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

I've had 2 of that model and have been very pleased.

Bronsky

 

Man I'm really jealous of some of the overclocking you guys can pull off. My highest seems to be 680/975 which gets me a score of 8692. But I haven't even tested it for stability, that's just the highest I can clock without getting visual artifacts during 3dmark06. We'll see if it lasts for the next couple hours!

Also, is the first thermal sensor in the AMD GPU Tool the way you guys are monitoring your temps?

 

mine as well, way better than I thought.

 

10.10e ... wow.

Bronsky

 

And just as I was about to order a 3820tg with i3-370m and ati 5650.

Looks like I'll wait. I wonder if the model your talking about will be released in North America.

I may as well wait..

 

Why not 10.11?

 

Because 10.10e is newer than 10.11...

 

So, got the in laws in town for the holiday, as a result not enough time with this new unit, but I did manage to complete the backup process tonight. I used virtualcd to mount virtual dvd-r's which I then burned iso's to. Ended up with four iso's which each took about ten minutes to "burn" and verify. Tomorrow I hope to check the contents, see if what is supposed to be there is there, then I will finally swap the hdd. Did anyone else use virtualcd to create backup iso files instead of physical discs? If so, anything I should have a heads up for or is it as straightforward as it seems so far?

 

double post
double post

 

So i have ordered the German Version of a backlit Keyboard for my 3820tg the New Keyboard comes from a 5942 the Dimension of this is the Same from my original Keyboard. My Problem with the HDMI is solved. It was a defect HDMI Plug ob the Cable

Daniel

 

The 5942 is the same KB as the 3820TG? Please add your installation to the backlit Keyboard Mod thread. Let us know if your need to file the slots for the retainer clips. It would be nice to find a KB that fits without filing if possible. Are you taking power from the USB or are you approaching it another way?

You should have explained to your in-laws that you just got an Acer 3820TG and it was not a good time to visit. I'm sure your wife would understand.

Bronsky

 

Ok seems there is a model with ATI 6550 here:

Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG-464G75nks - Notebooks - CHIP Shop

http://www.computeruniverse.net/pro...pire-timelinex-3820tg-464g75nks.asp?sr=3820tg

I can't find anything about the 6550, is it better or worse than the 5650?

 

It is a rebranded 5650.

 

Cool thanks, so exactly the same thing then.

I am guessing this is the same as 5370.

Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG-374G50nks - Notebooks - computeruniverse.net

 

I've never heard of a HD 5370. I've heard of the HD 5470 and HD 5730.

 

You mean 5470 I would think. I would also guess that the 6670 we saw the other day on the Chineese website is a misprint. It is not a 6670, it's a 6370. I guess the next round of 4820TG and 3820TG models in the US and Canada will have the 6xxx series GPU.

Edit: Hmmmmm. The model on the Chineese site had an I5-480M. The German 6xxx units still have an I5-460M.

 

Yep sorry I did mean the 5470.

 

Well when they release a refreshed model with USB3 I'm in. Otherwise its like I will have this for a good one and a half years more. Till the 3830TG

 

Is USB3 really that important to you?

 

It is to me. The lack of a USB 3.0 or ESata/USB combination port is the Acer's biggest flaw. Data back-up and transfer can be incredibly slow with no ESata port or high speed USB 3.0 port. With a 128GB SSD as your main drive, you do a lot of file transferring if you work with large graphics files like I do. A USB 3.0 port would eliminate that.

@Hendrickson - It looks like the HP 500 Slates are finally shipping. Some have already gone out we are told. I am also told that mine should ship next week. I think they are discounting the price for the 2 week delay (delivery was promised on the 15th) and providing free 2 day shipping. I wonder if the tablet will render my 1410T obsolete as a travel notebook. HP has a 30 day free trail period. If we don't like them, we can return them for a $15 restocking fee. If mine ships late next week, I'll probably still be within the return period during CES in January so I can see if there is any other business class tablet being produced with a digital pen.

