The Official Arrandale Timeline Thread

Reading this reminds me of the LG P310 thread. I think both laptops would have sold well if the better spec'ed version were more available in the US. I wonder why they aren't.. to me both the 3820TG and the P310 changed the perception of what a 13" laptop can be.

 

Your right about this process resembling the LG P310. I almost bought one from Notebook.de a year ago. I missed it by days. By the time I ordered, it was discontinued. The LG marketing department seemed to never understand what it had. The computer never reached anywhere near its potential.

Acer seems to be going down that same path, ignoring the US market. If they had released the high spec'd units in March as originally announced, this brand/model would be dominating the 13" and probably 14" segments, in spite of its lackluster display and iffy keyboard. As it is, Acer let HP get its Envy 14 and DM4T out first and has likely lost the ability to ever be much more than a niche player with its Timelinex's in the 14" market segment. Hopefully we will get a proper anouncement this week from Acer in New York and a proper roll out of the high spec'd models immediately thereafter.

You're also right that the P310 and 3820TG (and the Sony Z11) were in the vanguard of light, small, high powered units. Hopefully, Dell engineers are watching and using the same design principals to inform their redesign of the Studio XPS 13. How nice would it be to have a 13", I5/I7, HD 5650 (or better) 4 lb unit with a great keyboard and an RGBLED 13" display. (It's only a dream)

Bronsky

Actually, the M11x may have specs similar to those I list above, except for the display. The problem is that the M11x is one ugly unit and the glowing alienhead does not quite fit in the boardroom (unless, of course, its a gaming company's boardroom)


EDIT: The Acer Travelmate 8472 - 14" I5-520M w/integrated graphics only has shown up on the Acer USA website. That makes only 2 travelmates from the new refresh and no Timelines. Could Acer possibly do that any more painfully and slower?

 

Looks like I'll be the first to look into the US keyboard mod. My keyboard is a good two weeks away I would say. More if the Icelandic volcano plays up more.

My 3820TG should be shipped tomorrow and its via DHL so I would say I should have it this week Yes I had to pay the European VAT tax However I think 815 euros + 20 euros shipping via DHL wasn't a bad price. Considering I was looking at a UL30vt which was about 700 euros. The performance difference was worth the exta 135 ish euros.

Like Bronksy, I needed my travel laptop before mid June. I'm happy with my spec and I will stress test and bench the hell out of it to reach maximum performance on the GPU (Overclocking it) Like I do with all my laptops.

Is there a setfsb overclock for i5's and i7 mobile chips yet? Even a 10% boost in fsb overclock would be nice if the temps supported this. If anyone knows how to overclock these arrandales I'll be willing to try it.

If the backlit connection isn't too hard I will attemp it. However I'm worried about taking 5v from the motherboard on a point that wasn't designed to take an extra load. Maybe i will tap into the USB port, if i could disable the port too and use that as a kinda on and off switch for the backlight.

I don't think I'll add a i7 620m, unless they dropped in price to say under 200 usd or I love the laptop that much Otherise it starts getting too costly.

 

It's funny because there was an endgadget article on the m11x refresh with Corei5/i7 and people were very excited about it... if only they knew the 3820TG existed..

For me what makes 3820TG stand out is it's price/battery life.. It's clearly superior to Vaio Z/P310 in that department. I wonder.. if they released the i5/hd5650 version for around $1,000 in March, it might have stole the spotlight from vaio z and M11x.

The P310 has been around for a while now.. so I am kind of skeptical about Dell or any of the big company to offer anything that cool spec wise. Maybe I am thinking too much but I think the consumer at large is still under the impression that you have to pay premium for strong portable machine, and as long as that perception exist, big companies don't have any incentive to do more... but at least m11x is step in the right direction.

 

dont forget that CPUs annouced for m11x are low voltage ones. So 3820tg i5 would still be better than i7ulv (or whatever they are called). 3820tg is still a clear winner cause of cooling (2fans) and removable battery plus in my opinion looks way more proffesional than m11x and slim.

 

Exactly, Acer are losing out on this one. If people knew of it, I doubt the would be so happy about the M11x new CPU line up. The design of the system is just so plan ugly and its very heavy and chunky. Its just a big put off for me.

