Acer Aspire 9300 Series Motherboard/CPU question

Hello all!

I have a few questions relating to the Acer Aspire 9300 series - more specifically the 9303WSMi ( http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_9303WSMi_LX.AWR0X.044/version-1.asp if that makes a difference).
I don't own one but am considering buying one. But before I do I want to know a couple things (and believe me, I have tried for ages to answer these questions myself using Google with no luck!):

--1) What sort of motherboard does the 9300 series have (make and model)?
--2) Is the processor easily upgraded - does it come out easily or is there some complicated way?
--3) Does the 1gig RAM version usually come with a single 1024MB module or two 512 modules?

Someone be my technological saviour and lend a helping hand!

Thanks, Patrick.

EDIT: Also, is it possible to upgrade the graphics card of this laptop? I know some laptops you can and some you can't...

 

Hello donuildhu, the only answers that I'm sure are 1 & 2:
1. The motherboard is an Acer MyallM, and it's not easy to gather more infos on it.
2. The CPU can't come out without hard ops, and it can't be oc at this time (controller on the mb not identified yet)
3. Usually on those Acer laptop you'll find 2 RAM modules.

For me it's a good laptop, and if you choose this search the web for a 2Gb ram as mine, some come with it. The GeForce 7300 is a nice gc, easilly OCable, but you can play a pretty FarCry with it stock. You can't reach it easilly, and as I never opened my 9300 Idon't know if it's soldered or not to the mb.
If this can help... ;-)

 

So as I now have opened it, some precisions :
1st of all, you can upgrade the CPU on this laptop, as it's not soldered to the mainboard but placed on a S1 socket, nice ! The Graphic chipset is soldered, so you won't be able to do anything. I noticed it has good infineon mem modules, I'll take some photos when I'll open it again. Using Arctic Silver 5 on cpu, it lowered temp a new step, now my undervolted Turion is under 38°C idle and max 45°C after a 32 digits calculation of pi (super pi 1.5). I'll reopen it to change pads on both nvidia graphic and chipset chips, the problem is that the same heatpipe block covers the 3 chips but it's only in contact with cpu, there's a space about 0.5mm (metric system, I'm french he he!) between the aluminium block and nvidia chips. Perhaps I'll try reduce and polish it on the space above cpu, to make it come right over the 2 other chips, so that I could use AS5 on it too. For the time I'm waiting for good chomerics metal pads to replace the poor ones used stock. Actually mu GeForce is about 60°C idle !

 

And I forgot : You'll need to totally unmount the whole laptop if you want to get access to the CPU... By chance all the screws are the same except 3 smaller ones and 4 taller ones...

 

Don´t spose while you were there you were able to document the internal USB connectors to see what the bluetooth module is supposed to fit into?

Just a thought, be nice to see some pictures of it disassembled though.

 

I didn't want to start a whole new thread so i'll ask here, how loud is this laptop during use? I mean in a non scientific way, i.e. can you hear the fans whirring away or anything like that?

Sat

 

nope, it does not make a sound...

 

Hi there, i can shed some light on this unit.

1. The unit you are referring to has a mainboard called the MyallM (as stated earlier) it can support turion dual core CPUs up to a TL-66 with a bios upgrade. I believe it has a SATA interface that support 300mbps speed although i dont know if its SATA 2. It has a Geforce go 7300 although i've seen some with a 7600 in them like mine.

2. The processor can be upgraded but it involves completely stripping the unit down and removing the mainboard entirely to get at it. Its quite a simple construction but it can be quite daunting if you're not used to this sort of thing.

3. The one gig version comes in both 1gb or 2x 512mb flavours... its pot luck really.

With regards to the bluetooth question there is indeed a connector on the mainboard for adding a bluetooth module to the unit. You have to remove the screen and the upper cover, the connector is lablled "blue" and its near where the optical drive is.

I've found the unit to be very quiet although a little on the hot side for my preference but i believe the unit is intended to run this way in order to keep it quieter. I've had no issues with it except that the mainboard needed to be changed as mine was an ex-display model and everyone that came into the shop gave the left touchpad a firm prodding apparently as the button was very insensitive when i got it.
The fan on the unit is very quiet and you'll occaisionally hear it spin up but will soon revert to being quiet again.