Acer Ferrari 3200 review (just a few pics/couple benches) - Page 44

Yes, you could do that or this:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;307881

Just use the "Max Battery" power scheme and all will be fine.

See here:
http://csd.acer.com.tw/SI/Download2....0?OpenDocument
http://csd.acer.com.tw/SI/Download2....d?OpenDocument
http://notebookforums.com/showthread...768#post403768

Here is an additional link to original drivers

http://support.acerpanam.com/synapse...d=3394#results

Select Product Line -> Notebooks and Ferrari 3200 and do the search.

Ok, I have had my Ferrari 3200 for a few weeks now and loving it. But its about time to give it several upgrades. I'm still waiting for Seagate to release their 100gb 7200 rpm HD before I upgrade my HD but now I'm in a delimma with upgrading my ram.

Which is better 1gb (2 512mb) of Corsair XMS DDR 400 or 1gb (single stick) of Kingmax DDR 333 plus a stock 256mb of ram?

It'll be awhile before I can upgrade to 2gb so just assume that I'm not going to.

Thanks in advance

1GB Corsair XMS DDR 400 is much better than 1.25 DDR 333 because DDR 400 increase the memory bandwidth which is better for gaming.

Why do u use DDR @ 400 MHz when in service manual a 333 MHz value is given? Do you really utlizie the 400 MHz?

Yes, the Acer Ferrari 3200/3400 can utilize PC3200 memory at DDR400 speeds.

How?

By switching it through A64Tweaker from 166Mhz to 200Mhz??

I'm probably going to read this thread in its entirety and some of these questions may have been answered in this thread, but if it's not too much trouble:

Is heat a big issue, and if so, is there anything I can do to keep it cool? This will be my main machine for a while, so I'd like to do some gaming on it.

Is the memory easily upgradable? I'm not in the know when it comes to laptops, and I'd like to do this in about 6 months or so (and that would probably be the last performance upgrade, along with a new HD) I'd do with it).


Thanks

edit: Oh, and I'll probably do a fresh install of a new XP w/ SP2 (the new CDs). Is there anything special about formatting a laptop HD (either fdisk it or just use the formatting program within XP setup)? The mobo chipset is a VIA, so should I grab the latest 4-in-1s? Omega drivers over anything Acer modifies? Any drivers for other components I should be aware of? etc etc, you know the drill

No, just replacing the PC2700 SO-DIMMs with PC3200 SO-DIMMs and the memory will boot up at DDR400 speed.

Yes, get yourself a laptop cooler e.g. this heat-pipe based laptop cooler from Nexus is pretty cool:
http://www.nexustek.nl/tdd3000.htm

No cables or noisy fans.

See my post here:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread...430#post361430

No, same as on a desktop HD - use XP setup.

See my posts here:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread...619#post547619
http://notebookforums.com/showthread...768#post403768

Thanks a bunch. Sorry about all the Qs; I should have read it first (I did eventually read it ;p) That brought up acouple of other thoughts/questions:

I don't need anything from Acer's site, right? Seems like you listed a link for every manufacturer, so I assume that covered everything, and Acer's drivers were just older versions of them in one place.

There is Gigabit LAN on the machine? I thought I read somewhere that it had it, then I looked other places that didn't mention it, and then I read your driver post and it did include drivers for a Gb LAN device.

Any reason to install the A64 CPU driver (or the PowerNow!)? I was reading the small description it gave on the DL page and it talked about adjusting the clock to meet the current needs of the user. No conflicts with anything? I'd probably just use two settings--highest battery save possible (for when I'm actually needing the battery) and max performance (when it's plugged in or I'm watching a bit of video with battery).

Does DVDIdle give you a few more minutes of DVD viewing on the battery? I'd assume maybe because the disc doesn't have to spin as much (or at least, that's what they say--I've never used it). If it made a 10 minute or more difference, I'd probably shell out the 20 bucks that they want for it.

