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

if the product registration went through properly you should see it on acers support website

Acer Support

 

bronsky,

where did you get your unit from in canada?

by chance, did you purchase it from Canada computers?

 

There was a whole discussion of it in the Pheonix Bios Thread. It looks like the bios can be flashed to raise the voltage to HD 5730 levels but no one has done it yet. You gonna be first again?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6764407-post737.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6764664-post739.html

See this cautionary warning ... http://forum.notebookreview.com/6767199-post750.html

God, it's so nice to be working on a 3820TG again. I need to get a micromouse, this Alps touchpad needs some adjustment or something. Maybe new drivers.

Bronsky

 

My computer is listed when the SNID is entered but it doesn't say that it belongs to me or anything. Update: I cheked on the registration section of the US Acer site. I already had an account and when I went into my account, it showed the new notebook registered with a notation that it had a warranty.

Bronsky

 

LU Computers.

Bronsky

 

Let me know how that goes.

 

I'm getting only 5.4 points in Windows experience index Any suggestions how to raise score to normal 5.9 ?

 

which subscore is it on?

 

subscore ?

 

Thanks a million cykotoxik!

 

find the lowest score, make it better.

 

Memory probably. The I3-370M gets a decent rating by Windows.



Bronsky

 

here is my WEI:

http://s008.radikal.ru/i306/1011/cc/c2b4d676d96f.jpg

my hard drive is WDC WD5000BEVT

 

It worked for you? Hehe! That's great!

You're welcome.

 

6.8 for GPU ? So it must be clocked I guess, Hendrickson had it 6.8 too

By the way...I see that HDD s in these machines have so many random scores in WEI... Strange... is it so because they use so many random HDDs ?

 

Always thought this was a urban myth lingering over from old alkaline recharchable batts, as modern lithium batteries dont have memory cells like that, as far as im aware it makes no difference lithium batts dont know either way.

 

the reason is because a majority of the 3820TG laptops on this forum came with a WESTERN DIGITAL scorpio blue model of the laptop. yours has a westerndigital caviar blue which is thier power saving/economy line.

only way you can improve that score is to buy a better HDD.

best upgrade you can do is buy an SSD and watch your laptop zoom.

 

Yea, the 5400rpm HD is slow. That is why your WEI is 5.4. I think that is the correct score but you can check with someone that uses a stock HD. Most have put a hybrid drive in their units or an SSD.

Bronsky

 

WEI...

My stock seagate 5400RPM scores 5.7

My 430M scores 6.6. My previous 430M scored 6.7.

Get a SSD.

 

It might just be a leftover urban myth. I have been known to regularly perpetuate them.

Bronsky

 

same drive here scores 5.7

 

Ok I might give it a go, I've edited and flashed a 6800 Ultra Vbios on a Dell XPS once before. Setting new higher vbios gpu and mem clocks. Do we know the correct volts for the 5730. Or 5650 is 1 volt right? So whats the 5730?

 

hey, will someone please give me some advice. I found on the net that there is a 10.10a hotfix(modded) driver that could make our 5650 get MLAA(morphological AA) option, this means about 4xMSAA with practically no FPS loss, i got it working with this DNA-ATi 10.10a.1 | Do Not Argue , but i got the x1 bug, then i tryed to put my old drivers back the way that was told in the first post (vga ati in switchable mode, latest 10.10 in discrete mode and switch back) but it doesn't help, please, can there be a reasonable way to fix this bug(i read that ppl who have the same problem overclock the pci-e just a few mhz and it helps, but i can't overclock, and don't have any money to spend on the setfsb too)

ppl, try to do this, this is a great improvement, and it's the best driver yet(big 3dmark06 points), and with this u can use AA in games that don't support any kind of AA

Also, another question: is there a bios upgrade, where FSB could be changed in BIOS, or maybe even an UEFI ( UEFI - Home)

 

My 3820TG scores lower due to the 5470 GPU, but the subscore for the stock Hitachi harddrive is 5,9. I'm pretty sure it's a 5400RPM drive

 

Installing the AMTi driver solved my last problems! Thanks a bunch guys, you're the best ^___^ <3

Time to overclock the GPU 8) Let's see if I can raise the WEI score of 6.7 which I currently have there (5.9 total)

 

Nothing happens when I run SetWireless? Shouldn't the bluetooth be enabled? Is there something else I need to except to install it and run it?

