Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

Acer will integrate the fan/housing exhaust support into the case. You will probably have to take the case apart and remove the motherboard to get access to the GPU and CPU.

Bronsky

 

amazon.de says acer 3830 will be available on may 10\

 

Wooh ... collecting my 3830TG in an hour time ..

 

Any chance you could play an intensive game (like crysis high settings) or benchmark for an hour and see if it throttles itself, numero?

I think theres a lot of people around the world waiting for that information at the moment.
(=

 

Will do ... can't wait but I am still in a meeting

 

How are you getting one so early?

 

The Acer Travelmate TimelineX just popped up in inventory in the USA, so the Aspire cannot be too far away

TravelMate 8573T
15.6" 720p screen
i7-2620
Intel HD 3000 GFX
USB 3.0, combo esata/usb. fingerprint reader, hdmi
$1000

 

http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g421/n-uno/P1010224.jpg

The familiar TimelineX box ...




The Mean machine!!

The shop assistant was pretty funny. When we were checking thru. the contents ... he said,

"this is the charger, the cable, the manual and the battery ........ eh, hmmm, <pulling out everything in the box and mumbling to himself> ... where is the battery??

 

How did you already get one?

 

2numero: can you please do some test? i am wonder about temperatures...

 

numero is most probably from Malaysia or Singapore.

 

No 3830 in Malaysia for now

 

@numero: Congrats! Have fun!

Unboxing...what a pleasant event.

 

About a million jealous looking at those pictures. Congrats on the new one bro ^.^

 

Hi all

Small updates ...

1. Removing the backplate is a PAIN IN THE A**!! Almost broke it .. just make sure the single screw is removed entirely before attempting.

2. CPU throttling is very active and I would like to emphasize active. At any one time the CPU is running at 2.7Ghz even under load.

3. The build is good .. Hinge design is much better than the 3820TG.

4. Still trying to get a grip on Optimus ... drivers are not very polished I guess. It doesn't run most of the time. Good thing is that Intel HD is pretty thrifty.

 

1. Can the fan/heatsink removed just by removing the backplate ?
2. Do you mean Turbo Boost ?
4. Try update the nVidia driver 270.61...

 

On load ... 2.70ghz max. Peaked at 2.80ghz for a couple of seconds and dropped back down.



Under load and running Furmark in the background ... the CPU throttle down to 2.0ghz and Furmark crashed in the background



3DMark06 .. score is pretty low. May need to tweak Optimus. Hmmmm ...

 

With backplate off ...



Filmsy SATA connector.



Default 750GB HDD ...

 

Can we configure nVIDIA Optimus manually?


I want to know the temprature CPU, GPU, and surface (body) temprature of the 3830TG under full-load. I'm pretty scared since my 4740G easily overheat (reaches TjMax 105) when I play NFS: Hot Pursuit (2010) only for 15-30 minutes.
I also curious how the single-fan perform to dissipate heat compared to dual-fan in 3820TG. If it is higher than 90 on the CPU and higher than 42 on the surface (body), I think I will get the US$999 3820TG or other competitor like US$1000 ASUS U41SV (estimation), US$1299 Alienware M11x-R3 (in USA), or even the US$2200 Sony VAIO SB (in Indonesia).

 

Im having such a hard time deciding between the 3820tg and 3830tg (and the Alienware m11x r3).

3830tg with GT540M and i5-2410m for 1320 USD (Price in Denmark)

3820tg with HD5650 and i5-450m for 1070 USD (again Danish price)

m11x with GT540M and i5-2537m for 1830 USD (it's Dell so price is kinda negotiable)

I know this belongs in the "Which notebook should I choose?" section. But I think the 3820tg vs 3830tg is relevant

 

CrystalMark on my previous 3820TG.



On the 3830TG!!

 

Same brand, different result. Are they using the exactly same hard drive?

 

It's hot but still manageable I guess ... the CPU (90C) and GPU (76C) on load. It's not that much hotter than the 3820TG in my opinion.

 

Same SSD - Crucial C300 different laptop

 

I suppose this is mainly because the 3830TG has a SATA3 controller which boosts hell-fast SSDs like the C300 to its limits. A SATA2 controller will limit fast SSDs to about 250mb/s.

