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

i don't think so or yor laptop is grow up to a 14" model.

It's a 14" display.

 

Yes, and my laptop is a 4810TG, so a 14.0'' display fits it perfectly .

@Bronsky

This panel is supposedly rated at 220Cd\m3 (or whatever the SI unit is). I've calibrated and lowered the gamma, looks a bit more acceptable now. Maybe it's useful during sunlight time, but this max brightness setting hurts my eyes more than anything, lol.

 

Hey guys, since you're able to OC the 3820TG to such "good" levels, will the same be a possibility in the ENVY14? If not, what factors will it depend on? Is it simply just the cooling?

 

The cooling will be the determining factor in case the temps reach around 100°C.
Else, it can depend on the multiplier locker, the RAM and finally the CPU chip.

DDR3 1333 instead of 1066 may negate the RAM factor, as it will overclock higher at that same CAS settings.

Update: Here's a picture showing the display panel brightness, while browsing NBR. Note that the panel was the only light source in the room and the keyboard is NOT back-lit.

 

while some of you are waiting for the germany model to arrive in North America

I went to staples here in canada and about the 3820tg

here are some pics.

AUO panel

I went to staples and bought it today.



are these ati graphics automatic switching?

anyway here are some pics

 

YEAH IM A NEW OWNER !!!

The canadian model with core i5, ati hd 5470.

A couple of quick questions :

how do you make recovery disk without burner? is it possible to make a usb key recovery disk?

What bloatware should not be uninstalled? I already got rid of most third party trial software, but what about acer soft?

I'm new to windows seven, any advice on optimizing it? I'll google some guide anyway when I have more time

 

nice staples in canada is carrying them

i notice its the 5470 version, how much of a difference is that from the 5650?

 

lol staples e?

yeh join the club lol i went right away!

u would need a externaldvd writer lol stupid me i sold mine with my asus.

 

i hear games are playable still?

i am not sure i am not a gamer, but i wanted a dedicated video card !

i had a 50$ coupon at staples so i used it as wlel

nice lil gift for myself

 

lastdon - The 3840TG looks very nice. The only difference I see is that the keyboard layout is a little different from my 4820TG.

3840TG


4820TG

 

do your keys float in the air? these keys i have never see before floating like that (like my 3280tg)

I am really afraid they will be very easy to snap off even with an accidental hit or tap.

did you get yours from microcenter?

 

Yes, my keys do float in the air. It's like that on most of the Acer laptops. It takes a week to get used to it. I haven't snapped any keys so far... and I play games on it every day. haha

I did get mine from MC.

 

i kept trying to register my email .. and kept pressing shirt + 2 for the @ sign for ten minutes lol and it kept giving me quotes .. there is a button that says alt Car can we change that? so annoing!


your 4820gt the mousepad area looks like a more flat finished gray compared to the 3820gt? or is that just the pic

 

It's just the picture. Mine looks exactly like yours in person. It's just I took mine under different light conditions. I will take better pictures when I have time.

 

aswesome, yours has the icore 3 right? i guess the only diff is no turbo boost, but who cares..

i was debating hard hard, i am still going to be testing this one out or buy the i5-620m 14inch from geramny.. or the hp envy 14 for the screen real estate

cause i work in the graphic field and i need a high resolution screen, but i also need portability!

 

Check out My Computer and Windows 7 Optimization Guide .

 

so i've been playing with this laptop for a while without a battery in it yet just to get the hang of it

..

it has two exhaust sides right and left. the bottom of it on powersave mode plugged in, gets fairly warm.
and the right hand rest also gets warm .

for comparison sakes my asus ul30-a2 hardly ever got warm to any touch. but that is a ulv processor.
the acer i got is a icore 5-430m - for some reason i woudln't put power processors like in nice tiny shells like this!!! look at the macs and heating up eggs!


anyway at idle these are my temps so far.

 

@lastdon

In your opinion does the 5470 ATI have the horsepower to handle AUTOCAD ?

 

Hey guys, I really like the look of the laptop. How do i Get the 3820tg in the US? What are my options? How about the 4820tg. What are the noticeable differences other than size?

 

@Bronsky
Looks like the temp address expired before you managed to complete the mail... but thanks for giving it a go!

How does one sent PMs on this forum anyway? i will give you a permanent address...

 

In case You haven't seen it yet, this might help

[ACER 3820TG i7 Thermal Paste+SSD]


BTW I've just ran 3dMark06 to see how the refreshed Acer stock VGA drivers + Catalyst 10.5. do their jobs.

