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

Thanks on both. Don't know why but I assumed that you wouldn't be able to disable the ePower. This is much better. Forget ePower. You were right Just_a_Nick.

Bronsky

Now all I need is a wireless HDMI connection.

 

May you tell me where did you purchase your laptop ? From europe or singapore ? I am still trying to buy one to canada .

 

Ok, bought it today in Bangkok for 849$
Specs:i5-430m,2gb,HD 5650,9-cell. In bonus they gave me:
1)External Acer DVD-drive.
2)1 bag which looks like ZeroShock, and Acer bag for carrying it with myself.
3)Optical mouse.
4)Headsets.
5)1 Year legal Kaspersky antivirus.
2 questions:
1)Where can i find information about my current BIOS?
2)Should i overclock my GPU while playing games, to get more fps?

 

Hello guys, I am into a potentially major stumbling block to my purchase decision...
I checked out a electronic megastore near my place a few hours back and the salesman told me something regarding acer's international travellers warranty. Apparently, if you travel out of the country (in my case singapore) for more than 3 months, acer will not cover your laptop beyond the 3 months. And after you return back and if u travel out again, it is the same thing. e.g. if your warranty is one year(which is in my case), it means you can take maximum four trips, each maximum 3 months.

Not that I'll travel that often but I will be away in September for potentially more than 3 months..hence this could be a major deal-breaker for me. Hence do you guys who bought your 3820TGs elsewhere face this problem? I have no clue if that megastore salesman is lying, rest of the stores I went to all said this model comes with a standard 1 year international warranty. I checked acer's warranty website here: International Travelers Warranty
and it has no mention of the 3 months thing either. So is there such a thing? By the way, how long are your warranties?

This sudden information is making me re-consider the HP DV3 i5/5450, Inspiron 13r i3/5470 and the Asus A42JV i5/335m....the asus having a 2 years international parts & labour warranty..

 

1) In bios . Hit F2 on startup and you will see bios version listed in the information window.

2) First, you have to check to see if your CPU will OC. Not all of them do. Depends on your clockgen. If it does OC, according to Hendrickson, OC'ing the CPU in games can actually degrade performance. No idea why.

@Cire - I read the text of the international travelers warranty a couple of months ago when this was a topic of conversation but I don't remember what it said. I thought it meant that you had to have the intent to be out of your original warranty area for at least 3 months and not have the intent to establish residency there. There is a post in this thread or the arrandale thread where this issue was discussed but I don't really remember what the conclusion was. The sales rep might be talking out of his posterior.

Of the 3, I would go with the Asus. The Asus may have a one year accidential warranty as well. You should check. The Dell and the HO GPU's are too weak.

 

@Bronsky, I think I'll drop my local Acer customer support a call or email to clarify things. Thanks for being very helpful

to add: Bronsky, if you view the link in my thread above, you will see the terms and conditions of the intl travellers warranty didn't mention anything about what you said. no intent, unless its hidden somewhere away from the consumer eyes. if that is the case, it becomes a trust issue which I don't like.

It will probably just make me get an Asus for a peace of mind. $150 more considering I can get a AsusA42JV for US$1188 with blu-ray drive...But the It is also 400gms more...
I'm having a dilemma...

 

Infact its shattered it, I can do CoresMark 2010 and get 30.3 seconds on my overclocked i5 450m. A i7 620m gets around 45 seconds, so the difference is massive. I even ran a time of 28 seconds..But I didn't get a screenshot as proof. No I way I would opt for a i7, that extra 1mb cache is stacked against it when it comes to overclocking it seems.

Here my 30.3 second time.


I see i5 540m's are on ebay for around $180-200, if they are like their 450m cousins I would be able to clock one to around 3.8-3.9? Ghz if heat permits of course. It would be blistering fast an overclocked i5 540m for a 13.3 notebook this size...Gets me thinking....

Also I just have to mention again my matte screen protector just blows me away. Sitting next to the pool and its like i have a stock mattee screen. Its that good! Best $14 I've ever spent on a notebook.

Edit: Overclocking reduces frame rates on some, if not most games. But others it doesn't? Maybe more CPU intensive games. For example Star Craft 2 Overclocking the CPU doesn't seem to reduce the FPS, like say BFBC2.

 

@cire, just to give rough idea about OC' A42Jv performance,
messing around with my friend's A42Jv, i5 450M, malaysian version, normal room temp with no cooler, palm rest is still cool even though the internal reaching 90C

 

90C from just 3dmark? no way it's gonna handle prime95 + furmark stresstest, probably even stock speeds will be a problem.