 

Awesome! Glad to know your Windows 7 clean install / driver problems have been solved.

You're welcome.

Forum members here are very kind and helpful to me.
So I just try to contribute and help other forum members also.

Hehe! Yes, time to tweak and overclock!

 

Hello all

Been following the thread for quite some time now, think I might have read every single page in this thread, some pages more than once

I recently received my 3820tg, the 450m-5650-6cell version, and I thought it was about time that I gave something back. The information found in this thread has been invaluable.

I have replaced the standard HDD with an OCZ Vertex 2 – 120 GB, and I really can’t stress enough how much of a performance gain this is (this is also reflected by a pretty nice WEI score, as useless as it might be).

I’m upgrading from a Dell XPS 1330, which had a measly C2D T5250 combined with a slow 5400 rpm HDD and Intel X3100 integrated graphics. Regardless to say, my new machine performs in a completely different category, couldn’t be happier

I have read a lot of mixed opinions on the quality and feel of the keyboard (and the general build quality, which I think is great). To this discussion I would like to add, that coming from the XPS, the keyboard on the 3820tg feels a lot better, a lot! I don’t know if I got a lucky example or something, but I am experiencing zero flex in the keyboard, and the keys feels so much nicer to type on that the one on the XPS plus they are less noisy. I really like the floating island style however dirt/dust prone it might be.

About the screen, I got myself an AUO322C variant, and while it isn’t exactly a quality screen, the brightness is a lot higher than on my old XPS model. A pretty important factor if you, like me, use the laptop on the go with a high risk of getting direct sunlight on the screen. A colleague at the office has the C2D variant of the Vaio Z, and while I still envy the gorgeous 1600x900 screen, the 3820tg screen is to me perfectly adequate.

My wireless is of the Broadcom variant, which I’m a bit puzzled about. I can’t really recall anybody having this, but then again, it is quite a lengthy thread this one. So far the performance is acceptable, but I haven’t been in a situation yet where it outmatches my old Intel ABG something. The Ethernet controller is an Atheros AR8151 and the BT module is also from Broadcom.

I’m still running everything on stock. I do have plans however, to experiment with overclocking both the CPU and GPU. Furthermore I’m quite set on upgrading to a 580m or something similar eventually.

On a note, like many others have reported, the gpu seems to be running PCI-E x1 v1.1 according to GPU-Z.

Following is a quick look at some of my benchmark results so far:

WEI (Windows Experience Index):
Processor 6.8
Memory (RAM) 5.9
Graphics 6.7
Gaming graphics 6.7
Hard disk 7.7

3D Mark 06: (1280x768) (running on my laptop screen)
Overall: 7588
SM 2.0: 2738
SM 3.0: 3403
CPU : 2850

3D Mark 06: (1280x1024) (running on my external 23” monitor)
Overall: 6790
SM 2.0: 2476
SM 3.0: 2923
CPU : 2812

PCMark Vantage: (1024x768)
Overall: 9569

wPrime:
32M: 21.486 sec

Super PI
1M: 16.859 sec
2M: 40.121 sec

The most annoying thing about this laptop imho is actually the graphic switching, which seems to be working quite randomly. Sometimes I can switch from ati to intel and vice versa even while Visual Studio, FF, IE and Chrome are all running. Then sometimes, I can’t get the machine to switch the graphics regardless of how many programs I shut down. The only way to get it switching again seems to be a reboot. I did try to install the 10.7 drivers at some point, so I might just try and remove those and go with the stock drivers again.

My discharging rate seems to be around 7.5-10.5 on intel depending on the workload. On ati it's around 11.5-14 depending on the workload. Sometimes however, it does seem that the system uses a bit more power after a few sleep/hibernating cycles and I then end up with a discharge rate of 17+. A reboot seems to bring the discharge rate down again, kind of weird.
This is all on the second lowest brightness setting as that is often enough for me.
One thing I did note was that there appears to be a difference in power consumption depending if you have the BT module turned off or completely disabled using Fn+F3. And I just found out that the Indexing Service was turned on I can already see the discharging rate has lowered!

Guess that’s enough from me know, thanks again to all who contributed to this thread.