 

If the single-fan on the 3830TG can dissipate heat as good as dual-fan on the 3820TG, I think there's no reason to choose the older 3820TG.
If you can't nego hard (below US$1500) on the M11x-R3, I think 3830TG is the better choice.

 

How's the touchpad? Is it comfortable? Is it sensitive enough? Does the multi-touch works all the time? I really disappointed with the touchpad of my Acer 4740G, the multi-touch works pretty bad.
How about the screen? Is it bright? Is it has rich colour? or dull colour? Is it reflective or matte?
How about the speaker? Is it loud enough? Is it louder than the other laptops since it has the speaker on the top and the bottom?

 

So the test sample from Notebookjournal wasn't any monday unit regarding temps.

Can you write sth. about throttling or better do some hardcore gaming / full load and check if the notebook is throttling. Some screens are highly welcome

 

My guess is the GPU is under the fan while the CPU is in the middle of the board. The heat pipe is too long to efficiently transport heat away from the CPU even if they used double heat pipes.
Anyway to the guy whose 4740G overheat, you might want to repaste the thermal paste.
I have the same laptop and it doesn't overheat at all (I stress tested on Furmark and Intel Burn Test simultaneously)
Update the Chipset (Intel Latest) and Touchpad Driver (to HP Driver).

 

just saw a 4830 14" unit on sale in hong kong (only one shop had it though)

sells for 7000HKD with change (roughly 900USD, very roughly), but in general laptops in hongkong are more expensive than US pricing by around 10% on average (although no sales tax in hk), so my guess a 14" unit will be around closer to 800USD if being sold in the states (but not including local US sales tax)

i didnt examine the machine thoroughly as i was in a rush but has 4gb ram, a 2gb gpu and 640gb hard drive. i forgot all the WEI numbers but the gaming WEI was 6.6

keyboard looks very sexy and screen/lid thickness is very thin, feels thinner than the one on a 3820

i asked if there is a 13" and 15" variant available and the salesperson says they only have the 14" now

anyways just a fyi

 

Oh and btw force installing TimelineX 3820TG Drivers on my Aspire 4740G using the /overall (overwrite all drivers) command raises the fan RPM to audible levels. CPU also drop to aggressive power savings.
TimelineX fans is notorious for "always on" behaviour.
IMO there could be more to Intel Chipset Drivers than meets the eye.

 

I'd be highly interested in the noise the fan is producing while gaming.

 

The dual sink/fan assembly in the 3820TG was really a brilliant piece of engineering. It lets you use every bit of of power out of the unit, all the time. I have pushed my computer hard since I bought it and I don't have heat issues.

My highest CPU gaming temps were in the low 80C range. The Nvidia GPU is cooler than I thought it would be. But, that is hot for a CPU. Can't wait for someone to run a decent burn test and post the results.

Bronsky

 

What driver? Intel? Link please..

 

Most Canadian sources of the 3820TG are sold out. The i5/hd 4xxx model was $600 CAD at one point from Staples Canada!

Seems like the 3820TG in North America is only still sold here (Memoryexpress)
LINK
and NICX
LINK

i5-480, Radeon 6550, dual fans, no optimus. $721 CAD.

Even the 3820T is gone. Amazon US only has used and refurbished ones for $100 more than they sold new.

@numero, thanks for posting the info you've done so far. I'll also request some more stressful testing. Thanks!

 

Also, to those who already own the 3830..

I assume the automatic delayed start for the aero theme and widgets is controlled by Acer software? Is this correct?

Can the P button be reprogrammed for other functions?

 

Did some gaming namely SC3 and COH ... the amazing / annoying thing about Sandy Bridge is the throttling! I was playing SC3 with stress test running in the background .. and the CPU went down to 1.2Ghz?! Temp is in the region of 70C+.





Did some burn tests using Aida64 and Intel Burn running at stress level max. Turbo Boost still maintaining at 2.7Ghz hitting 2.8/2.9Ghz once in awhile.





Furmark .... GPU at 88C.

