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

When I run a 650/950 o/c my gpu idles at 55 max occasionally too.
When gaming, my gpu occasionally goes into the low 80's, I have experienced no artifacts in either games or atitool or furmark. The exception is a game called Champions Online, but many others have experience that same problem as well, so my gpu is probably ok (I hope).

I just wish the fan speed would go over 30%, it would result in much better temperatures. Or maybe my fan speed does go over 30% and gpu-z doesn't report it?

 

hey guys,

is there a release date for the refresh of the timelinex (3820TG) product family? (Sandy Bridge, USB 3.0 and stuff like that?)

My supplier say that there will be a refresh soon, but they can not say when? Do you think more than 1 month ?

kind regards
mavel

 

8 GB of RAM wil NOT (I repeat: NOT) improve your speed unless you effectively use more than 4 GB RAM so your system starts swapping. I do not advice using 8 GB of memory unless you're doing some serious Photoshop processing (espacially RAW), video editing or working with virtual machines or so. I'm not aware of ANY game demanding over 4 GB of RAM.
On the other hand, every portable I have here all went through the same standard 'upgrade': put in an OCZ SSD (I like the Vertex 2 a lot but guess any other serious brand will do just as well) and put in Corsair (or other good brand) memory kit with tight CL timings (mostly obtained by just buying higher speed RAM, thus giving tighter timings when clocked 'down').

I've read on one of the Acer sites (don't know which one anymore) the new generation TimelineX would be due somewhere in June ... so I'm afraid some more patience will be required.
Personally, I'd first want to make sure there are no more design or production flaws or issues ... Sandy Bridge launch didn't exactly went smooth (and that's an understatement )

 

hey. I'm thinking of getting one of these. Is this a good deal for this model?

AS3820TG-6829 W7HP64B ENG/FR Corei5-480M(3M L3 cache,2.66G,35W)4G(2/2)DDR3 500G LX.RAC02.041

 

By all means ... YES!
I so hate to see these American prices anyway
In Belgium (where I live), they don't even bother importing it with an i5 (hence neither with a HD6550) so I always have to go through the process of buying it online in Germany (849€), having it sent to Belgium (20€) and order a Belgian keyboard here (another 50€ delivered). Makes this very same portable about 920€ ... that's a very hard $1.260

 

Thanks for your response! The shipping is free also, so I thought it was a pretty good deal. I've been contemplating this or the m11X, but just reading this thread has almost convinced me that the Acer is much better.

 

I almost bought the M11x but when I found 3802TG it was love at first sight =P

Are you from Canada or do they ship to the US? I spent 805CN which means 833 US dollars, for the very same laptop. =/

 

Cool! Yeah, I'm Canadian.

 

Would overclocking the HD 6550 from 600/800 to 650/950 have a noticeable effect on the fps in games? Around how many increased fps will result?

 

Each game have different demands, so in a CPU demanding game it can increase nothing, while in a bandwitch bottleneck game just the vram OC could increase 5 fps. Of course the game configuration would interfere too.

5 years ago, when I was still overclocking graphics cards, I was doing this to change from 20 to 30 fps, in games like BF2. Today I don't want the better graphics, just enough to discern what is on screen. I hate to play new games in 640x480.

 

hahaha i think most people who bought the 3820tg was at one point enamored with the m11x. i think it was the anandtech rating for the m11x that made me go with the 3820tg. The m11x has a huge bezel, so in the end, the two laptops are almost the same size, except the 3820tg is lighter, sleeker, and more powerful

and yeah... i paid $1000 for my 3820tg, so for $700, you should jumpt on it!

 

M11x is too huge and heavy to be a portable laptop, with a too small screen, have a chronic hinge issue and it's still an alien. I don't like that.

The only pro is the price of the C2D version. I was going to buy it unhappy if I didn't find this owners lounge before.

 

Huge discovery. Do your 3820tg's with HD 6550 undervolt from 1.05 V to 1.00 V, therefore losing 50 mhz on the core clock, when playing Youtube videos?

It's only on Youtube videos, you can go to Youtube without clicking any videos and nothing will happen. The video doesn't even have to be playing for this to happen. As soon as you close the windows, or go back, the voltage and core clock goes back to normal.

