My Aspire 6930g Upgrade Adventure: Tutorials,How-tos,Softwares and much more!

Hi guys!
First of all, a big thanks goes to TehSuigi and EchoShade for their awesome support (because replying and listening to a temp-paranoid guy like me its hard i know ).
Anyway i want to share my thoughts and findings on my upgraded 6930g. I bought this laptop as a replacement over my HP dv3-2350el (i3 330m,Switchable HD4550-Intel HD,4GB ddr3,13" touchscreen).

Since im a gaming addicted guy (i mean, i play alot of games and emulators, so a good compromise of portability/power is what i need) i quickly discharged my DV3 for this notebook.
ALSO FORGET MY ENGLISH! Im not english and im trying to learn it all by myself since i was a child!

The original configuration was:
C2D t9400 @ 2,53ghz 6MB Cache(IDA with Throttlestop reports 2,66ghz)
3GB ddr2 Ram
9600m GT ddr3 512mb
Win 7 Professional x86
4GB Intel Turbo Memory module
(and so on, like 16:9 lcd not fullhd, dual layer dvd burner etc..)


The current upgraded configuration is:
C2DExtreme x9100 @ 3,45ghz 6MB Cache(Throttlestop with DualIDA on, 1,215v [original was 1,236])
4GB ddr2 Ram
9600m GT ddr3 512mb
Win 7 Professional x64
4GB Intel Turbo Memory module

Again thanks to TehSuigi who adviced to change my cpu in order to achieve higher performances and benchmarks (in my old thread), when i was trying to figure out if it was a good thing to get an HD4650 or HD4670.
So...heres what ive done so far:

Replacing the cpu + GPU Thermalcompound change:
I got my new cpu from LaptopMonkey over ebay. He got alot of positive feedbacks, he's located in uk and ive paid €235+€25 for DHL shipping. Arrived in 2 days (and im in italy). Plus awesome support desk!
Ive tried to follow lucino's guide but i was not totally sure about taking apart my whole laptop, so i tried to give NKLive guide a go (located here). The guide as NKlive stated was a bit "vague" so i thought it would be useful to post what ive did based on his findings.

What you need:
- A new cpu of your choiche
- ArticSilver5
- Alcohol/Ethanol solution (i used Alcohol 100%)
- A piece of an old cloth
- Cottonswabs
- Paper
- Flat-head Screwdriver
- Cross-head Screwdriver

::/!\:: Discalimer! Im not taking responsability of what you do on your laptop, these are just the steps ive made! You're warned ::/!\::

1) First turn your laptop upside down and unscrew the wider bottom panel.
2) Now you should see the GPU (square board with 3 screws), the RAM, the modules (wifi and such) and the CPU below the heatsink (screwed with 4 spring-screws near the HDD).
3) Remove the GPU by unscrewing the 4 screws and lifting it till 45° angle.
4) Clean the GPU and the Heatsink surface with something like Alcohol (ive used 100% alcohol and it works perfectly) then use cottonswabs to clean it furterly.
ALSO remove ANY traces of thermal pads on your rams as they really arent working right, at least in my case!
5) Now unscrew the CPU Heatsink following the numbers engraved on it.
6) Now the Heatsink should be able to move. Slide it to the left or the right, raise it gently. Don't be afraid to do it, as it will not budge so much neither blends, just pay attention on what youre doing without putting too much force into raising it.
7) Theres a small flat screw located on the cpu socket. Use a small flat screwdriver to unscrew it (it unlocks when you unscrew clockwise, also the socket have two symbols, so its hard to miss it). In this way the socket will slide and the cpu will release.
8) If you feel comfy, turn your laptop upside up and with a cotton swab clean the Heatsink surface in order to remove the older thermal compound. Ive used a small flat screwdriver to remove it and then used some cottonswab/old cloth/tissue to clean the surface.
9) Turn your laptop upside down again, and with a pair of anti-static tweezers (plastic ones will do, or just a professional ones, they need to be thin!) remove the cpu. If you remove your HDD as well, you may try to help yourself with fingers. Anyway when its lifted (pay attention to the pins, dont damage them!) carefully slide it towards the gpu heatsink.
10) Ok now grab your new cpu. Use ArticSilver5 to spread a layer of compound above the central core of the CPU. Use a creditcard-like thing to spread it. Dont put a single ball of compound, and dont save it, just use a good amount so the layer gets a bit thick (remember, it needs to make contact to the HS!). Just be sure that its an adequate amount!
11) Now slide the new cpu from the right (where GPU used to be) into the socked and with your fingers, when YOURE ABSOLUTELY SURE that the cpu is socketed correclty, push it down gently acting on the cpu sides.
12) When the cpu correctly insert into the socket, turn the cpu socket screw anti-clockwise (toward the lock symbol) until it stops.
13) Now carefully put the heatsink back on the cpu, and while olding it down with a finger, screw it back to the mobo following the numbers engraved on it.
14) Now get your AC5 on your previously cleaned GPU, and spread a thick layer on the GPU main chip and on those four ram blocks. Use same method described above. When you're done, reinsert the gpu in his socket while keeping it lifted at 45°, then push it down gently and while holding it down screw back those 4 screws. Be sure to screw them completely and tight as loose screws can lead to bad heat dissipation!
15) Done! Turn on your lappy and hopefully in bios you will able to see if the cpu is reported correctly.