 

Well, that's the downside, but its the cheapest notebook we can get here with GT335M @ US$800, while other notebook at this price range just offering Nvidia 310M or ATi HD5470/HD5145.
The next competitor is Lenovo Y460 with i5 540M and ATi HD5650 but cost US$1150...

 

Your OC'd 450M is 70% faster than a stock I5-540M? Can anybody repeat these scores or do you have an exceptional chip? Will the 540M get the same benefit from OC'ing? There might be a sweet spot that the 450M has found or something unique about the design. Just wow!

Bronsky

 

Don't know what this coresmark calculates but it seems to have some serious issues. My timerange is between 31 and 48 seconds with 430m oc to 2.9. Sometimes this tool is fast at startup and then slows down, sometimes it couldn't display the values. The fastest time i got was 21 seconds, but this nothing reliable for me. Without oc i got 56 seconds.

 

I'm not sure if you've gone yet; I was at Microware Funan and they said the $1300 was with trade-in. But they offered $14xx with freebies (external DVD drive, antivirus etc) and $1288 without.

 

What do you guys have for temps, Im getting a little worried with mine, im hitting mid 80's just by running 3dmark which seems pretty hot, and my ambient tempeature is pretty low. My idleing only goes down to like 43. Is this normal or do i have a dud?

 

Hi all,
Some time ago I got my own 3820 and have some questions, hope someone could help me out (reading 290+ page of comments is not my type of fun )

-I need a program which could monitor the temperature sensors and preferably stays in the tray.
-What are the steps for an ati driver update, do I have to disable the intel vga every time?
-When I use the "P" button brightness goes down to 30%, how could I change this? The epower software does nothing, I have no tray icon, or settings page.
-Can I disable the LEDs?
-The screen is kind of crappy does someone has a calibrated color profile for it, or some tips?
-What are the recommended acer utilities I have to install? I uninstalled everything except the program for the webcam.
-Is there a thread where this thread is distilled?

 

Man that's so awesome. Acer, hit us up in the USA!

 

mid 80s is normal for the I5. Nothing to worry about probably.

 

My HDD score in windows experience index is 5.3 does it affect gaming performance ?

 

That has no bearing in actual gaming performance.

 

Violent,
Could you please share where you purchased the 3820TG at that price?

 

Just goes to show you what a little bit of overclocking can do! I would say the i5 540m overclocked would be much faster as it should be able to reach higher Ghz. 3.7 or 3.8 Vs my 450m @ 3.38Ghz

 

Don't know if you saw the post about disabling ePower but it worked like a charm. No need to uninstall or do a clean install again.

Yea, the OC'ing looks great. It will be interesting to see someone put a 540M in one of these. There's a part of me that would love to take a shot at ordering another unit and starting over with an OC'able unit. It's just that it really won't make a difference in what I'm using the Acer for. Even without an OC, it performs every task I put it to, without the slightest hesitation. Until I encounter some more demanding software in my job, I doubt that I'll be ordering another unit. If a mobo becomes available at a reasonable cost and I could confirm that it had an OC'able clockgen, I might take the shot at an upgrade down the road to keep the machine up with the times. That would be the perfect opportunity to slip in a 540M. The replacement of thermal paste seems to have civilized the I7-620M's temps, so it would be nice to repaste the CPU/GPU while the machine is apart.

I would also like to take a shot at using the new wire glue I got on the backlit KB. The USB power tap would probably go just as easy with the glue and would leave the unit able to be sent in for warranty work.

For now though, I'm focusing on replacing my 1410T. The 3820TG is so portable that I take it most places where I would have taken the 11.6" 1410T. I'm looking to replace that with a small 10" slate or tablet that will run Windows 7 and has both a digital pen and multitouch capabilities. There is allegedly a new HP coming to market that will be perfect. The Lenovo U1 looks interesting too. The slate will be so portable that it will travel with me on the few occasions where the Acer is too big to go along.

Bronsky

 

Looking into it seems either the i5 520m or i5 540m is the best for overclocking.
Some guys have gotten up to 3.9Ghz (Turbo) on OCZ Ram.

I wouldn't expect to have 3.9 Ghz as the max i can't get my FSB on the stock ram over 170. My max is 169.3Mhz which is 100% stable. I love love to pop a i5 540m in it and redo all the thermal paste of the GPU and CPU. Then once the backlit switch is fitted and keyboard I would be finished with the unit. If the i5 540 prices come down a bit i will be temped.

