Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

Yeah it seems that they've improved in every corner, at least a little bit - except on the screen.
The GT540 is about 15-20% faster than a 5650/6550.
Here you can compare all kind of laptop graphic cards: NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M - Notebookcheck.com Technik/FAQ
It's German, though, you can let the browser translate.

 

The ability to import a new timeline will depend on the availability of a US keyboard. With the last gen, the timeline 3810T worked in our units. I don't think that is an option on these new units, so no importing without using keyboard stickers.

Bronsky

 

Frankly speaking if you are not a sucker for looks makes no sense to get the 4830TG. It has Dual Core Processor vs Quad Core and the same GT540M compared to the Aspire 4750G yet cost more.

 

Also don't forget the 3820T and 4820T and 4820TG shared the same keyboard and they were all imported. So as long as on of the 3830T or 4830T/TG share the same keyboard you'd still be ok.

 

Acer will probably make its new models available long before it makes any of its replacement keyboards available. Hopefully, they won't import just the 4830TG.

Bronsky

 

A few pages back there were some posters concerned about the Nvidia card paired with Linux. Why, what is the concern?

Optimus won't work but we already knew it wouldn't. Are the Linux/Nvidia drivers more restricted or buggy than ATI?

Is there ATI switching in the 3820TG, or was it manual? I don't remember..

I'm not quite sure how i feel about this new model. Heat is a big concern for me. I've held off from buying a 3820TG for nearly 5 months now on the 'sandy bridge will be the greatest thing in the universe' supposition but if Linux on the 3830 isn't an option because of the GPU (no word for an Intel graphics only model it seems) then I've got to go back to Arrandale CPUs. The super slim Lenovo and Asus models are Nvidia too.

 

I am far from being an expert on dual-graphics, so don't take everything I say as facts. Do your own research.

Here is that post. Read it again and it should answer this question.

There is simply no support from Nvidia for Optimus in Linux. Assuming it is Optimus-only (no support for MUX type graphics switching), the only way to use Linux is to disable Nvidia and use Intel only.

However, if Acer did it the easy way, and it is Optimus+MUX, then we could disable Optimus (via BIOS mod?) and use MUX-type switching via ACPI calls to manually switch between the two cards like it is done on 3820TG. The problem is that it is not known whether there is an option in the 3820TG BIOS to disable Nvidia card, run in Discrete/Intel-only/Switchable mode. Some photos of the BIOS setup screen could shed some light on this.

First of all, there is a modded BIOS for 3820TG/4820TG/5820TG that allows to run in Intel-only (as opposed to just Switchable or Discrete) graphics mode. Selecting the video card in BIOS is more of a fail-proof way compared to software switching.

When it comes to switching, since the whole graphics card switching is done by software (ACPI calls), it is fairly easy to switch graphic cards in Linux via calls to vgaswitcheroo kernel module. You can
read about it here or google for more info.

Currently, if you want to use proprietary ATI graphics driver fglrx and be able use Intel card, then you would need to replace Xorg.conf file during boot depending on which card you are currently using, You will also have to blacklist/modify the flgrx driver to make it work in other that Discrete graphics mode. There was a guide here on forum that goes over how to do that.

That being said, according to change log of the new ATI flgrx driver, it now supports Switchable graphics. AFAIK, you would still have to manually switch cards (vgaswitcheroo or BIOS), but with this new version, you would not need two Xorg.conf files. I gave it a quick try on test installation and it didn't work for me. I'm just waiting for Ubuntu 11.04 and hoping they will seamlessly integrate the new driver.

Patience, my friend. I usually wait until all the compatibility and hardware problems are sorted out before I get my hardware. Saves me lots of headache and I never end up with hardware I can't use the way I want

Personally, I don't think I will be getting 3830TG as I already own 3820TG and it is more than enough for my needs.

 

I just ran the same benchmark with the same settings as above and i get 95fps avg for street fighter 4...Even with FFXIV i get 1000 more points. Once you overclock the performance between the two is minimal. In saying that i do wish i had usb 3 or a esata port. Overall the 3820 is good enough to last to the next refresh.

