Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T Thread

[Razor2]

Originally Posted by Jayayess1190

From an M11x thread, the 640UM gets a 5.7 for cpu score in WEI. My SU9400 gets a 4.2. Nice upgrade, so the 520UM should get 5.4 or so?

How much would a U5400 get?

[CustomPCMAX]

Originally Posted by runemark

Yes, I'm pleasantly surprised with the 3D performance on the Acer Aspire 721. It's better than I hoped. As for comparing CPUs...that's a good question. The 3DMark06 CPU score I got for my Acer 721 was 734. I just looked at Notebookcheck: Notebook & Laptop Reviews and News and saw that an SU3500 scored 649 and an Atom N450 scored 495.

So the Athlon II Neo K125 in the Acer 721 appears to be a bit better than an Intel Core Solo SU3500. And the HD 4225 3DMark06 score is nearly double an Intel 4500MHD, and is comparable to Intel HD graphics (according to zooster's PDF). Battery life is probably slightly less than Intel. All in all, AMD Nile appears to be a pretty good platform!

Oh, as for heat and noise...the Acer 721 is very quiet. When surfing the web, the fan is all but inaudible. When playing a game, it's a low, soft whoosh. The computer gets warm but not hot. Right now, after 1.5 hours of web surfing, the CPU is 55C. I must say, for the money ($429) it seems great.

What kind of battery life are you getting with the Acer 721? They say 5.5 hours in their spec sheet, but I am very curious how accurate that is.

EDIT: I also wanted to add that I can't find any real reviews of the Acer 721 and it has been available for purchase for over a week. What's up with that?

I am up in the air about which I want to purchase... the 1810tz or the Acer 721. I really like the ATI 4225 with DEDICATED video memory in the 721, but I also want a netbook that gets at least 5 hours realistic web/general use (for college). The 1810tz is really nice, long battery life, etc... but the Intel Graphics leave a little to be desired for gaming purposes.

[runemark]

Originally Posted by CustomPCMAX

What kind of battery life are you getting with the Acer 721? They say 5.5 hours in their spec sheet, but I am very curious how accurate that is.

I am up in the air about which I want to purchase... the 1810tz or the Acer 721. I really like the ATI 4225 with DEDICATED video memory in the 721, but I also want a netbook that gets at least 5 hours realistic web/general use (for college). The 1810tz is really nice, long battery life, etc... but the Intel Graphics leave a little to be desired for gaming purposes.

Well, I haven't done any rigorous testing, but I'm guessing 3.5 hours of battery in typical usage. The Acer 721 only comes with a 4400mAh battery, while the 1810tz has a 5600mAh battery.

The 1810tz also has 4GB of RAM and a dual core processor, not single core like the Acer 721 (though the 721 is clocked higher). The graphics in the Acer 721 are twice as good, though. So the 721 definitely has superior graphics, but if battery life is your primary motivator, looks like you'd better go for the 1810tz.

Alternately, get a 721 and buy a bigger battery when/if available. Or, wait for the 1830t, which should have both good battery life and decent graphics. Good luck with your decision!

EDIT: The HD 4225 video memory isn't exactly dedicated. From what I can tell, 256MB of system RAM is reserved for the video card. There is also a 128MB (or maybe 64MB depending on what I read) side-port memory on the graphics card, for a total of 384 video memory. Plus, the video card will share additional system RAM as needed and available. Going from 2GB of RAM to 3GB of RAM on my system definitely improved my WoW performance by 5+ fps.

[CustomPCMAX]

Originally Posted by runemark

Well, I haven't done any rigorous testing, but I'm guessing 3.5 hours of battery in typical usage. The Acer 721 only comes with a 4400mAh battery, while the 1810tz has a 5600mAh battery.

The 1810tz also has 4GB of RAM and a dual core processor, not single core like the Acer 721 (though the 721 is clocked higher). The graphics in the Acer 721 are twice as good, though. So the 721 definitely has superior graphics, but if battery life is your primary motivator, looks like you'd better go for the 1810tz.

Alternately, get a 721 and buy a bigger battery when/if available. Or, wait for the 1830t, which should have both good battery life and decent graphics. Good luck with your decision!

EDIT: The HD 4225 video memory isn't exactly dedicated. From what I can tell, 256MB of system RAM is reserved for the video card. There is also a 128MB (or maybe 64MB depending on what I read) side-port memory on the graphics card, for a total of 384 video memory. Plus, the video card will share additional system RAM as needed and available. Going from 2GB of RAM to 3GB of RAM on my system definitely improved my WoW performance by 5+ fps.

Thanks for the quick reply!! What kind of WoW performance are you getting (what fps, settings, etc...)? What I understood about the GPU was that it had 384 dedicated and could use system ram as well. But, there is a lack of info on the web about this PC, so I could be wrong. But, I thought I had read that in the Acer spec page, too. That dedicated video ram is a big deal in this class of netbook.

Yeah, if real world battery performance on the 721 is 3.5 hours, I will have to look elsewhere. Unless that 5600mAh battery really improves it a lot... does anyone have any predictions on what that would do here? Is that available yet?

EDIT: I wasn't thinking, this is sort of derailing the original point of the thread. Runemark, perhaps you want to start a new thread about the Acer 721 and post your experience there. I don't want to off the mods, but you are the first person I have been able to find that has actually used one. And I have been searching the web very hard for the last week or so.

[Jayayess1190]

Originally Posted by Razor2

How much would a U5400 get?

Core i5-520UM scores 4.9, so U5400 might be 4.5. This is from a PC Watch test of the Toshiba T210. Wonder what makes the 640UM so much better, the only real differences between the 520UM and 640UM are 640UM's slightly higher clockspeed and the extra 1mb of L3 cache. Here are all the tests PC Watch did.

[Bronsky]

Originally Posted by Jayayess1190

Core i5-520UM scores 4.9, so U5400 might be 4.5. This is from a PC Watch test of the Toshiba T210. Wonder what makes the 640UM so much better, the only real differences between the 520UM and 640UM are 640UM's slightly higher clockspeed and the extra 1mb of L3 cache. Here are all the tests PC Watch did.

Thats a much bigger difference than I would have expected. The 520UM is one of the old chips however. I would like to see the spread between the I7 and the I5-540UM.

[instantcoffe]

just a heads up regarding the 1830TZ.. it's now available on amazon.de but, get this, it's now selling for 590 euros!!

Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830TZ-U542G32nss: Amazon.de: Elektronik

and it's now being sold through a shop called Home of Hardware, though it's not listed on their official website...

[Jayayess1190]

NCIX U5400 model $550 CAD

[instantcoffe]

NCIX.com - Buy Acer Aspire AS1830T-3730 Intel I3-330 4GB 500GB 11.6IN Screen Intel HD Windows 7 Prem Notebook - LX.PTT02.017 In Canada.

650 $ CAD

[Bronsky]

Did I read correctly that Acer had prodcued a "G" version of the 1810T? There was an 11.6" 1810TZG with dedicated graphics? Were any of these ever sold in the US? How many were made - 1?

Bronsky