Acer TimelineX 3830/4830/5830 T/G

[mulzoffh]

That is a nice overclock and great temps. Could you take a pic of what this mod looks like in your machine?

If this is a chassis mod I might steer away from it. I'm happy to hack away at my back plate but I feel convincing Acer to honour a warranty claim would be significant more difficult if I've modified the chassis of the computer.

Are there any "warranty void if broken" stickers inside the machine that would prevent me from repasting?

Sorry again for the long response, keep forgetting to check up on the fourms, and here's the pics. 2 are of the bottom with the cover on, one close. The other is the insides, not the prettiest but its the best I can do, besides I haven't found someone yet that can beat my clocks and temps lol.

And about the warranty man, just ask them to send the parts to you! They'll do it, I had a bad battery in this thing, 5 months 45-50% wear, asked for a new one and bam! 2 days later it was at my door.

Still no update on that overvolted bios?

And why that first pic is so big I have no idea.. lol sorry.

[ajnauron]

What's that you have below your fan? Is that an mSATA SSD, and if so, how did you connect it since there is no connector to attach it to there?

Oh, and here's proof that with Nedemai's modded bios(no changes made to vbios), on the i3 model at least, CPU throttling can be determined by CPU temp and not GPU temp. This shows that the CPU does not throttle to 1200mhz with this bios applied when the GPU hits 75C. The test was deliberately done at a multiplier of 13x(1297.1mhz) to isolate GPU temperatures as the cause of CPU throttling.

[alc027]

I thought it was a WWAN card. There's a socket for it on all x830 motherboards but mine doesn't have a header installed.

And about the warranty man, just ask them to send the parts to you! They'll do it, I had a bad battery in this thing, 5 months 45-50% wear, asked for a new one and bam! 2 days later it was at my door.

I don't think they'd do it. in Australia manufacturers look for any excuse possible to play the get out of warranty free card. If you buy a phone and leave the shop to find 10 minutes later that its DOA the phone company doesn't give you a new one they send it off to a servic centre to check if you did anything that would mean they don't have to honour the warranty. If Acer knew I took the computer apart to repaste they'd try to disclaim the entire warranty.

So if I call and say "something's wrong w my lappy" they'll want it back to check if I did anything that would mean they don't have to help me.

That being said those mods look pretty good and I think I'll do them.

Anyone know if the 4830 has hardware virtualization enabled (or can it be enabled in the BIOS)? I found some other posts where there were responses about running "XP mode" in response to that question but XP mode can run on a machine that does not have hardware virtualization.

MS does have a tool to check.

Download: HAV Detection Tool - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

Thanks

I have VT enabled through a custom BIOS. I don't know if it's on byt default in an unmodded x830.

[jl5765]

Hi,
I am looking for a laptop mainly for surfing the web, a little of programming ( not something heavy ), a little of 3D modeling, and playing a few games ( even on low, but with playable frame rate ).
I found the Acer timelinex 4830tg with i5-2450m and gt540m for 600 USD, and thought it may perfectly suit me because it is slim, light, powerful, has long battery life, it is 14" so the 1366x768 res screen will not look that bad and around that price range I couldn't find a laptop that slim and powerful.
However, I have read that many people are having severe throttling problem, it heats up a lot, some wrote that the battery wear is rather high ( need to be replaced after about a year) and the screen is really glossy and has low contrast. The throttling and the battery wear are the biggest concerns.
My questions are:
1. Has Acer solved the throttling issue in this model yet or is there a workaround to solve this problem ( I have read that ThrottleStop and a bios update may help, but is it sufficient because I don't want to disassemble the laptop and remove parts or something similar)?
2. Because I don't play games too often ( I am not expecting it to run every game in medium or high. Low is sufficient ) will the laptop throttle when I use an Internet browser, gimp, blender... simultaneously?
3. Is the buttery wear level of this is high compared to other laptops or it's normal?
4. Is the screen really bad compared to other laptops or it's average?
5. Are there other laptop that you would recommend in this price range (~650$)?
6. I am not under pressure to buy a laptop or this laptop, now and I can wait a month or so, should I wait for another laptop (when win8 is released)?