Oc'ing your new Core 2 Duo Extreme CPU using Throttlestop
What you need:
- Throttlestop (check below)
- A modified bios in order to disable EIST function
- Patience

My thanks goes to unclewebb1, creator of throttlestop, and awesome all around program that lets you undervolt your cpu and/or overclock it (with IDA or Extreme cpus) easily!
Grab your copy of throttlestop by visiting Unclewebb1 profile here.
Now grab your copy of the modified 6930g BIOS and flash it using WinPhlash, bios is available here and its made by lloco73 .
WinPhlash for x86 is located Here [Rapidshare]
WinPhlash for x64 is located here [Rapidshare]
Just fire up Winphlash, select to Backup+Flash bios, select the modded one linked above, and flash it. Doing this in windows doesnt harm the bios boot-block afaik so its kinda safe. However, its always a bios flash, so be warned that you can screw your laptop for good, and im not taking responsability!. If that does happen, you can recover it using CrysisDisk, available in the bios thread linked above. Anyway my flash gone ok..once your lappy rebooted, go into the bios (F2) and under ASF configuration disable Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology.
If any error comes up while flashing involving "Platform ID" just dont be afraid and click ok.
Ok back to windows:
1) Go into power management, select Performance and under advanced put your CPU usage level to 100% in both Minimum and Maximum (AC-Battery).
2) Unzip Throttlestop somewhere and place a link on your desktop
3) Open TS ini and change GPU=1 if you got an nvidia card or GPU=2 for ATI
4) Make the DualIDA entry from =0 to =1 to lock it at start
5) Fire up Throttlestop, right click on those numbers on the right and select "unlock max VID/FID"
6) Select your Multiplier (in my case 13x) and select the checkbox near to it, as well as the ChipsetClockMod (to stop throttling)
7) Select your VID (in my case ive dropped from 1,236 to 1,215. Below this it crashes every app, even further below it BSODs)
8) Go in options and select "Dont reset VID/FID on Exit", then select "Ac to battery, turn off", everything else stays the same
9) Ok now we should be ready. Turn on TS and using CPU-Z see if everything works good, like speed locked to what you choosed and voltage.
10) Go play some games that are really CPU-Dependant. Like emulators (such Mame,Pcsx2,Dolphin) or anything like that. It should have no issues after half hour of games, HOWEVER if it does, try to raise the voltage or step down your Multiplier.