 

Had this I3-370M OC'd to what is probably its limit today. Everything finally went dark around 3.17ghz. Almost anything in the 3.1 range is unstable but it could still be pushed a bit more. The I3 can operate at 3.0 all day long and perfectly stable.

I don't think this I3 will be going much higher than that. It's interesting using the G73 clockgen but on my old unit, with the lower slide active and ultra options, there was more to adjust and I fell that I could tweak a bit more out of the CPU that way.

Bronksy

 

Make sure the task is enabled and also review if you configured it exactly like this:

 

Your new machine is beggin for that 540m you got layin around

 

Comparsion of the 3820 and 4820 regarding size, weight, and screen.

First impression: the 4820 is well built, minor keyboard flex - same as the 3820.

Size comparsion:












The chassis of the 4820 is slightly thicker than the 3820's:



Size of the chassis:




Vent layout:




Screen:





3820 - AUO322
4820 - AUO303C






Trackpad size:




At first glance the 4820 looked bigger than a 14" - maybe due to 16:9 - but didn't felt much heavier than the 3820.
3820 - 1.75 Kg
4820 - 1.95 Kg

The 4820 came with a 350M - which seems to be quite power efficient BTW - with a 65W AC adapter, weights half the 90W, so the travel wieght of the two units are quite the same, note that the 3820 has an HD5650, while the 4820 has "only" an IGP.

The 4820's screen is obviously bigger, a bit more usage is needed to make a fair judgement whether the 0.7" difference would provide a more pleasant experience for the eye or not.

If I have time, I'll compare the 430M and the 350M by converting a movie to iPod.

 

Ooh I was just thinking about whether or not I should be bothering everyone here with a question regarding Vantage, and seeing as how you've actually managed to run the benchmark test - I've decided that "yes, yes I should bother them with yet another question" X)

'cause I can't run the program myself without it complaining about the screen resolution :S How did you solve that one?

Thanks in advance

PS. Nice score on the hdd!

@Kiskapu, nice pictures!

 

I'm waiting for a few weeks to see what happens with my other motherboard. Who knows, I might be reassembling that one too. My original display is better.

Kiskapu - it looks like the 4820TG display is a bit brighter.

Bronsky

 

What is this Acer registration app that people are talking about? Does it come installed on the notebook? I just ordered a notebook from PChome. The OS will be in Chinese and I assume the Acer Register app, if it's installed, will be in Chinese as well?

 

@Kiskapu

Awesome photos!

Those photos are definitely helpful
in doing size comparisons between the 3820TG
and the 4820TG.

The photos have definitely helped me make
my decision.

Thank you very much for posting those photos.

 

WDC WD5000BEVT is a Scorpio Blue.

 

Pics were taken with both unit's set to 100% brightness.

If I'm lucky enough, I might have the time to take some daytime shots.

I don't have the wallpaper You do, if You'd still like to see it as a base of comparsion, let me know!

 

You're welcome!

 

Yesterday I also installed a clean w7 pro, have the same problem, till now coulnot find a solution, I will appreciate if u explain how to fix that.

 

After reading a few more pages I have found the answer thx for help cykotoxik. I dont have change to try it atm, lately when I returned home I will try, but sure it will work since I have not installed that TurboBoost driver.

 

Hi, has anyone any experience with A-Data s-596 Turbo SSD drive? I am looking for SSD and this seems to have nice performance/price ratio. Also, I want to hold at least the same battery time as with HDD, but I couldnt find any power specs on this drive....

 

To be honest, I didn't do anything but install it and run it, sorry man

 

I really wanted a comparison like this. Thank you very much, tough I ended up ordering the 3820tg just last week. . Seems to me that there really wasn't a relevant difference and I could've gone with the 4820tg. Oh well ...

 

What is the best utility for searching and finding latest drivers for 3820tg ?

 

Huh, well that's odd :/ Oh well.

 

acer /dot/ com

 

Absolutely...though the dual cooling is a bit of an insurance IMO.

 

I agree with you on that. I don't use the optical drive that much so no worries there. The only thing is that I know there will be a very few times when I will need it, and I'll will have to buy an external one just for those 1 in a million ocassions. .

 

+1 on the cooling. I am running the I3-370M in my new unit constantly at 3.0ghz and the temps are incredibly stable. The only difference with my old (I5) unit is that the fans seem to work a bit harder. I am far more impressed with this I3 than I expected to be.

Bronsky