The 3820TG is more of a sleeper. It doesn't look like heavy gaming beast, but has a lot of punch where it counts.

When get my keyboard and hopefully can connect up the backlight I should have a pretty neat spec.

i5 / 5650
Good looking slim and light weight unit.
backlit keyboard

When I add a 120GB ocz vertex to should zip along nicely.

 

No question that this thing needs an SSD. I was thinking 160GB Intel M25-X(G2) or Crucial 256GB M225.

I'm going to wait on hold until we see how your swap and clean unstall go. Hopefully, Acer saves me the trouble and makes one of these available for me in the interim.

Bronsky

BTW, the I7-620M/HD5650 4820TG is now listed for preorder on the site you ordered your from. 2 week delivery. Tempting but I really want the 13.3" footprint.

 

That 256Mb ssd is too much. Thats about 599 USD...

Also there is a seller now selling the i7's for 250USD Intel Core i7 Mobile Processor i7-620M 2.66GHz/4M/2.5GT - eBay (item 250637669565 end time Jun-01-10 15:33:54 PDT)

That 4820TG isn't cheap at 1299 euros, 14" was too big for me and the 4820TG has heat issues anyway...

 

I saw one used for $425 USD. Almost bought it but I need to be firmer on my plans before i do that. Thanks for the links. Feel free to send them along as you encounter them.

Bronsky

* EDIT: * Check out this post. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6278266-post249.html. There is a link to a chineese site talking about the backlit keyboard. I haven't google translated it yet cause I'm at work and am supposto be working . Actually, I'm going out for a sandwich. Decided to read the translation before eating ... my translation is tough, would prefer a native speaker to look at the original. But, there seems to be a referal to the power access and a schematic. Can you make heads or tails out of this?

Let me know if this helps at all.

Edit 2: A person on another thread read the article for me and offered the following:

You need to register to see all the photos...In short, as there is NO plug or dedicated switch for the backlit on 3810 mainboard, the keyboard has to get its power from a USB port.

To control the backlit, one approach is to use a homemade lighting sensor -- customized PCB and lots of efforts, which is described in post #1. Another way(on page 19, post #189) is to wire the power of the backlit to the bluetooth module, so it can be controlled by BT switch.
* * *

If you register on the site with the article, you can see phots of the installation of the backlit keyboard. I'm not sure I fully understand it yet, but is suspect that when I see the pics, it will make sense. This is so cool.

 

Well, there is not much difference between the 4820 and 3820.

4820: 342 x 24 x 245 mm
3820: 324 x 22 x 235 mm

I don't think that 2 cm (width) make a difference in daily use.
This is why i wanted to go for the 4820. It costs about 50€ more and thats almost the price of a slim external DVD writer. And sometimes i need one.
But because of the possible heating issues i might also get a 3820 and save 400g extra weight.
Hopefully there will be more information concerning the heating issues. Maybe its just a bios thing.

 

Well, they are not even advertising the 5650 version here in taiwan . So I wonder how Acer is making their marketing decision.. I mean if they have it in singapore why not in taiwan, where the company is located?

I wonder what kind of battery life you would get if the 3820TG had ULV I7 cpu's instead..according to notebookreview, the i3-330m/5470 it gets about 6+hrs ..does the i7-620UM consume less battery than the i3-330m?

btw I personally don't like the m11x not just for the look, but it's awfully heavy for an 11" laptop. It weights just as much as the 4820TG which has a 14" screen.

 

Yeah, and how Acer manages its products, my 3820TG dosen't seem to have BT, though all of the TimelineX models should have it.

 

Even though you have no BT module, do you still have the switch on the front?

Bronsky

BTW, if I don't get an Acer before we hit 3,000 posts in this thread, I'm going to explode.

 

Acer Aspire 3820TG-5454G64Nks TimelineX Core i5 13" HD5650 & UMTS

can someone help me buy from this site? do they deliver to brazil? I like that model offered very much...

 

@fscussel:

Don't know for sure.

Nicht-EU-Länder

You can try to contact them via email or phone and just ask.
I am sure you will get an answer.

