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

OK, the shop couldn't give me a replacement, so they offered that they give my money back.

Now I am looking at 3 alternatives:
5454G32MN - 320 GB, 9 cell, shipping in a week
5454G50MN - 500 GB, 9 cell, shipping in a week
5464G32MN - 320 GB, 9 cell, 460M!!!!!, shipping in 5 weeks

I really don't like that there are only 9 cell models, I have to spend some more money to buy the 6 cell, as the 9 cell is not a portable solutions for me. The tempting choice is the 460M model, it's 2.53/2.80 Ghz. But wait time is soo long. It's the first sign that there are updated models coming with updated BIOS too. A good sign for 640M lovers.

It seems that the 5454G32MN is with 6 cell, it was a typo at the shops. I think I am ordering that one. Hope it comes with a normal screen. I just couldn't wait till the end of September for the new models.

 

Lee_what2004 says that the 460M is for sale already in Malaysia. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6628196-post804.html So, yea, looks like an updated bios. I hope Acer did it all at one time and included all of the new arrandale models like the 560M, 580M and 640M.

Bronsky

 

Bronsky, about that one, after asking Acer, seems like the arrival is September or late September...

 

Maybe someone could run some BIOS dumping tool, if it's possible on current Phoenix BIOS-es.

BTW, their BIOS flashing util is totally broken, it only works reliably under DOS, which means you have to use HP USB format with the bootable DOS option.

 

bankergolfer, I found no screen saver app on the backup DVD-s.

 

.

Bastages!

 

My shop told me it's the end of September. But in Asia it might be a bit sooner.

 

The Bios tool runs also under windows 7 without problems, but it is not a version with a GUI.

A bios dump is useless, because Acer uses a new bios version and it is not possible to read out the supported cpus at the moment.

 

Its about time Acer start countering Asus A42Jv since it dominates sub $900 gaming notebook....
Just hoping the last incident didn't happen again, when the first appear of 4820TG, everywhere like newspaper, online pricelist were stating HD5650, even the Acer itself also answer, it comes with HD5650, in the end, it comes with HD5470

 

It's the only way I would flash the bios anyway.

Bronsky

 

So we should expect a bios update from Acer soon then to support some new Arrandales, Nice. i7 640m anyone?

Anyone got a 520m or 540m in there 3820TG? That can overclock? Whats your max OC you can get?

 

Hi zsero!

I was accidentally given a 9 cell unit, though I've originally ordered a 6 cell one, before I've decided to change it, I've searched for 6 cell batteries, found out they were too expensevise, I've found prices like 39.000-50.000 HUF ex VAT something just not worth it (of course, this was in the end of May, so prices might have changed by now).

I've thought the hungarian 450Ms come with a 6 cell for the 320Gb HDD, and a 9 cell for the 500Gb HDDs - I know it's strange, but that's how it was with the 430Ms as well.

Here are some links showing the 450M is available with 6 cell in Hungary, retailers should be able to provide You one.
All of them are 5454G32MN - LX.PV102.264 , You can get these for less, I've only linked them for their spec sheets.

mysoft.hu - Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG-5454G32MN (LX.PV102.264) notebook

ACER Aspire TimelineX 3820TG-5454G32MN (LX.PV102.264) | NotebookZone.hu szaküzlet és webáruház


Time is an annoying factor isn't it? That's how I ended up with the 430M, don't know whether Your needs would testify the stronger CPU, I'm satisfied with the 430M, other 450M owners are satisfied with their CPUs, so You might not loose more other than specs buying the 450M now.

 

I too had no problems flashing the BIOS in Win7 enviroment.

 

Just got a acer 3820tg i5 with 5650 ati card, but iam troubling with performance.

3dmark2006 gives a score around 2000 (havn't finished it yet because it running way low fps) and ati 5650 seems to be enabled and its connected to AC.

I unboxed it and let it update fully. Then i installed 3dmark 2006 and it runs bad. Do i need to do something else or?

 

Sounds like an intel IGPU score. Switch to dedicated GPU in the bios and run 3dMark06. See what you get.

Bronsky

 

For me, their latest BIOS flasher could not start under 64-bit win7 because i had some dll or program error. I ended up flashing under DOS from usb stick.

The included flash.bat is buggy too, it only works well under DOS.

 

I asked two shops in email, and both of them confirmed that the 320 GB model comes with 6 cell. So it's the one I am ordering! The good thing about the 460M is that it has the same price as the 450M today. The bad thing is that I need the laptop before the end of september.

 

I recall that somebody on this site has a 520M-3820TG. I know someone bought one from Singapore and I thought someone bought one from Taiwan. It might help you find out if your QS/ES 540M is just a bad CPU.

Bronsky

 

Neither did I, but thanks for checking.

I didn't bother to copy the screensaver before reinstalling the Windows 7 OS because I assumed that Acer would be intelligent enough to have included it on the backup CD.

 

Strange...