I play Crysis, and many other gpu demanding games on this laptop and it never undervolts. It's just Youtube videos, I went to metacafe and dailymotion to watch some videos to test, and it didn't happen in those websites.

Is this normal?

 

Bronsky: thank you very much... i don't remember when, but i'm sure that we discussed in thread about if it's better to change our i5 480 (or some) with an high i5 (i5 580) or an i7 ( i7 640), and, if i'm not in wrong, you told that you prefered an i5 580 'cause it has 3 mb cache vs 4mb of the i7.. is that right?? a 4mb cache processor is slower the a 3mb?? why you prefered the last one??
have you made a walkthrough guide about upgrading cpu on our 3820 tg (maybe with some pics) or you have used a pre-existing guide?? thanks!!

Baretsu: thank you, a fast 4 giga kit in better and faster for gaming and OCing so... what do you think about kingston hyperX 1333 cl7 2x2 giga kit??? will works with my 3820???
that kit and a corsair F120 ssd should be my next upgrade, what's your opinion???
p.s: i'm waiting for your 640m tests, hope soon!!!

 

It's called powerplay. What powerplay does is to undervolt your GPU so that your laptop saves power and less heat is generated. Perfectly normal, and unlike your title, it's not a huge discovery

 

lol, but it happens with powerplay disabled.

 

That's because when your GPU is hardware accelerating a video (flash or otherwise) it's not using normal power profile.
It's using a UVD profile which hasn't been changed since HD5650 arrived.
You can use AIDA or Everest to check on it. If UDV is listed as 550/800 then you have an answer- if not then I don't know

 

Has anyone tried the 11.2 ATI graphics drivers? Does everything work like brightness? Any improvements?
Thanks

 

FN+brightness is working. I'm not a gamer or bencher, no information about the speed of this version.

 

AcerAspire TimelineX AS3820TG 2.26GHz Core i5-430M - eBay (item 300528626654 end time Feb-27-11 10:36:21 PST)

 

I do on the other hand. All the reports from HD5650 users of different notebooks seem to indicate that 11.2 is indeed a worthy upgrade performance-wise.

 

Great! Thanks a million!

 

Will installing 11.2 catalyst make the intel integrated video (switchable graphics) not work?

 

There's a nice walk through guide here from this forum (next time, search the thread). If not, the service manual is nice as well (also for spare parts).
Don't spend your money on expensive RAM (unless you're really trying to break some Pi records or so ) as the gain is not worth the price. 1333 MHz CL9 will automatically become CL7 on 1066 MHz, that's more than enough gaining without spending any extra money (that is unless you can find it at the same price of course).
And if you feel like emptying your pockets anyway: GO FOR THE SSD! Even before switching the RAM (and I wouldn't if you're not upgrading to 8 GB anyway), the SSD will give you a much bigger improvement and will give you way more value for the money.

 

Btw, I find the screen on my 3820tg to be very good, or maybe I'm just very easily pleased I don't know if it's LG or Samsung since I don't know how to check it.

 

yeah thats true, with that 1333 ram kit i was trying to obtain more stability in oc and a CL faster (5 at 1066) in daily use...
ssd will be my choice anyway... ram or not ram... looking for a guide-walkthrough to see if the cpu upgrading will be difficult or easy.. where you bought your 640?? laptopmonkey???
p.s: was looking that our laptops seems to be twin: same freq for vga in 3d mark for stability...computeruniverse right?? best shop of ever!!

 

You can check it by going to

My Computer > Properties > Device Manager > Monitors > Generic PnP > Properties > Details > Hardware ID

It should be listed there. For reference mine is LGD023F.

 

It will be CL7 at 1066MHz no matter what the 1333MHz CL is, unless its high performance ram with lower latency.

 

There's some CL5 HyperX 2x2GB Ram, would those actually work in CL5?

 

HyperX moduls seems to die hyper fast.

 

Got MLAA working with Catalyst 11.2 on 3820tg. Won't work with just setting 3 registry (MLF_NA, etc), must add a few value in UMD subkey as well:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...ile-catalyst-11-2-released-4.html#post7162993

 

So if i were to get a 3820tg, would you suggest to just get 1 stick of any old 4gb ram since it already came with 4?

