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

I sounds like something imposed by DHL, not Computeruniverse. Wow - just Wow.

Bronsky

 

My screen is OK too. I'm not a photographer, also dosen't work with Photoshop, or do any 3D.

I'm comapring this screen to a Latitude E6410's screen when typing this, photos and web pages does not make much difference, in fact, my girlfriend seems to like this one better...I guess it dosen't make much difference to non proffesional eyes like mine.

Edit: the only thing I envy about the Latitude is it's 520M CPU, dosen't seem to be faster though...heavier instead, the 3820 is a much pleasant travel companion.

 

The only reason I would switch to the matt is the amount of glare I have in my office. I really like the display.

Any of the I5-450M's for sale in Hungary yet?

 

Yeah Bronksy, I was one of the last Americans to get one. That's horrible computeruniverse isn't shipping to Norther America anymore. I should have ordered five 3820TGs and sold it to you guys on the forums. It would have been profit $$$$$$$$$

 

So, what's your plan Adioni? Envy 14? They sure look nice. Dam, I'm really sorry about your computer.

Bronsky

 

The highest specs I saw was the 430M with 5650 and 500GB. It is impossible to get one here as well with i5, because the first month they sold the 3820 machines with 3 yrs of warranty instead of 1 yr, so they are out of stock. I got the last one on the last day, but only with 320GB HDD

@kiskapu: Is there an active hungarian thread out there? Prohardver never wrote about the machine, and noone seems to want to write a post of it to logout.hu, or hwsw. Probably I should start one...

 

Thank god my tracking still says "Shipment in transportation to destination country". I do hope mine does reach me safely. If not..... someone might go down........

I think I should wait another week or so before I order my keyboard, SSD, external OD, and flash drive. Just to play it safe.

 

Just try it again with the parcel. I think the paket was checked in a personal control and was returned. I would try it again and hope, that it will not be controlled this time.

The rule with the battery is old and came a few days after the 11th Sept.
This means also Acer is not blocking the transfer.

 

When my unit is plugged in and I'm just doing typical office work like wordprocessing, internet research and email, this unit should be running on the IGPU, right? Or does it switch to Dedicated GPU as soon as you plug it in? In any event, shouldn't I have an Intel IGfx tray module in my tray? I get nothing. Anybody else getting this? Is this from installing 10.6?

Bronsky

@just-a-nick I think you're right about the shipment but it sounds like Canada enforces this while the US has not (ironic, no? ). I suspect that the Mass delivery was routed through Canada and was rejected at customs. The problem now is that computeruniverse seems to have decided that they won't ship anymore to the US or Canada. Unreal.

 

Not yet, my rfetailer told me about roumors they'd be available by the end of July. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a bummer, since Hungary tends to get stuffs, the catch is that all of the gadgets are offered only with low-mid specs for a long period, plus there are some stuff just not available (like HP Envy, well at least not in retail, but only via individual deals).
Most of the notebooks were offered with P8400 when other European countries were giving away P8600/8700 and T9600 CPUs, P8600 slowly hit the market, then came p8700. Just for the record, the SXPS 1340 with P8700 + G210M became available like 2-2.3 months ago, for a ridiculous price of 370.000 HUF (1660 USD - no wonder I would pull the trigger on the Vaio Z if I were in the US) the Alienware m11x R1 costs a bit less.
Overall no compalints about the current offerings, the 3820TG is available, the price is fair enough...plus one of my firends is looking for a notebook and already told me he'd be happy with mine and totaly OK with me giving this one to him, so if some CPU refresh hits the market I might be there . I might get an SSD instead of a faster CPU though...

The 500GB HDD0 was only available with the 9 Cell battery, I've had it, don't want to go back, no regrets.

I don't know any forums or threads, I wrote a mini review about the TimleineX units on prohardver/logout, but it wasn't a dedicatged thread, just an "Acer" one, for everything that's Acer with random entries.

 

Why wouldn't they cancel it? Save money, save time.

 

I'm running on 10.5, mine switches the moment I plug it in, switches back manualy with no problem.

Don't know about the others but I have an IGP (Intel HD) icon on my tray when on IGP.)

Sorry to hear all the 620Ms were sold out in the US, any progress ordering from overseas?

 

When your plugged in, it is using the ATI card but when you unplug it switches to intel and the IGFX tray should appear like mine does by the clock.

 

I am checking notebook reseller sites in Hungary for 3820TG with 450M almost every day, but still no news. I think they will definitely import it, as I feel the new shipment will be with 450M and 3xx only, not with 430M, but I don't know.

Anyways I soo much envy the Envy 14 you get there, it's unbelievably crazy for what price it goes and with how much discounts. If someone is really looking for a 3820TG I would even be happy for an exchange, this way no official letters about batteries, just two private parcels over the Atlantic

Heck, there would be market for a 3820TG <-> E14 shop over the Atlantic

 

Same here...

Imagine if Bing cashback, coupon codes, or other discounts were available with US starting prices applied .

There are some Envys available, tipicaly "imported" from the US.

 

I had my 3820tg shipped to Canada on Monday, but the tracking shows successful delivery and also return to sender. If the order got here in 5 days that is impressive. If it got here in 5 days and then was sent back, that stinks.

I sure hope it is at Canada Customs and that they will send it out with Canada Post to collect the taxes.

@lvivier, what was the outcome of your 3820TG being returned to Computeruniverse?

 

OMG! If the issue was the rule against putting batteries on planes, by sending it back, they did it twice. That makes no sense. I wonder if you can call anyone and see if they will let you have it?

