The Official Arrandale Timeline Thread

Quite surprisingly, it seems that with the 8 cell (84Whr!) the ASUS U30JC is getting around 8 hours of battery life as well.

 

Anyone have that link on how the various icores rank as I'm trying to see the diff between the asus u30jc i3 and the two i5 options for this acer 13.3"

 

The Asus looks ok, but no match for the Timeline. It gets similar battery life with only a 6 cell. It also is thinner and blows the Asus out of the water graphicswise.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Mobile-Prozessoren-Benchmarkliste.1809.0.html

 

Since these are all dual-core Arrandales, you can just compare them based on clock speed. With Turbo Boost, the i5-430M, -520M, -540M and i7-620M are around 12%, 18%, 24% and 35% faster than the i3-350M when on two cores.

The i5-520M, -540M and i7-620M also have the added advantage of AES-NI support, and an extra two bins of Turbo Boost when running on one core, which is around another 10% more. However, since the more intensive tasks will tend to at least be optimized for dual-core, the single-core turbo is of lesser importance.

 

O wow those are large speed differences. Thanks

 

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/ace...fcampaign_id=8f14e45fceea167a5a36dedd4bea2543
http://www.fernseher-guenstiger.de/...le_detail&s_supplier_aid=1584166&rid=idealotv
http://www.computeruniverse.net/products/90372409.asp?agent=185
Who want to order?

 

Is it worth ordering now or waiting until it releases in USA/Canada? How much would shipping/duties total for shipping to Toronto, Canada?

I need a notebook before May 2nd! O_O

 

China has been selling i3/i5 4820TGs already

 

the msi is a different kind of pc, there are similarities but what the gx640 offers is more like the acer 5740g---heavier, no switchable graphics, short battery life LOW PRICE being the selling point. the "edge" seems to be the faster vid card but i think it plays out weird in real life. It's quirky--the more powerfull vid card in msi offsets the higher rez display so actual game fps will be the same on either machine unless you plug in an external 1080P+ monitor, in which case both vid cards will be too slow

i am still sort of puzzled by lack of switchable graphics in these models---all the intel arrandale chips have the gpu built in, and not having switchable graphics means that gpu silicon on the cpu package will Never get used even tho it was included in the chip price; some of which trickles down to us the lowly consumers...why do we have to pay for something we can;t use? just doesn;t seem like these models give us everything for the money that they should.....it almost feels like a marketing ploy , trying to advertise products differently for different segments, even tho they are all pretty similar hardware wise, with the same capabilities .

timelinex 3820/4820 still seems like the one if perf, looks and battery matter.... altho Honestly after 120 pages i am open to other ideas for 5650 or faster dx11 in a 13/14 inch thin frame ..wait is killin me !

 

An I5-430 with an HD 5650 GPU. Almost my unit. I'll order when they have an I7-620M and the HD 5650. They're shipping from lots of locations now. Shouldn't be long before we see one on Amazon, Tiger Direct or New Egg.

Bronsky

Patiently waiting for my 3820TG.

 

It is approaching....I can feel it.

 

Definitely wait. With the high Value Added Tax in all European countries and with custom fees, you would be looking at a much more expensive computer. Just wait a few more weeks (I think, even for Canada) and you'll have your hands on one at a much better price (though probably not as good as the U.S. price, unfortunately for you).

 

The difference between the GDDR5 HD 5850 and 5650 is more than you think; the MSI GX640 should perform significantly better even at 1680x1050.

 

Argh, i am still not getting over the fact that there isn't any following ports in this notebook:

E-Sata, USB 3.0, Express-slotcard.....any of them would do.

 

If we estimate European VAT of 20% on the I5-430M/HD 5650 combination, it converts to $913.60 USD. Is it possible that some of the lower powered M series CPU machines will for less than $1,000 USD? If that is true, the I7-620M should easily come in at $1,100 - $1,200. I am so there.

Bronsky

@ SSJ would be nice but not a big deal to me.

 

it's comming........ it's leaving factories... hummmmm anxious....

 

Same here. Needs some kind of high speed transfer

 

If it comes out in Canada with just a crappy i5 430m, I'm going to be seriously pissed. I'm looking at Newegg.ca right now and the only laptops with i5s are using 430m. In Tigerdirect, they have the 520m/540m, but only with integrated graphics, and cost >1.5k CAD... This is pathetic.

If we get nothing by June I'm coming state-side and smuggling one over lol

Please pardon my rant.

 

5850 is faster but i am not convinced it's right for me...i would LOVE mobile gaming in 1050 or 1080, but i would have to give up battery life in a big way and it's not a trade off i am willing to make....that 5850 is 39 watts and without switchable graphics (msi could have won big by putting this in). i think you are looking at 1-2 hour battery life at best with all power-savings features enabled on the msi.

since neither laptop allows me to unplug from wall outlet, walk up to a 1080p tv and play games, there is not alot of value i see in the msi over the acer

we'll have to wait for 2012 to get true Mobile 1080p gaming with decent battery (haswell or rockwell generation maybe)...ddr5 needs to be available as System Memory which will allow graphics chips on a 128 bit memory bus (or integrated onto cpu) to have access to enough memory bandwidth to sling enough pixels for 1080+ displays

 

Well tigerdirect's prices are usually bloated anyways, i have not bought from them since newegg.ca and ncix.com came into the mix. For that matter newegg has an i5-430m asus with 5470 for only 799.99 + <20$ shipping. Thats pretty good if you ask me considering how canada computers, the next big canada store sells the same at 969.99.