Bronsky

 

Huh, I guess it would be nice, but so many of my devices are USB 2.0 that I would use the speeds even less then I plan on using the ODD in the 4820tg.

How about intels lightpeak? Would you be interested in that in future laptops?

 

I couldn't have put it better myself. I back up large files and its painful over USB2..But i can live with it, just. Next notebook its a must to have usb3!.

Lets us know if your HP Slate ships and do you plan to overclock it or mod it too haha

 

What would be a good internal bluetooth module for it? Mine does not come pre-shipped with one.

I plan on gaming on it, and use a bluetooth/wired mouse (razer orochi). I heard that cheaper bluetooth modules can cause pairing issues and lag.

 

Is the 6650m the exact same as a 5650, or the same but using a lower nm manufacturing process?

 

If I had to guess, probably just higher stock clocks, possibly from a better batch and with more voltage supplied.

 

Hey, The 5942 KB size, layout and clips are the same as the 3820TG, but i will hope that the KB connector the same is *hope* i let you know then i starting the mod i will take photos etc .... I will use the USB Power 5V or the internal 5V Power strang from onboard power supply. I think my KB coms at Saturday and in the next Week beginn to mod.

Daniel

 

i've mentioned this problem before but i'm gonna bring it up again in hopes someone might have a solution to the problem i'm having. I installed an i7-620m the day I got my laptop. My temps seem to be a bit high and I'm not sure what the problem is. I've re-applied thermal paste (arctic silver 5) twice now and i'm getting the same temps. I've tightened the screws for each heatsink assembly as tight as I possibly can without stripping the heads. In prime 95 within 15 min or so the temps will hit approx 99 degrees C, at which point the proc will throttle. If I remove the battery it takes a bit longer to hit 99 degrees, maybe 20-30 min. Running 3dmark06 for about an hour the temps will reach about 93-94 deg C. In battlefield BC2 the temps reach about 95-96 deg C within 15-20 min. Judging from the temps others are getting I feel like these temps are WAY too high. Does anyone have any suggestions to resolve this problem? Thanks in advance

 

Hi cinsun, i'll test my notebook for comparison as i have the same processor as you do.ü i'll let you know.

 

I would do the following tests to identify the cause:

• Did you have any temp problems with the stock cpu before the swap?
• Did you test it with the latest bios version?
• Are the fans working properly?
• Swap back the stock cpu to check if the problem is caused by the cooling system or the cpu.

 

Okay i did the torture test on prime95 for 45 minutes using blend settings and my i7 620m went to a maximum of 91C on hwmonitor 92C on core temp, never went up. Also this was done while i was playing virtual pool 3, with wi-fi and bluetooth on. By the way this is a stock i7 installed. I don't know what's causing yours to throttle though... :-(

 

I am done with 3820tg. Got rid of it. I feel no regret at all since the LG panel was killing my eyes, the pain in my eyes did not leave me for 2 days even after giving it up. But now I feel better but only some lightining effects are left in my eyes when it is all dark or semi-dark.

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But I am not leaving here without a fight, I would like to tell my opinios about this notebook (subnotebook).

First of all the 13 inch and powerful hardware combination (core i + hd5650) fails in my opinion. 13 inch panel is not good for gaming, is not good for watching films, is not good for working. When you work with it you need to spend more effort to see the details in your work compared to 15'6 screens and this makes you tired in a shorter time. Not suitable for any kind of work at all in my opinion. It is absolutely not suitable for gaming unless you have an external display connected to your 3820tg. The good hardware in the 3820tg is wasted by its limited 13 display. Strong hardware + little screen philosophy fails though it may sound charming and interesting...

So why 13 ? I guess there can't be much reason for it but some already. Surfing on the net and writing mails, chatting and similar activities could be a good reason to choose 13' over 10' display of a netbook because it is too small. 13' is good if you want a netbook but if you don't like that small display, since 13' notebooks can be almost as light as 10' netbooks with a larger display so more pleasing for the eyes... But here I don't talk about 3820tg because the powerful hardware in the 3820tg is completely useless for simple tasks a surfer would perform... It only adds more weight and consumes the battery much faster.