Also ran core mark 2010 again and got under 30 seconds.. I love all this free extra power from just shifting the FSB up a bit.

 

Now that the I5-520M model is being introduced in Taiwan, that would be a great unit to get, if you can be assured you're getting one with the right PLL. It would be CPU/GPU OC'able out of the box and with a "wire glue" backlit KB power option, you could keep the warranty intact. Nearly a perfect solution.

Bronksy

 

Sounds like someone is thinking of doing a "Hendrickson" ? In my eyes the swap was worth it for the 3G and overclockable unit.

Oh and Bronsky without the ePower application it doesn't auto switch to the intel GPU on battery. That is a only issue. I saw I had eaten up 40% battery and in an hour and a half and it was because i was on the 5650 GPU..and overclocked too lol.

 

No "Hendrickson" in the short term. I am very happy with my computer. It does everything I need it too and it does it well.

I think the 3820TG will come to the US eventually. At that point, I would consider upgrading my unit. I want to make sure that I get something 520M or better that is OC'able and has a display at least as good as the one I have now. With a local dealer, I can return any units that are not perfect. Add the backlit KB with wire glue and you can return it in pristine condition for service. That, along with the warranty, would be a large enough upgrade over this unit that I would go through the trouble of getting another one and selling this one.

If I didn't own a 3820TG already, I would be ordering one of the Taiwaneese units. But I do.

I noticed the same thing without ePower when the battery was draining fast. I don't mind having to manually switch to the integrated GPU. My computer is much more stable without the Acer ePower program. It was playing havoc with my notebook. My wireless unit works much better in the windows power mode. Do you think that the power draw on the backlit KB could have anything to do with the problems in ePower? Anyway, I have disabled it for good.

Bronsky

 

No, the tool ePower doesn't see anything from the keyboard backlight.
You have done a hardware mod.

 

So did anyone get ATI HDMI sound to work with 10.7 drivers? It works fine in XBMC where I can choose HDMI as sound option but in Windows there is no tab for HDMI sound, only speakers and Digital Output.

I saw that Hendrickson was having some issues with 10.5 like the first few pages but couldn't find a solution.

 

Yep, works... at least for me. Didn't had any issue.

 

I think if I remember correctly when I installed the drivers it was fix. I just had issues with the sound output. But it was fixed quickly enough.

Now I was thinking of a hack but not sure its possible. I know the Intel HD grahpics supports HDMI out. I wonder if there is a way to run the HDMI out on the Intel chipset and no use the 5650?

I know it was possible on the UL30Vt I almost brought by tricking the system. It not really a must thing. But it would be nice to run HDMI via the power saving gfx.....

 

As requested: Outdoor photo of the 3820TG screen with the anti-glare matte screen protector on it. Taken today outside next to a pool with the sun beaming down.




Note the reflection of the screen surround near the Acer logo and then the screen itself. The logo from my T-shirt before would have been reflecting off the screen like the black glossy surround does. But now, reflection free!

 

yeah it's weird that the intel HD graphics card does utilise the HDMI out.. it only works with VGA out =\

 

Oh? The trade-in promo was actually $1200. Never mind. But still $1288 without freebies? Are you sure?? I just went there on Friday nite & they wouldn't budge at $1498 if paid by credit card, if it's cash it's 3% less...

How you got that price I don't know.. Did you buy it in the end?

Plus did they explain how the international warranty operates?

 

Ok guys So I got my 3820tg with a 450m from pchome, its got a silver back and im pretty much loving it. The only thing I'm a little worried about is temperatures.

Heres a picture of them, the max temperature is after just running 3dmark 06 and the min is idle temps.

If i load anything at all like internet explorer the temps seem to jump up to 55 on the cores and then drop back down. When running prime 95 for about 12 hours I got up to 91C. One of the main things I wanted to do is OC, my video card seems to stay pretty low but my cores are running pretty hot are these temps normal and do you think I still have head room to oc the 450m? In comparison to my envy 14 which im returning the acer is running 10-15 degrees hotter for both cores.

Any insight on the matter would be great, Thanks

 

Can you post a link to a how-to for the UL30Vt or some thing else?

Just to get an idea what they have done for it.

 

Sure, you can still overclock, as long as your CPU stays below 100C during prime95 stresstesting it's fine in my opinion, normal use won't bring it to such temps.

 

Does anybody know a way to read out the rpm of the fan(s)?