Ok my findings on my machine are:
1) using 12.5x multi (3,34ghz), my CPU stays stable with only 1,875v. Max temp is 82°. Min is 35-38 in idle.
2) using 13x multi (3,45Gghz), my CPU stays stable with 1,215v. Max temp is 90-91°. Min is 39-43 in idle.
What i understood so far (reading around):
x9100 cpus are HOT, the TJ max reported is 105° from intel.
They get hot fast so don't worry, as long as you stays under 95° you're fine. However there are rare cases that your cpu keeps a 100% load all the time, so if it spikes its normal.
It seems that x9100 architecture is 44nm but it got 44W in TDP. the T9xxx series is same 44nm but is only 35W in TDP, which translated to a HUGE thermal difference. Therefore, x9100 as well as qx9xxx cpus are hotter.
Getting a cooling pad helps!
Ive had a few cooling pads lying around, but they werent useful alot.
Then i ordered a Zalman ZM NC2000 as someone adviced and it actually helps to keep my temps as reported a few degrees below.
Anyway keep in mind that temp readings are EXTREME SITUATIONS, like having the cpu in full load all the time. It doesnt quite happen in everyday use or gaming.

Oc'ing your 9600m GT using EVGA Precision 1.9.5
What you need:
- Latest Nvidia WHQL Drivers (258.96 from their website). Offical and no INF modding required
- EVGA Precision
- A benchmark program like 3dmark06 or your favorite game
- Patience, again

Ok this is annoying i know, because there are gazillion of threads regarding how to OC a 9600m GT. This is my way to do it and no flashing involved.
1) Get EVGA Precision 1.9.5 (last as i write) from here.
2) Install it and fire it up. First click on the Wrench and under "Monitoring" select GPU Temperature to appear in OSD/TRAY using the checkboxes below. Now begin rasing the Core,Shader and Memory clock with small steps, lets say 50mhz at once.
3) Unlick Core/Shader clocks first and then try to reach 9700m GT clocks now (625,1550,800), click Apply and launch any program to test if the vga acts correctly (3dmark06 benchmarks are fine).
4) If your GPU does fine, raise the memoryclock. Remember, mine is a DDR3 so my RAM clock is 800mhz. Ive raised mine at 900mhz, the further it glitches and artifacts like hell. Apply and do your tests.
5) Now you know how to do it. Do this until you find a good compromise between Heat/Power based on your tastes.
6) Now when your happy of the settings, SAVE them by RIGHT-Clicking in a number of your choiche (if you cant find them, click on the silver small button with a black arrow poiting down, under the monitor) but i advice to select PROFILE BUTTON 2. Now hit RESET ALL button and right click on PROFILE BUTTON 1.
7) Now click on the Wrench. Select "Profiles", now select an hotkey for both profiles we saved as your choiche (ive used CTRL+L "Low" for 2d Profile, CTRL+H for "High" 3d profile).
8) In "Automatic Profile Management" Select profile 1 for 2d (it should read the default GPU clocks, 500/1250/800) and Select profile 2 for 3d (it should read your OC clocks).

My findings on this OC Method:
- First of all, before using EVGA precision ive tried these:
1. MSI Afterburner: it doesnt quite read my maximum clocks so i scraped it.
2. Flashing with Nibitor: it makes the card permanently runs at OC'ed speeds but i dont want it because i want to be able to use normal/oc speeds when i want by simply using an hotkey!
3. Undervolting with Nibitor works, only if you plan to have a mild overclock. If you want to push it further forget it. Leave it as it should be.
4. Rivatuner screws up my clocks totally. Sucks.
So therefore for me EVGA Precision is a winner.
Max temperature readings after an hour of gaming (Singularity,Dirt,Dirt2,Transformers War for Cybertron) under my OC (702,1600,900) is 82-84°. Perfectly in range if you consider that TJ Max is 105 (but mostly 95) and in some standard laptops using this card they reach even 80° at standard clocks.