I'm still on the fence on whether to wait or not, my old Sony SZ died, I was planning on replacing it with a Z but if the SA/SB CPUs are coming out, probably not worth it. This would be a nice computer to last me a long time though but i'd probably put my old Momentus XT from my SZ into it since I had it for about 2 weeks before it died.

Would HyperX CL5 make a difference in this at all?

 

This laptop comes with two sticks of 2GB, so you have to buy a 2x4GB kit if you want to upgrade and keep dual channel.

I don't know if the BIOS supports CL5, maybe you have to set up on a Windows application.

 

Would CL9 at 1600 put it at CL5 at 1066?

Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model KHX1600C9S3K2/8GX

It's at most $20 more, may be worth it if it's slightly faster even if it's just on benchmarks.

 

A single RAM module will most probably give you a higher overclocking potential. This is due to the fact OC'ing is very stressful on the memory controller and dual-channel is more sensitive so it becomes more resilient.
But working with a single module, will also drops the RAM to single channel, halving the overall RAM speed. Not so good ...
I'd prefer dual-channel over a higher FSB for daily use, especially when NOT overclocking. Just for the kicks and to test the OC potential however, you might want to pull out 1 stick (now those 8 GB of RAM finally come in handy for once ) and see how far you can push yours.
Cas Latency makes a difference but only for very specific 'tasks' (understand: especially benchmarks like Sisoft Sandra and some specific applications) but doesn't make that much of a difference in every days use. Low-latency memory modules do tend to use higher quality chips however, often resulting in better overclocking capabilities.

 

Their datasheet doesn't say all the CL table, but says it will work as 1333MHz with the same CL9. Probably you will get the same CL7 with these HyperX at 1066.

 

For $99 surely someone can afford to try it!

On another not, im not sure if this has been posted before as I have been away but the 3820TG Broadcom Bluetooth module is now available on Ebay here: 2.1 Bluetooth Module for Acer AS3820T AS3820TG AS 3820T (eBay item 120677452828 end time 28-Feb-11 01:05:13 AEDST) : Computers Networking
I'm wondering if anyone has been looking for one as long as I have! Also it is upgradeable to BT3.0 with new drivers, not sure if all broadcom modules allow this. driver link is on the page.

 

Do someone have a multimeter to point out the best spots on the BT module to solder? It would be a great help since I don't have a DMM here.

I would ask Kingston Support about the JEDEC Timings Table first.

 

They have a screw notch for that, no need for solder.

 

I updated my driver to the latest Mobility Catalyst 11.2, but switchable graphics is screwed now (clicking on power-saving GPU in CCC does not work). Does anyone else have this problem, and is there a fix for this?

 

I didn't open it yet, but this screw is just for ground, right? What about the vcc?

 

You guys see this?

Looks like Sony finally has a laptop comparable to ours in performance (TBD, of course) coming out in March/April.

http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=6522&NewsAreaId=2

Of course, who knows if you will be able to overclock it like our beast, but considering it has a DVD/bluray player stuffed in there, I doubt it.

And then of course there's pricing. But at least it will be available in the US.

`McRaft

 

Looks nice, as always SONY's products looks nice, but does it cost a hand and a leg?
IMO laptops are electronic devices belonging to depreciating asset category hence it should never be expensive in the first place.

 

I think the screw is to hold it to the board.

 

Using Catalyst 11.2, no problem with switchable. No problem with OC too. A little tweak, my 5650 finally got past 10k in 3dmark06 with a modest 10003... (no CPU OC)...

 

is the same thing i thought...
1066 cas 5 is not bad for a daily use and in oc assure (...) more stability...
hyper x never disappointed me...
i'm going to buy an SSD, are there controindications buying an OCZ Vertex 2E instead Vertex 2???
thanks!!

 

I found something:

 

Slightly dumb question, but what is the best way to clean the Acer screen? Just water?

 

New question (and I apologize in advance if I've breached protocol) I have a 3820TG i5 with a 6-cell battery and and 3820T i5 with a 9-cell battery. I'd like to use the 9-cell in the TG, but while it will run on battery, the laptop does not appear to recognize it. is there a software tweak one can use?

 

I use water and cotton. But not more than three or four times in the laptop lifetime.