 

I really think people need to stop running programs like Furmark. There is a type of computer virus called power virus that attempts to burn out your hardware by creating conditions that are never seen in actual use, and then there's the retail/official versions of these things called Furmark or WPrime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_virus

If you play games for a few hours and your computer gets that hot, it's a problem. If you ran some ridiculous program is totally pointless because it has nothing to do with real life usage for 12 hours and take a year or two off your chip's life.. well, if it's worth it to you..

 

Nice joke.

Do you really know something about the life limits of the chip? I don't think so. The thermal problem is just the point on the i. The real problem is in the manufacturing process.

Have I nice day and eat an ice to cool down your brain.

 

Hmm, I see. So, what do you actually know about semiconductor manufacturing? Admittedly, I have only taken a few courses on this, but I probably know more about it than a good number here.

With rising temperatures you're looking at higher effective masses for charge carriers, lower mobility, higher resistivity, which is a positive feedback cycle that leads to even higher temperatures. For soldered junctions, this means additional metal fatigue and other stresses. Any unintended impurities in the silicon crystal structure may also break down after too many excessive heating/cooling cycles with high temperature swing.

Whatever you just said (now that I re-read it, it makes zero sense), does not refute my point that chips are not designed to withstand state switching of every MOSFET in the chip simultaneously and at maximum frequency, which leads to unrealistically high current draw. Doing so might destroy your chip, oh, did I forget to emphasize, YOUR chip. If you want to mock me for some honest advice that's for your benefit, then you're welcome to not look at my response.

 

I was wondering if ePower shut down various things based on total power draw/drain. The Backlight will increase the total power draw.

Bronsky

 

I posted many times before that I voiced my opinion that prime32 and furmark is super unrealistic as an average users usage of there CPU/GPU.

Still I ran it, when I was overclocked to much sure that I would never have any issues with the heat under my normal use of it can handle prime32 etc...Then we could also mention that overclocking could limit the life of the CPU and components. I'm sure it might and it wasn't designed to be run overclocked. But in all my years of overlocking. I've never had a failed CPU or GPU......

At the end of the day its down to the end user and their notebook. Lets leave it at that.

ON the matter of running HDMI via the intel HD gfx, I can't find the post I saw on getting the UL30vt to run the hdmi but on the intel gfx trick. Can someone help?

 

Have you ever seen an electro technical schematic of a chip and not only the "physical silicon" part?

You are talking about simultaneous switching of every MOSFET of a chip, but do you know how you can force the CPU to this action? This is the next problem, without the knowledge of the exact electrical design you will never be able to push the CPU to the maximal power and these designs are protected by Intel and AMD.

I’m thinking you are also a student and you are able to access to the iee. Just read the paper “Power Virus Generation Using Behavioral Models of Circuits” to get an idea how complex it is to get the maximal peak power estimation of an actual CPU.

The thermal swing goes only till ~100°C – 150°C on the hotspots of the CPU with the usage of prime and all the other evil programs and stopped than through the self-protection of the CPU. (The thermal sensors are placed there.) But in the manufacturing the process temperature is often enough 600°C and more.

 

I have had open my model yesterday and see a few misssing components near to hdmi port. I think we will need a picture from a 3820 T model to see, which parts are missing and where we have too look for the "electrical" connections with the hdmi signal near to the connector.

I think a simple software hack is not possible.

 

Yes, in much papers are written, that the USB should shut down if it draw more power than 500mA but nobody take care about these point. Some of them don't use the 5V USB source and take the power directly from the 5V mainboard sources and others .....

The power values which you can see in the device manager are comunicated by the USB device themselves and fixed by the manufactor of the device.

 

My USB still operates perfectly while the current is drawn by the KB. It does not shut down. I wonder if power setting begins to shut other things down when it begins to sense "x" amount of power draw, no matter what the source. The KB draw would add to that total and would be unanticipated by the software.

Bronsky

 

Is anyone else quite annoyed by the fact that Acer website doesn't support this laptop whatsoever?...

I've been trying for ages to check for new drivers, but they elude me all the time...

 

The US site is up to date. What is missing from the drivers? I think all you can expect from Acer is the basic driver. Most of the updates like the synaptic comes from the software co.

BTW 3000th post. This thread is a bit long.

 

Oh yeah, but it's hella good ^^

 

I've finished my guide to upgrading the i3-350M processor I received in my 3820TG to the i7-620m I purchased. I have uploaded the PDF here, and there are more pictures on my flickr page located here. I'm not entirely happy with all of the pictures. Some of them turned out blurry when they looked fine on the camera. If anyone has any questions please let me know.