Keeping your Laptop cool with a software!
Theres this awesome guy, named Ralf Neumueller who made this little app called AA1FanControl. Its actually made for Aspire One netbooks, but it works just as good on my Aspire. Download it from here, unzip, install the TVicPortControl, place the EXE on your desktop, reboot, voilà! Launch the app and it autolaunches everytime from now on. Just put the FAN ON at, lets say, 50° and turn off at 40°. In this way even under OC (if you got an Extreme cpu) it keeps it below 42-45° in idle.
Thanks Ralf!

And now, my benchmark screenshot! (Settings are displayed in the pic!)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
3dMark06 score is: 7782 Points

Well that's all folks. I know that this guide isnt perfect, but i hope it helps someone figuring out how to proceed into upgrading this little beast.
Thanks and credits goes, again, to:

TehSuigi
unclewebb1
EchoShade
Ralf
and all of you guys around this forum.
Thanks!

 

Nifty little guide you got there, Kingpinzero!

Did you know that ThrottleStop now allows you to overclock your Core 2 Extreme CPU without any BIOS flashing? It's not DualIDA mode either, it actually unlocks the multiplier and lets you go as high as you stably can.

Also, I stump for Nvidia System Tools over EVGA Precision as my GPU overclocking utility.

 

Thank you man!
Most of your advices are in the guide
As ive explained above in the throttlestop section,ive already used the command "unlock max vid/fid" which unlocks my multiplier (otherwise locked at 11.5).
But ive also found out that enabling dualida on my laptop gives a little stability.
Anyway regarding nvidia system tools,it seems that makes my oc unstable (this happens to alot of peoples,for some doesnt),my guess is that it raises the voltage too much while evga doesnt.
Well i hope this 3d helps someone, it can be applied to alot of other aspire models.
Thanks again

 

Man, wish I had an x9100. I'm wondering, how far did you get on lucino's guide? I got stuck around removing the speakers since there seems to be a clip or screw hidden after unlocking the tuba bass cover.

 

Not so much..doing as i did its a bit risky but with patience and courage can be done in 3 minutes..you have to use a credit card like object to remove the tuba: but since cpu can be accessed without dismantling the notebook i didnt messed with lucinos method so much.
Btw ive made some other benchmarks now with a few tweaked settings and score raised a bit,around 7800.

 

I did the credit card trick and consequently ruined my card but I could never get the whole speaker plate off since there seemed to be a screw. I ended up using nclive's method too.

 

That's cool. BTW i've contacted Kris over mxm-upgrade for an inquiry about 4670 1gb DDR2. Seems that those are legit cards and not MSI ones, but im struggling to understand how much gain in performance i can achieve. I mean, under oc i can score 7800 points with my old 9600m. If things are good, i might do the jump...

 

Probably not. You've got a strong OC on your current card.

 

Probably you're right, dunno ill see what i can do, my target is to OC the 4670 a bit even if i heard that temperatures are insane.
Whats your temp actually with it? Do you have it Oc'ed or standard clocks?
BTW this laptop never cease to amaze me: with the modded bios ive disabled EIST, but i never took down CE states and Throttlestates.

Since i was getting insane at NFS:Shift because it was like "frameskipping" every 10 seconds, i disabled everything related to CE and such.
Ive been benchmarking the game a bit with these settings:

1280x720
2x AA
16x AF
All High (cars,blur,shadows,track details,car details)
No vsync
9600m GT clocked at 700/1600/900
x9100 clocked at 3,34ghz@1,875v

Frameskipping is gone, even if it slows down when you collide alot (but thats to physx as ive been reading around) and it keeps a framerate range from 26.5 to 38.6.

I mean, awesome.

 

Hello, i have a 6930G too, and i want to upgrade the GPU.
Does the 4850M MXM 2.1 will be compatible even if the cooler won't be sufficient?
Thank you

 

Yeah, go for it. Otherwise mxm upgrade will have 4670 in two weeks available

 

Hello

Do you know if we can also unlock max fid/vid in acer 6935g with this x9100 and TS?

thanks

 

Its described in the guide, so yes,you can.