There were two download options the time I flashed mine to 1.13, now there's only one, so maybe Acer removed the working one from their site.

Anyways, I have the .rar that worked in Win7 enviroment on my HDD, if anyone would be interested.

 

Thats what I'm trying to find out Without having to buy a i5 540 OEM and test it myself. If my QS is just bad and the other OEM i5 540ms are good.

M17 R2 i5 540m owners seem to all have good chips that overclock nicely. (Just check the overclocking M17 r2 thread) They are on the PM55 and not HM55 chipset. Would that make a difference in overclocking? I wouldn't think so...

They are using the same G73jh clockgen in setfsb as we do.

 

Part 11: Overclocking the CPU

It was now time to run the i5-450m CPU through its paces. With help from this forum, I decided to use Prime95 and wPrime as my tools to test the stability and benchmark my 3820TG’s CPU.

The first thing I did was to use SetFSB (which should now be renamed SetBCLK, given the newer architecture of the 1366 chips) to determine whether my i5-450m could in fact be overclocked or not. This evaluation did not require having to contribute any monetary funds.

The program may be downloaded here:

Download SetFSB program


Fortunately, my 3820TG did in fact have the motherboard (mobo) needed to allow overclocking. At this point, I decided to pay the required contribution of 500 Yen to the program’s developer, so that I could receive the necessary activation key that would enable SetFSB to overclock my CPU.

On a quick aside, please do not ask me for the activation key. I will not give it away out of respect to the software developer’s wishes. Speaking of which, I found him to be very professional and pleasant to deal with. I emailed him a question about his program, to which he responded promptly. When I mentioned that I wished to purchase an activation key for his program, he even spent the time with me going over my CPU and system’s specs to make sure that I would not be wasting my money in doing so. It’s refreshing to see a business person not take the money and run with it, as so many are prone to do nowadays.

After a few iterations of adjusting my base clock (BCLK) and testing with Prime95 and wPrime, I finally determined that my maximum BCLK is 165.3 MHz. This meant that my maximum speed, after applying the x20 multiplier, is 3314 MHz.

That’s pretty good for a CPU that is rated at 2400 MHz with a Turbo Boost maximum of 2660 Mhz. Perhaps I could have found a slightly higher BCLK given time, but the highest stable BCLK was my main goal for the moment.

The first test that I ran to ensure stability of the CPU overclock was Prime95.





For the “torture test” settings, I chose “in-place large FFTs” and 4 test threads. I had learned that those settings would ensure conditions of maximum heat and power consumption for the test.

The test ran successfully for almost 3 hours before I stopped it. While I realize that most have run Prime95 for longer periods of time, I didn’t have that luxury.

Temperatures maxed out at 78*C, but were at 71*C for the majority of the time. Ambient temperature was 28*C.






The second test that I ran to benchmark my CPU was wPrime.

wPrime itself has 2 tests: 1024M and 32M. The settings I used were 4 threads.

Again, my CPU's maximum BCLK is 165.3 MHz and its maximum speed is 3314 MHz.



The results were:

1024M = 582.5 seconds
32M = 18.6 seconds




Running wPrime on the stock CPU’s BCLK and speed of 133 Mhz and 2660 MHz respectively:



The results were:

1024M = 696.9 seconds
32M = 22.4 seconds

 

I have my original German HD at home. If someone knows the directory where the Acer SS resides I could go copy it for you.

Bronsky

 

Just learned that our i5-450m CPUs only run RAM at a maximum speed of 1066 MHz.

So the 8 GB of 1333 Mhz RAM that I ordered is only good for increasing “capacity”, but not timing speeds.

Kind of takes the fun out of the RAM upgrade.

 

I believe you have to use the search function in:

C:Windows\system 32

to find the Acer screensaver.

Thanks Bronsky!

 

bankergolfer, when you OC the CPU and started wPrime, but not yet start the 32M/1024M, can you try look on the Task Manager, and try find whether there is cpuz.exe eating 50% cpu usage? Because last time when I test with OC i5 450M, the cpuz from wPrime eating 50% cpu usage which attribute to the higher time....

 

Ok, I did as you asked. I started wPrime but did not run the 32M/1024M tests.

CPUz.exe had 0% of the CPU usage (via Windows 7 CPU Resource Monitor).

wPrime had 25% of the CPU usage. This dropped to 0% once wPrime was fully loaded and initialized.

 

If you use CPUID while you test in prime95, watch to see if your processor is being throttled.

Happened to me with my 920.

 

Do you mean CPUZ or CPUID?

What am I looking for specifically in CPUID (?) to tell if my CPU is being throttled?

FYI - During prime95, my multiplier was at x20 and the Core speed was maxed out where it should have been at 2930 MHz the whole time. My CPU temperatures maxed out at 78*C, but were at 71*C for the majority of the time. Ambient temperature was 28*C

 

Check the multiplier when running wPrime?