 

What's the power brick rated at? 65W ? 90W ?

 

Mine's 90W ... the 3830T comes with 65W.

 

The new TimelineXs made it to Hungary:

5830 already available:

Acer 5830TG - Hungary

219.000 HUF (1095 USD)

3830 available for pre-order:

3830 TG - Hungary

190.000 HUF ~ 950 USD

The price of the 3830TG must be an estimated one, otherwise it would be priced less than the 3820TG was when it became available (it was like 210.000-220.000 HUF ~ 1050-1100 USD)

 

I'm just doing some research into this laptop, but I haven't looked at any in a few years. Can you help break those numbers down for me a bit? The temperature numbers seem a little high. 88C for GPU and mid 80's for CPU. Are those higher than other comparable laptops and if so is there a chance the high temps will be mitigated by the time it is released in North America?

 

The throtteling of the 4830tg is very bad. But a maximum temperatur of 90°C is to low for throtheling the first gen I5 were able to run till 105°C.
Are the 2. gen I5 less temperatur resistent?

 

Thanks a lot. This is what I was expecting. So I have to wait for another notebook

 

The 3820TG had 2 fans compared to the 4820TG so it's kind of an anomaly but what were 4820TG temps like? Are they comparable to what we're seeing with the 4830? I've read through a lot of the original 3820/4820 thread and I recall seeing temps around the mid 80's when under load. I didn't pay much attention to them though cause I was looking at the 13" model, plus that was a while back so 80's may not be accurate.

Still, just because the critical temp is 105C doesn't mean your cores can hang around near there and everything be a-ok. Your fan will be on constantly for one, and the CPU may not be able to give full clockspeed when you need it. I would think surely this type of heat can shorten the lifespan of the CPU itself, though to figure out how much, it'd take some pretty involved testing. Over more time, I'd be worried about the surrounding hardware as well.

I've had times when my wifi card cuts out (this is outdoors of course) on very warm (~32C days) in the shade. Yet my core core 2 duo spends most of its time in the mid 30's and about 60C under 100% load. This is on a Dell Studio XPS laptop, known for having a noticeably (sometimes ridiculously) warm palm rest and track pad area, largely due to the placement of the wifi card and southbridge. It's really made me scrutinize laptop temps in these tiny bodies hardware is fit into nowadays.

From numero's pics, 70C on load is much more appropriate but then the CPU is still throttling at that temp so..

 

In a word of fairness I would say the 2nd gen cores are much more efficient when it comes to computing prowess. It's an 'either or' situation whereby the GPU will take priority when you are gaming or the CPU will peak when you are number crunching.

You can see that the CPU was peaking at 2.7Ghz and in the region of 80C when I running the stress test (see trending below). The moment I start SC3 the chart shows an immediate dip to 70C+. This is when the CPU starts throttling to supplement the operation. I didn't see a noticeable difference in framerates though but I will a lookout.

 

I see no CPU throttling on the bottom graph. The top graph shows change in temperature. Or am I missing something here?

 

By the looks of it, the 4830TG and 4820TG have similar temps during load. My friend games TF2 and SC2 on his 4820TG and the CPU was in the mid to high 90s. After we repasted it with AC-MX2, worst case load on CPU is now low to mid 90s.

The 3820TG should rightfully have much lower temps with the dual fan design. I'm guessing the newer Timelines will have similar temps to the 4820TG and 5820TG.

 

I don't see any throttling either.

Bronsky

 

OK, so I've been following this thread for a while now since I'm in the midst of buying a new laptop and the 3830TG matched all my hardware demands. I'm just not clear on if there is a problem with the throttling or not. I see high temperature numbers, but can someone confirm that the CPU is actually dropping to lower clock speeds due to temperature when gaming or if this could be due to the GPU doing all the calculations? So basically: Is there a problem with the 3830TG that should make me not buy it?
If would feel kind of crappy to get the older 3820TG because the 3830TG doesn't work properly.

 

I wrote to the developer and they said throttling wouldn't show on Trial version Only the CPU load will be shown ...

Let me do some gaming later with the air-conditioning switched on and see if the CPU maintain turbo .. but I doubt so.