Bronsky

 

I've disabled the Acer ePower Service, since I'd like to have more control over the graphics switching. I use custom keyboard shortcuts to switch between dgpu and igpu. When I'm on Intel there's the IGfx tray icon. ATI is 10.6.

 

For some reason, I had to reconfigure the Igpu. Now I have the icon in the tray all the time. manual switching might be a good idea. I'm not sure I want that HD5650 on all the time, when i'm wordprocessing and such. The IGPU would keep heat down and save the life of the computer. I don't really game with this and the work I need the GPU for is fairly discrete. I've been turning the ATI off for now, but I think I'm going to create some power profiles.

Bronsky

 

your status like mine, They send me an email that will canclle the order, because battery are not allowed by plane. the parcel still in Germany, return back to computeruni

Hope it is not true, this is really bad, waiting long time, get nothing

Lvivier got another tracking number, hope He can get one, bless

@Bronsky is there any place that can order 3820TG ship to North America,

 

When the 5650 is idle, it clocks down to 100/150 and even if it pulls more power than the IGP, as long as you're plugged into the wall you're not going to kill the internals from heat over time or see any ill effects. You'll see temps in the 40ish range and only using the IGP ain't going to change that very much. If it had been 20c versus 50c you might be talking electronic component life - over a period of maybe 5 or 10 years I'm thinking it's more hassle than gain to fuss over it being "active" while plugged into the wall.

Mac

 

Bleh. I'm headed to China in three weeks, I'll pick up one there myself, with my own hands, and carry the damn thing on a plane and bring it back.

No, this isn't the only reason I'm going to China for, of course.. hehehe

 

I have a Panasonic underwater 720p camera that has been repaired in Japan. I'm facing the same problem where I can't get my camera back into Canada because it uses a Lithium type battery and gets refused once it is x-rayed before being put onto an airliner. If I return to Japan and carry it on the airplane, it would be no problem though.

This stupid policy came into effect after the failed attempt of that stupid "Underwear Bomber" apparently. So I guess anything with a lithium battery can only shipped by ocean freighter?

 

i just got my hp enny sent to me from the USA no problems at al

though on my packages lately I SEE a Big sticket with a warning about the battery and it's contents but i still got my four packages in this week from the USA. next day FEDEX

 

Okay all, my unboxing video is up. Enjoy. YouTube - Bronsky's ACER 3820TG Unboxing

Bronsky

 

I love your music and the introduction is hilarious. Why do I see pink finger nails? LOL

 

My daughters did the video and unboxing. I picked the music.

Bronsky

 

Can we get a video review soon please? That unboxing video was such a tease.

 

Did you record your steps to backup the drivers, install the keyboard, etc? I saw your post a couple days ago but a video showing everything would be sweet.

 

I have pics of fitting the keyboard. The process was too tedious to film. I'll probably do a work-up on fitting the backlit KB when I get some time.

 

Ah, my man. That was great, lol. What's the title of the first song?

Also, after reading close to 80 pages on the E14 thread, there's been a few issues... Lots of kb flex. Lots of half-as$ HP as is the case for post-2007 (HP) notebooks. And problems with clickity clack clickity clack. I still want one though, if 3820TG can't be picked up on Amazon/Frys/Newegg/Walmart. Keep me updated, Bron.

Have a good weekend.

 

It's the theme from 2001: a space odyssey. I'm a big Kubrick fan.

 

Good stuff. Btw, I never knew how to make videos. What prog do you use, and how do you sync audio with the video (timing)? Or does the program set that? Etc etc, I know its off-topic. Sorry.

 

How do you guys say 3820?

I always say thirty eight twenty but I ask because in an unboxing video the guy says three eight two zero

 

"Thirty eight twenty Tee Jee"

 

your video seems to lack the front lid plastic sheet

 

Staples and ?

 

LOL forgot about staples ones - i meant HD5650s - my bad.

@marinex - yea I thought that strange too. Mine didn't have a plastic cover but the plastic around the display and keyboards is there. Go figure?

 

That was done with moviemaker ... the audio is just laid in, you can see where it is with a graph of the sound. It's fairly easy.

 

Sounds great. I didn't mean to sound demanding or anything, but you've documented and planned your work on the 3820TG very well, and everyone appreciates it!

 

@Bronsky Yep its that model

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Just got my unit back from acer today, they said there was nothing wrong with it and so there isn't much I can do beyond doing more calibrations and try to achieve a true black =)

 

Oh i think i understood you wrong... i thought you said there are 2 shops which sells 3820 with HD5650

 

Nothing to figure.

 

Lol that was fantastic. Did you do the video editing on it too?

 

the first acer 3280gt from staples that i bought didn't have the plastic cover on the back of the lcd

then i returned it, cause i thought the lcd was crap and a lot of flickering. so i decided to try a second one

the second one had the plastic film on the back.
but the lcd is just as back when in dim conditions lowest levels.

 

lol epic video. Hopefully one of these days acer 3820tg's with hd 5650's appear in USA stores.

 

I'm envyous bronsky lol.

 

Unfortunately I didn't write the path down :I It was just the last directory was called something else but cannot remember what. So unfortunately no, but if someone still has the german oem windows running one could check that.

Of course one option for the ABR is to code the perl to check recursively for the token files one directory more up than it now does

 

Staples and Microcenter, I believe. 3820T though, or i3 cpu IIRC?? (someone correct my post if I'm wrong)