 

No it isn't. Aside from the size difference, TDP and others, it's the wrong interface.
The 4850M is a MXM 2.1 Type III while the 6930G can only accept MXM 2.1 Type II cards.



Even with an undervolt, underclock and using a Zalman with the backplate off,
it can still hit up to 90C on games like Dead Space which require vSync to be off to play.
For normal games which enable vSync, it might hit like 75-80C which allow for some OC.

 

yes but it's a 6935g and not a 6930g.

ok, ok, if you say so

 

Other than the media keys at the side, the 6935G and the 6930G are essentially the same.
Plus TS is a Windows based program so hardware rarely matters assuming you have the requirements met.

 

Ok, does it has been tested for real? Or it's a supposition?
With a different heatsink, does it can be good?
I will test rapidly with a 4870m

 

My bad, ive misread your post Kiwi.
So far the lappy accepts only MXM 2-II cards, i was sure ive read 4650 instead of 4850.

So thanks Echoshade for clearing things up - and no, its not a supposition. Its a different slot standard, so therefore it would not fit, no matter what.
I think that 4650-4670 are the best bet for now, but it seems that both gets too hot that's due to the heatsink of 6930g which accomodates only nvidia gpus by its design.
Both Ati's fits well but the cards are known to gets hot alot..therefore on standard clocks you'll do fine, but with some OC you will get trouble.
Im planning to get a 4670 1gb ddr2 to see how well it performs compared to my OC'ed 9600m GT, even thought i score around 8000 3dmarks06.

 

8000 points with a OC 9600M GT?
A different slot standard? It's both MXM 2.1 so i don't understand.
The type II or III is just for the size of the card, not for the format.

 

Check my first post: at the time i was around 7800~.Ive been tweaking a bit the oc on both gpu and cpu,now i hit like 7980.
I think i got the fastest 6930g with 9600m gt
Btw the problem is the type as you said: by slot i didnt meant Bus type, but slot/size: a type III card will not fit for 0,5mm as ive measured, because the base where the gpu resides is molded on type II cards.
6935g is identical to 6930g afaik,dunno if the cinedash helps growing it larger but i doubt it.

 

And where can i find the BIOS flashing procedure via DOS with a bootable USB key?
Thank you

 

Dont bother with it,i may advice. Do it in windows using winplash and the bios located in first post.
Is what i did and everything runs perfectly fine.
Otherwise check the bios upgrade thread

 

In general, a type III card will require more power than the power supply for the 6930G can supply. The dimensions are 1.5 times longer meaning that they cannot fit in the 6930G regardless of whether the cooling will work or not. And the cooling will most likely not work and overheat assuming you had the space for the card which is not possible.

If you take a look here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/396320-acer-mxm-models-cards.html. You'll see in the second post about the size difference. Those are proportional images and the 6930G only has about 1 mm of extra space before touching the CPU heatsink. You can use a type I card meaning you can down grade but the heatsink may not fit, but you cannot upgrade to a type III.

And I noticed you saying you could test a 4870M which I'm assuming will come from you Asus in your sig. While Asus does use MXM, it's not possible even if you had the right slot. Asus uses a flipped pin design meaning that their card connectors are flipped around so you can use it only in Asus laptops. If you were to install that in an Acer which could take it, you would find that the die would be facing away from the heatsink.

 

The internals of the 6930g and 6935g are totally different.

For one the mxm card lays facing up and the heatsink is secured down onto it. The 6935g does not have a second HDD bay.

6935g layout:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y143/Meaks/Photo0103.jpg

6930g layout:

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4532/14082009105.jpg

 

Very nice stats from your updated 6930G I'd like to get a different CPU in mine eventually.

I wish I could get that BIOS to flash properly; Winphlash gives me an error -
" BIOS update failed! Image verification failed. BCPSYS block signature was not found. Error code: -100." Windows VISTA SP2

I'm sure I'm doing everything as described here Any help would be gratefully recieved.

