Acer Ferrari 3200 review (just a few pics/couple benches)

[Ferrari3200]

Doesn't do much good without a 64 bit chip from Intel however. ;)

[Sharakkhal]

Doesn't do much good without a 64 bit chip from Intel however. ;)

I wouldn't worry about the lack of the Intel 64-bit chip yet. There's still no 64-bit Windows. :rolleyes: The Intel chip could still be out before 64-bit Windows for all anyone knows. :)

[Kieran]

So when is the 64-Bit Windows being released? Next year some time? By the time it's available and you've bought it you might already have your eye on another laptop, or need another newer laptop with better specs to run it (knowing Microshaft)!

[Okle]

somebody said that it was to be towards the end of this year, but i can't validate that.

[snorre]

You can download today a free 360 days evaluation copy of Windows XP 64-Bit for AMD64 here (https://microsoft.order-9.com/winxp64/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=MSTrialandEval&category%5Fname=winxp64&product%5Fid=winxp64&id=dl).

The final version is expected to be released sometime soon after SP2 is available, as this project is the reason for the delays. I guess this will be sometime in the 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter this year. The current preview version is fully functional though, its just lacking (optimized) drivers. Excellent sources for 64-bit beta drivers are here (http://www.short-media.com/download.php) and here (http://www.planetamd64.com/dload.php?sid=dec7adefa3dcaf661aaf936f6eb3eb6c).

[greenlizzard]

I'm going to buy an Acer Ferrari 3200 next week and it's really nice that the price of an 3200 has just dropped to +/- 1740 Euro inc. taxes in the Netherlands. :banana: :dude:

[Okle]

congrats, from what i hear you won't be disappointed! :D

[arokis]

I'm going to buy an Acer Ferrari 3200 next week and it's really nice that the price of an 3200 has just dropped to +/- 1740 Euro inc. taxes in the Netherlands. :banana: :dude:

Excellent price ... do you know, by any chance, a retailer in the Netherlands with the updated price that ships across EU ???

That would be a sweat, sweat deal :love:

[xedod]

I'm going to buy a ferrari 3200 or an acer 1714smi next week. Don't know which one to buy!! The ferrari is just +/- 150 EUR cheaper than the 1714smi, but will the 64-bit cpu will have much advantage in the future?

I'm planning to use the notebook for about two years...

Any thoughts, anyone?

[greenlizzard]

If you aren't planning to travel with it then go for the 1714smi, else go for the Ferrari.

[xedod]

If you aren't planning to travel with it then go for the 1714smi, else go for the Ferrari.

thanks for the advice, I travel but then stay there for at least a couple of months. I like gaming, so I should go for the 1714smi ?
Tom's hardware review between the radeon mobility 9700 and the nvidia geforce fx go5700 shows that the radeon is much faster than the geforcefx.

Since the ferrari has this radeon, it's hard to choose... can't they put a radeon in the 1714smi ? ;)

[greenlizzard]

I would choose the ferrari, but that's just my choice.

[Okle]

since the graphics cards are made for two different mobos, no, not unless Acer decides to make the 17-whatever with a radeon. it does seem kind of dumb, but then again you could look at Acer's rationale with the ferrari (a 4200rpm hd in a computer named after a sports car? come on! :nono: ). just ask some of the Alienware A-51m owners what they think of their geforce5700's, since some of them got that on their comps.

[xedod]

since the graphics cards are made for two different mobos, no, not unless Acer decides to make the 17-whatever with a radeon. it does seem kind of dumb, but then again you could look at Acer's rationale with the ferrari (a 4200rpm hd in a computer named after a sports car? come on! :nono: ). just ask some of the Alienware A-51m owners what they think of their geforce5700's, since some of them got that on their comps.

thanks for the advice on the A-51m owners, I've read some posts concerning the 5700go and they're all pretty happy about it. Also thanks for pointing out the slow 4200rpm hd the ferrari has which I didn't really notice before.

thanks for the advice folks, i'll go for the 1714smi !

[Sharakkhal]

since the graphics cards are made for two different mobos, no, not unless Acer decides to make the 17-whatever with a radeon. it does seem kind of dumb, but then again you could look at Acer's rationale with the ferrari (a 4200rpm hd in a computer named after a sports car? come on! :nono: ). just ask some of the Alienware A-51m owners what they think of their geforce5700's, since some of them got that on their comps.

The Aspire 1710 series is a bit different than other notebooks there. The graphics is actually on a seperate graphics card, but it's proprietary and made by Acer for the notebook. All they would need to do, is design a new card based on another GPU and offer it for an upgrade/new model. However, I don't really see them doing that for a Mobility 9700, since the Go5700 is so close in performance.

Personally, I'm kind of hoping that the announced (but as yet no specs released) Aspire 1800 is an update of the 1700, huge notebook with a 17" desktop LCD, with PCI-Express, new upgradeable graphics (of couse), SATA desktop drives (74gb Raptor in a notebook?), desktop memory, and all the nifty features that go with those new chipsets. :)

Now there's a man's notebook! More power! (lots of grunting noises) Not one of those ultra-portable things with integrated graphics and a 4200 rpm hard drive. :cheers:

[Okle]

lol that would be awesome! but only if you're the Term...i mean, Governator! :lol: yes that would be the best sort of notebook EVER, but it would weigh way the hell too much for anybody to reasonable carry with them, eh? now if they could make that kind of system ultraportable...now i'm drooling! :lol:

[snorre]

a 4200rpm hd in a computer named after a sports car? come on!
I asked an Acer representative for the reason for this and he said it was because of better reliability of 4200RPM drives when compared to 5400RPM drives, and that their internal tests didn't show much performance improvement or at least not enough to justify the added price tag in their opinion.

[Okle]

yup, a whole $50! *gasp!* :lol: what tests were THEY running?!!? obviously not ones where you stick your hand on top of the left palmrest because the toshiba 4200rpm drive gets pretty damn hot compared to the HGST 5k80 (5400rpm 80gb) or 7k60 (7200rpm 60gb), contrary to popular belief. :D

[airwick]

hmm what crack are they smoking? an average users can defintely tell in a blind test whether 5400 and 7200 are significantly faster. Maybe they're running their 3seconds vs. 4 seconds to download theri 100kb website or something :P

I asked an Acer representative for the reason for this and he said it was because of better reliability of 4200RPM drives when compared to 5400RPM drives, and that their internal tests didn't show much performance improvement or at least not enough to justify the added price tag in their opinion.

[Okle]

:lol: damn the cost-savers! :lol:

[rincewind]

ender posted this link b4

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031031/index.html

notebook hd speed compared, 4200rpm, 5400rpm, 7200rpm

[flush]

Yes it is 2x256 PC2700 DDR Memory modules...I put in 2x512 PC3200 modules. Didn't see a performance gain going from 2700 to 3200 though on the memory

-Scotty

Hey, I just got my Ferrari and want to upgrade it to 1GB, however, when I open the memory panel in the back, I only see 1 memory slot. Where's the other?

[rincewind]

under the keyboard

u have to take out the faceplate, remove the keyboard, remove the heatshield sealing the ram area, then take out the old 256mb piece and stick in a new 512mb piece

[flush]

under the keyboard

u have to take out the faceplate, remove the keyboard, remove the heatshield sealing the ram area, then take out the old 256mb piece and stick in a new 512mb piece

remove the keyboard? how? the only screws I see are on the bottom of the notebook.

[rincewind]

take off faceplate first

that strip

[flush]

ahh got it, thanks, hehe, going to bump it to 2Gb now instead, the 60Gb 7200rpm is otw already.

Overall, I really like this notebook - I've had the Dell Inspiron XPS and absolutely hate it, it's a gargantuan monstrosity. The Alienware area51m is thicker than the Acer, close to the Dell which is part of the reason why I ruled it out too.

A couple of gripes:

1. No driver cds - only system recovery cds. The drivers on the website appear to be incorrect (especially video).
2. Windows XP Pro comes in FAT32 partitions (um, why?) - can easily convert to NTFS (512k clusters) but there's no reason why it shouldn't be NTFS 4k cluster by default anyways.
3. Separate dedicated partition (8-9 Gigs) just for ACERDATA (of which almost all of it is free space)

[Okle]

i never understood what the benefit was of NTFS. my dell came with FAT32. :$ i never really got this... hehe.

[flush]

About FAT32 vs NTFS

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=63

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

XP is NTFS5

[Ferrari3200]

ahh got it, thanks, hehe, going to bump it to 2Gb now instead, the 60Gb 7200rpm is otw already.

Overall, I really like this notebook - I've had the Dell Inspiron XPS and absolutely hate it, it's a gargantuan monstrosity. The Alienware area51m is thicker than the Acer, close to the Dell which is part of the reason why I ruled it out too.

A couple of gripes:

1. No driver cds - only system recovery cds. The drivers on the website appear to be incorrect (especially video).
2. Windows XP Pro comes in FAT32 partitions (um, why?) - can easily convert to NTFS (512k clusters) but there's no reason why it shouldn't be NTFS 4k cluster by default anyways.
3. Separate dedicated partition (8-9 Gigs) just for ACERDATA (of which almost all of it is free space)

The drivers are still accessible on the CD's, just use the explore function instead of running the CD.

You can delete the ACERDATA partition and make whatever partitions you want. It's not needed. What I did was use another copy of Windows to make the partitions then restored from the CD's. It doesn't change the partitions, they stay the way they were before the restore.

[DigiShaman]

I asked an Acer representative for the reason for this and he said it was because of better reliability of 4200RPM drives when compared to 5400RPM drives, and that their internal tests didn't show much performance improvement or at least not enough to justify the added price tag in their opinion.

You know, I find that rather interesting as there is some truth to that. Also, if the number of platters are the same, then in theory an 80GB drive running at 4200 RPMs will perform faster than a 40GB drive running at 7200. The reason for this is in the math. While a 7200 over 4200 RPM drive yields 171% increase in performance alone; the data density of a 80GB drive to a 40GB should be 200%. Thus, the 80GB 4200RPM drive has a 17% advantage in performance over the 40GB 7200RPM drive. But again, that assuming the two drives have the same number of platters. :awdance:

So with F3200, I get the added bonus of storage, speed, and durability. :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

[skyc280]

The drivers are still accessible on the CD's, just use the explore function instead of running the CD.

You can delete the ACERDATA partition and make whatever partitions you want. It's not needed. What I did was use another copy of Windows to make the partitions then restored from the CD's. It doesn't change the partitions, they stay the way they were before the restore.

hm, i also restored once, however, before i restore i converted the driver to NTFS but after i restored, it became FAT32 again...so you are saying if we use another copy of windows to make the NTFS partition, it will remain NTFS after using the recovery cds, and it will be ntfs 4k cluster by default?

[sylvesterrr]

Okay, I'm gonna buy the Acer Ferrari 3200, with some upgrades. :)
80GB 4200rpm -> 80GB 5400rpm or 60GB 7200rpm (€ 59)
2x 256MB DDR -> 1x 512MB DDR (€ 49)

Should I take the 60GB drive or the 80GB drive? :)

[greenlizzard]

Okay, I'm gonna buy the Acer Ferrari 3200, with some upgrades. :)
80GB 4200rpm -> 80GB 5400rpm or 60GB 7200rpm (€ 59)
2x 256MB DDR -> 1x 512MB DDR (€ 49)

Should I take the 60GB drive or the 80GB drive? :)

Depends on what you like better. De you like some more speed or some more space?

[sylvesterrr]

Depends on what you like better. De you like some more speed or some more space?
I'm going to use this PC as a "download-pc", my laptop will be a game/office-computer. So, I can use some speed. :P

[agentsim]

80gb definitely

[Ferrari3200]

hm, i also restored once, however, before i restore i converted the driver to NTFS but after i restored, it became FAT32 again...so you are saying if we use another copy of windows to make the NTFS partition, it will remain NTFS after using the recovery cds, and it will be ntfs 4k cluster by default?

No, I'm saying the partitions remain intact, but you still need to convert to NTFS again. Why do you want 4k? AFAIK you only gain a little more space but lose performance.

[Ferrari3200]

Okay, I'm gonna buy the Acer Ferrari 3200, with some upgrades. :)
80GB 4200rpm -> 80GB 5400rpm or 60GB 7200rpm (€ 59)
2x 256MB DDR -> 1x 512MB DDR (€ 49)

Should I take the 60GB drive or the 80GB drive? :)

7200 rpm definitely.

No difference in battery life and a big performance gain. All you lose is space, but with DVD-R, you don't need it.