3DMark score - 7428
SM 2.0 score - 2745
SM 3.0 score - 3398
CPU Score - 2509

3Dmark says I have 5750 too.

 

wow, interesting! Especially the screenshots regaring the temps before and after applying the thermal grease.

But I'd love to see a comparison of temps under load in both cases

 

Yea it bounced back. Go to user CP. You'll see the message section. PM an address and I'll send it.

 

@Setfsb overclockers: Can you comment on what the stable CPU overclock is. Can you reach over 3 ghz stable?

Also some stock vs cpu overclock benchmarks would be nice.

 

What benchmarks would you like to see? I uploaded some wPrime screenshots with different speeds a few posts above.

 

@kiskapu
Wow indeed - very useful! Never would have found it... thanks! Google really needs to make a translation cache that is searchable! Can you imagine the POWER!?

@Bronsky
Done! And thanks

 

Can you add on of the stock clock?

So going from 2.6 Ghz to 3.2 you shaved 6 seconds of Wprime. Impressive. But are those clocks stable to use 100% of the time?

Is the heat an issue ?

@ Bronsky - Thanks for the service manual!!

 

Some preliminary thoughts:

- I wonder if Acer actually tried connecting the two heatsinks? That should be fairly easy to do, even temporarily.

- The hack is using a lot of paste. I would use less if its possible, but the conductive tape is usually 1mm thick or so and there may be bad contact/ extra flex all over the place...

- The fans were never taken apart, and i cant see what kind of grill is inside. It may be that adding a few holes or vertical cuts will increase surface area dramatically. shouldnt lose much stiffness either.

 

The screenshots with 132.7 MHz fsb are the stock ones.

I've ran Furmark and wPrime with GPU at stock speed and cpu @164 MHz fsb for ~30 minutes. No stability and heat issues. Temps stay at the same level.

Room temperature was at ~30°C.

 

Thanks Ponjornoh, thats a very nice increase vs stock and it seems stable as you say. Almost worth my selling my unit and getting a model that I can overclock the CPU..That kind of boost is worth it

All we need now is Bronsky to get a i7 620m and see what kinda of overclock he could get? Or a i7 620m owner to overclock the cpu for us? Come on i7 3820TG owners......

Imagine if they could do 3.8 Ghz on the i7's

 

I could not get the pics but his descrpition of applying the paste sounded like he was plastering a wall.

The delay in shipping has been a godsend. All of you are getting all the hard work done. By the time my Acer gets here, I already know the OC settings for the GPU and CPU and every improvement I want to do has been done and documented for me, so I can study and tweak the processes.

Anybody hear about how that Canadian unit doing - delivered yet?

@ftgg99 The split manual file is on my desktop and everybody is still asleep. I'll send that email later today.

Oh and I really need a source for the Bluetooth Cable. I would like to do the splice in advance. Anybody have any ideas? Hey insider, you have a part number for the 3.0 module cable. Too new for my manual. Sorry to be a pain, but you're the only Acer employee that seems to have a clue.

@Hendrickson "Imagine if they could do 3.8 Ghz on the i7's" I've been thinking the same thing. What a monster of a machine this will be with an OC'd I7-620M and an OC'd HD5650. I can't wait to compare it to the workstation I'm using. I've decided not to wait for the 3820TG to be delivered, I'm ordering the CPU now so I can do this as soon as I know that the machine works. There don't seem to be a lot of defects shipping. It is amazing how few complaints we have heard from owners.

Bronsky

 

@ Bronsky

Open your eyes and have a look at page 79 (number at the page) on the service manual.

BT cable (wire) 50.4HL01.011

Edit: By the german replacement shop the part is not at stock.

mk-electronic.de

 

@setFSb overclockers.

do you reach a stable Core speed??
mine is the core i5-430. The FSB is set to 150Mhz.
On full load with prime 95 at 90°C (stable) the multiplier is periodicaly jumping between 17x and 18x. The Corespeed is 2555(17X) or 2700(18x).

can someone confirm that?

 

@ Bronsky, if your i7 620m can do 3.8Ghz and keep the heat undercontrol I'm selling my 3820TG on ebay in a flash as the "Worlds first backlit keyboard 3820TG"

It will be a 13' monster overclocked i7 620m Since there are no ATI 5650 models on ebay I should have no issues selling it either I think. Will lose 50 euros or more in the ebay fees etc.

What isthe model number that is confirmed to overclock and has the 3G modem in it? (The 3G modem is something I always wanted anyway)

 

My multiplier toggles as well. If I choose just one thread in wPrime it is stable at 20. With more threads this toggling occurs, but it's still above the regular max without boosting (>=18).