 

The link, SSJ posted, tells me that they will deliver to countries outside the EU. But it will cost some extra money (20€+shipping cost) and maybe some toll.
As SSJ said you should phone them (or e-mail). They have a very friendly service. I ordered many things from this shop and never had problems.

Keep in mind, that this notebook will have a german keyboard and german Win 7.

BTW: if you order a timeline notebook from cyberport.de till june 30th, you can get a free bag.

 

They're easy enough to put in, but, a TimelineX should come with BT.

 

I guess this thread will have 5,000 posts before they reach the US (because of answers like this ). But i'm suffering with you. I want a high spec model and the release changes every day.

 

I just emailed new egg to see if they're getting any 3820TG's in stock. Let's see if I get a response. Probably be autobot new egg. "Thank you for your inquiry ... at this time."

Bronsky

 

Bronsky, by doing that you increase the price of 3820tg by $50, maybe more. (I know newegg, they will do it.)

 

Second thought,

If Acer knows anything about business, they should send you a 3820TG for free. You really deserve it.

 

Ok thanks to Bronksy, I have registered on that Chinese site to see that a guy there has taken the 5v power source from the bluetooth card. This means that he can turn the backlit keyboard on and off with the bluetooth FN + F3 switch. I'll look at doing something similar myself, But it looks as if I have to strip down the whole unit.

His soldering job isn't the best, but I got the pictures of it anyway so we can see that the keyboard looks pretty nice all lit up. Great for my long haul flights in the plan cabin.

Remember this is a 3810T, however the keyboard is the same size as the 3820TG's


The guy took the 5v source from the bluetooth cards power.







Can't wait to get a backlit US keyboard up and running on my 3820TG

 

So the BT will be switched with the keyboard - right? BT on = keyboard on. This does not look impossible. What is the third picture showing? Just the wire routed so the keyboard can be reinstalled. It looks really bad-as*!!

I have no idea how you registered for that site. It would not let me do it. I kept having to select a province and then it would make be type in that language. Anyway, I love when an idea comes together. Backlit enough for ya YESHHHH? You should be more careful with those ideas of yours. See what you started.

Nice job Hendrickson.

Bronsky

Edit: I find it hard to believe that Acer actually made a backlit keyboard that fits its 3810T series (and hopefully its 3820T series) and its not offered as an option. Who is running product development for that company?

 

If Acer knew anything about business, we wouldn't have to ask. They would have been there by now.

Bronsky

 

@ Bronsky

hell yes!

the 3820tg with a backlit keyboard fits all my needs perfectly.

now i dont have to "settle" for the envy 14

hooking up the keyboard to the bluetooth module is a great idea.. but i hate having to toggle FN + F3 instead of the designated FN + F9 lol. is there a way to reprogram the bluetooth shortcut so that FN + F9 would trigger it?

 

friend just left Singapore, no 3820TG for me, due to various reasons.

I think I'll just wait for a North American release. Not too keen on voiding the warranty by switching keyboards and stuff. Sounds like a good idea for those like Bronsky who were going to open it up and install an SSD anyway.

 

it all looks great for 3820tg backlid keyboard oh my. Is standard keyboard in 3820tg has backlid but its just not enabled? or have to buy a specific type? Also i'd like to hear your opinion on SSDs you are talking about. I've read that some 7200rpm perform better than SSDs. How does it compare to the OCDs and Intel SSD ? What would be the benefits of getting one ?

Im thinking about getting a model with i5-430m selling it on ebay and getting i7-620m is it worth the hassle ? I7-620m is in the same line as i5-540m right? I mean in terms of power consumption etc. Thxxxx

 

What are the chances that a North American release isn't even planned? I'd hate to wait only to find that it won't ever be available here.

 

Its a keyboard from Ebay we found that has backlighting. Just search ebay for a 3810 keyboard US backlit. It will come up.

SSD will beat any HDD without any issues. No 7200rpm drive nowadays could match a SSD. Maybe the first gen SSD a few years back but now they are very quick. Were talking about 80-90mbs HDD Vs 250+ (SSD).

The i7 620m is much quicker than the i5 due to higher clock speed/turbo and 1mb more of cache. If I have to open the laptop up for the backlit keyboard mod I might even look at swapping the i5 too with a i7 if I can (A) find a cheap one and (B) Sell my i5 for an ok sum. Also add some decent thermal compound on the GPU and CPU.