[Okle]

That's true, but look at how huge install files are getting for games and stuff. For that reason alone i would recommend the 80gb (which is why that's what i'm doing :p), but the 7200rpm 60gb drive does have the speed bonus. I wouldn't think that that makes a giant difference over 5400rpm though, and therefore i'm going with the 5400rpm 80gb drive.
P.S. the 80gb is cheaper. :D

[Ferrari3200]

A 5400 rpm 80GB drive is a great compromise. I'm just sticking with the stock drive until 100GB 7200 rpm drives are reasonable in price. ;)

I should also add that I'm mostly an arcade and handheld EMU gamer, so my biggest games are only about 40MB. I could easily put my entire PC gaming collection on one DVD. :lol:

The biggest items I ever have are ripped DVD's, but I can still get a lot of those even on a 40GB HD.

Off topic - Any good platforming games out for PC now along the lines of Klonoa, Mischief Makers or Mario? I could go for something like that. :dude:

[skyc280]

No, I'm saying the partitions remain intact, but you still need to convert to NTFS again. Why do you want 4k? AFAIK you only gain a little more space but lose performance.

right, a misunderstanding

you mentioned about being able to use another xp and to use the drivers from the recoveries cd, would that still work though? i mean will the drivers be installed and be able to function properly? as you know our xp versions are home versions...i want to upgrade to xp pro so if drivers can be installed and function properly, how do we do that? or is it not possible?

[Ferrari3200]

I don't see why it wouldn't work. All the drivers and programs are in well organized folders. If you go through and install them all I doubt there would be much difference. My question is, why do you want Pro so much? Will you really use the additional networking/server features? Other than that they are identical. I have a small wireless network set-up with all my home PC's and PPC's. I can't see what else I'd ever need for networking.

[sylvesterrr]

That's true, but look at how huge install files are getting for games and stuff.
Do you mean you've installed more than 5-6 games at this moment? :P

After all, I'll take the 60GB 7200rpm. :)

[Okle]

yes i do have more than 6 games installed at the moment, and they're all fxcking huge! America's army (1.62gb), morrowind (1gb), simpsons hit and run (1.5gb), vice city, GTAIII, and GTAI (2.5gb total), a bunch of half life stuff (~1.4gb), a crapton of demos and a couple of ISOs (~2-3gb), a gigabyte of music (128kbps mp3), Medal of Honor (allied assault and breakthrough, 2gb), Encarta reference library 2002 copied to disk (~2.5gb), and a bunch of system apps, files, drivers, etc. (~15gb), which makes up most of the full space on my 40gb hard drive. phew that was a mouthful! :lol:

[flush]

You can delete the ACERDATA partition and make whatever partitions you want. It's not needed. What I did was use another copy of Windows to make the partitions then restored from the CD's. It doesn't change the partitions, they stay the way they were before the restore.

ah okay, thanks, I moved all the Acer pre-defined folders from C: to D: and will probably resize the partition down to 1Gb or so when I ghost the 80gb to the new 60gb later this week.

[sylvesterrr]

yes i do have more than 6 games installed at the moment, and they're all fxcking huge! America's army (1.62gb), morrowind (1gb), simpsons hit and run (1.5gb), vice city, GTAIII, and GTAI (2.5gb total), a bunch of half life stuff (~1.4gb), a crapton of demos and a couple of ISOs (~2-3gb), a gigabyte of music (128kbps mp3), Medal of Honor (allied assault and breakthrough, 2gb), Encarta reference library 2002 copied to disk (~2.5gb), and a bunch of system apps, files, drivers, etc. (~15gb), which makes up most of the full space on my 40gb hard drive. phew that was a mouthful! :lol:
I never have more than 3 games installed at the same moment. :P Also, I've got a Apple iPod (20GB) for my music-collection. :)

[Ferrari3200]

Well, I installed XP Pro and the drivers off the CD without trouble. I also now have my HD in five equal partitions formatted with NTFS. Just remember to let Windows search your system disk for the LAN driver. It doesn't have an install, but everything else does. Very painless and quick.

[Okle]

I never have more than 3 games installed at the same moment. :P Also, I've got a Apple iPod (20GB) for my music-collection. :)
well aren't you lucky. speaking of iPods, i think i'm gonna try Freeipods.com. seems like it's worth a try. :)

[greenlizzard]

Okay, I'm gonna buy the Acer Ferrari 3200, with some upgrades. :)
80GB 4200rpm -> 80GB 5400rpm or 60GB 7200rpm (€ 59)
2x 256MB DDR -> 1x 512MB DDR (€ 49)

Should I take the 60GB drive or the 80GB drive? :)

Which shop are these upgrade prices from?

[Okle]

i think he might be talking about ebaying the old stuff and then subtracting those proceeds from the cost of the item.

[sylvesterrr]

Which shop are these upgrade prices from?
http://www.de-laptopper.nl/index.php?file_id=2570 (Dutch E-Shop)
The Upgrade options are not listed, but I've called and sent them an e-mail, they've said those upgrades are possible for these prices.
Goedemorgen,

Het klopt dat de Acer standaard wordt geleverd met een 80Gb 4200Rpm
harddisk. Het is alleen mogelijk om hier een 80Gb 5400Rpm schijf in te
plaatsen (dit is namelijk de grootste en snelste harddisk momenteel) De
meerprijs hiervoor is € 49,-- voor het uitbreiden van het geheugen naar 1 x
512Mb komt ook een meerprijs van € 49,--. Deze bedragen zijn beide excl.
BTW.

Mochten er nog vragen zijn dan verneem ik het graag van u.

Menend u hiermee voldoende te hebben geïnformeerd.

Met Vriendelijke Groet,

Willem Jan de Bruijn
The prices are without taxes (19%).

i think he might be talking about ebaying the old stuff and then subtracting those proceeds from the cost of the item.
No. :)

[greenlizzard]

i think he might be talking about ebaying the old stuff and then subtracting those proceeds from the cost of the item.

That could be, but I think he's talking about upgrading the notebook when ordering at a shop.

[Okle]

OH! oops... they let you do that?!?! damn, wish i spoke german! lol nah i don't want the ferrari anymore, now i'm about 10 minutes away from ordering an internetishop UN25K (a.k.a. abs mayhem g3) thanks to ken. teeheehee...

[greenlizzard]

OH! oops... they let you do that?!?! damn, wish i spoke german! lol nah i don't want the ferrari anymore, now i'm about 10 minutes away from ordering an internetishop UN25K (a.k.a. abs mayhem g3) thanks to ken. teeheehee...

German? I'm glad I speak dutch :bouncy:

[Grafieks]

I heard that upgrading the ram on this machine will void acer's extended warranty plan?

and what do you guys think about the warranty anyways?
i.e. is it worth it? etc..

plus, if I purchase the acer from a store, can I purchase the warranty from the acer site and add it to the laptop somehow?

[Okle]

it's definitely worth it to upgrade, otherwise you are pretty much settling for quite a few sucky components and therefore reduced performance. for example, the mobile and desktop A64's (NOT the DTR's) can utilize DDR400, and the ferrari comes with only ddr333 (not to mention half of the optimum amount of it), so that's one lousy selection. furthermore, you've already heard the anti-4200rpm spiel from everyone, so that's number two. verdict: just upgrade it and if you need to get it fixed, there's always these forums. :D

[greenlizzard]

I heard that upgrading the ram on this machine will void acer's extended warranty plan?

and what do you guys think about the warranty anyways?
i.e. is it worth it? etc..

plus, if I purchase the acer from a store, can I purchase the warranty from the acer site and add it to the laptop somehow?

I'm also interested in the answer of you last question. Because the store where I think I'll order my Ferrari 3200 isn't the same store where the Acer Advantage is cheapest. So is it possible to buy the warranty a few days later at another internet-shop?

[DragonFlame]

I'm pretty sure you can buy an extended warranty straight from acer off their website...

[sylvesterrr]

@greenlizzard
Hoi Tweaker. :)

[lotech.nz]

I made and posted this the other day and after checking out the drivers for the 3200 they look identical - if someone with a 3200 could try this, I would be keen to update support:

------------------------------------------------------------
Modded BCM Tray Icons for Acer Ferrari 3000 V1.0 (06.07.04)
by lotech (www.lotech.co.nz)
------------------------------------------------------------

I hated the icons that came with the Wireless Tray util installed on my laptop so I thought I better do some tweaking. The replaced icons use Apples wireless icons (and as a result I can take no credit for their design) - but damn if they don't look better. No more cryptic colour scheme to show the signal strength. It is based on V3.30.15.0 of the Config utility.


INSTALLATION
1. Close any wireless services you have Open and disable you WIFI card under
Control Panel / Network Connections.
2. Rename c:\windows\system32\bcmwltry.exe to something else (such as bcmwltry_old.exe)
3. Extract zip contents to this c:\windows\system32
4. Restart, enable WI-FI & enjoy.

PROBLEMS
There shouldn't be any issues as is just a hacked version of the only version of this available. As usual if you break something beyond belief I take no responsability for your problems - although I doubt this will happen.

FUTURE
More support for other Acer Laptops with the same wifi card - chances are it works with these now. If anyone tries it please email me so I can add it to the listed supported models.

PREVIEW
http://www.lotech.co.nz/preview.jpg

DOWNLOAD HERE (http://www.lotech.co.nz/ferrari3000%20wifimodv1.zip) (73kb)

[pilot101]

just question whats the built in mic quality like for acer ferrar 3200, I'm going to use my computer to make lot of calls through the internet and im wondering if I should buy a separate mic

[Ferrari3200]

I've used my 3200 as a phone through BT with my SEZ600 a few times and the quality is much better than I expected.

[Shutty]

How did you get your mic working?....mine dosen't seem to work.
S

[flush]

take off faceplate first

that strip

I can't seem to take off the keyboard, i removed the 3 screws holding it in place but there's something else in the middle of the keyboard keeping it there. Any ideas?

[flush]

nm, i dug around a bit and found this on another post:

1. remove 4 small screws. there are 2 of each on the back of the hinges
2. on the underside there are 2 screws each marked eith a 'K' undo these
3. lay ferrari flat and fully open screen as far back as it will go
4. GENTLY lift the flap (with the on/off buttons) upward and outwards
5. u will now see three screws above the function keys, undo these
6. Carefully slide the keyboard up towards the screen and it'l just pop out
7 u can now see the ram slot

[sylvesterrr]

Yesterday I've ordered my Acer Ferrari 3200 with 1x512MB DDR & 60GB 7200rpm HDD. It should be delivered tomorrow. A review will come when I'm back from Greece. :)

[sylvesterrr]

Tom's Hardware Guide (http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040708/index.html)

[snorre]

Tom's Hardware Guide (http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040708/index.html)
Nice review! :headbang:

I thought the Acer had equipped the Ferrari 3200 with a quality high capacity battery, but a 65Wh battery is really poor compared to other Centrino notebooks that sports batteries with far higher capacity (up to 98Wh) :(

Is it possible to upgrade the Acer Ferrari 3200 with a better and higher capacity battery (e.g. 98+Wh) ?

[sylvesterrr]

Yummie, my Acer Ferrari 3200 will be delivered within 35 minutes. :D

[sylvesterrr]

And I've got it. It's a beauty. I have to install Windows right now. :)

[greenlizzard]

Yesterday I've ordered my Acer Ferrari 3200 with 1x512MB DDR & 60GB 7200rpm HDD. It should be delivered tomorrow. A review will come when I'm back from Greece. :)

Hi tweaker :bouncy: where did you buy the Ferrari 3200 and what did you pay for it? Have you buyed some extra garanty or insurances?

[sylvesterrr]

Hi tweaker :bouncy: where did you buy the Ferrari 3200 and what did you pay for it? Have you buyed some extra garanty or insurances?
I've paid € 2077, and ordered it @ www.de-laptopper.nl. I didn't buy some extra warranty or insurance.
I've got a insurance @ ABN-AMRO Bank (€ 3/month). :)

[puka]

And I've got it. It's a beauty. I have to install Windows right now. :)



Congrats on your new lappy!!!! here's some smashing nana's for you :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: I wish I could get my ferrari soon, but it looks like next year I can get one due to a surf trip to indo MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA :dude: I don't have any money oh well.

[greenlizzard]

I've paid € 2077, and ordered it @ www.de-laptopper.nl. I didn't buy some extra warranty or insurance.
I've got a insurance @ ABN-AMRO Bank (€ 3/month). :)

Congratulations with your Ferrari 3200, I'm getting mine next week. I just want to know if you tried to get a lower price at de-laptopper.nl , because of the lower prices at other shops. Does the 2077 includes the extended pixel policy of de-laptopper? I also got an abn-amro account, but what kind of insurance is the one of the abn-amro and what is the difference between the one acer offers you to buy?

