The Official Arrandale Timeline Thread

True. The regular voltage i5/i7's have a 35W TDP, but that's under full load. My T8300 on my XPS M1330 is a 35W CPU too, but under typical conditions, my laptop drains about 16W/h (that's with discrete graphics too). It's difficult to compare CPU power consumption by the TDP ratings. Besides, I doubt most users will game while on battery power, meaning they'll be using integrated graphics for the most part on the go. I usually plug-in and use an external mouse when I'm gaming. As we see from the charts, this laptop can get ~6 hours browsing. That's not too shabby at all. Remember the Asus UL series uses a ULV cpu AND an 8-cell battery. With an extended battery, I can see the Acer getting around 8-9 hours on the go.

 

Yeah, but I am in a hurry. A friend is picking it up in the US.

Also, the $1280 price, with taxes, is quite steep.

I need one for college and my other option is the UL30VT which is 780. Paying an extra $500 just doesn't seem worth it.

 

HUH! Where did you get that price of $1280? Is that for this Acer 3820T? What specs...???


Edit: oops, you were talking about the Lenovo I assume?

 

I'm an Asus fanboy but they really didn't deliver what I wanted this round. It's either this or the Alienware m11x for me. But glad I could help you make a better purchase for your needs

Just don't kill if it doesn't end up being what you want/expect

 

Sorry. I should have clarified.

Yes, I was talking about the Lenovo Y460.

 

Indeed. I've been working with a 14" Latitude E6400, then switched back to a 13" Vosto, You feel the difference on Your shoulders

 

Simply adding the TDP of the CPU and video card doesn't tell the whole story, either.
It's important to note that Arrandale moves the entire northbridge, as well as the IGP, onto the chip.

 

We're definately in need of hands-on-reviews.

 

The Russian hands-on preview linked in the original post was reasonably detailed.

 

isn't a good weight difference between the 2?

 

True, it's 1.8kg vs 2.2kg if I recall correctly.

 

Both the 14" versions are 4.85lbs

 

Sure, but Lenovo doesn't have a 13.3".

 

Ya, I don't want a 13". It's a bit too small for my personal liking.

Would have gone with a Sony Vaio CW Best Buy with the 330M, if only it had switchable graphics.

It is now between UL30VT-X1 vs UL30JT vs N82 vs CW Best Buy vs 4820T vs Y460

I hate these decisions

On top of this I have to balance a budget and availability.

 

that's a killer to me, 1.8kg is the MAXIMUM MAXIMUM I accept... I would obviously preffer vaio Z 1.4kg, just like my dell X300, but the ~1000 USD premium is not acceptable to me, so the 3820 is perfect.

 

Don't you mean UL80 line, as the UL30 is a 13in model and you just said don't want a 13in model?

 

Wow, and I thought I had it bad deciding between the UL30JT and 3820. Good luck man.

 

i think you can rule out the UL30VT when the UL30JT comes out

the sony vaio CW will not get good battery life, so if you need that rule it out

 

Haha, for me its between the N82, 3820T/4820T, and GE600. Whichever comes out first is the one I buy. The race is on!

 

where is exactly are these Acers going to be retailed at? amazon?

 

I'm not super familiar with the original 3810t series, and the acer website isn't very clear about this, but any guesses on this being a matte or glossy screen? Was the original 3810t a glossy screen? (can't stand gloss)

 

Glossy screen.

 

Cool. Looks like that 3820T is now on my candidate listing.

 

I like this notebook but I would like to have an ODD!

Do you know a 13in model with Mobility Radeon 5000?
3820 is the only one!

 

An external one? It's not that bad.

 

Yes but when you go away or you have to play then you lose all the advantages of a 13inches notebook!

 

have you seen this:



* 86-/87-/91-key keyboard, with inverted "T" cursor layout
* Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device, supporting:
• Circular-motion scrolling
• Pinch-action zoom
• Page flip
* 10 function keys, four cursor keys, two Windows® keys, hotkey controls, embedded numeric keypad, international language support
* Acer PowerSmart key
* Easy-launch keys: Acer Backup, Communication®, touchpad lock
* Media control keys (printed on keyboard): play/pause, stop, previous, next




very nice indeed...

