Acer TimelineX 3820TG Owners Lounge. Info, benchmarks, tweaks, mods and upgrades

[Ollollo]

@olloll0 - a modified 1810 tray would do this too.

Sounds good! *Keeping fingers crossed someone skilled in programming will take on this task*

[luffytubby]

Bronsky - Ok mate.
Bronsky, is it true that you mentioned a long time ago, in the other thread, that there wouldn't be significant performance gains of going i7 620, over the i5 530?





Another question. I've been digging further through the whole keyboard thing.

I've learned that Sony Vaio and Apple keyboard layout, is called "Island layout". I guess it's because it looks like there are lots of spaces between the keys.
My question is - Does 3820 use the same keyboard as 3810. Because from what I've seen around the net about the 3810, is that people love the keyboard. This lady in particularly. She said the keyboard was one of her favorite things about it(3810) : YouTube - Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T Video Review - Editors' Choice

So has notebookcheck been smoking with their statements about poor keyboard?

[prophetx2]

does anyone know if if the hdmi and vga can be used to output to two external monitors at the same time?

[Bronsky]

Bronsky - Ok mate.
Bronsky, is it true that you mentioned a long time ago, in the other thread, that there wouldn't be significant performance gains of going i7 620, over the i5 530?

Another question. I've been digging further through the whole keyboard thing.

I've learned that Sony Vaio and Apple keyboard layout, is called "Island layout". I guess it's because it looks like there are lots of spaces between the keys.
My question is - Does 3820 use the same keyboard as 3810. Because from what I've seen around the net about the 3810, is that people love the keyboard. This lady in particularly. She said the keyboard was one of her favorite things about it(3810) : YouTube - Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T Video Review - Editors' Choice

So has notebookcheck been smoking with their statements about poor keyboard?

Q1 - No. I am in the minority that thinks that the extra price of the I7-620M is worth the difference from the I5-520M or the 540M. True you pay more for a smaller increase than you get from the 520 to the 540, but if you can use the extra performance, the higher price is worth it when you consider the cost over the life of the unit. You won't see the results of the performance in gaming probably becuase the GPU will reach capacity first. You will see the increase in CPU intensive tasks or hyprid tasks that are more CPU dependent.

My main task for my laptop is assembling presentations. At least a portion of the presentations are usually spliced and edited GIS files (satellite images like you are seeing in the Gulf Spill). Then the laptop is used for presenting and displaying the presentation on a smart board. I have used a lot of machines to do this and I find that I can feel even marginal increases in CPU power.

Keyboard - it seems to be the same as the 3810T. I have the Acer island keyboard on the 1410T that I use everyday. I type about 4-6 hours a day at ~85 wpm. My last notebook was a vostro 1500 and it had a wonderful keyboard. It took a bit of time to transition to the Acer. I am use to it now, so my speed has returned. My accuracy is not as good as it was. In all, the Acer keyboard layout is acceptable but not optimal.

Bronsky

[Vaio Z Power]

luck with the keyboard!

[bl33ch0r]

does anyone know if if the hdmi and vga can be used to output to two external monitors at the same time?

It is possible, though you have to modify the vga adapter cable - removing the screws on the side of the vga cable - , because hdmi and vga output on the 382otg are too close together.

[oddsock]

thats why I dont listen to music anymore when I game. it kills the FPS...

It kills the illusion too.

[oddsock]

I actually tried using macrium reflect to restore back to default settings the 3820tg after purchase. But it does not let me go further as it pops up a message that drive C is locked. So i guess the only recovery option for this would be the eRecovery from Acer right? And im assuming with that, even if I have already installed a 64bit, would still revert back to 32bit once used. Thanks for the answer oddstock

I believe it should work with eRecovery. Can't see why it should not.

The recovery partition is simply an image of the main partition (C) as it was when delivered from the factory, if you use it to recover the factory state, you will be back to 32 bit if that's what it was delivered with.

If I decide to keep this lappy, I will install W7 Professional, but I'll keep the recovery partition anyway. It's nice to have available, esp. since the hdd is so huge. If I upgrade to SSD later, I'll chuck the recovery option, though.

Anyway, I'm not so sure I will keep it. The Envy 14 is really tempting, and I will be home (working) most of the summer, so I probably won't use the laptop much, since I have my desktop with two large monitors and all that. The Envy 14 should be available in Norway before the new semester starts in August, and if it turns out to be rubbish or extremely overpriced, I can always just get the 3820TG then, probably with a better CPU than what is available now. I think I would regret not waiting for Envy when I see the display on it. The 3820TG display is really nothing to write home about (for film lovers like me).

[Hendrickson]

Ok, got the keyboard.

The good, its 100% compatible the 3810T keybaord with the 3820TG and its qaulity is great. Less flex, nicer feedback (Typing on it now)

The bad: Its aprox .5 mm thinker than the original, its not much. And I expected this due to the led lighting inside. So its a bit of a mission to get it to clip down in the same space. But it is possible with a little bit of bending and removing a bit of plastic insert where it clips in below. (not as bad as it sounds, however if you couldn't care less for a backlit keyboard just by a 3810T one)

(Ive taken photos)

The keyboard doesn't touch the screen. Not from what I can see. Depending on how I feel I may or may not attempt to open her up and take the 5v from the bluetooth card. (I'm a bit green in this area) Will look for ICS clockgen chip while im there.

[ninja2000]

have you thought about taking the 5v from one of the USB ports? it might be easier as USB have a standard pin layout and you should be able to solder straight to the rear of one of the ports.