[PangYu]

I just got a 3200 a few days ago. So far I'm loving it. Splinter Cell 2 runs real nice on it.

Question about drivers. The acer site just has the drivers that were pre-loaded listed, are there any better drivers that I should install? Also, what is the best software for power managment(cpu or video card)--powernow?

Thanks

[sylvesterrr]

Congrats on your new lappy!!!! here's some smashing nana's for you :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash:
Thnx!

I wish I could get my ferrari soon, but it looks like next year I can get one due to a surf trip to indo MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA :dude: I don't have any money oh well.
Hmm, I think you don't know what you're missing. This notebook is a beauty. :)

Congratulations with your Ferrari 3200, I'm getting mine next week. I just want to know if you tried to get a lower price at de-laptopper.nl , because of the lower prices at other shops.
No, I didn't try to get lower prices. I could get it somewhere else for € 200 less, but the upgrades (2x256MB DDR -> 1x512MB & 80GB 4200rpm -> 60GB 7200rpm) would cost more than € 500. So I've chosen for de-laptopper.nl

Does the 2077 includes the extended pixel policy of de-laptopper?
Yes! :)

I also got an abn-amro account, but what kind of insurance is the one of the abn-amro
http://www.abnamro.nl/nl/particulier/verzekeringen/kostbaarhedenverzekering/voordelen.html?pos=verz17

and what is the difference between the one acer offers you to buy?
It's only ~€ 3/month, and it's for my digicam, iPod, Nokia 6820 and laptop. :) It saves you a lot of money. :)

[johnlsk]

I'll be getting my Ferrari 3200 in 2 hours, will post my review tomorrow. I'm living in Malaysia. For those who want to get it in Malaysia immediately, you can go to our most famous IT complex, Lowyat Plaza, 3rd floor, IT Retail Sdn. Bhd., pay RM7988 and take it back on spot. Act fast, they have only 3 unit left.

[greenlizzard]

@ sylvesterrr: Tnx for the anwsers. I'll call de-laptopper monday, but I'll try to get some discount, else I'm not sure if I buy it there. I'll buy the Acer Advantage inc. xtra insurance, because that suits me more. I can't wait to be also an Acer Ferrari 3200 owner.

[sylvesterrr]

@ sylvesterrr: Tnx for the anwsers. I'll call de-laptopper monday, but I'll try to get some discount, else I'm not sure if I buy it there. I'll buy the Acer Advantage inc. xtra insurance, because that suits me more. I can't wait to be also an Acer Ferrari 3200 owner.
I'm not going to pay € 169 (+ 19% tax) for the Acer Advantage...It's too expensive.
Btw, my Ferrari (yeah, my Ferrari :dude: ) works great. I'm now at Kreta and I've found a hotspot. :lol:

[johnlsk]

Okay, I got my Ferrari 3200 and have tested it for whole day. No any blue screen encounter so far. Have run 3DMark01 (10895 mark) and 3DMark03 (3035 mark). I realize that the 4200rpm 80GB hard disk is quite fast too. A lot better if compared to my 30GB 4200rpm hard disk in my Compaq Presario 955AP with Athlon-XPM 2000+. Only problem is how to convert the FAT32 to NTSF? The Acer Recovery is like ****, no option for us to choose what kind of file system we want.

[DigiShaman]

Okay, I got my Ferrari 3200 and have tested it for whole day. No any blue screen encounter so far. Have run 3DMark01 (10895 mark) and 3DMark03 (3035 mark). I realize that the 4200rpm 80GB hard disk is quite fast too. A lot better if compared to my 30GB 4200rpm hard disk in my Compaq Presario 955AP with Athlon-XPM 2000+. Only problem is how to convert the FAT32 to NTSF? The Acer Recovery is like ****, no option for us to choose what kind of file system we want.


At the command prompt (type CMD in Run located in the Start Menu). You should now see a DOS box pop up. From here, type in the following...

Convert C: /FS:NTFS

If it asks for a volume name, then that would be ACER. From this point it will say disk cannot be unmounted due to locked filesystem bla bla bla. Just say ok and instruct it to convert at next reboot.

Your filesystem at this point should be NTFS. :dude:

[airwick]

damn how did you get those upgrades?

Thnx!


Hmm, I think you don't know what you're missing. This notebook is a beauty. :)


No, I didn't try to get lower prices. I could get it somewhere else for € 200 less, but the upgrades (2x256MB DDR -> 1x512MB & 80GB 4200rpm -> 60GB 7200rpm) would cost more than € 500. So I've chosen for de-laptopper.nl


Yes! :)


http://www.abnamro.nl/nl/particulier/verzekeringen/kostbaarhedenverzekering/voordelen.html?pos=verz17


It's only ~€ 3/month, and it's for my digicam, iPod, Nokia 6820 and laptop. :) It saves you a lot of money. :)

[sylvesterrr]

damn how did you get those upgrades?
Okay, a fast reply before I go to the beach. :dude:

www.de-laptopper.nl

[sylvesterrr]

At the command prompt (type CMD in Run located in the Start Menu). You should now see a DOS box pop up. From here, type in the following...

Convert C: /FS:NTFS

If it asks for a volume name, then that would be ACER. From this point it will say disk cannot be unmounted due to locked filesystem bla bla bla. Just say ok and instruct it to convert at next reboot.

Your filesystem at this point should be NTFS. :dude:
What I did (I got a empty disk because of the upgrade):
- booted from my bootable CD (with command/fdisk/format etc. )
- created some partitions
- installed Windows XP

[Ferrari3200]

An update of my experiences. So far I love it. Everything delivers as promised. I still can't get NeoRageX to display video correctly and WinAmp's full screen visualizations are also just a black screen. I have lock ups on battery power which will be cured soon or I'll get a replacement unit. I was pleasantly surprised with the speed I get shrinking DVD's in low priority mode. I have an appointment next Saturday at the service center to figure out why I get lock-ups on battery power. I never have trouble on A/C, so hopefully it's just a bad battery or a lose connection they can fix quickly. I can't wait for XP 64.

[Shutty]

An update of my experiences. So far I love it. Everything delivers as promised. I still can't get NeoRageX to display video correctly and WinAmp's full screen visualizations are also just a black screen. I have lock ups on battery power which will be cured soon or I'll get a replacement unit. I was pleasantly surprised with the speed I get shrinking DVD's in low priority mode. I have an appointment next Saturday at the service center to figure out why I get lock-ups on battery power. I never have trouble on A/C, so hopefully it's just a bad battery or a lose connection they can fix quickly. I can't wait for XP 64.


When you say lock ups what do you mean? Freezing..system shut down....lag?
S

[Tommyboy]

While trying to find some info on the 3200.. I read some Dutch user reviews of the ferrari 3000.
A few users complained about the letters on the keyboard being worn off after only two months of use.
Have any ferrari 3200 users experienced this problem on their machines?

[DragonFlame]

The Ferrari's been out for 2 months?

[DigiShaman]

While trying to find some info on the 3200.. I read some Dutch user reviews of the ferrari 3000.
A few users complained about the letters on the keyboard being worn off after only two months of use.
Have any ferrari 3200 users experienced this problem on their machines?

That's ok, I plan on using little neon orange color stickers (found at local wallmart) and stick them over every key. Then, I will use a pencil and write the letter for each key. Ya...that will be ghetto cool!! :p

Seriously, if my laptop get's worn keys that quickly..it should be coverned under warranty though.

[johnlsk]

Thanks DigiShaman, but I already use the worst way to do it. I went out spend RM500 (USD$132), buy a WinXP Pro and reformat my Ferrari 3200 already! Ferrari 3200 + WinXP Pro = :banana: :banana: :banana:

[johnlsk]

I spend whole day to format my Ferrari 3200 and install usual applications, now it runs as solid as I expected. Already throw Need for Speed Underground, Homeworld 2, Unreal 2: Awakening, Unreal Tournament 2004, Splintercell and Halo into it. Damn, nothing can slow this machine down. No argument, this is the FASTEST notebook that I ever use!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Ferrari3200]

When you say lock ups what do you mean? Freezing..system shut down....lag?
S

Both freezing and shut down. It only happens on battery power. I'll get it fixed or replaced this weekend. Hopefully it's just a bad battery or connection so I don't need to exchange units, I know everything else is perfect with the unit.

[airwick]

not be to sexis but i think thats the case with females cuz their nails scratch off the letters little by little

While trying to find some info on the 3200.. I read some Dutch user reviews of the ferrari 3000.
A few users complained about the letters on the keyboard being worn off after only two months of use.
Have any ferrari 3200 users experienced this problem on their machines?

[DigiShaman]

Both freezing and shut down. It only happens on battery power. I'll get it fixed or replaced this weekend. Hopefully it's just a bad battery or connection so I don't need to exchange units, I know everything else is perfect with the unit.

Could be the Sanyo cells used. They are total crap. When I worked at Dell, it was always the batteries that had Sanyo cells that would stop charging. Also, the DC output was very unstable and fluctuated a lot. This would wreck havoc on the inverter. Oh well...none the less get that battery replaced if you can. That, or just hand over the laptop and let Acer deal with the problem.

Note: The whole battery issue with the Apple iPods was because of Sanyo piss poor quality. And if you had to know, I had a little jingle to go with such faulty cells...

"Uh ohh....must have been a Sanyo" :lol: :D

[Ferrari3200]

Hopefully it's something as simple as that. Luckily the service center is only 15 minutes from my house. I should get same day service and turn-around.

[greenlizzard]

Ok I've decided and ordered the Acer Ferrari 3200 at de-laptopper.nl . I'm very happy about their service and how things are going. I've chosen for upgrades of the HD wich is now a 7k60 and the memory to 1024 MB DDR333 SDRAM (2x512). I've also buyed the extra pixel policy and a good notebook backpac the Samsonite 300 series tracker weekend backpac. I had already ordered the Acer Advantage inc. accidental insurrance.

And that's it, enough money spend for today :lol:

They said that I could expect my Ferrari 3200 tomorrow to be delivered by there own delivery service.

[Tommyboy]

Greenlizzard, how much did you pay for the Ferrari and how much for the upgrades?

I'm also thinking of buying mine at de-laptopper.nl. Please keep us informed on your experiences with de-laptopper and the Ferrari...

Can't wait to get my own Ferrari :banana:

[greenlizzard]

I paid 1525 euro ex. taxes for the Ferrari 3200. For the HD upgrade I paid 49 euro ex. taxes and for the upgrade form 2x256 Mb DDR333 SDRAM to 2x512 I paid 225 euro ex. taxes. For the extra pixel policy I paid 49 euro ex. taxes. They gave me 25 euro ex. taxes discount on the notebook backpac. and free delivery. I've ordered the Acer Advantage inc. accidental insurance already before I ordered the notebook. The standard Ferrari 3200 price at de-laptopper may be a bit higher than at other shops, but the do Ferrari 3200 upgrades and those upgrades are real cheap and they will give you superb service. They will deliver the Ferrari already tomorrow, while I've just ordered it. I'm glad I ordered at de-laptopper.nl ! And when you count it all, you see that that the price is really cheap at de-laptopper. I can't wait until tomorrow :smash:

For those dutch guys which also like to order an Acer Ferrari 3200; de-laptopper has still some Ferrari's in stock.

[xedod]

In Belgium it sucks, it seems like the distibutors already have an "out of stock".
Hopefully I'll get lucky and have one of the few that are still for sale :D

i've ordered mine @ mpl : http://www.mpl.be

[greenlizzard]

In Belgium it sucks, it seems like the distibutors already have an "out of stock".
Hopefully I'll get lucky and have one of the few that are still for sale :D

i've ordered mine @ mpl : http://www.mpl.be

De-laptopper also shops to Belgium, so if the shop you ordered at can't deliver, maybe you should have a look at de-laptopper.nl

[sylvesterrr]

@greenlizzard: good choice! My Ferrari is a perfect notebook. :) Btw, I've used my notebook for 2,5 hours in the airplane, and 1 hour at my hotelroom (with the included battery). :)
I didn't play games, but I wrote some essays and reports (for school). :)

[xedod]

De-laptopper also shops to Belgium, so if the shop you ordered at can't deliver, maybe you should have a look at de-laptopper.nl

ah, thanks for the advice and it's a lot cheaper too, **** why did I order mine in Belgium? :rolleyes:

[xedod]

whooohoo, mine will be delivered tomorrow
fortunately, i'm one of the lucky few who could manage to get one of the last pieces here in belgium

i'll give you my thoughts tomorrow (wanne play farcry : http://www.amd.com/farcry )

[snorre]

According to Acer UK the Ferrari 3200 have the following options:
http://www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page9.do?dau34.oid=5074&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&ctx1=UK&crc=4150602263
# Additional 3-pin 90 W AC adapter
# Additional Li-ion battery pack
Will these options increase the total battery life?