 

Perhaps too much OC? Try again with a few MHz less. My oc'd (164MHz) 32M is ~19s, while the stock clocked 32M is at ~22s.

 

This is interesting. Everything seems ok now.

At 150 MHz and speed of 3000 Mhz, my wPrime 32M = 20.4 seconds.

At 165.7 MHz and speed of 3314 Mhz, my wPrime 32M = 18.5 seconds.

These results are now more in line with what I'd expected (and not the 42 seconds I got originally).

Will now amend my post with the new data.

 

When I ran wPrime with my i5-450m CPU overclocked at 165.7 MHz BLCK, I saw that there was some slight throttling (my multiplier was x19.0). I used CPU-Z to monitor the multiplier and total speeds.

At the stock CPU BLCK of 133 MHz, the multiplier went back to x20.0 for the most part, with a few dips to x19.0.

Is this slight throttling normal for the i5-450m CPU at these overclocks? Or do I have a "defective" CPU?

 

Would hardly call that defective. 165.7 MHz BLCK is not what the processor was designed to do. But maybe that lower score you had was because it was throttling.

Run some moire tests. I know my i5 450m has proven to be a really good chip. Its going back in. I can't be bothered swapping to a i5 540m OEM in the hope that it will be more stable at an overclock. If it is great, if it isn't what a big waste of time and money.....Not worth it and I'm not going to open my notebook and more. I5 450m goes back as its a stable one at 169Mhz and runs really well.

 

The left click part of the click bar below the trackpad on my 3820tg feels "squishy" and seems to depress longer into the machine than the right click part which looks and feels fine.
Has anyone else here had these problems - is it normal or would repair or exchange for a new unit be likely to fix the problem ?
Besides the squishy button this unit ok so I'm actually a bit nerveous about getting a new one - might end up with one with a defective screen again
*sigh*

 

Depends what you run on it.

For example; my 450M will only run at x18 in prime95 when running 4 threads, with two threads it jumps up and down from x18 to x19 and x20. With one thread it stays at x20 all the time.

 

Screensaver for You:

RapidShare: Acer SCR

Good for 10 times.

 

I think you've solved my mystery!

I used 4 threads while running both Prime95 and wPrime.

For proper CPU stability testing and benchmarking, should I be running both Prime95 and wPrime on just 1 thread?

Thanks.

 

No squishy trackpad unibar here. Sorry about yours.

 

Thank you!

 

Ok i5 450m back, in. Its a gem I don't want to give up. I will not be upgrading the CPU again I'm pretty sure. My 3820TG madness ends...

Much faster than my i5 540m QS..

With the IC Diamond 7 redone shes getting as low as 39 degrees idle on 1 of the cores Will wait a few days for the full cure and do some long prime32 tests. See what the max temp is.

Benches again prove how quick my i5 450m is @ 169 BCLK


Under 13 secs VS my i5 540m's 14 ish


18.5 seconds Vs my i5 540m which was 20secs...

 

How many threads did you use for the wPrime? If it was more than 1, how do you know that some throttling didn't occur.

SuperPi is not a good benchmark for multi-core CPUs. Fewer people are using it as a result.

 

The default, 4 threads, I watched CPU-Z it sits at x18. The score also reflects its not trottling.

I've test and run this 450m and its a really good one. Hence why I took the effort to swap it back...phew

running on 1 thread it stays locked at x20. No trottling, unlike my i5 540m which jumped about.

 

Thanks. I see almost the exact same things that you do with CPU-Z for the i5-450m (1 thread= x20, 4 threads = x19).

But if our scores reflect that our CPUs are NOT throttling, does that mean there's something wrong with CPU-Z for showing throttling with a x18 multiplier (at 4 threads)?

 

No thats correct. Does it on stock also. But the turbo does up x2 on this CPU (450m). My i5 540m was x23 Max (Turbo)

The max dual core and max turbo mutliplyer is the only thing that makes the i5 430m to i5 580 different. All the same design.

 

Does anyone else have wifi problems? it seems like when im using wifi right next to my router it shows full bar signal strength but i cannot open any webpages, however when i move the laptop to another room with 3 bar signal strength, everything works perfectly fine. any explanation or probable cause?

 

Perhaps some really bad device near your router causes interferences. Your signal strength might be strong, but the link quality might be very bad due to a lot of errors.

Test your 3820 in another environment and see if the issue occurs...

 

well it worked in starbucks and at a library, i didnt notice this until now since ive always had it plugged in in my room. I wonder if it could be hardware issue

 

No, it is not a problem.

The router is crying the laptop very loud in the ears and the effect of this ist that the laptop is not able to understand the router.

The bars only indicated the volume but not how good the signla could be understood.

There are 2 solutions:
*Remove the laptop 30-50cm from the Router
*Chose a lower tx level in the router menu.

 

I have another question concerning the battery.
When i am plugged on A/C anyways, should i remove the battery?

Is it better for the battery to be removed?