Problem with Acer 3680 laptop

[Skibums]

Anyway, the point is, if you think you are going to buy a bottom of the line computer like the 3680, and you are going to go to the forums and suggest you came out on top of all the fools that paid $500-600 for a full featured laptop, you're wrong.

Still looking for the part where Hellbore told all those "fools" that his laptop is better than their $600 laptops. He talks about upgrading it to a great machine for little money, how he's having a great time making something better and sharing that info with others, but I'm still missing the part where his shoving it anyone's face.

Now, if you are poor, and can only afford $350, then buy this laptop and don't upgrade it. And don't pretend like you are smarter than the folks that were smart enough to do what it takes to earn the money to buy a full featured lappy.

I see; in your world, if your poor, you can buy this type of laptop but never try to upgrade. Because you are poor. And only "smart" people know how to earn enough money to buy a full featured laptop.

So, I take that people who fall into finance difficulties due to divorce, death of a spouse, traumatic illness or accident, loss of employment, total loss due to natural disaster, student paying for his/hers own education, young families just starting out, etc...must fall into that poor category and just aren't smart enough to buy that full featured laptop!

What an asinine, arrogont & egotistical (because you must see yourself as one of the "smart" people) statement that was, which you have made. Basically saying, that anyone how is less fortunate in this world, just ins't smart enough. The one redeemimg point of that statement; it does say loads about you character and what you think about people who just don't quite measure up to your standards.

Anyway after all is said and done, what the F do you care? You don't own the laptop, your much too "smart" for that! We're just sharing info & ideas. There are millions of different people out there, that have millions of different ways and reasons for doing what they want. But why does there always have to be that one jackass that always feels that his way is the only way.

[Hellbore]

...I'm still missing the part where his shoving it anyone's face.

Exactly, I didn't shove it in anyone's face, in fact, I posted this in the ACER forum, in a thread specifically about THIS model of laptop! This was only intended for owners of this laptop to read!

If you are "too smart" to buy a "cheap junk" laptop why are you even reading this thread and telling us who already OWN this laptop ? What are you even doing here? Just trying to lord it over us that you have a more expensive laptop?

[pellpel]

Reminds me of Monster Garage. They would build a $20000 vehicle for $5000. How? Oh, $15,000 of the equipment was donated and considered a "freebie" so it really only cost $5000 to build. Yea right. Good luck duplicating that result at home.

Yea, I got a 5672 Acer for $0.

How? I went home and it was there because I bought it a year ago. Yea, free computer!

Anyway, the point is, if you think you are going to buy a bottom of the line computer like the 3680, and you are going to go to the forums and suggest you came out on top of all the fools that paid $500-600 for a full featured laptop, you're wrong.

And I think I remember reading that the 3680 has motherboard limitations that means you aren't getting the full performance of that processor and hard drive.

Now, if you are poor, and can only afford $350, then buy this laptop and don't upgrade it. And don't pretend like you are smarter than the folks that were smart enough to do what it takes to earn the money to buy a full featured lappy.

That's all I'm saying really.

I don't remember when I bought my 3680 but I know it was spring of 07 to start summer semester. I bought it for $399, for browsing, researching and printing papers. At the time looking at Core 2 Duo laptops were like $800+. Let see right now I’m getting a core 2 duo for $50 on Ebay, $80 for 2gig of rams so $529 I'm excluding shipping and tax but they were minimal for me. So yea I'm just waiting for my core 2 to get here and it will kick than any the one you've listed.

You also missed the whole point of being a hobbist. Maybe most of us like to tinker around. Hey here's what we can do with this...

[Skibums]

Hellbore, so now that all of thats out of the way. How's the laptop doing? Do you have any baseline to show the amount of performance increase? And what about heat? You mentioned it seem cooler, were you able to get any reference points prior to the upgrade? Did you use Artic silver? I never noticed the wife's 3680 getting relly hot, not like the 5672 I have. You can fry eggs on it after a gaming session.

Anyway good job. Thanks for sharing your info.

[Hellbore]

Well, unfortunately I never did any benchmarks before the CPU upgrade. I can try some benchmarks now, with the new CPU.