[Okle]

those parts would be classified as extra/spare, snorre. there's no way that you could fit 2 batteries and/or 2 AC adapters into a notebook as small as the ferrari.

[snorre]

those parts would be classified as extra/spare, snorre. there's no way that you could fit 2 batteries and/or 2 AC adapters into a notebook as small as the ferrari.
Ok, I see. Hopefully someone will offer a replacement battery for it with more than 65Wh capacity then.

[Okle]

that would definitely be nice but at least the ferrari uses the low-power processor by default, so you can expect much better battery life than the already decent battery life with a bigger battery. if only there was a 35w 3700... :lol:

[thestampede]

Don't worry, it's coming! :dude:

[thestampede]

Let's just hope that since these A64-bit chips are the first generation, that they still run well/better than 32-bit chips, with 64-bit apps, etc!!

[snorre]

I just ordered the Acer Ferrari 3200 and I'll hopefully get it tomorrow already. I'll also upgrade it with two Corsair CMXSD512-3200LL DDR400 512MB SO-DIMM memory modules and an Hitachi TravelStar 7K60 7200RPM 60GB harddisk. You can expect to see the results from some proper benchmarking of this awesome machine with both default and tweaked (as hell) settings :cool:

[Okle]

congrats snorre, good luck with the lappy and the benchmarks. here's some smashed bananas from the no-dead-pixel gods! :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash:

[xedod]

whoohoo, got my ferrari3200 too, it's a great piece of work!!!
but I've installed windows xp professional on it, and lost the vroom sound you hear when the acer starts windows xp home...

can someone send me that nice 'vroom' sound via mail to me?
my email: xedod@telenet.be

thanks in advance

[PangYu]

congrats snorre, good luck with the lappy and the benchmarks. here's some smashed bananas from the no-dead-pixel gods! :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash::banana: :smash:

I can send you the sound in a few hours when I get home from work... it gets annoying pretty fast, heh. Didn't your Ferrari come pre-loaded with Xp Professional?

[Okle]

just for laughs, email me the sound too please? i just wanna see what it's like. :D

[francoisc]

whoohoo, got my ferrari3200 too, it's a great piece of work!!!
but I've installed windows xp professional on it, and lost the vroom sound you hear when the acer starts windows xp home...

can someone send me that nice 'vroom' sound via mail to me?
my email: xedod@telenet.be

thanks in advance

Your 3200 didn't come with XP Pro?

[greenlizzard]

My Ferrari came also only with Windows XP Home Edition. In the Netherlands they only sell them with Home edition.

[xedod]

idd, belgium is the southern neighbour of the Nederlands and we also have to be satisfied with the home edition.

but hey i've got my prof. edition already here ;)
btw, farcry really runs well on this machine here, much better than on my p4 with gf4 ti4200 :D

[PangYu]

I realllllly wanna try farcry on mine, but havent got a copy of it yet.. I may have found one tho.. will hopefully have it by tomorrow

[Okle]

i want farcry so bad but i don't wanna spend $40 on it. :p

[greenlizzard]

I've got my Ferrari 3200 now for 3 days and in those 3 days I've had 2 times the blue screen and 1 time the system just froze. Do I've to worry now, or contact my retailer? It happened on both battery and AC.

[Abbas]

I've had mine for about a week without a single crash. Maybe you should contact your retailer- maybe the CPU fan isnt working causing it to overheat and crash ?

-Abbas

[RedSky009]

I ripped an old music CD which was a bit dirty and scratched the other day and since then I haven´t been able to burn any CD´s... Nero says there is some Power error hmmm :( :(

Can you use any CD/DVD lens cleaner with it (as it is a slot loader) or do you need a specific type (i have seen some ´dry´cleaners on amazon?? Help!

[greenlizzard]

Great news for me, de-laptopper just called and told me that I'll get a whole new one this saturday. They agreed that for such an expensive machine it's not acceptable the system to froze/crash so many times in three days. They will replace my HD from this Ferrari to the new one at my place. And offcourse it'll be checked for death pixels. The told me not to worry about the problem, cause they will take care of those. That's the kind of service I like!

Btw this is one of the problems I've got: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284

[puka]

Great news for me, de-laptopper just called and told me that I'll get a whole new one this saturday. They agreed that for such an expensive machine it's not acceptable the system to froze/crash so many times in three days. They will replace my HD and the 2x512 MB Memory from this Ferrari to the new one at my place. And offcourse it'll be checked for death pixels. The told me not to worry about the problem, cause they will take care of those. That's the kind of service I like!


Dude thats AWESOME news man!! they sure have SOLID customer service heres some luck :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :banana: :smash: :dude:

I hope I don't have any problems when it's time to order mine!

[Okle]

damn... i wish some place in the U.S. did that.... :(

[snorre]

Btw this is one of the problems I've got: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284
Ok, probably bad memory then.

I got mine today, btw. The first impression was very good, it's as close to perfect you can get with a notebook these days :headbang:

[Sc2ptical]

Hi there,

I'm new here on this great forum. I was looking for some users comment on this beauty of a notebook and I can say it is for 99% sure that I going to order also a F3200. I read almost everything about this notebook on this forum and thanks for those interresting comments about this notebook and I did not ask for anything. :lol: I'm still looking around in HK if a notebook can beat this F3200 in price and specs. I will keep you informed what I'm going to do for 100%.

EDIT:
OKe, I'm going to order my Ferrari tomorrow, the 3200. :headbang: It will take 3-4 days untill I receive it. WOW that is fast, I wonder if this is really thru. Let you know more if I received it.

[Jebat]

I had purchased my unit in Malaysia prior to returning to Melbourne, Australia for my uni's 2nd semester. After reading the posts on this thread as well as testing out the laptop's battery life myself, I'm sort of convinced that I need to get a spare battery for those long lectures.

Does anyone know if Acer already has these batteries on sale? Do they come similar to that as the ones our units have (silverish shade)? Or is the 3200 batteries are in actual fact, batteries that are compatible with other Acer laptops (like the 8003LMi series) and hence are readily available for purchasing?

Thanks for all your help,

- Jeb

[Sc2ptical]

Well, I have my own Ferrari now. Yesterday I went to a computercentre and bought the Ferrari 3200. They had some in stock so that was even better. I even get an acer mp3 player (256Mb) for free. :headbang:

First impression is..... I smell the ferrari paint. Smells good. :lol: THe laptop looks good and first I was a little bit sceptical about the keyboard but no problem at all. The ferrari is fast but only the HDD is slow, later I want to buy a faster one. I re-installed everything and so far I'm not finished yet with optimizing the laptop. I will run later some benchmarks and also will put on some pictures.

First I need to work now. :( Not able to play more with my laptop. Shoot. Ah well, I need to be patient.

[BigCanoe]

Congrats! Its on my short list, thats for sure.

[puka]

Well, I have my own Ferrari now. Yesterday I went to a computercentre and bought the Ferrari 3200. They had some in stock so that was even better. I even get an acer mp3 player (256Mb) for free. :headbang:

First impression is..... I smell the ferrari paint. Smells good. :lol: THe laptop looks good and first I was a little bit sceptical about the keyboard but no problem at all. The ferrari is fast but only the HDD is slow, later I want to buy a faster one. I re-installed everything and so far I'm not finished yet with optimizing the laptop. I will run later some benchmarks and also will put on some pictures.

First I need to work now. :( Not able to play more with my laptop. Shoot. Ah well, I need to be patient.

Yes some pic's and benchmarks would be great!! oh BTW congrats I my self is waiting to get a ferrari too.

[thestampede]

You should all wait like me! Look below.

[thestampede]

Worth the wait and extra money.

[snorre]

As promised, here are the results from my comprehensive benchmarking of this beauty:

Setup

Laptop: Acer Ferrari 3200
CPU: AMD low-power Mobile Athlon 64 2800+ (1.8GHz, 512KB L2 cache) @ 206 HTT
RAM: 1GB PC3200 (2x Corsair XMS3200 (2.5-3-3-6) 512MB SO-DIMMs) @ DDR400
GFX: ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128MB, AGP8X, FW/SB=On) @ 485/250
HDD: Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7200RPM (8MB cache)
OS: MS Windows XP Professional SP1 (NTFS), Omega Drivers 2.5.58

P.S. The system has been tweaked for optimal performance.

Benchmark results

HD Tach 3.0.1.0:
Burst speed: 96.6 MB/s
Random access: 14.8 ms
CPU utilization: 2 %
Average read: 31.0 MB/s

PCMark04 (Build 120):
3591

SiSoft Sandra 2004 SP2:
CPU Arithmetic: Dhrystone ALU 8530 MIPS, Whetstone FPU/iSSE2 2932/3795 MFLOPS
CPU Multi-Media: Integer 17709 it/s, Floating-Point 19057 it/s
RAM Bandwidth: Int 3148 MB/s, Float 3148 MB/s

ScienceMark 2.0:
Memory: 3038.41 MB/s bandwidth, 50.08 ns latency (512 byte stride)
Molecular Dynamics: 102.24720 s
Primordia: 453.25246 s
Cipher: 14.43664 s, 105.69 MB/s
Blas (SGEMM): 5304.97 peak MFLOPS, 2.86 FLOPS/cycle

Super PI 1.1:
1M: 48 s

Prime95 23.8.1:
Benchmark (Timing 11 iterations at 2048K FFT length): 152.084 ms

RealStorm Benchmark 2004:
2411 RayMarks (16.35 avg. fps, 7.42 min. fps, 31.7 max. fps)

KribiBench 1.1:
Jetshadow (realistic): 5.0356 fps

Pov-Ray 3.6:
Chess2.pov: 85.03 s

AquaMark3 1.0:
29911 (3657/8442 GFX/CPU)

3DMark2001 Second Edition (Build 330):
12916

3DMark03 (Build 340):
3637 (618 CPU score)

3DMark05 1.1.0:
1482 (2876 CPU score)

Unreal Tournament 2004:
1024x768 110.42 fps botmatch (dm-rankin: 136.26 fps, as-convoy: 77.71 fps, br-colossus: 117.29 fps)

Doom3:
640x480 54.0 fps Timedemo1 medium quality

Conclusion

This is by far the fastest slim laptop system that you can buy today, period! :D

[puka]

As promised, here are the results from my comprehensive benchmarking of this beauty:

Setup

Laptop: Acer Ferrari 3200
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 2800+ (1.8GHz, 512KB L2 cache)
RAM: 1GB (2x Corsair XMS3200 512MB SO-DIMM)
GFX: ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128MB), Omegadriver 2.5.58
HDD: Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7200RPM (8MB cache)
OS: Windows XP Professional SP1, with all the latest drivers/patches

P.S. System has been tweaked for optimal performance.

Benchmark results

HD Tach 3.0.1.0:
Burst speed: 96.6 MB/s
Random access: 14.8 ms
CPU utilization: 2 %
Average read: 31.0 MB/s

PCMark04:
3591

SiSoft Sandra 2004:
CPU Arithmetic: Dhrystone ALU 8530 MIPS, Whetstone FPU/iSSE2 2932/3795 MFLOPS
CPU Multi-Media: Integer 17709 it/s, Floating-Point 19057 it/s
RAM Bandwidth: Int 3148 MB/s, Float 3148 MB/s

ScienceMark 2.0:
Memory Bandwidth: 3038.41 MB/s
Memory Latency: 50.08 ns (512 byte stride)
Molecular Dynamics: 102.24720 s
Primordia: 453.25246 s
Cipher: 14.43664 s, 105.69 MB/s
Blas: Peak MFLOPS 5304.97, FLOPS/cycle 2.86 (single precision)

SuperPI 1.1:
1M: 48 s

Prime95 23.8.1:
Timing 11 iterations at 2048K FFT length: 152.084 ms

RealStorm Benchmark 2004:
2411 Raymarks (Avg. FPS 16.35, Min. FPS 7.42, Max. FPS 31.7)

KribiBench 1.1:
jetshadow (realistic): 5.0356 fps

Pov-Ray 3.6:
chess2.pov: 85.03 s

Aquamark3:
29911 (GFX 3657/CPU 8442)

3DMark01SE:
12916

3DMark03:
3637 (CPU Score 618)

Unreal Tournament 2004:
1024x768 110.42 fps botmatch (dm-rankin: 136.26 fps, as-convoy: 77.71 fps, br-colossus: 117.29 fps)

Conclusion

This machine RULES! :D


NICE benchmarks bro!,....What clock speeds are your gpu clocked too? and where there any artifacting when you benched what was the highest clock you could get before the snow came?

