Aspire V7-482PG-9884

Thanks, Ill hold off and see how i like it.
Is there any guide to replacing it yet?

 

So you bought the US version. Why did you choose it over the canadian version? I'm not suggesting that you made a bad purchase; I'm just curious because I'm planning to purchase the Canadian version because it's cheaper.

 

No..I'm not from US. My country only has one spec of 582pg only.

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6629 is available at Amazon.com but it is slightly more expensive (MSRP is also $100 higher according to Acer).

I assume the 6629 is just the US version of that SKU. On the Acer website it uses metric for the 6662 for measurements while it uses imperial for the 6629.

 

I'm close to finishing the user review on the V7. this would really be interesting.

 

Anyone has a picture of how the internal looks like? I'm looking for the SATA connector , since my HDD bay is currently left empty, thinking of putting extra HDD or SSD there. I'm not sure how the SATA connector looks like, is it just generic cable or I need to look for specific Acer model ? Anyone can point me where to buy it online, ebay maybe?

 

How heavy is the power brick for the Canadian version (V7-482pg 6662/6629)?

 

HDD/SSD must be 7mm. the laptop is very thin. not possible to put a bay or internal odd. sata connector is standard as always. possible upgrades are 1 msata and 1 7mm standard sata only.

a pound or less than that. including the wire. not big and not heavy.

 

Hey guys, have any of you run into problems after upgrading to Win 8.1? I got multiple BSODs within a week... I think it's a drivers problem maybe?

 

1"x1.5"x5" small ,approximately

 

mine came preinstalled with Windows 8.1 (key also tied to windows 8.1).. so far no issue. But, last night just finished formatted the ssd and reinstall Windows from fresh. Still using Windows default drivers from the updates, have not yet install any driver from Acer.

 

I had some odd slowness as I posted about before, but it resolved itself. Absolutely no stability problems at all.

 

I see, did you update your drivers at all?

 

Not explicitly. I didn't pay attention to see if any changed via windows update.

 

NCIX finally placed my order! Took 3 tries. Do you guys think I should get a ssd? Does it make a difference? A few seconds increase in boot time is not worth the upgrade imo, but if it saves power (i.e. more efficient) and reduces stress on the overall system, then I'll definitely look into it. I hope I can get used to the bilingual keyboard.

 

There is a world of difference between a HDD and SSD - if you can afford it, go for SSD.
It's not about boot time either - nobody really saves time on switching on a PC - it's what happens later that matters and it is a huge difference in favor of SSD.

 

depends where you are going to use it for. although the difference in performance is day and night. it saves more power because it doesn't have to drive or power the hdd to run. it also is lighter. and could be smaller in the form of msata. no movement/vibrations compared to the hdd which rotates at 5400/7200 rpm disk. and doesn't emit heat as much as the hdd. to be more specific, it's like the hdd is the optical disk and the ssd is a flash drive.

the only downside however is that the ssd comes at a cost. you could practically buy a 1TB hybrid SATA drive for the cost of a 128GB SSD. if cost is an issue and so does storage, a hybrid HDD is a great alternative considering it has a flash cache to drive it + coupled with the included 24GB msata as an additional performance cache, you pretty much have a nice performing drive. it is still not as fast as the native SSD but fast enough for most uses and significantly faster than the standard 7200 RPM or velociraptor drives. of course, you have to deal with some heat emission, power consumption and noise/vibrations. your choice.

for me, I'm using a 256GB msata SSD, 512gb Sata SSD and a 4TB USB 3.0 external HDD for storage. I could plug an SSD as an external USB 3.0 storage drive or independent O/S device but that would be overkill already and pretty much pointless for my intended use. I did this because I can afford it.

 

I would also advise a setup like yours over a hybrid drive. I myself use a 256GB SSD and a NAS that gets automatically mapped as a drive once I'm at home (to be more precise TrueCrypt containers get mounted as local drives but that's a minor technicality.

Basically SSD to go and HDD at home (be it a NAS, USB drive or whatever)

 

I have as stated a few pages ago. Download the driver for 8.1 form acer.com before you upgrade, and even then, I am still using 8 after trying to go to 8.1 twice.

