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

Card OC'd to 675/1080.
i5 450m at stock.

 

Oh that explains it, slightly higher cpu

 

This question was probably addressed but can someone tell me when is the expected release date for US release?

Also are the Acer TimelineX series worse than, on par, or greater than the build quality of Asus or Lenovo notebooks?

Thanks.

 

I would say in this order

Lenovo then Acer = Asus (Im comparing my 3820 to the UL30)

 

ATI 5750??

 

Nah, 3DMark doesn't identify it correctly. And Windows/GPU-Z sees it just as "5600/5700 series".

Unless Acer is lying, it's a 5650.

 

I think that the HD 5730 is just an overclocked version of the HD 5650. It is probably reading the Oc'd memory/shader speeds and concluding that you have a 5730. I think the new GPU starts with the 5750 and up.

Bronsky

 

Hendrickson, how hard (or easy) was it to take apart the laptop for the backlit mod?

Did you totally wing the tear-down or did you find a brief manual somewhere?

 

/making fun of Bronsky

So that is why it's identified as an HD 57 50?

Guess you didn't look close enough at the post

/no more making fun of Bronsky

I've seen all sorts of reports depending on what driver version I use and clockspeed of my 5730 too. And yes the 5730 is just an higher clocked 5650.

 

Oh, and Hendrickson, did you damage your laptop at all during this mod? Don't want to rub it in, but can you give future 3820TG modders some tips to AVOID any damage you did? lol

 

No damage I can give tips and will do a write up soon. But maybe end of next week. Don't have much time.

 

anybody have any input on whether the Lenovo Y460 is a good option over the 3820TG if we dont get those by the end of june? Right now I am hoping for the 3820g with the 5650, then its either the HP Envy 14 or the Lenovo, just the HP is quite heavy imo...

 

Acer 3820TG manual:

Acer Aspire 3820TG Series / ASPIRE3820TGSERIES service manual, user's manual, owner's manual

Costs $20 though

 

Thanks ... as soon as I know I can get a 3820TG, I'll be ordering this too.

Bronsky

 

no problem

 

Is the CPU soldered to the motherboard, or can one upgrade it?

 

Ei hendricks this soft Intel® Processor Identification Utility maybe see ics?

Intel® Processor Identification Utility - Intel® Processor Identification Utility support

What is ICP is not useful for us?

 

LOL ... you're right about that. I saw a 5730.

Bronsky

 

This is just a comparison of Hendrickson's video of the 3820TG playing Bad Company 2 against a video I found of the Alienware m11x playing the game at the same settings. Also note that the m11x play isn't even in multiplayer.

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

m11x - YouTube - Battlefield Bad Company 2 playing on Dell Alienware m11x, highest settings + no AA / AF

The 3820TG is an obvious winner

 

the stock clock it comes with for 5650 is 550/900 right? then 680/1080 is really an impressive oc without temp rise i think 5730s oc limit will also be like that

 

Nope we need to locate the cysral chip and clock gen. I didn't see in on the upper side of the mainboard. There post would help us http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...lock-generator-pll-your-notebook-desktop.html

Wow that Alienware gets down to 17fps in some parts. A better video to compare it too is my single player video - YouTube - Acer TimelineX 3820TG Battlefield Battlefield Bad Company 2 ATI 5650 SP benchmark [HD]P>S The Alienware video you can hear the fans are at max speed all the time. The 3820TG is quite... Alienware fanboys will not want too see my videos then

 

Has anyone had the time to do any battery runtime tests? highest settings and lowest settings perchance?

 

Hendrickson! Really good job! i was wishing that the acer has a backlit keyboard! may i know where did u get the keyboard from?
another stupid question.. will this void the warranty? i think yes right? lol.

 

Stock is 550/800MHz.

My asus X77JA has an HD5730 with stock speeds of 650/800MHz.

My HD5730 is stable at speeds up to 810/1100MHz.

The chip is identical, but maybe HD5730 comes with slightly higher voltages, making room for a bit higher core clocks, there should be no/little difference for memory overclocking.

 

Here in Hong Kong we have the 3820 and 4820 available. The 3820 is available with a HD 5470 + i5-430 or only Intel GMA + i3-330; whereas, the 4820 comes with HD5650 and i5-430.

I'm thinking of getting the 4820 for the 5650 but I was wondering if the 430m was underpowered or sufficient for general engineering tasks (repetitive computational tasks). I would get the 3820 but I wasn't sure if the 5470 could handle starcraft 2. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Get the 5650 for sure. If general engineering tasks does not include 3d modeling or real time rendering the 430M will be fine.

Bronsky

 

ah oks

I see this example in the mother
http://s896.photobucket.com/albums/ac167/moral_HaZaRd/pll/?action=view&current=DSC02963.jpg

 

Alienware m11x you lose

Is possible to raise the voltage of 5650? with msi afterburner maybe?

 

This is why I think the HD5730 is the natural successor to the 5650. It fits in the same space and provides a marginal boost. It's an easy way to up-spec a 13" to compete with the 3820TG and the Envy 14. Dell should do this in its XPS 13 refresh but won't. Dell seems to have handed its high spec subnotebook market to the M11x.

Bronsky

 

I had similar thoughts, then I read about some heatproblems with the 4820. I think the 3820 will be superior thanks to its better cooling soultion (2 heatpipes and fans). I'm sure the 3820 with a 5650 will launch in your area soon, perhaps it's better to hold on until then.

 

@ ocfreak from where you bought x77ja?

 

Komplett.no - Nettbutikk for datautstyr, PC, bærbar PC, TV, foto, video og spill. (Norway).

