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

1. Install the Acer ATI driver (Make sure you have the intel gfx driver installed too)
2. Then go into the bios and set the Discrete gfx only
3. Then when back in windows install 10.5 cat over the top off the acer ati driver.
4. Once again back in the bios set the gfx to switchable.

 

This was posted a few pages back:

EDIT: You beat me to it, Hendrickson.

If you have a 3820TG with 4 GB of RAM, then you will be able to utilize all of it if you use 64 bit Windows 7 (or some other 64 bit OS). With a 32 bit OS, you are out of luck. If you want to know more, google "32 bit 4 gb".

 

Heaven 2.1 benchmark...

 

Thanks for the info Hendrickson

 

I guess the Ideal CPU would be the I5-540M but there is no indication that it will be offered in the 3820TG. As between the I5-520M and the I7-620M, I would go with the 620M only because I do a lot of work that needs the CPU power. I doubt that you will ever outperform the 520M if you are gaming as the CPU will still likely be the limiting factor (although the Oc'ing capability of the 5650 looks amazing). As far as I can see, the 3820TG can handle the heat of the I7. The dual sink/fan unit seems to work very well. The Singapore owners of the I7 seem to say that it works fine.

I'll be looking at any 5650 model because I can upgrade the processor. My quesiton is "should the bios in the 3820TG support an I5-540M if I decide to do that upgrade instead of the I7-620M?"

Bronsky

Now we just have to see how Hendrickson's backlit keyboard works out. I may wind up buying an I5-430M model, swapping a backlit keyboard in and upgrading the CPU to an I5-540M or I7-620M, as well as adding an Intel 160GB SSD. I would love to see a base price in the $900 range.

 

Are any 3820TG's comming through with LG panels?

Bronsky

 

LG Panels in the 3820 TG models? Can you link the sources?

 

Hey guys, first post here.

I picked up my 3820TG yesterday, so I'm still messing around with the initial configurations. So far I've swapped the HDD for a SSD, and installed Win7 Pro.
So far so good, all the drivers from the support site has installed fine.

But, I have an issue with the P-key. When I'm running on the Intel graphics, pressing the P-key switches to the ATI card, but when running on ATI the key does nothing.

Any ides on how to solve that?

 

No source ... just wondering.

 

Works on the battery and with my 10.5 the p key does work(not with power cable), however right click and switch gfx there works.

Btw played BFBB2 for over 2 hours temps maxed at 84c cpu and 73 GPU. The game online with high settings runs at 40-50fps. Don't worry I got a video coming up with proof

Impressive I think for a 13.3 notebook, The ATI GPU is nothing short of amazing. OC'ed at 675 / 1090 she runs so cool!

 

Damn awesome hendrickson

try with this standard res 1280x720 perhaps some improvement

 

what temps are you getting with these settings? Do you have your laptop lifted up ? Waiting for the video 24 player multiplay with explosions etc would be awesome mate! xD may i ask what your proffesion(job) is hendrickson ?

 

I did, you'll get maybe 4-5 fps more? I prefer the native screen res better. Btw the Resident Evil 5 benchmark came out very good too This is one fast unit for gaming and pretty much everything else

Hmm I won't be doing anymore benchmark videos after this batch. Else I will never get anything done, just hundreds of videos. Once my videos are up that will be enough proof I hope for everyone to see that this unit can play games on high settings etc. Its a little beast Take my word for it it is fluid and playable on all maps, 24 players and explosions etc. I don't have weeks to record and upload videos of each scenario people can think off ("What about a video with 24 people on the screen at the same time and smoke screens, explosions and tanks...If it drops below 30fps it sucks send it back" etc lol) . Its time to enjoy this acer

If I can get that backlit keyboard working it will be an almost perfect notebook for me.

Temps were posted above (you even quoted them ) And will be in the video I'm trying to encode without coming out at 1GB... Oh and unlike my gateway the fans are so quite. My gateways fans are always screaming playing demanding games liek that.

Not a Lawyer heh - Export executive. I also do some web development / design.

 

I was wondering is the cpu upgradable to Core i5 580M? I know it's not out yet, but it might be a worthwhile upgrade down the road from i4-430.

Hendrickson, it's amazing that 3dmark06 benchmark of 3820tg is only 1000 points behind your 8800gts on P-6831, and it's not that far behind the 260m either... the 5650 is a beast

 

Clearly oh and 430OC


a video, is the 3820 5470 version, But for those who want to see their appearance

http://itc.ua/node/44602

 

I see you have a real job.

