Acer Aspire 5003WLMi Question

Two upgrade questions. I've done some homework, but I'm not definitively sure about it.

CPU Upgrade.

Okay, the laptop has a Turion 64 ML-32. The chipset is a SiS M760GX.

On the SiS website, it says it supports Athlon 64 CPUs.

http://www.sis.com/products/sism760gx_features.htm

I would like to know, is it possible to upgrade my CPU from Turion 64 to Athlon 64 safely and second, what is the most powerful CPU I could use on this laptop.

Second is the HDD.

This is what they say about HDD.

SATA & RAID functions
Provides 2 independent SATA ports, compliant with Serial ATA 1.0 Specification, and supports RAID 0, 1, and JBOD configuration.

ATA133 enhancement
Fastest storage support. Increasing data/file transfer rate.

http://www.sis.com/products/sism760gx_benefits.htm

Clearly it is an old chipset, but what does this mean and can I upgrade from the 60GB I have today cheaply. What do I have to look for.

I know some of you would say to buy a new laptop and that I would, but I would like to upgrade this laptop.

 

Well, according to this page your ML-32 is a Socket 754 which means, again according to the previously mentioned page you can upgrade to Turion 64 MT-40 max.
I'm not so familiar with AMD sockets and I don't know if Socket 754 CPUs will fit in SocketS1(newer socket, support AMD version of dualcore/core 2 duo) and even it fits I have no idea if it will work. Also the BIOS is important too, no idea which CPUs are supported at BIOS level.

According to this specification list your storage interface is IDE so you need an IDE/ATA HDD like this one.


As I said I'm not very familiar with AMD and I don't own this laptop so I might be wrong...

 

Thanks for your help. I know the Athlon 64 is socket 754 and my chipset supports Athlon 64, I'm just not sure if I could safely upgrade. I have looked at the MT and ML series of the Turion 64, but they are hard to find and expensive if I find them. I know my chipset won't support dual core CPUs.

My BIOS is 3A32 and I too looked for information regarding CPU support, but found nothing.

I've gone back and forth between shelving this laptop and buying a new one or upgrading. I've decided to upgrade to test my hand and buy a new laptop later this year or early next year.

If anyone have any information regarding the CPU upgrade, please post.

 

Okay, I know I have a Socket 754, which support Turion 64 and Athlon 64. I know I have a SiS M760GX chipset, which I believe supports Turion 64 and Athlon 64. I know I have BIOS 3A32.

So, does anyone know the CPU support for BIOS 3A32? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

I just bought a Turion ML-37 which is 2.0ghz vs the 1.8 that is in the standard 5003wlmi. I intend to use it in a desktop PC i will be building in a few days. I have that same model laptop so If it doesn't work in the desktop I intend to install it in the laptop.

Going from 1.8 to 2.0 will not be a very big performance gain, but the CPU was ony $20 here: http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=806 They have the ML-40 for $80 which would take you from 1.8 to 2.2. I feel pretty confident either of these would work.

I Think your options would only be turion or mobile sempron. The wattage for the Athlons is more than double the turions and your laptop may not be able to power it. I would also be concerned about heat from a desktop designed chip.

If my desktop plans fail, I will post back my experience putting this ml-37 in my 5003wmli

Best,
Brian

 

Wow.. I totally forgot about this thread. The proc that I bought hoping to use in a low power desktop did not work in the desktop. I was able to install it in my wlmi and it is working just fine. I think it took me from 1.6 to 2.0 ghz and increased the CPU cache.

Regards,
Brian