[snorre]

NICE benchmarks bro!,....What clock speeds are your gpu clocked too? and where there any artifacting when you benched what was the highest clock you could get before the snow came?
The GPU was clocked 100% stable at 485/250 core/memory, and this was ofcourse without any artifacts or lockups (the 'snow' appeared at about 490/255 core/memory).

[DigiShaman]

If I install the Omega Drivers, will it automatically detect the default core/memory clock settings that Acer set? Or will it overclock the card without me knowing?

I don't want to overlock the video, but I would like to have updated drivers that fixes a known video issue with Eve Online. Acer seem to be very bad at keeping drivers up to date. Hell, even WiFi drivers are a full year old and is the cause of my Ferrari 3200 to NOT connect to Linksys Super-G router. (yes my router works, and yes I can connect to other WiFi routers at work just fine....and yes I already formatted/reinstalled Windows to be sure of the issue)

[snorre]

If I install the Omega Drivers, will it automatically detect the default core/memory clock settings that Acer set? Or will it overclock the card without me knowing?
No, it will use default core/memory clock settings.

Get the latest driver from here:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati.php

[Sc2ptical]

@Snorre: :eek: That is an outstanding result you got there. :D You must be very pleased with the results. I just got the Ferrari 3200 and just finished with installing the SP2 and later I need to install the omega drivers optimize other stuff. I will post later my results.

Anyone tried btw the Windows XP-64bit beta version? I was wondering how that one runs on this Ferrari.

[Sc2ptical]

OK, I just use one benchmark:

AquaMark 3 = 28,456.

Iinstalled the latest omega drivers. I put the core at 474.75 and the memory 249.75. The config of the PC is standard. Later I will put more benchmark results and some pictures.

[puka]

The GPU was clocked 100% stable at 485/250 core/memory, and this was ofcourse without any artifacts or lockups (the 'snow' appeared at about 490/255 core/memory).


Wow nice job that pretty high! are you going to leave it at that clock? or turn it back down to default?:)

[Bootz]

Apparently a new shipment of Acer Ferrari 3200s finally arrived in America today. Mine is scheduled to pull into the driveway tomorrow, according to the local rep. I won't have time to do much more than unpack it and plug it in for a quick spin before going on vacation, but I'll be following this thread, needless to say. Thanks for all your informative posts!

Bootz

[Bootz]

You should all wait like me! Look below.

Uh, just two questions:

1) How long you gonna have to wait for PCI Express and that other thingie?

2) And what's it gonna cost?

Ferrari now, I sez!

Bootz :cheers:

[thestampede]

It should be out in a notebook in the next few months (2-3), and should only be another couple hundred dollars.

[puka]

It should be out in a notebook in the next few months (2-3), and should only be another couple hundred dollars.



Where is the site that show's the lappy you are waiting on? I want ot see how it looks like! thx :dude:

[thestampede]

well, the exact laptop w/ the specs i want isn't out yet, but this article tells who will be manufacturing them
http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2004/4755.html
and if you go to this site, www.eurocom.com, then go to the future section and check out the bottom one, you can see what to expect in the next few months

[pilot101]

Can you guys recommend me a good quality notebook lock for this laptop? Preferrably a lock that uses a combo. (I got my laptop stolen this spring, and this would be its replacement) Really wanna invest in a good quality lock

[Bootz]

stampede, those are nice press releases! That Eurocom Phantom D900T is sure enough a nice looking machine. But I wager it will cost you upwards of over $3000 and weigh almost ten pounds when it finally ships, which I doubt will be by the middle of September. And it won't be a 64-bit chip when it does ship.

Do you know if the Eurocom Python will ship on August 15th as promised?

Not knocking you or those machines...just saying a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

If I were a complete cynic, I'd say ten pounds, next year, and $3500.

Bootz

[thestampede]

actually, it's 11 lbs. and the eurocom are always overpriced so i never buy from them...especially since they have a horrible dead pixel policy, but i was just showing that there are some models coming in the next few months

[puka]

well, the exact laptop w/ the specs i want isn't out yet, but this article tells who will be manufacturing them
http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2004/4755.html
and if you go to this site, www.eurocom.com, then go to the future section and check out the bottom one, you can see what to expect in the next few months


OHHHHHHH I LIKE thats nice!!! :dude: Yeah dude I'm not getting a lappy till probaly next year ....so I can expect to all the good sh!t that comes out by then! I wonder if they are going to make a 64 with pci express buy the time I buy my lappy.

[audioSTAR]

does eroucom.com ship to the us?

[Bootz]

does eroucom.com ship to the us?

Well, why don't you ask them? Ask them about VAT (Value Added Tax), too.

Their link was posted above.

Bootz

[snorre]

Wow nice job that pretty high! are you going to leave it at that clock? or turn it back down to default?:)
As long as it stays stable I think I might do that, but when running on batteries (that I very seldom do) I will run everything at default.

[snorre]

It should be out in a notebook in the next few months (2-3), and should only be another couple hundred dollars.
I really doubt that will happen so soon, earliest next year for mainstream laptops I think. The ATI X600 also comes in an AGP8X version btw, and you shouldn't expect any noticable performance difference compared to the PCI-Express x16-version either. I also doubt that PCI-Express will outperform AGP on graphics anytime soon, except perhaps for notebooks that will use Intel Extreme Graphics 3 which dosen't use dedicated memory anyway. In comparison graphics solutions from ATI and NVIDIA all got dedicated memory and thus dosen't require the higher bandwidth which the PCI-Express bus may offer. PCI-Express will eventually be better than AGP, but I don't expect that to happen before the end of next year at the earliest. Don't believe all the hype you hear about PCI-Express x16, since AGP8X will do just fine for quite awhile.

And I really don't see the point in delaying a purchase for ever since there will ALWAYS be something better down the road, but as of right now the Acer Ferrari 3200 is by far the best notebook buy imho :cool:

[puka]

I really doubt that will happen so soon, earliest next year for mainstream laptops I think. The ATI X600 also comes in an AGP8X version btw, and you shouldn't expect any noticable performance difference compared to the PCI-Express x16-version either. I also doubt that PCI-Express will outperform AGP on graphics anytime soon, except perhaps for notebooks that will use Intel Extreme Graphics 3 which dosen't use dedicated memory anyway. In comparison graphics solutions from ATI and NVIDIA all got dedicated memory and thus dosen't require the higher bandwidth which the PCI-Express bus may offer. PCI-Express will eventually be better than AGP, but I don't expect that to happen before the end of next year at the earliest. Don't believe all the hype you hear about PCI-Express x16, since AGP8X will do just fine for quite awhile.

And I really don't see the point in delaying a purchase for ever since there will ALWAYS be something better down the road, but as of right now the Acer Ferrari 3200 is by far the best notebook buy imho :cool:


I totaly agree dude.

[Okle]

as do i, but consider the fact that the mobility 9700 will not be able to produce such stellar graphics for much more than a year or two, and unless youve got a dell iXPS, you prolly wont have a chance to upgrade. however, if you wait a couple months for Centrino 2/PCI-E+AXIOM/MXM, you wont only have a better card right from the start, but youll also have the ability to upgrade in years to come. just my $.02, though.

[Bootz]

Got the Ferrari 3200 today. Feels solid, looks great! No, looks great, feels solid!

But I already did something that didn't go right, or not the way I expected it to, anyway, which was to run the Network Setup Wizard. How do I undo this, that is, get back to the state when I first opened the laptop up, before I did anything?

I looked in Help in the Control Panel and found instructions for something called Last Good Setting or some such. Trouble is, those instructions (which involved Shut Down and F8) don't show up in XP Pro on the screen the way they're supposed to.

Also, where's any indicator of the battery status on this puppy? Can't find that either.

Bootz

[puka]

"QUOTE"


But I already did something that didn't go right, or not the way I expected it to, anyway, which was to run the Network Setup Wizard. How do I undo this, that is, get back to the state when I first opened the laptop up, before I did anything?

So you just ran the network setup wizzard? you dont really have to worry about it.

[Bootz]

So you just ran the network setup wizzard? you dont really have to worry about it.

I ran it before I ran my Roadrunner broadband set up, which didn't "take," which is why I want to go back to the system as I found it out of the box -- before I did any software changes at all.

I'm pretty sure there's a way to do it, I just don't know what it is.

Bootz

[puka]

Try to use the system restore! thats under my computer or try running the roadrunner setup again. btw when you ran the RR setup did it give you a error message?

[Bootz]

HOW do you do a System Restore? That's my question! MS "Help" is no help at all.

Again, HOW do you do a System Restore?

Bootz

[Sc2ptical]

To help you with the battery status with an indicator, go to start/control panel and see if you can find "power options". If you don't see this then you need to switch the view on classic. You can find this on the top-left side of the cotrol panel window. Now you see lot of options. Find "power options". When you found it click on the tab "advanced" and then on the op you need to put a tick of the option "Always show icon on hte taskbar". Then press ok and you will see an indicator next to the time or somewhere there. Good luck.

About your other problem, network wizard. How did this happen, just playing with it and now you can not close this wizard? Is it always pop-up when you start windows?

[Bootz]

Thanks! I've got the battery icon on the Task Bar now.

No, the Network Wizard did its thing. My guess is that I didn't have the appropriate information (the Roadrunner set up) in place first.

In other words, I ran the Network Wizard first, when I probably should have done the Roadrunner set up first. With the consequence that the Roadrunner set up now won't complete itself.

That's why I want to do a system restore -- to go back to the original system I got before I ran anything at all.

bootz

[Bootz]

OK, found System Restore. No Restore points exist, so that's not an option.

When I try to install RoadRunner, I get this:

TCP/IP Networking Error

There is one TCP/IP network adapter and one non-TCP/IP network adapter in the system. The TCP/IP adapter is configured for DHCP, but is unable to release/renew an IP address.

Error Code: 112

Anyone got an idea as to what that means? Install won't go forward and I have to exit.

Bootz

[Sc2ptical]

Roadrunner is a software from your ISP?

Let me see, waht can you do. Ok maybe some stupid questions but you never know.

- You are plugged in your network cable for the internet?
- Check if you see unknown hardware or an error in your hardware list
- What you also can try is to use the recovery cd's from acer. This bring back you laptop in his original condition. I use this only when I cannot fix the problem anymore.

[DigiShaman]

You will not need the Road Runner CD if your just using an ethernet connection. But if you plan on using the USB connection from the cable modem to your PC, then yes you will need to install those drivers first from the RR CD.

Basically, all the Road Runner CD does is help automate the setup of e-mail to Outlook Express and sets up the homepage in IE to be the default. But if you like to configure that stuff yourself, you do NOT need the RR CD.

[puka]

You might want to check if your firewall is blocking you from renewing your ip address check to see if you can do a release and renew of your ip and see if you can ping out to any site like google.com .You can do these in the command prompt but thats only if you can't get a ip address.

[Bootz]

DigiShaman, looks like you're right! I'm online and typing from the 3200 now.

Thanks to all who responded!

Keyboard and track pad strike me as great. But talk about a missed opportunity! Acer could have hit a Grand Slam here instead of a mere home run. For example, the mouse is nice, but why in heaven's name wasn't it wireless, given that this is a Bluetooth 'puter?

Also, my "old" Toshiba Satellite 1955-S801 (don't you just love product names?) had not only a wireless mouse, but a pop-out, lift-off wireless keyboard as well. That would have made a great conribution to the 3200, as well. Plus it would have allowed easy access to the top RAM slot.

Guess you can't have everything.

Bootz

[White94Cobra]

Does anyone know how difficult it is to replace both memory sticks? I'm actually getting the 8006 but they seem to be nearly identical chasis-wise. Thanks.

