how much of a performance boost it was giving them. Great for them! However, I think the m11x core i5 and i7s are priced about $100-$200 more than the 3820TG. Back when I was looking at them, you'd have to wait around for the discount codes to get the i5 for about $700 (before tax). I think what ultimately kept me from buying it was all the talk of the hinge issues. I still think the 3820TG offers the better value since it's a lot thinner too. I do like the Alienware's ability to change all the lighting colors though. If we had something like that on the 3820TG, it would be awesome.

 

Sounds more like a software issue; go download malwarebytes anti malware and run a full scan.

 

you can mod your 3820tg with backlit keyboard xD to be honest i like 3820tg as it is and wouldnt change it for m11x lights and thinkness. Acer looks so proffesional to me and Alienware is know for terrible build quality and heat issues. Im planing to do keyboard mod like hendrikson in the future

 

Go with IC Diamond, the coverage is great, and 3.5grams will be plenty.

Bronsky

 

Hi!

A week ago or so there was a discussion, that with the new bios you would be able to alter the voltage of the GPU towards the 5730. Have anyone tried this? Would the OS belive it's a 5730 instead of a 5650 GPU?

-->Tgoode, what have happend to your SSD plans with the connector that lead to the motherboard?

 

I also think the M11x looks like a toy. But terrible build quality? Have you seen one in person? They are superb build, just too heavy, and all the lights bite the battery. Heath issues might be there as well.

 

actually i think it was a combination of carbonite backing up my laptop and a net monitor program i recently installed

 

Tested the SSD - it was too slow. I'm sticking with my Momentus XT for now.

 

Wprime score of my i5 580 are around 17 secs. This with with both cores running at 3.45 Ghz. Will get some screen up soon.

 

yeah bronsky u mentioned something about that

 

9375 3d marks on my second attempt.

GPU - 670 MHz
Graphics memory - 1050 MHz
CPU - 148 MHz (3.7 GHz turbo)

Machine has i7-620M & 8GB DDR3 1333

 

Can't flash my bios without a motherboard. Still waiting on Shark Technologies ... going into the 4th week. Luckily my 1410T has performed heroically so there has been no need to buy a replacement notebook yet.

Bronsky

 

Was the SSD slower then the Momentus?? Was it connected to your second MiniPCIe slot that you lead to motherboard?

 

Looks like I'm experiencing some serious issue. My laptop is stuck on the bios screen when I turn it on. Anyone got a solution to this?

 

Yeah, it was much slower - like 8MB/s - USB 2.0 speeds

I did my testing in an Asus N51 VN using the built in expresscard slot on that laptop.

 

Has anyone flashed the most recent Biosversion (1.17) yet?

Any real improvements for anything?

 

Just downloaded AMD GPU clock tool and it says my card runs at 100/150 Mhz. But when I tab from google chrome to clock tool and click "get clock info" really fast, it shows 550/800. Just a bug or is something wrong?

 

My problem is that my laptop is stuck at the bios loading screen and it's not posting. I'm going to assume that there's an issue with the bios. do anyone know how I can reset the bios?

 

I would try re-seating your RAM and hard drive.

 

Read the first post in this thread... Pay particular attention to the "crisis disk" section

 

I just scored 9716 3d marks

CPU hit 3.73 GHz in turbo.

 

everything is fine, laptop downclocks your gpu if it doesnt need much of it, it changes frequency when u run video/game etc. dnt wrry

 

thanks alot

 

Nice what CPU are you running?

 

i7 620m - OEM version

 

Is it a new one?

If it true, than replace it as dead on receive.

 

Nope, mine's from the Bronsky era. I'm one of the very few that got their's from Germany.

 

Oh thank you thank you mate for that link!! Link u provided accually helped me solve my freezeing problem well find out what causes it. I just read that m11x supercharge thread out of boredom and guy mentioned a program called dtc latency which lets u analyse one by one what hardware is causeing problems.

Turns out when i ran it and one by one disabled/enabled laptop components in device manager, its wifi causeing my game freezes! I just had an hour gaming session with wifi adapter disabled in Device manager and clocks set to around 690/1090, a bit of bad company 2 medal of honor, and cod5 single player, dirt2 and no freezes (maybe one but i think i just put clocks too high).

My temps were high as well but now im quite certain thats not whats causing the freeze.

Has anybody got an idea whats wrong with the wifi doing that? I mean, its fine browsing the web, watching online videos etc but as soon as i lunch a multiplayer game from steam few minutes and freeze. It has to be the adapter because i left it on to check and lunched single player mode in moh and same freeze happens.

What a weird problem that is, surely thats preventing me from playing online at the moment but after probably over 20 hard restarts i finally know what it is.

I've got Atheros AR5B93 wifi module, i did install latest drivers and im quite sure that with default windows drivers same happened.

Anyone's got any ideas how to fix that?

 

You game with the Ethernet plugged in - right? When I had the GPU OC'd and the CPU OC'd I ran steady and stable at 93C. I never saw any ill effect.

Bronsky

 

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. I would think there are two options, either try a crisis disk http://forum.notebookreview.com/6796875-post821.html or try to reflash the bios from a bootable dos USB drive. I don't know if I have the bootable dos link on my german conversion guide but you might look there. I think the link on creating a bootable Dos USB drive is on my 3820TG's drive. Unfortunately, the acer is apart awaiting its motherboard which is being repaired in China.

Bronsky

 

bydus, i learned that even when plugged in to a wired connection, the wifi adapter is still constant searching and connecting/disconnecting to wireless access points in the area, so it's been a habit to disable the wifi via launch manager everytime.

 

no i used to game via wifi connection but now i cant rly cause it freezes. I dont have an ehternet cable plugged in. Im just on wifi but it doesnt search for connection its connected to same network all the time, yet it causes freeze :/

is it possible that wifi malfunctiones cause of high temperature inside the laptop ? Where is the wifi adapter placed?

 

The wifi is on the bottom of the unit, on the left. It is probably not the cause of the heat. The OC'ing is more likely the cause.

I can't game on a wifi connection, it's generally too laggy. I always try to be on a unit plugged into the ethernet. I don't think the wifi connection causes the freeze, it is probably realted to the wifi driver or a speed limitation caused by the driver. One thing you might consider is plugging into the ethernet directly from the back of the router - that will tell you if your GPU is tthe problem of if your WLan is the problem.

Bronsky