I do honestly believe that we will get it by june though.

 

i think acer has a calendar Q2 target to get these out the door to distributors meaning June 30 is the latest. they sure are taking heir time and if their Q1 target of announcing was any indication of track record, june it will be (the announcements were made last day of the quarter basically at the tail end of March)

at the same time i am thinking we will see the laptops in North Am in May. asus is putting on the pressure already:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18050

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220717&Tpk=u30jc

 

Does anyone know if the 3820GT has Dolby Home Theater? I want this machine to be a Media Center PC among other things and I really want surround sound through the SPDIF.

Dolby Home Theater is basically like Dolby Digital Live, it can take surround sound from your MKV or other movies and output them as AC3, right?

 

Unlike Bronsky, I am,

Impatiently waiting for my 3820TG.


In the meanwhile, I think it would be great for someone to post a guide on how to safely overclock the i7-620m and the Ati 5650, while maintaining a cool temperature. *what they did in the chinese link.

 

The specs certainly look great but will the build quality be good?

How was the original Timeline series?

 

For this you gotta wait for more reviews. But atleast from the looks, it's pretty good build.

Well, i don't have too much hope for the screen, but it is ok for notebooks in this price-range.

 

Fine, except for the recall. My 3810t built one of the first built was recalled, but I haven't sent it in and it is fine (except for a slightly dark patch on the left palmrest).

 

I think the problem with us buying from the states is the acer warranty is only good in the states and acers break down often enuf that we might want the warranty. I could be wrong but I think asus' warranty is international regardless of where u buy but acer is not ( only domestic)

 

What exactly is the difference between ATI's switchable graphics and Nvidia's optimus?

Is it just that Nvidia's is automatic? Can future ATI drivers make it automatic?

I'm having a tough choice between this Acer's timelineX (w/ ATI) and Asus equivalents (w/ Nvidia).

 

I think with the Ati solution you have to close all applications and then switch between the GPUs. The choosen GPU will then be used until you switch again.

Optimus on the other hand is a combination of hardware and driver. The driver detects which applications you are using and automatically uses the Nvidia GPU if the higher performance or CUDA is needed by an application. If the higher performance is not needed the Nvidia GPU is turned off.

 

Optimus is solely software.
And ATi is working on something as well.

 

Not sure if this was asked so....
Will these come in different colors or just Black and Silver like we have seen in most pictures?

 

Have you seen silver version of the TimelineX series? Seems like most of what I have seen have been charcoal-black.

 

All I've seen is black. The 1830T had colors though. They were ugly colors, but colors nonetheless.

Bronsky

 

silver
charcoal-black
black
dark gunmetal

 

So again on the ATI switchable graphics, what does turning off "all applications" imply? Apps with flash/video/3D? All apps such as Firefox and Word/Excel? Or like everything including Explorer.exe?

 

that's not necessary, never saw any mention of that.

 

does Acer Timeline US has international warranty?? i am looking to import the timelineX

 

Anyone seen any 540M/5650 on the shopping sites? If so, please share 'em with us, because I can't find that combo on the Great Google :b

 

Sucks that shipping is too expensive, otherwise I woulda bought the 3820tg from that German website long time ago lol

 

Only the i7 620M and i5 430M models are available at this point.

 

I can tell you for sure that the nvidia solution in the m11x (no optimus), you need to close apps such as aim, firefox, word, etc.

I have absolutely no idea how ati handles it.

 

Only thing i found concerning graphic switch is

软切换显卡，热切换无需重起
which translates to something like:
Soft switching cards, hot swap without restart

But no further details ^^

 

So it seems like you need to close everything that appears on the screen...except explorer.exe, which is fine I guess. It's not that big of a hassle.

 

Well, i personally guess you won't even need to do that, but i've got absolutely no clues for that ^^ We'll see soon.

 

Any idea when the 5820 might start shipping in the U.S.?

 

Same as the other TimelineX series, soon.
No set date for a official release.

 

The ATI switchable graphics will seamlessly switch to discrete when plugged into a charger, and will switch back to integrated when unplugged. This is the preference that most people will prefer.

There's also the option to switch to the discrete even when not plugged in, you just have to change what you want in the user preference.

I've heard no mention of having to close all applications before initiating a switch. The process is described as very simple.

 

So what is the 3DMark 2006 result for the 3820TG with i5/5470, and how does it compare to the UL30VT at the same resolution?

 

I don't see why such a comparison would be useful at all. One is last gen and the other is next gen. One uses a ulv core2duo while the other uses a standard voltage icore processor. There's just no comparison whatsoever.