Acer Extensa 5620-6830 Upgrades

It's been almost a year since I bought this Best Buy model. Instead of dropping $500 on another budget laptop, I decided to upgrade things a bit. Here's a really quick overview of what I did:

-Swapped out the original T5250 (1.5Ghz, 667Mhz bus, 2MB cache) cpu with a brand new T9500 (2.6Ghz, 800Mhz bus, 6MB cache). Cost: $229.99 shipped.

-Swapped out the original 200GB (4200rpm, 2MB buffer, SATA 1.5) hard drive with a brand new 320GB (7200rpms, 8MB buffer, SATA 3.0). Cost: $75.98 shipped.

-Swapped out the original 1GB of RAM (2 x 512MB of PC2-4200) with a new set of 4GB (2 x 2GB of PC2-6400; runs at 667Mhz due to GMA965 limit). Cost: $44.49 shipped.

-Swapped out original 802.11g Mini PCIe wifi card (Intel 3945ABG) with a new 802.11n Mini PCIe wifi card (BCM94321). Cost: $17.95 shipped.

*Experimental* -Swapped out original LCD (WXGA 1280x800 max) with a new LCD (WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 max). Cost: ~$75 shipped.

-Swapped out original battery (4400mAh) with a new aftermarket one (5200mAh). Cost: $51.75 shipped.

-Added in new internal bluetooth module (had four-pin plug, luckily; haven't found an online source yet). Cost: $2.75 shipped.


Total cost: $497.91. Defrayed all costs by selling previous components, spare parts I had laying around, and reselling a used laptop locally.

End results: This little notebook kicks some serious butt! Runs OSX nicely. Will answer any questions or supply pictures as requested.

 

Nice upgrade and smart move, if you ask me.

How is the new LCD, have you changed the inverter or the board? From where you get it?

I made pretty same upgrade as yours to mine, but minus LCD and battery (will buy one soon), plus GPU

 

Nicely done on the upgrading! I'm impressed that you pulled the LCD swap so well.

 

@triturbo:
Thanks! I figured it would be smarter to make my current laptop a somewhat high-end one instead of just getting a new low-end model The GPU cannot be upgraded in my model, but as I'm not a gamer, the X3100 is fine for me.

The LCD swap has been interesting. Initially I tried an old half-dead 17" WXGA+ screen I had here, just to see if the Extensa's standard 30-pin connector was truly standard. It looked lousy since the LCD was damaged, but the higher resolution did work. Given hope, I then tried a WUXGA LCD (1920x1200). It functioned, but there were some issues... tint was slightly off (fixable after inside the OS); once the Intel video driver was installed in XP, the display became washed out; three LCD panels show up in Device Manager; higher resolutions looked sort of grainy and unclear. I also realized I would never use such a high resolution on a 15.4" unless I wanted to go blind!

So I returned that and now have an LG (same brand as was originally in the Acer) WSXGA+ coming. I'll report the results when it gets here. I knew going into this it would be an experiment with no guarantees, but someone has to be the guinea pig, right? In all cases, I've been using the original inverter, and never had any problem with it. These days the connectors are pretty standard.

Watch out for those batteries. The only source I could find for a 5200mAh battery is Hong Kong via eBay. The first one I got was defective, now awaiting a replacement. On the plus side, before it died, the battery was showing over two hours capacity. Really looking forward to that...

@TehSuigi: Thanks, though the end result remains to be seen

 

You have done quite of a swapping of LCDs there I'm with you Full HD is way too much for 15" even for 16". Good luck with the new one, I hope that everything would be fine.

Thanks for the batteries advice. Hope that your new one would be OK

 

Nice upgrade pack you have there CharredPC. I would be curious to see the LCD upgrade. You can post some photos if you like. I am interested to go WSXGA+ but only after I upgrade the video card. I know FullHD sounds too much for 15-16 screen but I've never seen or worked on it so I don't know. Some people who have used it, prefer FullHD though.

 

Yep, lots of LCD's! I'm still not 100% convinced that this original LCD flex cable is the best one. It doesn't have all the pins, and all the WUXGA-type laptops I've seen have complete 30-pin connectors. That could explain the 'graininess' at higher resolutions... perhaps it couldn't transmit the increased data. If I have to, I'll research replacing the cable; a few Acer models have WSXGA+ screens, so may use full-wired (or at least more-wired) connectors. The difficulty will be in if the motherboard plug matches up, or can be made to...

I'll take some pictures once I get the next LCD. Still trying to hunt down the best deal. FullHD would be amazing while watching movies, but on a 15.4" screen, text becomes microscopic (and in my case, sort of garbled). At least so far I've proven that:

-the Extensa's BIOS is perfectly happy using other LCD's
-different models, brands, or even different sizes seem OK
-the original inverter seems to power everything just fine

That's a start, anyway, right? I'll keep working at it. If anyone has a junk Acer and want to jump in with some experimentation, that would be awesome There's only so much I can do, being one person with a limited budget.

 

Update: after a bunch of trial and error, I finished my upgrading. The full guide for it is here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Acer-Extensa-Laptop-5620-Hotrod-Overhaul-Guide/

Turned out wonderful. I triple boot Mac OSX 10.5.8 (Leopard), Mac OSX 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard), and Windows 7. All work wonderful. I even swapped the Acer webcam out for an internal Apple iSight

Let me know if you have any questions. A lot of Acers have this same chassis, so these mods can be done on them too.