 

@ revamperz, could you please take photos on the BIOS setup screen? In particular, I am interested in anything that has these keywords: video, switchable, graphics, discrete, optimus, display. I'm looking for something like this

Thanks!

 

Thanks for all that. It does clear some things up a bit. I'd read that the P67 chipset didn't support integrated graphics and thought that carried over to the PM67 chipset. That's fortunately not true though so there could be potential for an Intel graphics only model.

I'm realizing I don't need a GPU, the SB graphics would be fine but there's no word of a 3830 model with this configuration. On the other hand, the 3820T is about $550 on Amazon now.

Regardless, I'm very interested in how the 3830 turns out in reviews.

revamperz, I'll second the request for a bios snapshot please. Thank you.

 

There exists such a configuration, here in EU you can get it for 649€ ($924). A review in polish language is also available: Acer Aspire TimelineX 3830T – test [cz??? 2]

 

Were those benchmark tests while overclocked or stock?

Is it possible the 3820TG actually games better?


Also, g'day everyone. Thanks for a superbly useful board. I've been lurking for weeks agonizing about whether to buy now or wait for the refresh. It felt like time to join the conversation.

 

Thank you for that! Though all the numbers aren't very encouraging. >$900 (gotta get it to the US somehow too), idle temps up to 50C and over 90C on load. Using Bing translator here's a quote,

"Keyboard is noticeably warm on almost all its length, and especially on the left side, near the grille vents. Much worse is on the side of the bottom. On ok. 1/3 the width of the side holes outlet air, Acer Aspire TimelineX 3830T is hot. Ciepłota chassis is maintained around 50 degrees Celsius. This makes keeping your computer in your lap is not pleasant or desirable."

Battery life seems good. On WIFI, battery lasts 7 hours, or nearly 13 at idle.

 

This latop is really nice but pissing me off cause Acer takes for ever to bring to North America. I bought a 5820TG for $750 which I ended up returning for a MSI FX603 which I got for $700 - $80 MIR = $620: Newegg.com - MSI FX603-019US Notebook Intel Core i5 480M(2.66GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M

Acer has to do something about the North America laptop release dates our they'll end up loosing customers due unavailability. This MSI with Sandy Bridge and GT 540m was released in Canada April 1, 2011 on sale for $750 a week after release and it's 1080P: http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=59466

 

a new bios is released for this laptop. Can someone looks at it quickly to see if this bios can be modded or not because I think it is very hard, if not impossible.

 

Ohey. New to this thread here, moved from the Alienware speculation since the *starting* price for the M11x-r3 in Australia turned out to be an abysmal $1500. (And the M14x at $2000+, stuff that)

Anyway not sure if you guys have seen this already, but there's a US site for 3830tg drivers up atm here:
http://support.acer.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?modelId=3634
Could this be an indication of the 3830tg's American release, or were the drivers always there?

 

Here in EU we got a headline in the news, that Acer lost 42% of the market share in US compared to last year Q1. Now I've got the reason why

 

We do have the drivers as well but no sign of any 3830TG,4830TG or 5830TG.
Download

 

Dell's 14" Vostro 3450 looks like some competition for the 4830TG. Second Gen I5-2410 and an HD 6330 GPU. With the usual Dell coupons and sales, the Vostro should be in the same price range as the 4830TG. Comes with Backlit KB, 350GB 7200 HD, Intel Wifi, and 1 year on-site service warranty. Vostro's Matt display is a nice alternative to the Glare display of the Acer. $899 configured on the CTO with no discounts. Probably worth a look. Shame Dell only puts the HD 6470 in the 13" 3350. Otherwise, the 3350 could be competition for the Sony SB at $400 less.