 

Don't doubt the i5 430 its really not too bad. It beats my X9000 Extreme core 2 duo easy from my Gateway. Of course higher models can only do better I'm off tomorrow on vacation has you Americans say. So I might not be on too much. I have limited time and 3G access only.

 

Hendrickson
take care and have a wonderful trip

 

Where does someone who lives near the Med coast go for vacation? Norway?

Bronsky

 

"He has 3G access only". Lucky bastid. Speaking of which, do these laptops come with sim card slots?

 

There is a model with a card slot but I haven't seen it yet.

Bronsky

 

Wow where did you hear about the heat problems in the 4820? I would think that the 3820 with 5650 would have even more heat problems? This is worrisome. Bronsky, you tend to know a lot about these, is this true?

The processor will probably be fine (i5-430) but the graphics card need only be able to support light gaming: StarCraft2. Any intense task I have a desktop to use.

Also I heard that the 3820's construction is better than the 4820's construction.

 

There was a review on a German website that noted very high temps on an I5-430M model. There was actually evidence of thermal throttling on that unit. I think the test was a fluke. It was done with a prototype that clearly had some problem. No way the I5-430M should behave like that.

The 3820TG has a dual sink/fan system that will probably outperform the 4830 and 5820. It is a special design that seems to be able to handle very high temps from the I7-620M. But, the superiority of the 3820TG system does not mean that the single fan unit on teh 4830TG is inadequate.

We have recently heard about a heat problem in a 5820 as well but it sounded like a mfg defect and we recommeneded a return.

The 4820TG is being sold in Germany with the I7-620M. I assume that there are no critical issues or we would have heard by now. I have not seen anything on the German sites (which I have to google translate to even understand ). So the answer is we really don't know for sure, but I assume that the 4820TG will be fine.

BTW, the GPU is not an issue, it runs very cool. So, there is no reason to select the 5470 over the 5650 based on heat concerns. It is the heat of the CPU that has caused all the issues in the tests that reported problems. There have been just as many tests who report normal operating temps for the 4820TG.

Bronsky

 

After the bad test of the 4820TG was a new bios released to fix the problem.
Between the lines you can read, that there was problem with the fan speed by a very high cpu and gpu load with synthetic benchmarks.

 

The nice thing about HKG is that we get to go and touch everything before we buy and demand checks for dead pixels etc. I will go around feeling up some Acers today then.
Are there any comparable notebooks from ASUS (disappointed in them) Sony etc? I know you've been personally touting the HP ENVY 14 =P, Bronsky. The price tag on the envy ($1200) is about $400 more than I wish to pay though.

 

LOL "feeling up" is what we normally do to our girlfriends ... not our computers.

The only notebook I liked comming from Asus was the N82. It has wound up in Notebook purgatory for some reason. Asus has far too many units with a 310M GPU. The Z is clearly too expensive for you. The Sony Vaio CW was a nice unit (best buys had one with I5-520M/GT330M) but I don't see it around anymore. It did not have Optimus and the batter life was not great.

Let us know what you think of the 4820TG when you try it.

Bronsky

 

Just reading the service manual of the 3820TG and the clockgen (PLL) is listed with the model number ICS9LRS3197AKLFT.

I can't test it, because cyberport will not deliver my 3820TG before the 20th of this month.

Have fun

 

That's what I've been trying to figure out. Got only hands on with basic model LX.PTC02.055 and it didn't have. There was only a hole, so no after install UMTS for that model.

 

Yeah, I think dropping the DVD-player/burner has provided some real estate to build a more sturdy chassis. Also, it gives room for the second heatpipe/fan. I will pick one of these up, along with an external USB DVD-burner.

 

Is there anyone here who also owned a 3810, and can tell a bit more about the differences? I know the trackpad has been changed in 3820, but has there been any other alterations?
Display? Build quality? Sound quality?

This video of 3810, talks about a new cooling technology where the air is being drawn underneath the laptop and supposed to keep the laptop 6 degrees cooler than other laptops! I wonder if 3820 has the same thing, and if it even works? I assume so, if the low heat emissions is something we can all expect(or if hendrickson was just amazingly lucky) - YouTube - Acer Aspire Timeline family presentation




Everyone who I talk too, tells me to avoid Acer. It's like everyone I know have had bad experiences with them! :O

Is Acer credible as someone with good customer service, and good long term build quality, you think?

I'm so close to givin in, but I am so scared, that this is an acer.

I know HP has bad quality, and very good quality notebooks, and that its important to seperate the two. 3820 is not very expenssive... its three time as cheap as vaio z, so I am wondering if this is considered a budget machine on skimpy build quality?


We know its very cool. It's almost worth buying the machine just for the low temperature. seriously. we're supposed to expect 95+ temps for both gpu and cpu, in such a small form factor!

 

From what I've heard, they mostly have a bad reputation from a few years ago when their Aspire line's quality was not good, but since then, they've improved. Also, I've gotten the impression that the Timeline X series is supposed to be "higher-end" than the Aspires, (hopefully a bit like HP's Envy line compared to their Pavilions), so I'm hoping the build quality is a bit better.
I'm almost sold on one of these too, I just want to hear from someone who owns one if they think it could stand the daily grind as a college notebook?
Also, do the ones out in Germany at the moment (e.g. this one) have a SIM card slot?

 

I think it does not, only the latest i5 450M equiped models tend to have UMTS, correct me if I'm wrong.

Only a minority of the german users have these refreshed machines, last time I've checked, the most of them were complaining about availability.

 

any release day for this laptop in US yet?