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About 3820tg specs

Build : Looks beautiful when it s closed but you may be afraid to touch the display panel since it looks like it can be broken so easily, I did not like this, it could be better.

Power&Hardware : Very powerful for its price but this much power is useless for simple tasks... And for gaming it is better to choose notebooks with larger screens with better graphics accelerators. HD 5650 is good but not brilliant. The WD HDD inside the device caused shuttering during games, it was very annoying. Even without this problem with hdd the device faces shuttering during games at least mine did.

Noise : Very satisfying, very silent during simple tasks, during gaming fans don't stop but still not very annoying, I had seen worse.

Temperature : After 4-5 hours of playing Civilization 5, Dragon Age, Starcraft 2 and such games the i3 370m CPU got highest degrees celcius of 74 and HD 5650 got 78 (OC'ed). So fair enough.

Keyboard : Good keyboard in my opinion, I got used to it on the first day, it is pleasing to write with that keyboard.

Touchpad : It is bad... I don't ever understand what is the reason for making a touchpad so bad like this... Even in cheaper, simplier and older notebooks touchpads are much better. Nothing is good about it.

Wireless Connection : In my unit, there was Atheros wireless module which performed excellent. Never disconnected during games or such, could receive signals from very far away. Very pleasing...

Webcam : Average, 1.3 mp... Not very bad not good neither.

Display : If you got a LG display it might be hazardous, I don't know about the other panels. I am not sure if all LG panels in these devices are like this but I never felt this kind of pain in my eyes from any other screen. Users with other panels seem to be pleased.

Battery Life Good... A device like this with a less W consuming CPU would be much greater.

Power Adapter Very disappointing, very bad... Even my 6 years old notebook has a double so smaller adapter. You gain a bonus from 13 's lightweight but lose some of it with such a bad built adapter. So you change the adapter or hdd in the device or its other cheap units... And in the end you pay again the same money money you would pay for a notebook with better quality, so better to get notebooks already with better quality instead of changing the poor equipment of a cheap notebook like this.

NO Dvd-rw integrated in the device and 4820tg vs 3820tg question : I never needed an optical drive even external. If I needed to choose between 4820tg and 3820tg I would choose 3820tg again. 14 display is not good for gaming neither and 1 inch is not much of a gain in exchange for lighter weight and smaller case plus 3820tg has 2 coolers and more pleasing for the eyes. 3820tg is superior without a question in my opinion.

3820tg does not deserve any place in the computer history. The main point of this device... Powerful hardware + 13 inch display fails totally. So get larger notebooks for hardware demanding works and get notebooks/netbooks with lighter hardware for web. 3820tg stands between these and its side is not defined. If you don't choose a side you are wasted.

 

Hey guys,

wow, what a huge discussion you've got going here. Seems to be the right place in the internet to ask some questions about the device.

I've read aprox. the last 50 pages and besides the different fan behaviour between the 3 last firmware versions I stumbled upon these graphic drivers issues. Would you be so kind to tell me where the difference between the usage of the last Acer AMD driver (10.7 as far as I've read) and the 10.10(e) driver lies? Do you use the 10.10 only because of its newer version number or is it also increasing the perfomance (I've read about the cripple PCIe lanes and the mediocre perfomance with them, is this problem fixed with the last Acer driver)?

In addition: How do you regulate the power managment? Is it recommended to use the Acer software or are there no benefits compared to the use of the Windows 7 power modes (especially reagarding battery life and horsepower of the device, do you get extra runtime from the Acer software)? Would be nice to hear how the 3820TG behaves in the different modes.

Thanks for reading this and helping me out

 

^ Too bad you have this experience and with all support i'm with you on that. But please do not persuade people not to buy this product just because of your experience. IMO, your story reflects individual preferrences and everything boils down that. You cannot push people to get bigger screens if they want smaller ones like these. Peace out!ü

 

Quoted from post #7406

I believe you made a bad choice of what PC you wanted, which doesn't reflect the quality of the system.