 

that is suppose to be the trend nowadays. and we still haven't tapped wireless storages and cloud/web storages.

 

If you have light disk-usage, the ssd cache works pretty well (not as good as straight ssd, but not bad). But oh can you tell when you hit heavy disk-use. Performance drops off a cliff.

I'm going to get a 240 gig msata ssd, and use the spinning disk for large data files.

 

So there is enough space to keep the stock HDD and add a SSD (256gb) in there right? My model is the Canadian version by the way (V7-482pg 6662). I would use the SSD as my main drive and store large files on the HDD. Besides the weight increase, is there a noticeable difference compared to having only the SSD?

How is the keyboard flex? I've been told it flexes a lot. Is it indicative of poor build quality in anyway?

 

The laptop comes standard with an msata slot (filled with a small ssd for caching), and a normal 2.5-inch sata bay (with a 500 GB disk for the Canadian version, and a 1TB disk for the US). So you just need to remove the cache drive, and install a larger msata ssd in its place (reconfiguring/reinstalling, of course).

As far as the keyboard flex, I guess it does have plenty if you press hard enough, but I don't notice it at all under normal use. I guess I'd say that if you look for keyboard flex, you'll certainly find it, but if you aren't looking for it, I don't think you'd notice it. I think the bigger issue for most people is the "chicklet" style keys. But you don't have a lot of choice for key-travel when it comes to thin laptops. The travel is shallow, but I wouldn't call it squishy or anything. It's actually got pretty reasonable tactile feedback. (I'm an elitist, model-m keyboard user, which automatically gives me authority to proclaim a keyboard worthy of use. )

-Jim

 

Yes, icekrystalz, you can have both an MSATA SSD and the 2.5 inch SATA. I swapped the 24GB Cache SSD with a 240GB drive (Crucial m500). I followed the instructions given (on page 12), with the additional step of disconnecting the battery first Hardware wise, it was easy. Unfortunately the software restore from the recovery USB didn't work for me (hung with a generic error), so I ended up doing a bit copy of the HDD over to the SSD drive instead, following the Lifehacker instructions.

Didn't have any trouble upgrading to Win 8.1, although I was often wondering if it was doing anything due to the poor download progress bar. Overall, very happy with this laptop.

Someone recently asked for another photo of the inside, labeled are #1 - battery connector, #2 - 2.5 inch HD, #3 - MSATA SSD module.

 

thanks for the photo. My spec doesn't come with sata hdd, even the connector is not there. I have just ordered the connector from ebay
Acer Aspire One D257 ZE6 DD0R11HD000 SATA HDD Cable Connector Adapter V12 | eBay

I hope it will be compatible based on the part number given.

 

Digitaltheatre, which version do you have? I didn't know that could happen (have me worried now). Have you tried to return it?

By the way, can you guys tell me if there's a video on how to replace the keyboard (with the US layout from Ebay)? Either on this forum or somewhere else? It would save me time looking and I would appreciate it. Thanks.

PS: Order just shipped.

 

no worries, my spec comes with 256gb msata ssd only, that's why the hdd + sata connector is not there. enjoy your new laptop, it's a great one

 

Hmmm...on the tracking website, UPS lists my package as 3lbs. I hope it's just a mistake...

 

The price has gone down $100.

Acer Store: Asprie V7-482PG-9884

 

notebookcheck.com has pictures too

 

I am considering to purchase the Acer V7 482pg 6662 for school and occasional gaming. How is gaming on this laptop? When gaming, which is usually the bottleneck? The CPU or the GPU. The i5 4200u looks kind of weak to me, but my friends tell me it will be enough.

 

I'm in the same position as you, I came across this config which matches the V7 and all the games I'd play run smoothly so I would say the cpu isnt weak at all

PC Core i5-4200U 1.6GHz GeForce GT 750M 8GB gaming performance - Nexawk

 

Keep in mind that the i7 will throttle as it gets warm. Plus, few games make good multicore use. It's really more about the GPU.