I also haven't measured the heat before or after. I did use Arctic Silver on the CPU install.

You're right the 3680 didn't get super hot even with the stock CPU, but it seems like it run cooler now, unfortunately since I haven't measured, this is really subjective, I could be imagining it...

I haven't been very scientific about this whole process, I have just been so busy with school lately, I just had to find time to squeeze this into my schedule so I could get this laptop going. Sorry I don't have more precise information, it definitely would have been better to have benchmarks and temperature readings and stuff before and after. If I had those I could pretty much do a cool little how-to writeup Maybe if I get time in the future I will put the old CPU back in and take those measurements, or maybe one of you can do it, if you are going this same path. It's a lot of fun to do if you ask me, you can't forget that part!

One thing I am happy to report though is that the laptop has been perfectly stable since the cpu upgrade, I have been using it A LOT for school. It has spent many hours turned on and in use, and it's rock solid.

One idea I was thinking about was trying to mod the voltage, I heard that Intel is really conservative with their stock voltages on the Core 2 Duos and that you can often times lower the voltage and still run stable, and thus get better batter life. It seems like a fun thing to try!

Battery life is somewhat of a concern for me with this laptop because the battery I got with it is only 2000 mAh, could any of you guys look at the sticker on your battery (have to take it out to see the sticker) and see what mAh it is? I got a little less than 2 hours before the CPU upgrade, on the power saving mode. I think I get a bit more now with the new CPU but I need to do a real test and see.

A bigger battery (like 4000 mAh) would be awesome on this laptop, but at the same time, it would suck in a way because it's kinda nice how small and light and compact it is without a battery that sticks out, I guess a bigger battery would stick out more.

[Skibums]

When I get the time, (just finshed six weeks of painting and re-arrainging the house, moving the daughter's room, moving the son back to college & carpet coming Fri. & Sat.) I can get some baselines for ya. I believe we have the same model laptops.

The battery is the same, 2000 mAh, no big deal here. The wife usually leaves it plugged in only occasionally using battery power.

I've read somewhat about modding the voltage and pin modding, you need to be careful. Hate to ruin your new C2D trying to squeeze a few more minutes out of the battery.

I also enjoy ripping the laptops apart, I upgraded my 5672 to a C2D almost a year ago. Put the old Core Duo in a Asus s96j I put together for my son. I've rebuilt or upgraded quite a few lappys over the last couple of years, It seems like I'm always playing IT support for my family.

Just slapped the second 1GB stick into the 3680, runs pretty damn good. I think that it's about all the upgrading I'll be doing to it, unless the wife gets sick of Vista (she is already complaining about it)and I'll install XP Pro.

[pellpel]

If I had those I could pretty much do a cool little how-to writeup Maybe if I get time in the future I will put the old CPU back in and take those measurements, or maybe one of you can do it, if you are going this same path. It's a lot of fun to do if you ask me, you can't forget that part!
.

Yea good idea I'll get a baseline going. As a matter of fact I just received my T5200 today. I'm excited, so I'll start on some benchmarking and temperature readings with the stock CPU.

[Hellbore]

Yea good idea I'll get a baseline going. As a matter of fact I just received my T5200 today. I'm excited, so I'll start on some benchmarking and temperature readings with the stock CPU.

Cool, hope it works out, did you already flash in the latest bios? Hopefully the CPU is good and will work!

I heard stories of other people trying this and it not working, I don't know why that would be the case, unless they didn't have the right bios or something, or maybe the used CPU they were trying was bad or something...

[pellpel]

Cool, hope it works out, did you already flash in the latest bios?

Yea I got the bios flashed to 1.3505 ever since I upgraded to 2 gigs of ram. I pretty much had to for it work. Any how I'm hoping it will work when I install the t5200.

You guys have any software recommendation for benching? I'm using Sisoft Sandra atm.

[Skibums]

You guys have any software recommendation for benching? I'm using Sisoft Sandra atm.

Look toward the end of the first post, there is a list of benchmarking apps.

Measure your Dual/Multi Core Notebook CPU Speed - Bye Bye to SuperPI