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

So by buying this one instead of the Canada Computers one, I saved $250 including tax. Well worth the diminished gaming performance imo.

 

Just mentioning that ATI came out with its 11.1 drivers and after installing them everything seems like it works well. Brightness keys still function. Just played BFBC2 for 3 hours and hit max temp of 79C. Worth a look if you're interested. Link is on first page for latest ATI drivers.

EDIT: Just for clarification, this temp is at stock clocks of the GPU. Also included with these new drivers is a new Catalyst Control Center that is...well...different. You have to try it out to see if you like it or not.

 

It did go away. After a fresh Win7 install I lost automatic graphics switching and now have to do it manually. I think the "automatic" graphics switching was the cause.

Thats the one from Staples right? How'd you find the coupons? I remember there was a $50.00 off just before x-mas but I can't seem to find it now. I already have my 3820TG but a friend of mine wants the staples one because he doesn't game.

 

Beautiful video! Whats the large thing being attached to the bottom? An additional battery? Knowing sony if these "are" going to be the new laptops that lower portion will probably be required for mobile computing to last above 3.5 hours. My guess is the thing would only last just under 1 hour without that large bottom pack. And what about heat ventilation??? Hummm, much to be considered


EDIT:Sorry for double post.

 

alright guys, having been tempted for monthssss and finally seeing a very decent price for the 3820tg ive decided that i should really bite the bullet and buy one.

just need to make sure that for the price and size factor that this is still the best laptop out there? as of now im looking to buy a laptop taht i can fairly comfortably take to university and use for lighter stuff but still be able to future proof for the next 3 years or so (i will do the occasional sc2/nba 2k11 gaming) ? i will be buying the i5-460m, 5650 version. Ive been told to wait till sandy bridge laptops come out but i just feel that this laptop is probably the top of its class for a while??

long post but just need to make sure.

thanks in advance

o btw how much battery life can i expect if i put the laptop on like 30% brightness, wifi on, integrated and web/notes?

 

Anybody knows a good cooler pad that fits under the 3820TG?
One with ODD, HDD dock, and some extra USB-s would be flawless

 

The SandyBridge units may get a bit more battery life, a bit more power and a bit more graphics boost, but the 3820TG specs still hold their own against the refreshes I've seen, which have either the AMD 6630 GPU or Nvidia GT 540M. I won't be trading in my 3820TG anytime soon.

Bronsky

 

Great! The brightness key is finally fixed. Got a few more FPS in SC2 as well! Setting AI to advanced give me even better FPS. No temperature increment detected compared against Acer's driver.

 

Yep. I got $50 of coupons from them via e-mail, then found the remaining $20 on RFD. Basically I saved myself the cost of HST.

 

awesome, thanks for that bronksy. So agreed that nothing really comes close when it comes to price/performance/form factor?

btw is it possible to undervolt the i5 so that i can pull out just a little bit more battery life out of it? and what would i be expecting in terms of battery life as well? 5hours web surfing/note taking seems viable right?

 

With an i3 and brightness at 10%-30%, I usually get a little over 6 hours on mine with just web surfing and note taking. Of course YMMV.

 

Apparently the ATI 5470M is weaker than I thought... But it still isn't worth it to pay an additional $250 for a more powerful GPU.

 

hi agan guys, where can i find ati 6550 drivers for 3820tg ? on acer's wetsite it seems there aren't anymore! i remember they went out in november 2010

 

I'd actually like to know if it is possible to undervolt the i5 processor too. I'm a sucker for getting the most out of my notebook, and even though I can get around 5-6 hours now, I want more!

 

Has anyone else noticed the contrast on LG panel seems better when using IntelHD vs 5650? Or is it my imagination?

Contrast is lousy IMO on this panel.

 

The drivers are available here in the VGA section.

 

I don't know, I'm pretty happy with mine. I actually use the program
F.lux: software to make your life better
to dim the display a little

 

Just installed the new 11.1 Catalyst driver. Here are the 3dmark06 score and temps.
In case the pictures don't load correctly, it's 7830 3dmarks split circa 2807/3530/3008 2.0/3.0/CPU. I'm at work right now and can't remember the exact figures. The Temps were 42C Min / 73C Max after running 3dmark06.

This is on stock 6550M (600/800) with i5 480M CPU. My highest non-OC score so far.
The card's detected as 5600/5700 for some reason so nevermind that .

Starcraft 2 Campaign Mode runs on Ultra @ 1360x768 with 30-40 FPS. Reflections are off, they make no difference to visual quality but drop my average FPS by around 15 .




Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

could someone clear up the whole 6550m 5650m thing?
whats going on with that? is the 6550m just a 5650m with bios updated?

 

Yes. HD6550 is a slightly OCed HD5650- the core is @600MHz by default instead of 550MHz in HD5650. Also to ensure stability at this new higher frequency the voltage has been risen slightly.
So HD6550 is going to be slightly faster and a bit warmer than HD5650 but then again additional core voltage will allow for some more overclocking (that's if the cooling system allows)

 

Just to add to that, the 6550 is a beast for overclocking - at least in the particular laptop I've got.

It goes up to 850/1050 with no problems what-so-ever stability-wise, no artifacts anything. I'm quite sure i can push it quite a bit higher, just haven't tried as it plays pretty much everything fluently on high @ stock clocks anyway .

 

so how can we upgrade it? im lost here D:

 

Thank you so much

 

Nice! How do you guys do the OC? Do you OC permanently, to start on startup, or do you just OC when you want to play games?

 

I bought the 6550M with I5-480M. I had to return it cause the LG screen was giving me headaches and severe eye strain...

Sucks... Had it not been for the screen, would have been a beast of a machine.

 

I've OC'ed it for benchmarking, but that's about it. Seeing as the 6550 is quite powerful as it is, there is no reason for me to actually overclock it unless I want to play some graphically intensive games. So I keep the setting saved, and when I start Battlefield Bad Company 2, I crank that monster of a graphics card up; otherwise, I just keep it at stock.

Can you explain more in detail what was wrong with your screen? I have an LG screen too, although it's a 4820TG model. I don't think I've had any problems, but if the problem you're describing in your LG screen is persistent across all TimelineX's, then I'd like to nip the problem in the bud.

 

I had a 3820TG-6829. The screen is pretty bright and the colors are decent. However, whenever I look at the screen, I start getting eye strain and headaches. Nothing unbearable but definitely noticeable enough to make me not want to use the computer for longer than 15 minutes.

However, I worked an assignment for about 3 hours last night and the tiredness in my eyes remained even after 8 hours of sleeping. At that point, I decided to return the laptop. I am an engineering student and am constantly looking at monitors and screen for the majority of my day. I've never had this issue with any other monitor and am not picky about screen. This is the first time I had to return anything because of a screens. Maybe it was just a defective screen in my case but the laptop was unusable from my perspective.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi. You can't really upgrade it, you but a laptop with either 5650 or 6550.

I'm not sure if the actual parts are any different, but the 6550 operates on higher voltage with a higher stock clock.

 

Hi. 90% of the time, I don't OC at all. I can play all games on high and native fluently at the moment, including some AA / AF where it matters.

For the other 10%, I use AMD GPU Clock tool and set clocks before I play the game, as high as is needed for fluent framerates. I've yet to go higher than 790/930. I'm sure I will do once games like The Witcher 2 come out, before that there is no point.

Also remember to ALWAYS have HWMonitor running in the background when you're applying any sort of OC. Use it frequently to monitor your GPU and CPU temps and avoid damage from overheating.

 

Guyz, any idea what display may I replace my AUOB133XW01 V2 by?
I'm looking for a better contrast and viewing angles. Best is some IPS-matrix but with resolution not less then native (1366x768)

Will be appreciated for your assistance.

Regards!

 

Oh okay
I thought I had read someone posting that a driver update turns the 5650 into a 6550 and that it is the same chip. My bad.

 

Nooo! I got the LG monitor! My eyes are feeling a bit weird already... It can get so bright and the contrast seems to be too high.

 

Is it possible to over clock the 5470?

 

Well for my laptop, I download the same driver from Acer, it says 5650/6550 driver. So if you just slightly overclock/overvolt your 5650 it's most likely going to be the same thing.

 

Yes it is possible, I would suggest upgrading to the latest Acer driver as I was only able to overclock with that.

one problem which i did have after overclocking it was that after running COD MWF2 for about 10 mins, it froze and shut down then would bluescreen about 30 seconds after reboot every single time.

To remedy this you need to uninstall everything with ATI on it in safemode and then reinstall drivers upon rebooting your tg.

 

Yeah I'm afraid of that happening, so I never set my overclock to start on boot. I don't see a reason for it anyways.

 

Hey guys, I hope I am posting this in the right place.
I am looking at buying either
This
AS3820TG-7360
Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3820TG-7360, Notebook (Brushed Aluminum, Black) - Intel Core i3-370M, 13.3" HD, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, ATI RADEON HD 5650, Wireless N, Webcam, HDMI, Windows 7 Home Premium | Canada Computers
or
Acer AS3820TG-6829
Acer AS3820TG-6829, Notebook - Intel Core i5-480M 2.66GHz, 13.3" LCD, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, AMD Radeon HD 6550 1GB, No ODD, Wireless BGN, Bluetooth, HDMI, Webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium | Canada Computers

And i just wanted to confirm that the Radeon HD 5650 was the better GPU making the AS3820TG-7360 the better buy.