BTW, I've been to the Spanish Med. coast and you are lucky to live there. It is beautiful. I spent a few winters in the Med. when I was younger, Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Fond memories.

 

There was a Singapore model with the I5-540M so there shouldn't be any issues with the BIOS.

 

kewlness! thanks hendrickson!

 

Here is the battlefield bc2 benchmark video and temps / clock proof some of you are screaming for.

YouTube - Acer TimelineX 3820TG Battlefield Bad Company 2 - ATI 5650 benchmark [HD]

(note that loud fan noice is not the laptop. Its a 21" fan to keep me cool (29ish degrees in the room) I didn't think to turn it off sorry. No i won't re-record it without my fan on

Resident Evil 5 variable benchmark video coming....

Also note, as I posted before:

 

@Hendrickson

Thank you for all the benchmarks. You have done a very good job.

 

Nice video hendrickson, thanks for all very apreciated

a question, knows of some software to map keys, Change, Y, Z, and add Ñ for spanish keys

 

No, the best thing is to buy a Spanish keyboard and swap them. I will post a how to when mine arrives.

Your second option is to buy some labels to stick over the keys. Or example the Z and Y.

 

Hendrickson = Pure Awesomeness! Looks like the machine adapted that from you!

 

Hendrickson thanks for a very nice inside into 3820tg performance, i think everyone is more than pleased , may i ask if you have UMTS module build in, and hows the battery while gaming or watching movies if you have time to test it now just go and enjoy your portable gaming laptop. thx 4 everything

 

Is there anything the 3820TG can't do. Honestly, it's the perfect configuration for people who need an all-purpose laptop with portability and some decent horsepower.

 

USB3, eSata or XpressCard, but honestly I never used the last two. USB3 is still too new for me too bother about. No but your right, it is a perfect configuration for people who need an all-purpose laptop with portability and some decent horsepower.

Btw: ResEvil 5 benchmark video up - YouTube - Acer TimelineX 3820TG Resident Evil 5 benchmark ATI 5650

 

quick question, are the o/c speeds on your gpu are the highest you can get or is there still some room left to o/c ? thx

 

just wondering would the warranty be void if I upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit? is there a way to return to the stock system as pre-installed from time of purchase? im assuming they might have a system that can check that and im afraid that would hinder me from availing of their future upgrades in performance for free.. thanks

 

Very good temps hendricks and fps, this ati is awesome

really good

 

Try AutoHotkey. Should work, although I never used it for something so simple.

 

I don't think you can void your warranty by installing a different OS. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. If you want to keep the recovery option, make sure you keep the recovery partition on the hard drive. When you are about to install Windows, you will have to choose a partition to install to. That partition will be formatted, and then Windows will be installed on that partition. (You can also delete existing partitions and make new ones.) Make sure you don't delete the recovery partition (it will be some GB large). Then I suppose you should be able to restore the system to the factory state if you install the eRecovery software from Acer.

 

Note sure, maybe 5-10mhz more.

Last video benchmark is up - YouTube - Acer TimelineX 3820TG Battlefield Battlefield Bad Company 2 ATI 5650 SP benchmark

 

Very nice hendrickson. Very very nice.


There is one game though, that I would like to see gameplay from(not benchmark because its not even to the actual gameplay) and thats GTA4.

GTA4 is interesting because unlike the damn Crysis, GTA4 is a horror of optimization and many high end notebooks still struggle with this game.

Can you show us how it runs on stock clock? fps?

i wonder also if the latest 1.7 patch has helped the game... I gave up after it came out on steam, but I always wanted to play it...


its also good to know in case R* decides to port Red Dead Redemption to PC(same engine!)!

 

Yup, I am officially off of the envy 14...
It looks like it's going to be pricy too..

 

I actually tried using macrium reflect to restore back to default settings the 3820tg after purchase. But it does not let me go further as it pops up a message that drive C is locked. So i guess the only recovery option for this would be the eRecovery from Acer right? And im assuming with that, even if I have already installed a 64bit, would still revert back to 32bit once used. Thanks for the answer oddstock

 

Hey guys!
I've looking at this thread and "the official arrandale timeline..." for months and i recieved my 3820tg from cyberport weeks ago (just like you hendrickson, I'm spanish too).
I did a clean windows 7 install and i can't get the 10.5 drivers to work. Tried everythig you said. Gpu-z says that i've the catalyst a 10.5 but the atiumdag.dll (vga driver?) at 8.6, while the latest version is 8.7.
It also says that the ati has SDR instead of GDDR. Weird...
Bios version at 1.13... i'm doing a clean install and let's see if it works now...
Let me see if you need screenshots...