[snorre]

Does anyone know how difficult it is to replace both memory sticks? I'm actually getting the 8006 but they seem to be nearly identical chasis-wise. Thanks.
Bad choice, the Acer Ferrari 3200 is a far better buy on all accounts imho. Anyway, getting to the second ram slot went rather well thanks to this step-by-step guide I found earlier in this thread:

1. remove 4 small screws. there are 2 of each on the back of the hinges
2. on the underside there are 2 screws each marked with a 'K' undo these
3. lay ferrari flat and fully open screen as far back as it will go
4. GENTLY lift the flap (with the on/off buttons) upward and outwards with a flat screwdriver
5. you will now see three screws above the function keys, undo these
6. Carefully slide the keyboard up towards the screen and it'll just pop out
7. you can now see the ram slot

BTW, you can download the Acer Ferrari 3200 Service Guide from here:
http://wesonline.kewlstuff4u.org/Ferrari3200sg.pdf

[White94Cobra]

Thanks Snorre. I was debating between the Ferrari and the 8006, but the better battery life won me over. I currently have a Compal CL56 and am used to at least 3.5-4 hours of battery life. I figure the Dothan 2 GHz is (on average) at least as fast as the Ferrari's 2800+. I had asked about overclocking the Ferrari but no one gave any details. I'm running an 939 FX53 in my desktop BTW, so I'm not Intel biased.

Now I'm worried about the screen... in searching for the memory replacement instructions, I found a lot of posts about how bad the screen is.

[snorre]

Thanks Snorre. I was debating between the Ferrari and the 8006, but the better battery life won me over. I currently have a Compal CL56 and am used to at least 3.5-4 hours of battery life. I figure the Dothan 2 GHz is (on average) at least as fast as the Ferrari's 2800+. I had asked about overclocking the Ferrari but no one gave any details. I'm running an 939 FX53 in my desktop BTW, so I'm not Intel biased.
Battery life is a non-issue for me, since I use the laptop on AC power 99% of the time. Anyways, I have no problems getting 3 hours battery time on the Acer Ferrari 3200 and that will do just fine for me. It's no problem overclocking the GPU on the Acer Ferrari 3200 with Powerstrip (http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm), the CPU with ClockGen (http://www.cpuid.org/clockgen.php) (CG-ICS950405) and the memory with A64tweaker (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?postid=483581#post483581). Check out my post for some more benchmark results:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=335318#post335318

BTW, Dothan minimum power levels are higher than the Banias minimums (6.5W vs. 8W). I think the Banias actually have better battery life because of this; in low power modes it uses less power than the Dothan in low power modes.

Now I'm worried about the screen... in searching for the memory replacement instructions, I found a lot of posts about how bad the screen is.
Nothing to worry about, I'm very pleased with it :)

[White94Cobra]

Is 206 HTT the best it will go? That's what, a 54 MHz o/c? Or is the multiplier unlocked as well?

[snorre]

Is 206 HTT the best it will go? That's what, a 54 MHz o/c? Or is the multiplier unlocked as well?
Not at all, I know about someone who easily got it to 220 HTT (180 MHz O/C) and stable too. The multiplier is unlocked below 9.0, and locked above this. My benchmark results only represents a rather modest O/C (and still beating the 8006 hands down), and no extreme stuff if you catch my drift :)

[Okle]

damn cobra you must have a lot of cash to burn.... those A64-FX's are expensive as hell, wish they would show up in lappys though, now that would be awesome! :headbang: can't wait until s939 lappys come along now....:cheers:

[White94Cobra]

Actually I sold my "old" P4 2.8@3.5 water-cooled system. I was tired of the wc mess. Now I'm just as fast (if not faster) and nearly dead silent. I must say though, the P4 with HT did give a smoother overall system feel. But the FX screams in games and benchmarks.

[DigiShaman]

If you plan on multi-tasking a lot, stay with a P4 HT. It's nice to leave the Windows shell (explorer.exe) with some breathing room thanks to XPs processor affinity management when using a dual processor or HT system (thread priority helps, but isn't a final solution for multi-tasking). For example, I RIP and encode a lot of MP3s and DVDs into DIVX. I also work with Adobe Premiere for music video production. So obviously a CPU that supports HT is best for me. Though if I could afford it, I would go "balls out" for a true dual CPU rig.

On the other hand, if you only plan on playing games and such and demand the fastest available, then the FX chip is the way to go.

[agentsim]

I dunno why people buy the FX chip.
At my local computer store, I can build a Dual Operton 1.6GHZ with mobo for less than I can buy a SINGLE FX chip!!!

[White94Cobra]

And everyone knows that a dual CPU system is twice as fast, right. So it's like running at 3.2 GHz. Much faster than my FX chip. I feel so bad now, my games would run much faster at 3.2 GHz. :lol:

[Okle]

pity that very few real-world (as in not content creation, media encoding etc.) can even utilize a dualie setup. nice try though. :lol:

[agentsim]

I'm not trying to say it would be stunningly faster... just that the FX series is phenominally overpriced.

[White94Cobra]

True, it is overpriced. But if you want the best and have the cash to pay for it, why not.

[Okle]

ok, so it commands a ~$120 premium over the A64 3700/3800 for a slight improvement in terms of the overclockability (and i think it has 4 ht links or something, not completely sure tho), but remember that it was based upon the same core as your opteron 242's until recently. and how can you say anything about overpricing without mentioning the p4ee? that my friend redefines overpriced. $900 (~650 price premium) for a 3.2ghz CPU with 4x the cache and ~10-15% more performance? HELL NO!

[agentsim]

Intel are insane... I agree, but still I think enthusiasts must have way too much money to be buying either of those two chips.

[DigiShaman]

This is capitolism at its finest. The CPUs (or any product) are priced based on demand and availibility. Basically, they are priced for what they can be sold for. Which is fine by me, because that means the price will drop if Intel can ramp up the production count to keep up with the damand...thus getting more profit. It's a win-win for everyone.

Personally, I can't justify the price for a P4 EE chip. But hey, if you can afford it and want the chip then by all means go for it. I'm of the opinion that it's your money and only you can make the decision on how and what to spend it on. :cheers:

[LoveMeDo]

OK, allthough in a little fear of insulting people:

DOESNT ANYONE FIND THIS TO BE THE UGLIEST NOTEBOK - EVER ?

I wouldnt dare to bring a glaring red notebook like that to work, or even out in public. "REDNECK" really gets a new meaning when looking at a lappy like that (and its owner?).

I also couldnt resist:
Battery life is a non-issue for me, since I use the laptop on AC power 99% of the time.

- DUH ! Im kinda eager to know what the point in buying laptop is then ? And, stupid me might be ignorant in believing that batterilife is 1 of the major ..3 issues when buying a laptop

- Wasnt it u snorre who went all bananas cause another guy on this forum was so "lame" to post OCd benchies in his sig? (i may be wrong here /hides)

- And calling ure own OC for moderate, when its close to 20% is ........well

- Well, u cant really argue taste i guess, i just had to get it off my chest.

/hug

[DigiShaman]

OK, allthough in a little fear of insulting people:

DOESNT ANYONE FIND THIS TO BE THE UGLIEST NOTEBOK - EVER ?

I wouldnt dare to bring a glaring red notebook like that to work, or even out in public. "REDNECK" really gets a new meaning when looking at a lappy like that (and its owner?).

I also couldnt resist:


- DUH ! Im kinda eager to know what the point in buying laptop is then ? And, stupid me might be ignorant in believing that batterilife is 1 of the major ..3 issues when buying a laptop

- Wasnt it u snorre who went all bananas cause another guy on this forum was so "lame" to post OCd benchies in his sig? (i may be wrong here /hides)

- And calling ure own OC for moderate, when its close to 20% is ........well

- Well, u cant really argue taste i guess, i just had to get it off my chest.

/hug

WOW, that was the finest trolling I've ever seen. :lol: Now if I may speak for the rest of us... :moon: :moon: :moon: to you too

[DragonFlame]

*agrees with DigiShaman*

[puka]

*also agres with digishaman* LMAO well said!!!!!!!....but it's an oppion

[Sc2ptical]

LOL... I could not say it better DigiShaman. :cheers:

[Okle]

Congratualtions DigiShaman for an incredibly insightful post. Couldn't have said it better. :cheers:
DUH ! Im kinda eager to know what the point in buying laptop is then ? And, stupid me might be ignorant in believing that batterilife is 1 of the major ..3 issues when buying a laptop
well gee, i don't know, maybe they want to take their computer around with them smartass! if it's such a big deal, explain then why people buy Pentium 4 lappys and other such desktop replacements. and dare i ask what then other 2 reasons are? not looking like a redneck with the "UGLIEST NOTEBOOK EVER!" must be one of them.... :moon:

[silverdragun]

Hello! I just want to know if Ferrari 3200's wireless network card supports 802.11b wireless before buying D-Link DI-714P+ wireless router.

Thanks for your time

[greenlizzard]

It supports both b and g.

[Okle]

and bluetooth :dude:, but that doesn't pertain to your router. :D

[silverdragun]

Hi
The top left corner of the Ferrari 3200 keyboard (e.g, Esc, `,1, F1) seems louder than the other parts of the keyboard, is anyone experiencing the same thing as me?

[DigiShaman]

Hi
The top left corner of the Ferrari 3200 keyboard (e.g, Esc, `,1, F1) seems louder than the other parts of the keyboard, is anyone experiencing the same thing as me?

It's called a fan :stupid: :D

Joking aside, the fan will be rather loud if alwas have the CPU running at 100% usage. Check the task manager. Also, it fan will be on when playing games.

[silverdragun]

sry i meant the sound when you are pressing the keys on the keyboard

[Okle]

lol digishaman, the top left corner of my external keyboard is kinda loud too, does it have a fan too? lmao :lol: seriously, it could be that the material or lack thereof under that part of the keyboard may be different, so the keyboard could possibly sound a bit louder. i notice this kind of thing happening on external keyboards as well, though it's usually on larger keys like the backspace or space bar. it shouldnt be a problem, so long as it's not accompanied by keyboard flexing. :D

[snorre]

OK, allthough in a little fear of insulting people:
DOESNT ANYONE FIND THIS TO BE THE UGLIEST NOTEBOK - EVER ?
No way, the Ferrari 3200 is visually a true feast for the eyes :love:

http://www.dinside.no/km_bilde/9/131209.jpghttp://www.dinside.no/km_bilde/0/131200.jpg

I wouldnt dare to bring a glaring red notebook like that to work, or even out in public. "REDNECK" really gets a new meaning when looking at a lappy like that (and its owner?).
The only redneck here must be yourself :saywhat:

However, it seems rather obvious that you're quite envyous about its shiny classic Ferrari red color and good looks. It's supposed to distinguish itself from all those grey and boring notebooks out there you know :dude:

- DUH ! Im kinda eager to know what the point in buying laptop is then ? And, stupid me might be ignorant in believing that batterilife is 1 of the major ..3 issues when buying a laptop
Perhaps battery life is very important to you, but for me its a non-issue as I'm on A/C power 99% of the time anyways. I just need a powerful system I easily can take to and from work, and this beauty is very powerful indeed but still got a pretty decent battery life for the 1% of the time I'm on the road. Why should I waste more money on a system with only slightly better battery life if I'd never use it anyways? No, the Acer Ferrari 3200 certainly represents an excellent compromise of features and is a damn good buy I think.

- Wasnt it u snorre who went all bananas cause another guy on this forum was so "lame" to post OCd benchies in his sig? (i may be wrong here /hides)
Far from it, I was merely pointing out the major flaws in the benchmark methods used in many of the reviews in these forums. A couple of benches is by far enough to describe the overall performance of a system, contrary to what a few people still believes :cool:

- And calling ure own OC for moderate, when its close to 20% is ........well
Actually, 480/250 only represents a 6%/19% O/C while 206 HTT accounts for only a 3% O/C. In comparison with other systems this thus represents a quite moderate O/C and I also know that this baby can be pushed much further performance wise :headbang:

- Well, u cant really argue taste i guess, i just had to get it off my chest.
Yeah, Filla, you surely got your bad taste off your chest :D

[LoveMeDo]

Original setup / what u get for the price:

80 GB 4200 RPM
512 333 DDR RAM
M11 at 445 core / 209 MEM
3DMark 01 - 10898
3DMark 03 - 3028
Aquamark 3 - 26182
Batterilife: 2,5 hours (Toms hardware guide)

SNorrehs setup
60 GB 7200 RPM
1 GB Corsair 400 DDR RAM
M11 at 485 / 250 , CPU OCd to 206 (2060 GHZ ?)
3DMark 01 - 12916 (10698 orig)
3DMark 03 . 3637 (3028 orig)
Aquamark 3 29911 (26182 orig)
Batterilife: About the only thing he didnt test it seems, he says ca. 3 hours (which is the first time i see that overcloking ADDs batteri life)



Is there a point ?
I have no problem seeing that Snorreh got some fantastic benchies / scores out of his laptop. Totally swithching ut RAM (1 GB Corsair 400 RAM = $$$$), brand new 7200 RPM HD (200 $?), 19% OC on the M11 MEM brought the OK scores on the Ferrari to magnificent ones. the UPPGRADES and OVERCLOCKING he did is what made these great scores. For the vast majority of the buyers that ends up with the 3200, they dont even comes NEAR this score. This is a Ferrari 3200 ala Snorreh (a Snoreeh 3200 ?).