The touch pad works very well and I have the LG display and experience no discomfort. Perhaps the screen size is to small for you

 

You are a happy man!. I read all 744 pages and I'm not sure what video driver is best for me.

 

10.10e is a modded driver. It is not an official Acer driver nor even an official AMD catalyst driver. Therefore, I do not recommend that anyone use it. It is, however, a modded version of the AMD desktop 10.10 driver that added certain enhanced functions to AMD GPU's such as artificial intellegence and enhanced parallel processing. I would use it only if you have enough experience with modded drivers to work through any problems it may create and if you want the functions that the driver provides. These functions are invaluable in my profession.

For most users, the better alternative is to stick with the Acer drivers. For one reason, everything works and it has been tested.

The crippled PCIe lane was fixed nearly 6 months ago with one of the Catalyst drivers. The PCIe lane only reverts back to 1 x 16 when the unit is in idle mode.

I did not install ePower on this unit. I use the windows power management only. ePower is terrible IMO. I don't use it. In fact, other than the registration program, the only app I use from the original acer is Launch Manager and I'm not even sure that's necessary.

Bronsky

@ Run.dll - while everyone is entitled to their opinion, I think you could not be more wrong about the unsuitablility of a 13" display for work. I use mine 8 or more hours a day and have no problem. I find the Acer display better than most 13" units. I have compared it side-by-side with a lot of different 13" units, including the Envy 13, Sony Z, Asus U30, HP DM3, Dell Vostro 3300 and Latitude E6410. IMO, only the Z and the Envy have clearly superior displays (with the Envy being #1 IMO). To be sure, there are people using an 11.6" as their primary computer who have no problems. Given your dislike for the 13" however, I think you did the right thing getting rid of it. I also think your post is appropriate here. The discussion in this thread has always been very frank.

One thing that I did do when I got my display is calibrate it and run it with a color profile. That might have helped you.

 

Agreed : 5 days now without using these notebook, and no more pain in my eyes, I feel realy better (not as perfect as before, but it seems to improve with time).
This screen is stressing optical nerves, certainly cause of a very cheap/bad LED calibration (no uniform light / flickering), or bad polarisation.

People can see details of symptoms here (thx Run.dll for the link) :
Apple - Support - Discussions - Eye strain from LED backlighting in ...

It seems to be the same problem. It can happen on different screens (some macbooks, some thinkpads ...)

This LG screens (or at least some of them) ARE problematic.
If anyone got a LG screen in his 3820TG, and have this sort of problem, don't go further, don't use it anymore. (In my opinion, a long-time use could damage the optical nerve)
(after using it for 2 weeks, I was half blind, disoriented... I was used to get 10/10 on each eye, and never got one single vision problem before this.)
Not everyone is concerned, it seems some people are more photosensitive to this special problem than others.

Saturday, I'll send the notebook to Acer after-sale dep., hoping they will hear my call and change the screen.

 

it s my opinion and besides I say orange to orange...
Check this: YouTube - Deer Hunter - "This is this"

lol I don't push anybody everyone has his own mind to use to choose I just made recommendations what hurts you there ?

 

I have to say that I find your comments to be incredibly irrisponsible.

 

Check this out. I've ordered some parts for my 3820tg (upper case and touch pad). Parts are ordered directly from acer and the shipping is pretty fast. Comes in handy too if you need to find a part number for the 3820tg. You should paste the link below using chrome to translate.

Notebook Reparatur Shop: Notebook Akku, Netzteil, Notebook Display, Mainboard, Bios, Ersatzteil

 

I can tell you that the factory Bt module works perfectly in the newer models that do not come with BT installed. I had a broadcomm unit and swapped it in my new Canadian 3820TG. I loaded the new drivers and it reports as BT 3.0, even with an Atheros Wifi card (which I thought was not possible - go figure). Thanks for the link.