Thanks for the help and sorry if I posted in the wrong place.

 

The HD6550 is slightly OC'ed HD5650...
The one with i5 is a better buy..

 

6550>5650 from all indications (the difference isn't huge though). Also, the CPU on the 6829 is the i5-480m as opposed to the somewhat weaker i3-370m.

All that plus the 6829 is on sale right now, and theres lots in stock! I may pick one up myself

 

Can anyone think of an excuse I can use tomorrow to get an exchange for the Acer laptop? The LG screen is killing me. I think I'm just going to say I don't like the quality of the screen.

 

Do they offer a DOA exchange? how long have you it? you could "dead it" as bad as that sounds.

 

surely with a community as large as this we could figure out a way of turning the 5650 into 6550 if it is indeed just an overvolted overclocked 5650 in the first place. Do laptop vga cards have a modifiable bios?

I remember reading that the HD 6950 and HD 6970 were both in fact the same chip however the 6950 did not have all the shaders active. I know that it is a different to unlock shaders than to overvolt a graphics card but I think it would be a similar concept.

I just cant see Acer changing the chip when they could easily use the same one with a different bios. It would not be cost effective at all.

Feel free to shoot me down in flames if you're sure it is impossible.

 

I'm not going to intentionally kill the laptop, though I can make it look like it was DOA due to the way it was packaged.

If it is indeed a rebrand and the GPU itself hasn't changed, it is possible to mod the BIOS into a 6550 such as the AMD 6950 being unlocked into a 6970. I think you'd need someone to create a vBIOS dump of a 6550 then upload it and test it on a 5650 GPU and stuff like that.

Has anyone ever noticed or figured out if there's a way to check which Acer comes with which screen without having to go to Device Manager? I've searched and this thread is "pretty old" and it seems that no one ever figured out if such a method of screen checking exists.

 

I got my laptop back just now, way earlier than expected (@Bronsky: it appears service in Singapore and North America are totally different in terms of the time it takes ). As I expected, they replaced the motherboard. I just stress tested it for a bit at stock settings and everything appears to be fine, although it will take a few days for me to confirm it is perfectly all right.

PS. Is it possible to clone the recovery partition? I want to switch to a WD Scorpio Black and I want to keep the recovery partition as a last safeguard.

 

That's good question. I have the same.
Actually I did copy of recovery partition to my WD MyPassport using Acronis Disk Derector. But I never tried to recover it directly from usb-drive.
Why? Because I have pre-installed Win 7 Home Premium which I don't like.
So I recovered my laptop-> Upgraded my OS to Win 7 Ultimate using "Windows Anytime Upgrade"-> Did back up of my system disk by Acronis.

So when I need to back up I have to use this soft (Acronis), but all my soft and most important Win 7 Ultimate remains.

I excuse for my bad English. I am Ukrainian...

 

I wouldn't recommend manually overvolting a GPU though. That's venturing a bit too far into a dangerous territory .

Hi.

The i5-480M HD 6550 laptop is much faster for all intents and purposes.

The i5 is faster and has Turboboost (2.67 -> 2.93Ghz). The i3 is doesn't support TB.

The 6550 GPU has more voltage and a higher Core clock. It's only 50Mhz on the Core, but because the voltage and Core clock are higher, it overclocks much better and is more stable at higher frequencies than a 5650.

Hope this helps .

Edit: Corrected some facts as pointed out by fellow posters .

 

Stupid idea. A look at the smart values of the hdd shows you the runtime

Should be possible.

Try dd (Linux) if the new drive is greater or equal to the old one.

 

Got mine back from RMA, hdd was busted. Now I'm installing drivers on a fresh installation. The problem is, that after installing the 11.1 drivers in discrete mode, the screen stays black when booting to windows (switchable mode).

Discrete mode works fine, but switching doesn't. Any ideas?

Edit: Closing the lid and reopening got the picture to show, but still can't toggle the switch between the cards. Neither hotkeys or the menu work.

 

I was thinking more if it extends for the first week or so, I may have used the wrong term. A lot of retailers in Australia will replace a unit, no questions asked if it "dies" within 7 or 14 days for example.

 

Call them and ask about the return policy

now who has a 6550m model who wants to do that? Would it need to be a bios specific to the 3820tg or would one from any laptop do?