Looking at ebay you can get a i7 620m for around $250 and i5 430m's are selling for around $120-$150.

 

hmm i think all ssds perform better then 7200rpm harddrive there is big chance im wrong about it though .

i think trying to sell i5-430m wont be a good idea since motherboard that supports core i cpu the 430m is one of the lowest models so only cpu that upgrades when usinng i5 430m is i3 330m or 350m(well it has same base clockspeed but lacks 133mhz turbo boost) which is not much of an upgrade i guess if someone want a upgrade they will want more then that to spent their money on.

 

I think the same socket handles the I5-430M as the I7-620M. As long as the Mobo has the 5650 installed, I would bet it is identical for all dual cores. If you can sell the I5-430M for $100, an I7 upgrade would only cost $150.

 

Indeed which makes it look quite doable now End the end hopefully end up with a very nicely spec'ed 13.3"

My laptop didn't ship today, Its status is packed ready to ship. I get the impression they are waiting a few days since i paid via paypal to be on the safe side

 

Ugh now the window is all stretched out like mad. Post links to image files next time

 

yeah i know he can put i7 620m in his 3820tg but what i meant was trying to sell his 430m will be not good idea or it will be hard to sell since the only people that "upgrade" by using 430m is people that has 330m or 350m but if someone was a owner of 330m or 350m and understands/likes and have enough of knowledge of computer to spend money for cpu upgrade this early stage, people would at least upgrade to 520m since it has higer clockspeed, better "real" turbo boost (430m only boosts 2.26ghz to 2.4ghz while 520m boosts 2.4ghz to 2.93)and aes cryption someting bla bla for someone that has enoguh intrests in this kind of stuff spending a little extra money for 520m or more instead of 430m wont be a problem. upgrading from 330m or 350m to 430m isnt significant upgrade enough to spend money in my opinion. oh! almost forgot unless someone already voided his warrenty and his core i procceser is malfunctioning.

well sorry for my bad english that i couldnt make my point clear in the first post im not native english speaker nor do i live in enligh speaking nation and was bad at all of my language score in my school days

 

That was very clear. And, its a good point.

Bronsky

Anybody hear any more news about the worldwide release in New York tomorrow?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/14/acer-holding-global-event-at-end-of-may-no-chrome-os-devices-pl/

I hope it is TimelineX related.

 

I have a real hard time to decide what PC i should buy, and I hope you guys can give me some advice.

Look. First I was really interested in Asus UL30VT after viewing some nice reviews, but then I heard of the UL30JT, the upcoming UL30-model. This was apparently not as good as I hoped, for the price.

After this, I found this one, Acer 3820TG for a better price, and better specs, and I was very close to make an order. But then I suddenly got interested in Asus again; the N82-series (because of it's portability, performance, quality (2 year warranty), and USB 3.0), and even the N61 (because of very nice performance, quality (2 year warranty), and it's also available currently, but unfortunately not very portable and bad batterytime).

And after this, the Envy 14-model. Everything seems like perfect about it. (The design, screen, performance, keyboard, and so on).

So now I'm totally lost. Some days I'm very close at buying the Acer, and some days I'm totally addicted to the other models. Please help me

The Acer is currently the only available PC right now where I live, with 5650 and i5-450M. (I have already excluded the N61) Do you guys think the others will come within 2-3 moths, with a competetive price? What would you do? Which one would you pick

 

I was in your boat, deciding between the UL30vt then I saw the UL30jt. Following that I saw the acer 3820TG announcement and waited some more.

I've waited months now (4?) Due to time constraints and the fact I was sick of waiting I just ordered a 3820TG. Sure if you keep waiting something will always come out that is better. Thats tech for you. But then you'll never get anything if you wait and wait...

The 3820TG is the best spec'ed 13" laptop atm the moment and maybe for the next 3-4 months.

@Bronksy, I doubt you'll see a 5650 3820TG in the US for a long time yet. Wait and see how mine turns out and maybe you should consider it? Where else are you going to get this spec and a backlit keyboard if the mod works. All of much much less than a Sony Z.....

 

Now look at this one!

