Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

[PepeCZ]

to mavo82: Hi, yes speakers(sorry for my english). When I turnon wifi and connect on wifi site and start play any music or film etw. every +-20sec my speakers make cracking on +-1sec.
(all drivers is from manufacture, I tested uninstall preinstalled sound driver and instal microsoft driver but still cracking:/)

[JLebowski]

I noticed that when I looked at it too. The keyboard is the classic Acer "island" KB.

People seem to really like or HATE the island/lily pad style.

For typing I think it's actually quite good! I can see where the chiclet style has advantages though.

Is this display any brighter than the Timeline or does it have better contrast?

Dunno! We'll have to wait longer to find out more about the display in the Travelmate 8481. I like the concept of a 14" LCD in the 13.3" frame though!

If Acer took the superior cooling design of the 3820TG, added a backlit keyboard option or included it by default, included some of the updated hardware of the 3830TG, and included a higher quality LCD, I think they could really make some waves in the 13.3/14" market segment. It would obviously cost more than the 3820TG/3830TG models of course.

And if they used a higher caliber material for construction - all aluminum, carbon fiber, etc - they could win over some of the Apple/Lenovo crowd too.

[mavo82]

For people hating the island keyboard, but loving the rest of the 8481, there's an altertive from LG: LG P420-N.AE21G im Test Schmaler Schönling auf notebookjournal.de

Don't know if this is also shipped in the US oder Canada, but it might be a good choice apart from the GT520m, which is really slow. They even managed to integrate an optical drive (which can be removed to reduce weight). Having only one fan, the model has no problems with throttling. It has a similar display as the 8481 will get, although it's a glare one.

[etiggy]

By the way, anybody annoyed about the constant clacking the hdd does especially on battery power? Just checked my smart infos, the load cycle is at 32420 after two months. the hdd limit is 600,000, at this rate my datas gonna be destroyed in less than 3 years.

[viperabyss]

I've been thinking, what do you think of Intel's Smart Response Technology? What do you think if such technology is placed on the next generation x830TG laptop?

[Colpolite]

I noticed that thinkpad x220 and t420 users are having throttling issue with sandy bridge cpu.

Is this a throttling issue and defect on Sandy Bridge or is it only certain laptops like the 3830tg?

[fractalus]

By the way, anybody annoyed about the constant clacking the hdd does especially on battery power? Just checked my smart infos, the load cycle is at 32420 after two months. the hdd limit is 600,000, at this rate my datas gonna be destroyed in less than 3 years.

Yes, I noticed this the first time I unplugged power adapter from my 3830TG. This is a problem of HDD power saving settings which are probably hardcoded in the HDD's firmware. It's not direct problem of Acer but known issue of some WD harddrives.

I tried many tools that are dealing with this issue but most of them were not working as I wanted...finally the best one that worked for me was Hdparm (win7 compatible CLI version here: Index of /hdparm )
Basically, you need to run the hdparm with couple of apm/aam switches to override the default HDD firmware settings everytime the harddrive 'decides' to change the apm/aam values.(this usually happens when switching battery<->power adapter, reboot, waking from sleep/hibernation etc. and other situations)

So for me the options were:
-make shortcut for the Hdparm call and run it manually everytime the hd changes the power saving states
-make own tool that will watch the values and use the Hdparm to correct the values.

Guess which option I picked ...So I have made my own little program that uses the Hdparm doing the job for me automatically.
I'm using it for more than 2 months without any big issues. If there is any interest I could share the tool with you(or anyone who would like to test it). Just let me know and I'll polish the code for 'public' release.

[mzatanoskas]

I noticed that thinkpad x220 and t420 users are having throttling issue with sandy bridge cpu.

Is this a throttling issue and defect on Sandy Bridge or is it only certain laptops like the 3830tg?

Apparently there was talk of throttling in a review of the Sony Vaio SB, but I asked about it on the owner's thread and noone had noticed it (or even looked for it?). I've now bought an SB with i5 2520 and Radeon 6630 and haven't noticed any throttling yet. I've played Metro 2033 (on low) and Shift 2 for many hours at a time. I have my laptop raised about 4 cm off the desk and I get temperatures of about 85C for the CPU, can't remember but less for the GPU. I seem to remember with the laptop on the desk, the CPU sometimes went up to 90C.

If I someone told me how to conclusively test for possible throttling issues I would.

[Colpolite]

Thanks mza, so basically this is just a screw up on Acer's part on how to properly cool the gt 540m and 2nd gen full mobile cpu.

There's a reason why the m11x is thicker and a little heavier and uses a ulv cpu together with the gt 540m to properly cool it.

Maybe Acer thought "hey let's build one a slim/light laptop and throw in a gt 540m and a fully mobile cpu" without thinking about the thermal budget.

It's like putting a Ferrari engine on a Ford Focus where the Focus won't be able to handle the horsepower of the engine so the car will rattle and overheat and shut down.

[R3d]

Thanks mza, so basically this is just a screw up on Acer's part on how to properly cool the gt 540m and 2nd gen full mobile cpu.

There's a reason why the m11x is thicker and a little heavier and uses a ulv cpu together with the gt 540m to properly cool it.

Maybe Acer thought "hey let's build one a slim/light laptop and throw in a gt 540m and a fully mobile cpu" without thinking about the thermal budget.

It's like putting a Ferrari engine on a Ford Focus where the Focus won't be able to handle the horsepower of the engine so the car will rattle and overheat and shut down.

I don't think that's the problem. The last gen 3820tg had an i5+5650 combo with a similar tdp but actually weighed less than the 3830tg and it didn't have any overheating problems at all.

The problem is design. If Acer kept the dual fan cooling system, there would be no throttling problem right now.