Now, im not sour or jealous. I can all honestly say that for the $$ he has spend, i would rather buy a IBM T41P (thats just me). Ill even say it again SNORREH GOT A VERY FAST LAPTOP !!!!! And my comments of the look / colour got exactly the responses i expected. I only wish that when people after reading his review / sig, buys a 3200, they wont be to disapointed and leftout, when they turn on a laptop that is almost 20% slower than the one they got so amazed over at www.notebookforums.com

/hug snorreh (det er en kjempelaptop du har)

[DigiShaman]

Actually, the newer 7200RPM drives use less power then the 4200RPM. So ya, Snorre battery life might increased.

[DragonFlame]

Who buys a laptop just 'cause it's on some guys signature?

Also, you can sell the original parts and a load of the money back...

[Okle]

just because it's in someone's signature? well let's see, how many people have bought 8790/5690/Area-51m's just based on those people with them in their sigs' reviews of their wonderful lappys? lol dont mean to be rude or anything but if a lot of people start buying one kind of lappy and give it rave reviews, that prolly means that its pretty good right? lol ;)

[DigiShaman]

Okle, your handle icon is funny. But the more and more I look at it. Well....it's rather disturbing. I mean, that's really creepy looking seeing to bananas banging eachother. :uhoh:

[snorre]

Okle, your handle icon is funny. But the more and more I look at it. Well....it's rather disturbing. I mean, that's really creepy looking seeing to bananas banging eachother. :uhoh:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/images/smilies/smileysex.gif

[snorre]

Batterilife: About the only thing he didnt test it seems, he says ca. 3 hours (which is the first time i see that overcloking ADDs batteri life)
Firstly I'm not done testing the battery time on my Acer Ferrari 3200 yet (testing battery life takes a lot of time!), secondly I don't use any proprietary battery benchmark tools that's not freely available like THG did (I find this pretty lame too). For general usage with everything back to defaults I have no problems getting 3 hours battery life on this baby, that's the only thing I can say for sure so far.

It may also seem like the Hitachi Travelstar's adaptive battery life extender (A.B.L.E.) helps lower the energy use slightly on average, but I'm not 100% sure about this.

Is there a point ?
I have no problem seeing that Snorreh got some fantastic benchies / scores out of his laptop. Totally swithching ut RAM (1 GB Corsair 400 RAM = $$$$), brand new 7200 RPM HD (200 $?), 19% OC on the M11 MEM brought the OK scores on the Ferrari to magnificent ones. the UPPGRADES and OVERCLOCKING he did is what made these great scores. For the vast majority of the buyers that ends up with the 3200, they dont even comes NEAR this score. This is a Ferrari 3200 ala Snorreh (a Snoreeh 3200 ?).
Not really, I'm pretty sure everyone can get some great results with the stock memory as well costing them 0 dollars.

It's really simple, just download A64tweaker (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?postid=483581#post483581), run it and set MEMCLK Frequency to 200 while also upping RAS to CAS Delay (Trcd) a notch. (P.S. This tweak applies to all Athlon 64 notebooks I think.)

To verify that your memory really runs at DDR400 speeds, just download and run CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php).

Now, im not sour or jealous. I can all honestly say that for the $$ he has spend, i would rather buy a IBM T41P (thats just me).
Don't be ridiculous, the IBM Thinkpad T41P costs almost 50% more than the grand total I've put into the Acer Ferrari 3200. First you claim it's ugly, now you claim it's too expensive, I wonder what's next? :uhoh:

I only wish that when people after reading his review / sig, buys a 3200, they wont be to disapointed and leftout, when they turn on a laptop that is almost 20% slower than the one they got so amazed over at www.notebookforums.com
Where did you come up with that number? On average I find my Acer Ferrari 3200 to be just a couple of percent faster than the stock Acer Ferrari 3200.

It's pretty straight forward for anyone to enable the "Always On" power scheme and tweak/overclock the GPU with Powerstrip (http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm), the CPU with ClockGen (http://www.cpuid.org/clockgen.php) (CG-ICS950405) and the memory with A64tweaker (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?postid=483581#post483581).

Anyways, I'm really confident that everyone that buys the Acer Ferrari 3200 will be pretty pleased with its performance no matter what :dude:

/hug snorreh (det er en kjempelaptop du har)
Takk :)

[thestampede]

:dude: right on snorre :dude:

[puka]

Can't wait till I get my ferrari!!!!!! or maybe that aw aurora...depends how much it cost.

[agentsim]

I wonder if the Aurora is going to be offered through powernotebooks or discountlaptops...

[snorre]

I've now also done some comprehensive benchmarking of the battery life of this beauty.

Setup

Laptop: Acer Ferrari 3200
CPU: AMD low-power Mobile Athlon 64 2800+ (1.8GHz, 512KB L2 cache)
RAM: 1GB DDR400 (2x Corsair XMS3200 (2.5-3-3-6) 512MB SO-DIMMs)
GFX: ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128MB, AGP8X, FW/SB=On)
HDD: Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7200RPM (8MB cache)
O/S: MS Windows XP Professional SP1 (NTFS), Omega Drivers 2.5.58

P.S. The system has been tweaked for optimal battery.

Benchmark results
Normal use (1):
3 hours and 11 minutes

Watching DVD's (2):
2 hours and 42 minutes

Playing games (3):
2 hours and 31 minutes
Notes
1. Web, email, instant messenger, office, image editing, music, video clips, system management, etc.
2. The Lord of the Rings (78% completed) with Windows Media Player 9 (PowerDVD 5 audio/video codecs) & DVDIdle 5.12 (caching).
3. Far Cry at 1024x768x32 resolution with default settings.

Conclusion

The maximum battery capacity is 66778 mWh, and with proper conditioning I got a maximum battery life of 3 hours and 26 minutes with light work and no internet/music. The difference between battery life of the stock Acer Ferrari 3200 and mine only accounts for +/- 5 minutes. All in all, I think that this laptop system indeed has a pretty decent battery life by any means :)

[Okle]

wow that's good! 2:42 with a dvd on battery? wtf are you doing with the system to make it last so long? and 2:30 gaming? DAMN! thats some amazing battery conditioning you've done there!

[snorre]

wow that's good! 2:42 with a dvd on battery? wtf are you doing with the system to make it last so long?
That's easy, I'm using DVDIdle (http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-idle.htm) to cache the DVD movie into memory and thus keeping the DVD player idle most of the time :)

and 2:30 gaming? DAMN! thats some amazing battery conditioning you've done there!
Running pretty smooth too I might add :dude:

[Okle]

That's easy, I'm using DVDIdle to cache the DVD movie into memory and thus keeping the DVD player idle most of the time
CHEATER!!!!!!!!! lmao, j/k! :lol:

[Sc2ptical]

Firstly I'm not done testing the battery time on my Acer Ferrari 3200 yet (testing battery life takes a lot of time!), secondly I don't use any propietary battery benchmark tools that's not freely available like THG did (I find this pretty lame too). For general usage with everything back to defaults I have no problems getting 3 hours battery life on this baby, that's the only thing I can say for sure so far.

........


Good comment Snorre, I'm very pleased how you answer all the questions and give good explanations about this great lappie. I'm quite impressed about your tweaked ferrari. I surely going to try the tweak programs you posted here, thanks Snorre. :cheers:

CHEATER!!!!!!!!! lmao, j/k! :lol:

:lol: LOL :lol:

[puka]

Ok guyz I have a question, What gpu clock settings can you have OC'ed to on all the time?...so in other words how high can you OC to and leave it at? just curious if not is there a way to have OC settings go on automatic when you launch a game?

[snorre]

Ok guyz I have a question, What gpu clock settings can you have OC'ed to on all the time?...so in other words how high can you OC to and leave it at?
Although its completely stable at 485/250, I wouldn't recommend O/C it that high all the time to risk any overheating. For instance, 465/235 should be pretty safe I'd think.

just curious if not is there a way to have OC settings go on automatic when you launch a game?
Not that I know of, but you can create different performance profiles with PowerStrip that you easily can switch between using the taskbar icon like I do (performance on demand) :)

[Bootz]

This is totally anecdotal evidence, so take it for what it's worth. We just switched out an Airport Extreme base station with a Dr. Bott antenna attached with a Linksys 2-antenna version in an effort to extend our coverage. The Linksys is a WG54 or something like that.

We have the following computers on the network. An Apple PB, two Dells, two Compaqs, and my Ferrari 3200. Two of the Compaqs and one of the Dells are using card plug-in antennas.

The Ferrari 3200 smokes the "competition." It's able to maintain a connection at almost twice the range of the other computers.

Just something else to consider for anyone looking at the Ferrari.

Bootz

[billsfootball02]

I have not upgraded my ferrari at all, yet I've been able to come close to replicating all of snorre's benchmarks through ocing the memory, gpu, and processor. However, I cant even come close to replicating snorre's 8530 mips in sisoft sandra, even though i can exceed his mflops. Snorre, do you know of any reason that could be? Your other advice has really helped, especially a64tweaker, which speeds up my ram considerably (although it does limit how far I can oc the processor). Right now im stuck at around 7900 mips, with whetstone scores of around 3000/3800 mflops.

[snorre]

I have not upgraded my ferrari at all, yet I've been able to come close to replicating all of snorre's benchmarks through ocing the memory, gpu, and processor. However, I cant even come close to replicating snorre's 8530 mips in sisoft sandra, even though i can exceed his mflops. Snorre, do you know of any reason that could be? Your other advice has really helped, especially a64tweaker, which speeds up my ram considerably (although it does limit how far I can oc the processor). Right now im stuck at around 7900 mips, with whetstone scores of around 3000/3800 mflops.
Glad I can help, I knew this baby could be pushed much further :)

You use SiSoft Sandra 2004 SP2 right? I've discussed this issue with another Ferrari 3200 user and he had the same problem as you and he fixed it by reinstalling Windows. I've completely reinstalled the system from scratch using the original Windows XP Pro SP1 CD (not the Acer XP CD's included with the laptop). See this:
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=19502&st=0&#entry159782

He actually managed to get 9032 MIPS doing so, far better than what I've achieved :cool:

[puka]

Although its completely stable at 485/250, I wouldn't recommend O/C it that high all the time to risk any overheating. For instance, 465/235 should be pretty safe I'd think.


Not that I know of, but you can create different performance profiles with PowerStrip that you easily can switch between using the taskbar icon like I do (performance on demand) :)


Thanks bro :cheers: Thats pretty much what I thought since lappys don't have desktop cooling solution's oh I want the ferrari so bad aaahhhhhhhh lol

[agentsim]

anyone know where I can buy a Ferrari and have it upgraded and have the store "buy back" my old parts.... in other words, I can customize the machine, at least the RAM and the HD?

[Okle]

well, you could just ebay the old parts....but then say goodbye to shipping it back to the manufacturer for warranty repairs. small tradeoff, IMO. :)

[KhAnbUTO]

i have a problem on my power options on windows xp. when i tried to select max battery options (using battery only), instead of lesser power usage, it apears 1.8ghz on a system properties, and on AMD PowerNow! Dashboard. but when i use "Always On" it only apears 1.59 GHz it seems kind of weird though. my "Always On" uses less resources compare to my "Max Battery Options". have u guys encountered that problem??. does it has any software to control power options?? like on IBM It has Battery Optimizer.

[DigiShaman]

What is this "Dashboard" I keep hearing about? I installed the PowerNow! utility from AMD and I didn't get a dashboard installed. :scratch: Just a custom Power Option theme that the driver installs to maximize battery life.

[skyc280]

What is this "Dashboard" I keep hearing about? I installed the PowerNow! utility from AMD and I didn't get a dashboard installed. :scratch: Just a custom Power Option theme that the driver installs to maximize battery life.

dashboard is a monitor that monitors that power usage and output of your cpu, it only monitor but does nothing else
u can download it from amd website

why did u need to download the power now utility from amd? i thought it is with the system already?....can you direct me to that information webpage, because if that scheme can further increase my battery life i would be all for it...
thanks

[monologuist]

does anyone know whether the firewire port on the Acer Ferrari 3200 is a mini 4-pin or a regular 6 pin?

also, does anyone know how big and heavy the ac adaptor that comes with it is?