Acer TravelMate 8472TG-5454G64 m. Intel Core i5 450M 2.26GHz - LX.TW502.002 de Notebooks Laptops billiger notebook.de

Seems the Travelmate versions of the Timeline X series is soon gonna be released here.

I am more interested in the Travelmate 8372TG though, because it is smaller, should be more sturdy thanks to the missing dvd drive. Also if the cooling system is transported from the TimelineX to the Travelmate, then the 13'' should have better cooling , yet produce less noice.
I wonder if the 13'' will also have the GT330M 1gb.
Should be possible though.

Now i hope that the matt screen will be of decent quality, about 200nits max brightness would be nice....
Contrast will be very low like always.

 

The Travelmates are the only models from the Timeline introduction that are showing up on the US Acer product page. So far, the 8172, 8472 & 8572 models are there. All configurations have only integrated graphics. There is no 8374 on there yet.

It has been a long time since the Timeline release but I recall that the 8372 will be getting 310M graphics and the 8472 up will be getting the GT330M. That's a vague recollection so don't take that as gospel.

KisKapu has been following the German threads and they seem to have resolved the problem with the display - it seems to perform up to its 200nit rating.

I'm just hoping to hear about the US release tomorrow ... In searching Amazon for a 3820TG, as I typed, Amazon suggested the 3820TG as a search term. Does that mean anything? Of course, nothing turned up in the search.

Bronsky

 

Travelmate timelinex having nvidia 330GT? Ugh, while optimus tech is nice, GT330 is noticeably slower than an HD5650.

Depends what you use it for I guess

 

oh wow culv finally updated.....better late then never i guess:

Intel intros 32-nm CULV CPUs for thin-and-light notebooks - The Tech Report

acer is the first on the list....

i would not be surprised if the "Timeline" brand returned later this year with integrated graphics and these cpus

EDIT: also found new reviews of the 4820 series:
http://www.my-laptop.co.uk/2010/05/24/acer-aspire-timelinex-4820tg-review/

 

There's also a 5820T review. Is this a US site?

 

The brightness of my screen is OK, that dosen't apply to wieving angles.

 

Mind to post the link for it? Or if you know, what caused the problem?

 

He mentions it in an earlier post. When his girlfriend is finished farming with his 3820TG maybe he'll point you in the right direction.

Bronsky

 

Looks like the Gateway EC39 will be a 13.3" with the new ulv Core i's.

 

I took delivery today of my 3820TG (i7-620, 4GB, 640GB, 5650, etc)
Acer Computer Singapore

Upgraded to Win 7 Ultimate so I can link to my workplace domain and currently downloading 6GB of outlook email (zzzzz). Anyway, I appreciated all the advice from this forum and happy to answer any questions about the unit if I can be of help (although I'm not a huge techie, so can't be of much use on temperature zones, etc).

I'll be interested to hear what transpires with the keyboard swap since I'm not a fan of the 3820TG keyboard. I haven't used the flat keyboard before and I think it'll take some getting used to ... although not a big deal since 90% of the time I'm on an external keyboard, monitor, etc.

Thanks again for all the helpful info on this forum!

RobLiv

 

Congrats on the new laptop Rob, I just called the company I brought mine from and it seems my 3820TG won't be here till next week Turns out its via road freight with DHL. Not express...So its getting trucked down from Germany.

Any chance you could run a few benchmarks like PCmark or 3dmark06 and post some screens up? Also post the CPU temps when running benches if poss.

With the keyboard swap, the keyboard is the same flat type but with a mattee surface and backlit lighting. I should have that I hope by the end of next week. Its already on its way from HKG.

I now just need to figure out how to hook up the power to power the thing. Is anyone else going to attempt this mod? Or is everyone waiting for me to try it first

 

You bought the last model from the only German retailer that seems to export. Looks like your the guinea pig.

@robliv congratulations. I still find it hard to belive that the Acer has been out for a month and the only place you can buy the I7-620M version is Singapore. Did you buy yours from the Poly Institute or somewhere else?

Bronsky

@Hendrickson - read my post in the 3820Tg thread, looks like shipping German units to the US is a no-go because of taxes and import duties.

 

Damn. Now i just discovered that the Travelmates won't have HDMI, again....