 

Thats a strange error thought. Try to get the official bios from acer, flash it, after the reboot be sure to run winphlash as administrator (right click->run as admin) then flash the modded bios.
Btw you can also use the very same package for flashing that you got from acer: unpack it and replace the bios.wph (iirc) with biosmod.wph once you renamed it.
Its important that you rename it because the winphlash acer uses is an automated process. Good luck

 

My bad, but the second picture isn't a 6930G. At least not similar to mine.

 

Hello, yes the 4870M come from my ASUS laptop. The connector isn't flipped. It fit correctly in the laptop but the CPU heatsink doesn't allow to have the contact with the GPU core.

 

Hey,

I've read through the whole thread and .. guy I ADMIRE U!!! You even made me think of upgrading my system a litte. More over you said you never tried this before! (bow) man!!
I want ot ask you something: I have the 6930g with t5800 and 9300m GS running on WinXP Sp3. You made we wandering if I can put this one

nVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 MXM II VGA Card - eBay (item 270574969832 end time Oct-03-10 02:16:56 PDT)

Or overclock my poor silly video... just to optimize a little. Will I need to flash or change something or I just plug it in and go playing more dota e.g.
I just checked my BIOS version as I read something about it earlier:v0.3204 , is it prehistoric? )
(bow)

 

Hello!
@kingpinzero
Have you tried with a 4670 DDR2?
What is the best choice? I hesitate between 9600M GT DDR3 or 4670 DDR2.
Actually i have a 9600M GS DDR2 which score 4650pts on 1280x1024 (with a little OC of the GPU and a T5800). Do it will have a good jump in performance?

Edit: ~5200-5300 with a big OC.

I managed to Upgrade the CPU with a X9100 too.

Thanks

 

Hello

I have a question.

Is the "T9900 SLGEE step code" the correctly cpu that our acer can mount?

I have no yet removed the cpu and I'm not sure of the package, should be PGA478.

 

According to a service manual Aspire 6930 has Intel 479 pin Micro-FCPGA which is different from what can be seen on the screenshot in the first post.

 

Sorry, my english is not perfect, the acer 6930G service manual talk about 479 pin Micro-FCPGA but X9100 in intel internet site exist only in verson PGA478. and the T9900 is 479 on BGA (ball, not pin), I'm confused

Kingpinzero have you the ordering code, step code, or something else that identify the cpu you have installed?

Thanks for any help

 

Hi baule,
And sorry for the late reply.
I just bought it over ebay and you cant go wrong at all since the x9100 does support only socket p (montevina-penryn-montebello) and is socket 478.
My aspire 6930g is the one equipped with 9600m Gt ddr3 and t9400 cpu.
If your configuration is the same go on

 

Any socket P processor will work as long as it's a dual core. Quad core socket P will NOT work.

 

Hello

My acer factory config is:

Intel C2D P8600
GF 9600GF 1Gb, but i don't know if is ddr2 or ddr3.

I think that the x9100 run without problems.



Very thanks at all.

 

X9100 is HOT.

Just to warn you.

 

One of the best of all processor for 6930G comes From Apple.

This one :

Intel E8435 SLGEA

Stepping:E0 (not SLAQD: C0 Stepping )

3.06Ghz / 6M / 1066Mhz
TDP : 44W (SLGEA)

For more details, see here :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/599169-intel-e8435.html

T9900 is a very good choice too, because the TDP is better, 35W

 

Then isn't the t9900 obviously the best processor, not the e8435?
10w is a pretty big difference. The voltage is also higher, giving worse battery life.

 

The E0 undervolts quite nicely though.

 

Yea, but what if a p8400 or even a t6600 still runs cooler when overclocked to 3ghz?

Speaking of which does anyone have experience FSB overclocking this laptop?

 

but what if but what if...

moot point since there is no FSB overclocking on the 6930g.

I'm running an E8335 (e0), which runs default @ 2.93GHz on 1.225v which apparently is a TDP of 35w.