Be sure to use the long run to reproduce this (1024M).

 

LX.PV002.003 BT3 & UMTS

 

That is the 2.1 model cable. Right? I have that number. I'm trying to find out if the 3.0 is any different. If not, I'm going to order a half dozen as soon as I can find them.

Bronsky

 

The only 3820TG available in north america seems to be at Staples in Canada. First a Poly Tech school and now staples. Wot Up Wit Dat Acer? So, if you want an HD 5650 version, your still out of luck.

The 4820TG is available in the I3/350M/HD5650 configuration at MicroCenter. I think everyone is saying that the units are not on display yet. They are on the MC website.

"T" models are available on Amazon.

Some of us who are less sane, have ordered from Germany and are having our units delivered by strapping them on the backs of pack mules and walking them to our homes or offices. My unit shipped on the 23rd of June and I have not received it yet. Soon I hope.

Bronsky

 

I'm having an issue, but it might be a feature

When I clock the CPU and say load up a car game, I will get a "jelly" effect. That is, the whole thing slows down as if I was driving into glue, cartoon style. It happens smoothly, not typical lag. Game just slows down and then increases speed at regular intervals. I'm guessing it's the cpu throttling or related to turbo boost/threading. It's happening with temperatures even under 80c and also happens if I clock up, and then clock down to the stock speeds in SetFSB.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Mac

 

Can you poste the name of the game?

 

Hello! Is there any solutions for this question? I don't want to buy externel DVD burner just because of this. Could it work with Daemon tools?

 

@ Bronsky so you plan to take the power fro the keyboard off the bluetooth 3 card?

@m4cr0s Do all games do this?

 

Use this programm to create a virtual DVD burner and copy the iso to a secure place.

Phantom Drive

 

You could use phantom drive ( http://www.phantom-drive.com/en/default.htm) to simulate a burner to create iso files. Works great... even with the trial version.

 

I'm thinking of "y" splicing the jumper wires from the keyboard lighting into the BT 3.0 cable harness. The other end of the wires can be glued onto the ribbon and covered with shrink wrap. Have you seen the Acer backlight mod? That would avoid the need to solder anything and give the mod a more finished look.

I'm still thinking about other options. Would love to find a power source that can be controlled to adjust the light level. I need some more time to read the manual.

Bronsky

 

I've seen it in Dirt (the original) and Grid. Both are a few years old and I think they might be based on the same gfx engine? Other games that are affected are for instance Civilization IV. I'm guessing these might have issues with the way the i5 works, strange though that it only happens when clocked.

Thats a good question. As far as I'm able to determine it only happens in older games, for instance the 2009 title Red Faction Guerilla seems to run as it's supposed to. Source-based games (Half-Life 2+) are fine too, despite being 2004 era, but these have received regular updates. I haven't got that many games installed (yet) to test with though.

Mac

 

just an update that if anyone else gets the one from staples in canada

it is bluetooth 3.0 the staples site is wrong, the acer box specfically states bluetooth 3.0

 

So someone posted a pic of the ENVY14's "internals" as showing it having 2 fans. Not sure if it's a "good" cooling system, but since it does have 2 fans, would it likely be able to be OC'd etc? (Hopefully to 3820TG levels?

Also, @Bron, DHL still delivers in the US, ya know. There's a DHL truck delivering to my office building like every Monday, in downtown LA. So maybe you might wanna contact them if you haven't already to see if they have any info. Cuz USPS sucks--Got-damn bureaucracy.

 

The only issue I see with that system is that it vents one fan right under the display. The Studio XPS 16 had a problem with a vent like that, but I'm assuming that HP has considered that issue. If you look at the way the heat sinks are routed, it looks brilliant. They use 1 for the GPU (which normally runs at least 10C cooler in the 3820TG) and they run both across the CPU. The concept is really smart. I am thinking it is going to work very well. I have to say, in all, I am very impressed with the quality of the design, engineering and manufacturing of the Envy (what I have seen so far). I wish someone would do a burn test and get it over with.

The only issue I have with it is the lack of high range Arrandales available as CPU options. I would have liked to see at least an I5-540M. An I7-620M would have been nice too. It is a shame to waste such a powerful cooling system. I think it is designed to handle the heat of the I7QM.

If portability was not so important to me, I would have gone Envy and probably have been very happy with what I am seeing. As it is, I am waiting for DHL's pack mules to arrive.

You still going Envy?

Bronsky

 

Thank You guys, seems to be working Great! Im using Acer eRecovery, is it doing the Win7 cd that I need to use when and if I want reinstall it?