Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

[ForumNewb]

Hi, I'm forumnewb. I've been using an Asus ul30vt (Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.7ghz+Nvidia 210m, 8-9 hrs battery life), a fantastic computer for almost one and a half years but time has moved on and games are demanding for more and more from my hardware and keeping Starcraft II only on low/medium is starting to bother me.

I'm very close to purchasing the Acer 4820tg for an upgrade in graphics and processor power without sacrificing too much battery life. What has concerned me lately was the display issue which almost all reviews I've read have jumped on.

I intend to use this as a primary computer at university where I will be carrying it for a few days a week through many lectures and library study sessions.

Here's the question:
To you users, has the display's shortcomings in contrast ratio or overall quality detracted greatly from your experience with the computer? Also, would its battery life (which I hear is about 5-6 hrs.) make it ideal for my use?

Thanks.

(By the way, when I take notes or type, my display is on the dimmest possible setting, no wi-fi, dedicated card on my Asus)

[cmersits]

The 4820TG is great for playing SC2, it can handle the game on highest setting @ 1080p perfectly, with overclocking you can play on Ultra smoothly as well. Also the battery life makes it ideal for use at a university. Usually when I'm on my campus I use the laptop on average for about 3-4hrs, so I rarely need to bring the charger with me. The screen is decent on the laptop, but you can't really expect something too amazing from an $800 laptop with this kind of performance. A game like SC2 is playable on the laptop screen, but the not having the deep blacks in the display makes it a bit annoying (relative to playing it on a 23" monitor). When I'm at home, 95% of the time the laptop is function as a desktop. For web browsing, office, or programming the laptop display is completely fine IMO.

I've been playing Crysis 2 lately...

-CPU hitting 96C max
-GPU hitting 85C max

Have you noticed a significant difference with gaming performance with the i7?

[ForumNewb]

The 4820TG is great for playing SC2, it can handle the game on highest setting @ 1080p perfectly, with overclocking you can play on Ultra smoothly as well. Also the battery life makes it ideal for use at a university. Usually when I'm on my campus I use the laptop on average for about 3-4hrs, so I rarely need to bring the charger with me. The screen is decent on the laptop, but you can't really expect something too amazing from an $800 laptop with this kind of performance. A game like SC2 is playable on the laptop screen, but the not having the deep blacks in the display makes it a bit annoying (relative to playing it on a 23" monitor). When I'm at home, 95% of the time the laptop is function as a desktop. For web browsing, office, or programming the laptop display is completely fine IMO.

Thanks for the opinion. It was either this or the Asus u41jf-a1 but I've heard much too much negative when it came to build quality. I'll be putting an order soon.

Where did you guys buy your Acer 4820TGs?

[Espada]

Thanks for the opinion. It was either this or the Asus u41jf-a1 but I've heard much too much negative when it came to build quality. I'll be putting an order soon.

Where did you guys buy your Acer 4820TGs?

check the first page of this thread has links and places for it.

[cmersits]

Where did you guys buy your Acer 4820TGs?

I got mine from Micro Center.

[4ty-phive]

I am wondering if you guys can help me. I did a clean install on a new (upgraded) hdd that I put in my system. Everything seems to be working fine. That's until I started running a cpu usage widget. It is stating that my clock speed is at 1.173GHz. Is this normal? I have the m480 in my system. I am pretty sure it was running at 2.67GHz under normal conditions before the upgrade and clean install. Can someone help me with this? I'ma keep looking into it in the meantime. Thanks

Update: Nevermind. Found out that the system scales down the clock when it is unplugged. Didn't know that...go figure.

[GamerzCreed]

Have you noticed a significant difference with gaming performance with the i7?

I'm not sure how I can test that, but we can do an experiment if you like on frame rates. The i7 620m in fact, does run at 3.33GHz on turbo boost which allows my games to perform better. So far most of my games are able to maintain decent looking graphics with the help of overclocking of course, and good performance speed @ 30 - 45 fps.

[fortified]

Thanks for the opinion. It was either this or the Asus u41jf-a1 but I've heard much too much negative when it came to build quality. I'll be putting an order soon.

Where did you guys buy your Acer 4820TGs?

Amazon had the lowest price for a while, at $729. That was for the -6847 which has the i5-480M, 640GB hdd, and Radeon 6550. I believe the price is back up now.

[lpnowlan]

Amazon had the lowest price for a while, at $729. That was for the -6847 which has the i5-480M, 640GB hdd, and Radeon 6550. I believe the price is back up now.

Yup, got one when the price was $729 on Amazon, wife loves it

[cmersits]

Installed the copper shim on the GPU today with IC Diamond 7, and I am very happy with the results thus far.

I ended up using the 15x15x1.2mm copper shim, it fit nicely so I didn't bother trying the 0.8mm thick shim I also ordered. Here are my idle temps (let the computer boot up and run for about 15 minutes before taking the reading).

Previously the GPU would idle around 53C. I will post some more readings when the laptop is under heavy load later when I play some L4D2.

This morning I wanted to swap out the 1.2mm shim for the 0.8mm shim to see if that would fix my CPU heat issue (CPU max temps were hitting 98C, higher than before the copper shim mod), but unfortunately the other 0.8mm shim I ordered, mysteriously vanished out of existence (Spent about 2 hrs looking for the damn thing, to no avail).

For the meantime I replaced the 1.2mm shim with a generic thermal pad (the ebay seller was kind enough to include some pads with the order ). After running 95 Prime for 10-15 minutes max CPU temp was 83, max GPU was 82. I'm thinking that the 1.2mm copper shim is too thick. It may be creating a small gap between the CPU die and heatsink.