Does 2.8GHz on 0.975v and its full rated 2.93GHz on 0.987v and this time of year with the fan on max peaks @ 55c. All completely stable (any stress test I though at it for days on end).€

Best part is it cost me £50 new so I'm not going to lose any sleep over 130mhz.

 

I just upgraded my graphics card, laptop running quite hot now. Anyone know where I can find some better fans to put inside?

 

got myself a cooler mat instead of internal fan upgrade, mostly due to the fact they seem impossible to find.

Next update I'm thinking of is the battery. I have a 4400mah 6 cell, and have been thinking of upgrading to a 5200mah 8 cell battery.

Is this something anyone would recomend doing?

 

Same here. I tried to find a proper fan, but I end-up with nothing useful. That's why I took the Dremel and made my own cooling

I don't know mate, if I recall correctly, your battery is the same as mine, which means that the only 5200mAh ones are aftermarket. I got myself 4800mAh 8 cell, just because I don't know how long the 5200 one would last. So far mine is well over a year old, maybe even two.

 

this is probably a nube question, but what the fek does mAh mean? is it a case of the bigger the number the better? does the number of cells make any difference?

I have also been considering a better power pack. looks like I can get a 90w one that works with my system, but will this over power it? current one is getting a tad hot recently

 

Hi guys,

Four years after the OP posted, was wondering what is the latest options for an upgrade components that can be changed over?
I have had my 6930G for nearly 5 years now. It has a fantastic keyboard and apart form the sound buzzing problem, everything works fine. However, I need to replace it now, or upgrade it.
Was thinking of getting the Novatech Elite N1550, or as I already said, upgrade my old machine. Happy to spent a few hundreds of pounds in new components and have a reasonable fast laptop, than spending £1500 on a new fast laptop.

Here is the specs on my Acer Aspire 6930G

CPU - Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T6400
Memory - DDR2 4GB
Graphics - GeForce 9600M GT

There is a second drive slot and thinking of getting Solid State Drive. What will be the very latest options of the above that is compatible with my motherboard? Price don't really matter, as the other option is spending £1500 on a new machine, so not a problem.
Any advice or opinion will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Kris

 

What you can get:

CPU - X9100 (unlocked multiplier, easy overclocking) but preferably E0 (QHBQ, SLGE7, both impossible to find), since C0 (SLB48) would melt your laptop. You can do some overclocking as the original poster, but it wont be as much as with E0 revision. If you think that it would be too much for your cooling to handle, here comes the second best option - T9900 E0 (SLGEE) clocked at the same speed as X9100, but with locked multiplier (no overclocking), much easier to find (when we talk about E0 revisions). Buy yourself some nice performing thermal paste since you'll need it when you swap the CPU and GPU. I personally prefer MX-4 since it's relatively cheap, among top performers, easy to apply and wont scratch your core.

RAM - You could get 8GB (2x4GB SODIMM DDR2), but they are pretty penny nowadays and there is a risk that it wont work, so check the return policy. This is only if you need that much RAM.

GPU - The best option is HD4670 512MB GDDR3, but it's nearly impossible to find. The second best is GT 240m. Note that you need MXM-II version since both are available as MXM-A as well, which are NOT compatible with your system.

HDD - I can't remember correctly if it was for this model, but make sure that there is enough room in the second bay, since Acer is putting different doors for the models with and without second drive. What is the best option - for me it's Crucial M500, in whichever flavor suits you best (240GB, 480GB or 960GB). You'll be limited to SATA II speeds (sequential read/write), but it doesn't matter that much to real-world performance. What matters is the random access, and you'll get plenty of it.

Hope it helps. It doesn't hurt to consult again on what parts you choose. Happy upgrading

 

Thanks for your advice @triturbo. I have a few questions, but instead of spamming in here, would prefer to write you a message. Problem is that I cant really send you one.
Ще съм благодарен ако драснеш.
Thanks!

 

You'll have to have 5 posts in order to get the PM option You can give me your e-mail if you wish.