For a point of reference, I get 60 fps in Skyrim on medium-high settings. I've done nothing to try to tweak the experience.

 

it's more than enough. you have to consider the size and fan of the laptop on why the laptop have such cpu and gpu specs. as for bottlenecks, both the cpu and gpu are essential. either one could bottleck the performance.

as someone already mentioned, throttling will always be an issue for higher clocked cpu due to the necessity for cooling. and since ultrabooks this size don't have the necessary ventilation and cooling system to stabilize the cpu high temp under stress, it will throttle whether you like it or not. for a 3GHZ+ clock, you'd most likely end up running around 2.4-2.6ghz at stable max. it is possible to run 3.0ghz consistently, but the drawback is that your fans will work like crazy crazy fast and noisy and would warm your laptop to uncomfortable and dangerous levels due to heat wear. it can get really hot and annoyingly noisy. aside from the fact that it would shorten the lifespan of your unit as well.

so basically, games played on ultra-thin and ultra-light laptops would run at an average of 2.5ghz cpu power (stable) which is more than enough for playing current gen games and next gen games for the next 3--5 years depending on game developers if they make games that would require such processing and computing power which hasn't happened yet for more than a decade now.

with regards to the i5-4200u, it can run at 2.4ghz consistently only when needed. clockspeed more than sufficient for playing games smoothly at medium/high settings at certain resolution levels. besides, the laptop doesn't have to run at such speed all the time and would be wasting power unnecessarily. this would also prolong the lifespan of the laptop as it doesn't compute/execute or run as much instructions when idle or performing basic tasks. this is exactly the point of laptops nowadays being energy efficient. it serves as a floodgate.

 

Great insights, Tellyboi. I can sacrifice some performance for battery and portability.

Does the 6662 model come with optimus technology? I'm under the impression that it does since w/out, the dGPU would wear the battery down quickly.

 

I have setup linux in this laptop in last few days with the latest kernel and bumblebee to make use of the optimus technology. The battery life is great, roughly can get 10 hours+ for normal usage (browsing 10 tabs, skype & hangout chats etc). Discharge rate is around 5-6 watts.

It so much better compared to Windows8 which can get around 7 hours only. For a 15inch laptop, this is amazing, really satisfied with the purchase.


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it does. another added feature to that is that you could still further control it either to maximize performance or quality (both igpu and dgpu). you can also setup the dgpu which application it would run. you can also download the recent XTU software from intel for underclock/undervolt or overclocking the laptop for further performance tweaking.

 

among the many things that I like about Linux. these Unix based O/S are great for netbooks as well. the only thing missing from it is games support compatibility and picture editors. I hope software developers start supporting some of their products to Linux. basically, those are the only 2 things that kept me using WIndows still.

 

Wow that's insane. That makes me wonder. Could you dual boot with windows and Linux or something on Acer?

 

Price Update!

Acer Aspire V7-482PG-6629 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Cool Steel)

Now down to 850USD on amazon, Even on us.ncix.com, but now they are both at same prices now.

 

you can. you can even designate and boot Linux on a USB 3.0 flash drive acting as a portable external O/S. you don't need a big capacity flash drive to run Ubuntu unlike Windows with their constant gigantula sized updates. try and see if you like it. it is more than enough for basic and some intermediate desktop functions. and great for programming.

what I like about Unix-based O/S is that it is not as vulnerably bombarded with junk like windows. junks that slows your system, eat up space, enable annoying spams, adwares/bloatwares/malwares/viruses, pop-ups, and all those crappy things that one would want to avoid as much as possible. although not perfect, but much cleaner than windows. right now, I'm waiting for them to fully support steam gaming,and raw photo editors. if they do that, I might completely stop using Windows from then on.

 

I have a question regarding the display on this laptop.

Several touschreen laptops I've tried have had a slight 'sparkle' to the screen. That is, a rainbowy, grainy effect, most visible on white backgrounds, like seen on matte displays. (There's no such effect on my current machine.)

It appears most people don't notice or mind; no review I've read ever brought it up. For me, however, this is a dealbreaker. So, my question is, is that same effect present on this machine?