If someone ( particularly if he/she has this laptop ) could help with some of the questions it'll be really helpful.
Thanks!

[alc027]

1) This laptop never gets hot enough to throttle (according to manufacturer specifications of the components). My CPU and GPU have never reached even 85 degrees. The problem is that Acer has programmed the EC to assert PROCHOT when the GPU reaches even 75 degrees (which is of course pathetically low).

If you are prepared to disable BDPROCHOT it might fix this behaviour, but I don't because other components (like the northbridge) can drive that assertion too and I want them to continue to be monitored.

I have modded my laptop so that under no conceivable usage situation can it throttle (I have HT and Turbo enabled at all times). To answer your question, no. Acer has not fixed the throttling. You can do it yourself though.

2) It will only throttle when both the CPU and GPU are heavily loaded for extended periods. If you do not use the discrete GPU you will never face throttling. It has always been the GPU on my machine that has driven PROCHOT, never the CPU.

3) When I first got it the battery would oscillate between 6% and 0% wear daily. Two months in it is stable at 1%. I have a "bad" Panasonic battery.

4) The screen is an utter piece of siht. Bad viewing angles, bad brightness, ABYSMAL contrast, CATASTROPHICALLY ABHORRENT glare. at home I just connect a 24 incher and use the laptop display as my secondary.

5) No. Even now this machine's bang for buck is legendary. Good luck finding a 13" subnotebook that costs this little, has components this good and has such extraordinary battery life (verging on android tablet levels). If you are looking for a zero involvement computer that just works, you need to look elsewhere though.

8) I don't know. they're not made anymore but I'm sure there will soon be better computers released. Price is unknown.

EDIT:

I am not expecting it to run every game in medium or high. Low is sufficient

It's actually pretty damn good at games. It runs Starcraft II on medium at 1920x1200 super smooth. It'll work well at high settings as well but it's not as smooth (and I prefer smoothness).

[sf2]

I have VT enabled through a custom BIOS. I don't know if it's on byt default in an unmodded x830.

Can you point me to where I can get a custom BIOS that has VT enabled?

Thanks

[alc027]

I can't find it at the moment. It's in this thread though by Nedemai. Three versions all with hidden menus and some with Vbios undervolting.

[jl5765]

alc027 THANK you very much for your full and detailed answers! definitely amazing.

[ajnauron]

2) It will only throttle when both the CPU and GPU are heavily loaded for extended periods. If you do not use the discrete GPU you will never face throttling. It has always been the GPU on my machine that has driven PROCHOT, never the CPU.

With Nedemai's modded bios(no vbios changes) graphics card temps do not cause cpu throttling. Test was done at a multiplier of x13, and the average multiplier during the test was x12.98. If throttling occurred, the average multiplier would have been x12.0 or even less because the 3830tg always starts throttling at x12, then throttles further if higher temps occur.

@alc027 You said "My CPU and GPU have never reached even 85 degrees" You cannot really base the throttling behavior of the stock 3830tg on your highly modified 3830tg.

[alc027]

With Nedemai's modded bios(no vbios changes) graphics card temps do not cause cpu throttling. Test was done at a multiplier of x13, and the average multiplier during the test was x12.98. If throttling occurred, the average multiplier would have been x12.0 or even less.

Power consumption and northbridge temp drives throttling with BD PROCHOT too. So if you don't want to burn your power supply/NB ensure you're not exceeding 90W. that being said, I think it's pretty safe to turn off and I'm going to do that.

@alc027 You said "My CPU and GPU have never reached even 85 degrees" You cannot really base the throttling behavior of the stock 3830tg on your highly modified 3830tg.

I also said that Acer didn't fix the problem, I did with my mods, and that this computer is not for someone who wants a zero involvement machine that just works.