Thanks!
Monologuist

[Sc2ptical]

does anyone know whether the firewire port on the Acer Ferrari 3200 is a mini 4-pin or a regular 6 pin?

also, does anyone know how big and heavy the ac adaptor that comes with it is?

Thanks!
Monologuist
The Ferrari 3200 comes with one 4-pin firewire so it will not power you firewire devices.

The adapter of the lappie is norma to me, the size I mean. I don't know the exact size but it is certainly not big.

Glad I can help, I knew this baby could be pushed much further :)

You use SiSoft Sandra 2004 SP2 right? I've discussed this issue with another Ferrari 3200 user and he had the same problem as you and he fixed it by reinstalling Windows. I've completely reinstalled the system from scratch using the original Windows XP Pro SP1 CD (not the Acer XP CD's included with the laptop). See this:
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=19502&st=0&#entry159782

He actually managed to get 9032 MIPS doing so, far better than what I've achieved :cool:

Is this with the original HDD, 80gig 4200rpm?

[snorre]

Is this with the original HDD, 80gig 4200rpm?
I don't know, but I can't imagine that the HDD used should influence the SiSoft Sandra 2004 SP2 CPU Arithmetic Benchmark scores in any way.

[monologuist]

Thanks for the info on the firewire...
Does anyone know what the best RAM is for the Ferrari 3200, and recommend a brand and model for 512 mb?

Also, I'm going to be doing digital audio/electronic music production on this thing, so I need a 7200 rpm hard drive...is the Hitachi 60gb the only choice?
Thanks!
Monologuist

[Okle]

well, i would recommend ddr400 since that is the maximum that the processor supports. as for a manufacturer, anything is fine but corsair and kingston stand out in my mind. for a hard drive, the hitachi is very very good, but if you want a little more space, try the 5k80 (5400rpm 80 gb). the speed difference isnt gigantic, and the 5k80 might actually be slightly better than it sounds because of how tightly the data is clustered together on such a physically (dimensions-wise) small HD. thats what im getting anyway. :D

[silverdragun]

Hi! I just want to ask how to turn off the auto-dim feature when you are on battery (AC not plugged in)?

Thx

[snorre]

Thanks for the info on the firewire...
Does anyone know what the best RAM is for the Ferrari 3200, and recommend a brand and model for 512 mb?
I recommend upgrading to 1GB PC3200 memory (DDR400) like I did, using two Corsair XMS3200 512MB CL2.5 SO-DIMM sticks (part no.
CMXSD512-3200LL):
http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/specs/cmxsd512-3200ll.pdf

Also, I'm going to be doing digital audio/electronic music production on this thing, so I need a 7200 rpm hard drive...is the Hitachi 60gb the only choice?
There is also the Toshiba MK5024GAY 50GB 7200 RPM hard drive, but it's kinda hard to find:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/to507229ladr.html

Seagate has announced the Momentus 7200.1 7200RPM hard drive series with up to 100GB capacity that will be available sometime this fall:
http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,1121,2169,00.html

[snorre]

Hi! I just want to ask how to turn off the auto-dim feature when you are on battery (AC not plugged in)?
LCD Auto Dim can be disabled in the BIOS Main menu.

[Sc2ptical]

I don't know, but I can't imagine that the HDD used should influence the SiSoft Sandra 2004 SP2 CPU Arithmetic Benchmark scores in any way.
Uhhm, never mind about this comment, I was not really awake when I asked this question. I think I'm going to bang my head against the wall. :$

[monologuist]

So I can get 1 stick of 1 gb Kingmax ddr400 ram for 305$ at newegg.com

or I could get the aforementioned 2x512 mb of Corsair xms ddr-400 for about 280$ at 3 different places...(this ram seems difficult to locate in the U.S.! anyone know why?)

would it make more sense to get the 1 gb for only 20$ more and have room for another 1 gb later?

or should I go for the high performance Corsair RAM at 2x512?

I've never heard anything on Kingmax RAM to be honest...I'm also wondering whether performance of 1 gb is any different than 2x512 mb.

thanks,
monologuist

[snorre]

monologuist: I'm not familiar with the Kingmax memory either, but the CAS Latency of their 1GB stick is not disclosed (I can't even find it on their homepage, only on Newegg.com, and that's a bit strange right?).

I'm a sucker for Corsair memory because of high compatibility and performance, but they don't have any 1GB sticks yet though. To locate a Corsair dealer in the U.S. then see this:
http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/xms_order.html

The price on those Kingmax sticks seems very reasonable to me for such big sticks, and if compatible and really are DDR400 SO-DIMM with good latency numbers they're probably the best choice for this laptop today.

[Ferrari3200]

I finally got my new 3200 yesterday. This one hasn't froze yet, so hopefully it's a keeper. I have to say Acer is the cheapest company on Earth. When I got my new unit, they wouldn't give me the battery from the defective unit, the additional power supply or carrying case from the new unit, or even the velvet sleeve or cleaning cloth. They even wanted to give me the old battery instead of the battery from the new unit. I didn't let that happen though. Hmm, they were unable to solve my problems with the old unit twice, they also missed to promised deadlines, and they wouldn't even let me have the supplies that came with my new unit. Massive thumbs down to Acer's service. Hopefully I'll never need it again, and I surely will never buy another Acer product again. It's a shame their service is so poor, they make some nice notebooks IMO. Oh well, I'll still have Compal, Mitac, Asus, Fujitsu and others to choose from nex time. :)

Oh, a humorous note. Next to the XP sticker on my 3200 there is a sticker saying Acer will service the unit within 58 minutes of arrival at the sevice center. 10 days normal time must be 58 minutes in their time. What a crock of shart. :lol:

[daryldoo]

hi i just got the computer also, so far so good, eveyrthing is fine except the heat from my left palm, one thing i noticed tho, when i set it to resolution 1400x1050 everything seems so sharp, but then icons and letters are a bit too small for me, but when i turn it to resolution 1024x768, everything seem to be blurer , is it only me? or it is a common problem? what kind of resolution do u guys set it to?

any solution to make the left palm not as hot?

[snorre]

hi i just got the computer also, so far so good, eveyrthing is fine except the heat from my left palm, one thing i noticed tho, when i set it to resolution 1400x1050 everything seems so sharp, but then icons and letters are a bit too small for me, but when i turn it to resolution 1024x768, everything seem to be blurer , is it only me? or it is a common problem? what kind of resolution do u guys set it to?
I don't have this problem and I run at 1400x1050. You should check your settings under Display Properties->Appearance. If the letters are too small you should select Font size->Large Fonts, and if the icons are too small you should select Effects->Use large icons. If everything seems to be blurer when you lower the resolution to 1024x768, you should uncheck Effects->Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts (ClearType/Standard).

any solution to make the left palm not as hot?
Perhaps replace the harddrive with one that runs cooler? This issue applies to most Acer notebooks though.

[Ferrari3200]

I suggest disabling all font smoothing options regardless of your resolution. They are all "broken" and give a slight blue cast to bold black letters.

Many have reported that their 7200 rpm drives don't get as hot.

[mrampz0r]

Hello

Just a thew genearl questions I'd like to ask. One is the warranty on this product regarding dead pixels and general hardware warranty is my primarly concern and in terms of the "qualitly" of how everything is put together with the laptop I guess in my primary concern. Also would any one know how much the Ferrari would be priced in USD as cheap as possible, also if you can in AED(dirhram) Thanks... That excludes extra battery and leather case...

[daryldoo]

oh btw...how do i turn on the fan 24/7? i don't want it to stop, orelse i will have to DIY a big one for it lol

[DanW]

The reason the video seems blury at 1024x768 but not at 1400x1050, is that 1400x1050 is the native resolution of the display. 1024x768 requires the displays electronics to scale the video to 1400x1050 before it displays it. This is what is causing the bluriness.

If you set the video to 1400x1050, you can then set the DPI for your monitor in the video driver. This should scale the text to appropriate sizes for your display. This is done at Adjust Display Properties->Settings->Advanced.

DanW

[snorre]

Since I've received so many questions about how to upgrade the memory and hard disk on the Acer Ferrari 3200/3400, I've put together this step-by-step hardware upgrade guide that I hope you all will find helpful.

A. Memory upgrade

I. Upgrading the first memory slot located at the base (see also p. 48-49 in the printed User's Guide):

1. Remove the two screws holding the memory cover on the bottom panel
2. Remove the memory cover
3. Pop out the memory module then remove it
4. Replace the memory module and reassemble everything

II. Upgrading the second memory slot located under the keyboard:

1. Remove the four screws that secure the middle cover (the one with the power & launch keys); two on each of the hinges on the back of the LCD screen
2. Remove the two screws marked with a 'K' on the bottom panel
3. Open the LCD screen as far back as it will go
4. Gently detach the middle cover upward and outwards with the assistance of a plastic flat head screw driver
5. Remove the three screws that secure the keyboard
6. Slide out the keyboard towards the LCD screen
7. Pop out the memory module then remove it
8. Replace the memory module and reassemble everything

B. Hard disk upgrade

1. Remove the two screws holding the HDD cover (the one with the audio ports) on the bottom panel
2. Remove the HDD cover
3. Remove the HDD module
4. Remove the four screws holding the HDD bracket; two on each side
5. Take out the HDD from the HDD bracket
6. Replace the HDD and reassemble everything

For more information, see your Acer Ferrari 3200/3400 User's Guide or the Service Guide that can be found here:
http://bertrand.ep.free.fr/Ferrari3200sg.pdf

Disclaimer

Use this guide completely at your own risk. I will not take any responsibility for the possible consequences or damage to your hardware. While it is strongly recommended that you only have an Acer Authorized Service Provider crack it open and install memory and hard drive, it will NOT void your warranty if you do it yourself. As is standard operating procedure, however, anything you break while attempting anything on your own is not Acer’s responsibility and will not be covered under warranty. I think that is pretty much common sense.

[Cervantes]

Anyone tried out bluetooth or the wireless lan on the laptop.
I am not sure how those work. (Newb)
Would I be able to connect to the internet using AOL broadband with my laptop. Once connected to the desktop and how far would it be to work??

[snorre]

Anyone tried out bluetooth or the wireless lan on the laptop.
I am not sure how those work. (Newb)
Yes, they both work fine right out of the box. See also Bootz's post for more details:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=350892#post350892

[Sc2ptical]

Anyone tried out bluetooth or the wireless lan on the laptop.
I am not sure how those work. (Newb)
Would I be able to connect to the internet using AOL broadband with my laptop. Once connected to the desktop and how far would it be to work??
They work both great. I have at home also a wireless network and I have no problem at all. I must also tell you that I installed SP2(not the final one) for XP and the configuration for the wifi is much better, great job from M$. Although why not sooner with this. Bluetooth works also much better with SP2 but be aware that your bluetooth software that is inlcuded with the acer F3200 is not working anymore. :scratch: I did not look yet how to disable the M$ bluetooth and use the software that comes along with the acer lappie but it is working good. I'm using the phone from SE, the T630 and tested with my lappie, no problem.

[jaybit]

Hello peoples, i am very very new to this site and i just starting to get use to these boards. I still dont know how to post my own thread (if i evne can). I was just wondering what ODM is making the Acer 3200. I know that acer laptops are affiliated with Winstron and also Compal but im not sure who started building the recently new 3200s. If i sound stupid posting this i apologize my knowledge for laptops and pcs overall is a shade above 0(sigh).

[Bootz]

Kee-rap! Picked up something off the Internet. It involves two sounds, one a kind of reverberating or echoing poing, followed a few seconds later by a quick swishing or swooshing sound. Neither very loud, just annoying.

Anyone got a clue as to how disable or remove same?

Ran Spybot and it shows 5 examples of a DSO exploit, but then shows it as being removed.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Bootz

[monologuist]

Does anyone know whether ebuyer.com, niceelectornics.com, or datavisioncomputer.com, are worth doing business with to buy an Acer Ferrari? they seem to have the 3 best prices on the internet, but I'm not sure about buying from a smaller vendor like that.....any experiences, 1st or 2nd hand would be appreciated.
thanks,
monologuist

[SilentHill]

Does anyone know the exact numbers of 3200s produced? I know that there is a new ferrari digital camera with a limited run of 10000 and this is under a similar licensing agreement as the 3200.