@hendrickson: nice work with the reviews

@Bronsky & company: be patient....

sorry for my english

Thank you guys

 

here this guy has the same specs running gta4, note it was recorded using fraps so it looks much slower, by the perfomance in the vid i'm certain 3820tg will handle it great. (he shows game settings later in the vid) heres the link:

YouTube - GTA 4 on Acer aspire 5740G

P.S im sure R* will release Red Dead at some point in few months just like they did with GTA, i prob wont have a good optimasition but im sure 3820tg will handle it.. shame game producers srew PC gaming.. anyway im sure bad company2 and number of other games will keep you occupied untill then

P.S2 - found this, have a read some nice benchmarks with same GPU and CPU, of few games, lookin good http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/468091-acer-aspire-5740g-owners-lounge.html

 

Thanks. Good information.

Bronsky

@hendrickson - you have really been a great source of information on the 3820TG.

 

Yes, it is a great man

 

u r every1s hero hendickson (; get the keyboard mod wrking and you 'll be god xD

 

Hendris no response yet of setfsb Creator?

 

Hendrickson, is there any way to get the card to keep the new clock speeds? Mine keep resetting upon reboot.

Edit; And not only that. When switchable graphics is enabled in BIOS, the ATI card keeps resetting to x1 PCI-E. This is getting annoying.

 

No, not yet we need to know the ICS clockgen chip id. Someone needs to open a unit up and find it. or find it somehow. I'm not opening mine up just yet....Maybe in a week or two. When I'm ready to Arctic sliver the CPU / GPU and do the backlit mod.

Not that i know of, Its a pain too retype the clock speeds each time. We need to find a fix for this. ATI tray tools crashes. Rivatuner doesn't support the 5650

I'm on switchable 16x PCI-E here for me. I've had no issues.

 

I'm curious though, people keep talking about making a keyboard light mode..
How is that supposed to happen?

 

There was a backlit keyboard that fit into the 3810T. It seems to fit the 3820T and can be jury rigged to work. It will require a mod.

Bronsky

 

Hendricks in the videos have small freezes every so often for a second, I found this happens in some hdd because of APM feature, but ssd has no physical motor, I do not understand what is happening

thread 5740g
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/468091-acer-aspire-5740g-owners-lounge.html

Stuttering in games- game freezes every couple of minutes for a second or two? Here's the solution. Use this app and disable APM. This is a problem that occurs mainly or only on WD 500GB HDDs.

 

Guys, the most important question before buying this little one:
Are there any working fan control utilities for this model?
(or can we possibly ask devs of like SpeedFan to support our models?)

It would help for
- overclocking
- silence lovers

Anyway, if I feel right, this laptop will be a very popular model and even if there is no such utility now we can possibly see one soon. (Or that's what I hope).

 

Oh god! You solder it to the bluetooth port?? That's insane!
I would just like to say at this point-
omgwt f

 

Ok i'm auto aswering myself.
I've done a clean windows install and I've managed to install the drivers. Everything it's ok now.

However, in switchable graphics mode, gpu-z says that the memory is SDR instead of GDDR and the memory bandwith is lower than normal. In discrete graphics mode everything it's ok. Can anybody confirm this?

Using latest ati drivers and bios version 1.13

EDIT:
I've seen that hendrickson is having the same "problem":
original screenshot from hendrickson:


Notice the memory type: SDR and the bandwith.

On discrete graphics mode these values are correct, correct me if i'm wrong

 

Thats really nothing to worry about, its just a detection issue in GPU-Z of the ram type, if you look at my screenshot you'll see the PCI-E is x 16 @ x16 so thats fine. If it were to read @ x1 there would be an issue. Also my 3dmark06 of over 9000 confirms everything is ok.

SpeedFan would be great for the 3820TG I remember back in the day my dell XPS M17 had such an app to control the fans it was great. Slience lovers will already liek this notebook as its pretty damn quite. My old EEE PC 1000HA makes more fan noise.