How is the display at 1024x768? I know it's not its native res, but it should still look OK, right?

Well, you still need the Bluetooth & modem drivers and the launch manager from Acer's site. I also suggest that you use the latest version of the ATI VGA driver from there too instead of the latest Omega drivers since there's a battery power standby bug with them.

Yes, the Acer Ferrari 3200/3400 got integrated Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57xx Gigabit LAN - best in class as a matter of fact too

No conflicts, see this PDF document for a description of the benefits of PowerNow! and how to enable it:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...Power_Now2.pdf
See also my post here:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread...650#post458650

You can actually get up to 1 hour more of DVD viewing on the battery using DVDIdle, so it's absolutely worth every buck in my opinion.

Yes, for the crispest possible picture quality you should always use resolutions with correct 4:3 aspect ratio like 1400x1050, 1152x864, 1024x768, 800x600, or 640x480.

Can I ask you lithiumcharles?

How do you make your notebook to keep those settings?


I set multiplier and voltage through crystalcpuid(or trhough shortcut) to 4x and 0.8V. For a while it works O.K. but then especially if I run Prime95 everything return to the defaults (x9 1.2V / x4 0.9V)

Didn't you say that this bug (snow on the LCD ) was caused by Radlinker ?

Now, I'm not sure.

Yes, and RadLinker is now an integrated part of the Omega drivers. Although, there's now a test version of RadLinker out that fixes this bug with the current version of the Omega drivers:
http://users.adelphia.net/~webspace/RadLinkerTest.zip

I expect it to be included in the next version of the Omega drivers.

Thanks for the info again, snorre. So let's say I'm with the AC adaptor and I want 100% performance. Will this program give it all to me, or will it decide that 95% is enough?

Oh and I have heard about a driver modder (patje's ?) that converts ATi's drivers to work on the laptop. Since those are 2 iterations ahead of Omega's, should I try that, or is it best to use Oemga's for other reasons that I'm not aware of yet.

Oh, and while this is the main thread for this laptop, is there an easy way to add the native resolution to a lot of the older games? I like to play (ZDoomGL) Doom 1 and 2 still ;p

I also like Omega's drivers, but since his last release was 4.10beta, and I wanted performance boost for HL2 which comes with 4.12beta catalysts.
So I did tried Patje's modification for 4.12b from here: http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=61156
and have no problem and few extra fps in HL2

Can you tell me what is the exact type of the F3200 / F3400?chipset? It is cliamed to be "VIA K8T800 ProSavage" but there is no such model in the VIA chipsets list. Perhaps it is just K8T800, or K8T800 Pro. What chipset and mainboard gives the cpu-z ?


It is important for the type of memory supported.
Compatible memory appears to be the following:
Transcend, Part #: TS64MSD64V4F3 — 512MB PC3200 DDR SO-DIMM
64Mx64 DIMM / 32Mx8 / CL3 / 16 chips, 200 pins, 400MHz (DDR400), double-sided
PDF at 512MB - TS64MSD64V4F3
List of Transcend memories - here

With this regard there is a concern: In the F3200 service manual a 2.5 V core voltage is given, but the Transcend SO-DIMM memory (512 MB stick) has core voltage of 2.6 V +- 0.1 V. The 0.1 V tolerance should be just fine I suppose. (for the Corsair SDRAM stick, in the product brochure, no voltage supply is provided)

Soon I'm gonna post a list of compatible memories.

That's not how it works, it will provide you with 100% performance all the time when needed. It just a feature that saves power when the processor is inactive - read the PDF document I linked to and you'll get the idea.

Yes, exactly like you do it on a desktop.

CPU-Z Mainboard:
Manufacturer: Acer, Inc.
Model: Ferrari 3200 Rev. A
Chipset: VIA K8T800 (VT8383) Rev. 1
Southbridge: VIA VT8235

2.5V is standard for PC3200 memory according to JEDEC spec, so both these will be perfectly fine.