Bronsky

 

Some benchmark result for 4830TG..
¡¾ºê»ùacer 4830TG(2412G64Mnbb) ÏÔ¿¨ÆÀ²â 3DMark06 9463·Ö¡¿acer 3830TG 4830TG 5830TGÂÛ̳_IT168±¾ÓÑ»á

 

3DM06 score of 8630 in native resolution looks strong. 11,000 OC'd anyone.

Bronsky

 

The first 4830tg are avaible in germany.And Notebooks Tests, Tipps und News rund um Laptops auf notebookjournal.de annoucned that they are testing the 4830tg right now.
And now i hope they will say the laptop is good and then i will buy it right now.

 

Yes, and 9463 on 1024x768 also looks strong considering no use of turbo/Throttlestop. This suggests 11k+ if use of Throttlestop and some OC on the GPU.

 

Damn you, you made me go look at the the Vostro since I started to think about computers w/o a dedicated GPU.. now more choices...

 

Wow, I really enjoy reviews on Chinese Forums, they seem to be getting the right reviews about computational power (duh it is a computer) unlike other "reviews" which focus on experience bullcrap.
I guess Chinese Forums reviewers stay close to the enthusiast tech notion while other "reviews" just wants readership from everyone hence they dumb it down outright.

 

I sold my i7 3820TG and got the Aspire 4750G a few days back (need something to play with ). The 4750G is identical to the 4830TG except for the CPU. The 4750G has a quad core i7 SNB as opposed to the dual core i5 SNB.

There is nothing in the bios to suggest graphic switching at all. Optimus works via desktop settings (nVidia control panel) and Intel HD is always running even when the laptop is plugged in.

 

First English review of the 5830T: InsideHW - Acer Aspire 5830T TimelineX: Evolution Through Time

 

AS5830TG-2414G75Mnbb | Product Model

As5830tg? This is it right? Stuff them for not having the 3830 yet though. But it must be close!

EDIT: Seems to be on sale everywhere here: http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=as5830tg&spos=1

But yeah. No 3830tg.

EDIT2: Now I'm just getting confused. most of them are listed having an i5-410m (I don't think this exists? is it just a mistype on (most) websites that's meant to be 2410m?) and the graphics is listed as a GF 520M. Where did the 540M go?

EDIT3: It seems like a lot of sites have just picked up on the specs, and copy-pasta to their sites. Most are listed with unknown availability etc.

 

Relax, if you scroll down you'll see the 2410m

EDIT: I'm talking about the first link, don't know about the other

 

Yeah, I'm thinking the retailers don't know crap. Either they all made the same mistake or they're just copying the same line of spec/desc from other retailers and hoping they might be able to stock some soon.

Really hoping they actually can. The 13" is looking good ^.-

 

Well, the 3830T and 3830TG are finally on the danish websites!

But the prices are different, and also the configurations:

I hate it! If I want SSD, I have to give up on the 540M GT and faster processor.
If I want the faster processor, I have to give up on the SSD.
On the other hand, for only $60 extra you get the SSD
Soo confused...

 

Acer assembles the oddest configurations at the factory sometimes. I3 with the SSD? I would guess that they look at keeping the price under a certain cieling and swap and add parts to reach that price.

Do you have a 17% VAT?

Bronsky

EDIT: BTW, any of the new owners OCing the SB CPU on the new Timelines yet?

 

No, 25%, it's crazy...

 

Wow, about 100€ more expensive than here in Germany. I'd buy one with a 540GT and replace the HDD with an SDD later on. This is the only way I can assure to get a fast SSD (like a Crucial C300) for a good value.

 

Has there been a recent increase (or 'levy' as seems the favored phrased) in/on European electronics prices or ???

Computers and such have always been more expensive there compared to the US but ~$1200 (as aniwon indicates in Germany) for the integrated graphics 3830T is outrageous. Yes it's got Sandy Bridge but no it won't last 12 hours with wifi on battery or make me a sandwich in the morning. I feel like Acer is overstepping one of their previously strongest selling points. Value for money in new 13" notebooks is getting more difficult to come by.