 

yes, I'm currently dual booting between Windows and Linux on this machine, though most of the time I'm in Linux. I actually reinstall everything in my laptop from fresh, I extracted the Windows key from BIOS, repartition my SSD according to what I like, remove all the Acer's recovery partition, and reinstall back Windows & Linux.

Steam works perfectly in Linux though there still lack of games made for Linux. Just make sure you setup Bumblebee and make it working, then you can choose which application to use Nvidia gfx without sacrificing the battery life. I haven't yet tried to play the games in the PlayOnLinux, where you can play some of Windows games. Someone already tried playing Skyrim in Linux and it runs just fine.

I use this link for guide on installing Linux in this laptop, though not all works for me
Acer Aspire V7-482PG-9882 [Linux Laptop Wiki]
Acer Aspire v7 582pg [Linux Laptop Wiki]

 

thanks for the heads-up regarding PlayonLinux. have to check that one. if it does work, the only thing remaining is the full support for raw editors.

news flash: I just returned my 2nd copy of the V7 for inspection. hopefully, it gets replaced. if not, I have to pay a re-stocking fee for getting a 3rd copy. the issue I had was that the laptop was hot when I removed it from it sleeve case despite turning it off 12 hours earlier. I mean, it shouldn't be hot at all. and even if it's on sleep mode, it should be HOT as well. I'd rather get a new one rather than seeing this kind of issue happening again a few months from now. I'm also concerned that some of the components got fried or worn-down because of the heat for god knows how long it was producing heat. I'd rather spend a small penalty than have to wait for replacements and while they are RMA'ing the unit. it sucks and annoying. this would greatly affect my review on the laptop.

 

That's unfortunate and it sucks to hear that. Can you tell me which model you purchased? 9884 or 6662? And did your first copy exhibit such issues?

Did it heat up like that when you first got it and then you just put off getting a RMA or something? I hope this is a defect and you can get a perfect machine on your next shipment.

 

it's the 6662 model. first one was an immediate return due to horizontal stuck pixels on the screen. could be due to mishandling since I noticed a dent on the shipping box. the heating concern only occurred after 3 weeks of testing and usage. I even had a disagreement with the intern tech telling him that sleep mode wouldn't and shouldn't heat up the system noticeably and even warm up the sleeve like it's been on the oven. otherwise, it would or should have warmed up since day 1 if that is the case. I'm not a noob for crying out loud.

although I didn't smell any burnt component, the oven heat alone is an alarming concern. aside from the concern of future breakdown or repeat of the issue and possible unseen damage the heat might have caused that might affect the performance and stability of the system. I'll see if I can max my warranty on it since it might be difficult to recreate the problem for 2-day testing only. I might end up paying a 15% restocking fee for returning it not showing the symptoms and getting a 3rd copy. hot damn, I could have bought me another 3TB storage with that amount.

 

Good luck on your return. I hope this isn't an indication of poor build quality. I was already wary about purchasing an Acer, but other users here convinced me to pull the trigger. It seems like a defect though.

So are you going to extend your warranty through Acer or an outside company like Square Trade? Honestly, I feel I like I should do the same thing.

That being said, how is the heating on everyone else?

 

I only can see it when the screen is off,and if you look at it closely the screen is gorgeous,

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm not sure we're thinking of the same effect. The sparkle I mentioned is most visible on bright, white backgrounds. I don't have to look closely to notice it, either, but I seem to be in the minority. I haven't noticed it on a screen that's off, however.

Hmm, it's comparable to the distortion you get from smudges on a glossy screen... Is that perhaps a clearer description?

EDIT: To be clear, the laptops I tried that have this issue are the Samsung Ativ Book 8 and Dell Inspiron 15 7537.

 

I know what you're talking about. I recently purchased an Asus laptop that had the "sparkle" and decided to return it, but not because of the sparkle. Honestly, I think every laptop that comes with a glossy screen has a greater chance of getting a screen defect like the one you mentioned. Go with a matte laptop like the T440s or something if you're worried.