 

does acer have a type of turbo boost like the asus's do

 

Why the need of turboboost? This model is using full-pledged i3/i5/i7 CPU.

 

was just wondering, but that is good enough for me

I just want some actually release date news, not "end of March"

 

If this thing comes out at the end of March I'm grabbing it for sure. I'm willing to take a risk on the build quality issues I've heard about. I like to think that some people just don't take good enough care of their gadgets (I've seriously never had a single gadget break on me...EVER). For example, if you use your laptop in bed, have some sort of hard surface under the laptop so that it can breathe!

 

with a core iX CPU that will run at ~ 1.2ghz and low voltage when surfing the net, chating or Office using, and a disabled dedicated VGA, it probably will produce so little heat that it will not even need to breathe... passive cooling probably in those idle states...

 

Ditto.

Also i'm sure Amazon will be one of the first to sell these, and their return/exchange policy is so great that I have no problem being one of the guinea pigs.

 

I pulled the trigger on a Lenovo Y460. Exactly the same weight as the 14" Acer, and with switchable ATI 5650.

$1010 after taxes, shipping and discounts. Not a bad deal imo

 

Wait...doesn't it use the standard voltage i3/i5/i7 that has a base frequency of around 2Ghz+?

Congrats on the purchase, it sounds like an awesome price.

 

There's something called Intel SpeedStep?

 

Intel® Core i5-430M/i5-520M/i5-540M processor (3 MB L3 cache, 2.26/2.40/2.53 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.53/2.93/3.06 GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz, 35 W), supporting Intel® 64 architecture, Intel® Smart Cache



yeah, my mistake, I bet you are right. Don't know how much heat those produce when idle..

update:

The power consumption of 35 Watt TDP (max.) counts for the whole package and therefore it is clearly better than the 35 Watt TDP of the Core 2 Duo T-series (CPU alone). Due to the Turbo Boost, the Core i5 more likely uses the TDP under load than the older Core 2 Duo CPUs. Without any load, the i5 uses noticable less power.

source: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i5-520M-Notebook-Processor.23749.0.html

 

Will the 13 inch model have the 5650 option or will it be limited to only the larger models? Are these processors low voltage ones similar to the Asus ul30jt? I am eager to see the battery life, if these are capable of ~8 hours I am definitely sold.

 

Well, the page on Acer's site for the 3820T lists that it should be an option...

 

Based on the site, yes the 13" will have the 5650 and they are NOT the low voltage iX cpus. Finally, yes it will get roughly 8 hours with the 6000mAh provided. As you can see in the review, the 4400mAh got 6 hours [integrated/min brightness/office work] of course.

 

Question: why does a random Russian review site get a sample but not no one else?

 

its a conspiracy I tell you...

 

I believe Europe is Acer's biggest market which is why they got a unit to review. Even the 3810TG versions never made it to North America. I think only Europe and possibly some parts of Asia that got that model with switchable graphics.

 

If it is like so, I'll definately report about it.

 

what is this discount you speak of? do you mind sharing it with us?

 

any chance of acer putting in low voltage ix cpus? wouldn't they cut down on heat, and price and increase battery life further? the timeline series are referring to long batterylife aren't they?

 

any chance of acer putting in low voltage ix cpus? wouldn't they cut down on heat, and price and increase battery life further? the timeline series are referring to long batterylife aren't they?

 

It will still be getting 8 hours of battery life. I'll gladly take 8 instead of 10 if I can get double to triple the performance and clearly they must have a design to keep the heat down or they wouldn't create such a product. Price wise, yes you probably would get some sort of price cut but that's a moot point. The lowest specced one will still be 699/799 which is quite cheap for what they give you.

 

I agree completely. So since the 3810 with switchable graphics never made it over to North America, do you guys think the 3820 with switchable graphics will ever make it? Am I making a mistake waiting for this thing to be released? Since the product is listed on the Acer USA site, does that mean it WILL come over?

 

While I agree to an extent, but from personal experience... I've owned about a dozen laptops and the Acer was the only one that gave me problems (CPU throttle for no good reason).
I bet if you owned an Xbox360, your streak of good luck would have been over a long time ago