Is 'pricing for the US market' going to really lower MSRP by 30-50 percent to compete with Asus & the notbooks? I highly suspect no. Even the magnesium alloy Asus (u36) is under $1k with an i5 Arrandale & Nvidia setup. For users willing to step up to 14" Lenovo and MSI have many good options too.

I'm very interested to see North American prices!

 

There is someone selling the Acer Aspire 4830TG on lowyat.com for what looks like a really good price:

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1422126

The conversion I got comes out to $797 USD. I figure shipping is $100 approx?

What do you think? What are the cons with a malaysian model timeline? What layout keyboard would it have? I guess I will email the seller.

 

Although early buyers of the 3820TG in the US had no problem getting their warranties registered in the US, Acer has recently refused to register a unit purchased from PCHome in Taiwan (bad move). I would be careful about importing foreign units ATM ... new sheriff in town.

Bronsky v

 

Some video review..
Part 1

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Part 2

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbPLkZtjeFU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbPLkZtjeFU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='480' height="390"></embed>

 

Very nice review,thanks for sharing Lee, well done mudster.

 

Now there's something interesting, there's a switch to ON/OFF the battery..
and speaker is down-firing..
¡¾ºê»ùacer 4830TGÏêϸ²ð½â ¸ßÇåÃÀͼ·ÖÏí¡¢¹Ø×¢µÄÎÊÌâͼ½â¡¿acer 3830TG 4830TG 5830TGÂÛ̳_IT168±¾ÓÑ»á

 

they have some space for 3g mod. haha.

 

I guess this refresh is starting to grow on me. The blue metal top looks great. I suppose that the KB is a significant improvement. The GT 540m is plenty powerful.

Let's see some real performance / heat numbers.

Bronsky

 

Acer TimelineX 4830TG Review from Germany

Well and as expected, the heat management sucks -.-

It is continuesly throttling when exceeding ~ 90°C, you have to attain back to 65°C to get out of throttling. What is nearly impossible when playing games. Why they always fail at the heat management every damn time! 1,2GHz @ gaming... yay :/

 

They might just have a defective unit. That actually happened last year. It was a German review of the 4820TG and it throttled due to heat issues. It was not duplicated in the I5 production models. Have to wait and see once these get into the hands of new owners. Until then, I would hold onto your 3820TG's.

Bronsky

 

The German review is quite OK. Despite the bad display, throttling problems and 41 dB (which is very loud!) fan-noise it got a "very good". let's wait for some more reviews... maybe they really got a Mondays model.

 

Lee, you rock!. Thanks for posting your videos and for that link.
+rep

The build quality seems to be pretty good, I like that there's an aluminum backing to the palm rest. Something strange I noticed, is the heat sink attached to or part of the underside of the keyboard? The pictures on the forum in the link above don't show anything connecting the CPU & GPU to to a fan inlet.

It seems the battery can be accessed fairly easily (well, not for most users..) but I then wonder, how readily available will batteries be from sellers? I've never seen batteries sold in bundled cells instead of the plastic casing.

Overall, I'm warming up to it...kinda... I'm not sure how I feel about the blue either.

Edit: just read the notebook journal.de review. Let's hope that's a defective model. I hate to be the naive consumer, but I just can't see Acer mass producing something with those kinds of heat/throttling problems and destroying the Timeline X reputation. i core Macbooks have overheating problems so as of now, it seems like the new image strategy is working..

 

The heatsink is on the underside of the mobo, which there is no picture of it...

 

Ah, so the whole bottom chassis panel must be removed to repaste. hopefully just screws. :/

 

I guess with the current battery setup, 9-cell would be impossible ?

4820TG vs 4830TG
¡¾ºê»ùAcer TimelineX 4830TG¡¢4820TG Á½´úÆì½¢ Íâ¹Û¶Ô±È¡¢ÆÀµã ¶àͼÐã¡¿acer 3830TG 4830TG 5830TGÂÛ̳_IT168±¾ÓÑ»á

 

Any idea when / if this will be available in USA?