Bronsky

 

Running i7-640m here and after 40 mins of prim95 my temp maxs out at 77-79deg C. BC2 & MOH run in the low to mid 70's. You should replace your paste. I started off with MX-3 which gave me max temps of 80 deg C while gaming. I replaced that paste with gelid-gc extreme and the temps are down to low 70's. The i7 is a fussy little beast and applying the right amount of thermal paste is a %itch

 

Same results here. IC diamond on my new unit and I have idle temps that are incredible (28C). My max temps are easily 10C lower than my old unit. I would run OC's at 91-93C and it is rare when I see my temps go over 80C now, even running my CPU at near 3.7ghz. You're also right about the right thickness. I saw temp decreases of about 4-5C on my last unit but was more careful to get a nice clean continuous thin film in this one and have a swing of 10C or better.

Bronsky

Edit: Any luck OC'ing the I7? How do you like it so far? Haven't run BC2 on my 3820TG but MOH runs like butter on the highest settings.

 

Could you substantiate your words ?

You are saying that perhaps 50 people on the link i gave (macbook one) are lying ? (have you read any word of it ???)
Are you saying I am lying ?

With ALL the tests I have done, my comments are accurate for a photosensitive part of the population (which I have clarified in my previous post).

What reason would I have to post this sort of thing if not existing ? None.

You like this computer, you are lucky to have a good screen, lucky to perhaps not be photosensitive as I, and others on this thread (at least 3 people) are.
Does it demoralize you that some unit could be defective ?

contrariwise, I feel my words very responsible to make a warning, as someone with same symptoms, doing a google search, could find an answer if having the same problems, and not staying without answer (as I were for 1 month).

 

It is one thing to say that something is your opinion. It is entirely something different to present an unfounded opinion (and frankly, an inadequately researched one) as fact. It is my scientific training I guess and experience as an environmental lawyer that makes me wince when I read your misinterpretation of the links you provide and the utter lack of support for the comments that you present as facts. They are not facts. They are opinions and, IMO, not very well founded ones at that. Sorry if that offends you but you should be more careful in your communications. We don't need any more junk scientists in the world presenting their unfounded opinions as fact. Trust me on this ... there are far too many of them already.

Bronsky

 

@Bronsky

Thanks for the information. I knew about the modded version, I just was curious if there are any benefits besides probably better support for new games (although you might have to trade that for the a less stable 3820TG system).

Seems as if the 3820TG will be the nearly perfect notebook for me. I want a high runtime combined with enough power and portability through Optimus or the ATI switching. I might have opted for a 14" with a higher resolution, but since non of those could provide the other more essential points I just might have to live with 1366x768.

 

OMG those are pretty nice temps! :O i don't think the 620m can go as low as that. Biggyrocks 640m is also amazing with temps! Wow. Although i'm pretty satisfied with my procie, these 640m and i5 580 incredibly outrun it. Also, my OC doesn't get me higher than 3.6ghz, turbo mode is at 3.3ghz @ x25, i can only squeeze some juice out of it. O well, can't complain about that on my part as it does it job fairly well for me. :-D

 

The real decision is "do you buy one now or wait for the HD 6550 units to make their way to the Canadian retailers." There was also an I5-480M HD 6670 model listed on a chineese website but I think they mislabeled an HD 6370 GPU. I considered the pending release of the 6xxx units and went with the HD 5650 anyway. BTW, the 6xxx series units are in-stock in Germany.

Bronsky

@Alvrin - thanks for the information. It seems that the I7 consistently OC's at speeds lower than the I5. I would love to know why.

 

Quoting myself because it's time for the swap.

Heads up to those thinking of the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB.

Newegg has it on sale now for $89.99 after coupon code BTEZZYZ26.
Shipped free.

Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

 

Yeah, I already saw that. Yesterday Amazon Germany did declare the 5.12. as shipping date for a i5-460M with the HD6550 but it seems as if the side has been pulled back since then. I think I will wait 2 weeks but I suppose they'll release a version with a rebranded 5650 at best.