Upgrading a Acer Aspire 6920-6428 how Possible is It?

I have been going back and forth on getting a 6920-6428 for sometime. It appears to have the most bang for its buck (currently found it for $1050 Canadian (and it is ridiculously hard to find well-priced notebooks in Canada, I find)).

But I have a couple little issues that could maybe be addressed by how well I can upgrade, and this issue is gaming.

This laptop will be my one and only gaming and entertainment hub (as well as work station (I may eventually get a tv/PS3 but that is probably a year or more down the line)). As such, I would like to be able to run fairly new games on it well (don't have to be beautiful just not hideous), such as; CoD 4, HL2 (all the way up to Left for Dead and the eventual Episode 3), Fallout 3, Starcraft 2, etc.

So, I have been pondering slowly upgrading it. I will either be doing it myself, or more likely sending it to a shop to do so. I am fairly unsavvy when it comes to computer hardware, so don't know how well I could upgrade it.

Specifically:
-Centrino Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5550
-nVidia GeForce 9500M GS (I have heard to upgrade a laptop graphics card you would need to change the Processor anyways?)

Any help be greatly appreciated, and another quick question which is related, which is more important for gaming processor or graphics card?

 

I don't know if an upgrade is possible. But with a GeForce 9500M GS You will be able to play all the games you mentioned beautifully.

 

for gaming definitely the gpu is more imp....
i am not very sure about the gpu but u can upgrade ur cpu to definitely a T7700 or even maybe upto a T9500....since u shud be having the i965PM chipset....
But the T9300 would be a cheaper option as compared to the T9500....

 

If more info is needed: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicati...tails.asp?EdpNo=3732526&body=MAIN#detailspecs That is what I am getting specifically.

That is neat that I can upgrade the CPU Do you know how involved the process is and if I should go to a shop (the one I know will do it for free if you buy the parts from them (Summit Direct)).

 

Very good price . Swapping the CPU is easy(usually)...you need small screwdriver, thermal paste AS5 and 10 minutes Oh yeah.. and a bit of alcohol for cleaning
You could check the CPU guides around here.. they are for different model but the basics are the same. For example BigO's Guide.

 

no it is not a very involved process....keep a video camera facing ur laptop next to ur head so that u dont get lost when reassembling the laptop....I used to normally land up with a few extra screws after the reassembly..
U wud just need the AS5 and the articlean sloutions to clean the heatsink and apply the thermal paste....but i am not sure if that wud void ur warranty but it ll make ur cpu run cooler if applied right..!!
the lappy's fine....it shud support the higher end santa rosa's....
the grafix card shud be fine and u shudnt play around with it that much since it ll be new..

 

While were at it, anything else I should consider upgrading either immediately or over time?

I have been hearing about ddr3 being faster then ddr2. In all honesty those terms are almost clueless to me, besides the fact that I know this laptop has the ddr2 memory type. Could this be upgrading by switching out the memory?

The hard drive looks big enough to me, and I know that can be generally easily swapped out. So that is no biggie (I would probably just buy an external one anyways).

Edit: Thank you for all the help, you have already given. Has made me quite more enthusiastic about buying it (it is my first notebook, and will be going off to college soon, so I want it to stay good for a while).

Edit 2: I am trying to find a store that has the CPU you talked about. So far I haven't had much luck, could you point me towards a Canadian Store/Store that ships to Canada that has one that you mentioned?

 

ebay is the cheapest....new boxed cpus will cost u a fortune....
and ur laptop wont support ddr3...!!

 

Hey, fellow Aspire 6920-6428 owner!

I was also thinking about getting a new CPU for my system eventually...like when my extended warranty runs out.

You should be looking at Intel Core 2 Duos that start with T8 or T9 - they're guaranteed to be supported by your BIOS (since Aspire 6920s are sold with them installed elsewhere in the world), and be the right socket too.
The T7100/T7250/T7300/T7500/T7700/T7800 might not be supported, and plus they're on the older Merom core - not worth your time or money.

The 9500M GS is only upgradeable if the Aspire 6920G has an MXM slot - otherwise, you're stuck with it. Check the Mobile GPU Guide in the Hardware forum for more details.

As for DDR3 being faster than DDR2, don't worry about it. DDR3 is the new standard, but it'll only be used in the newest-of-the-new Intel Centrino 2 laptops that will be debuting this summer, and you can't upgrade a DDR2 system to use DDR3. What you have is plenty fast.

In summary, don't just upgrade willy-nilly. Find the bottleneck in your system - CPU, hard drive, memory, or otherwise - and upgrade that first. I can tell you that as soon as SSD prices plummet, I'm upgrading my system to one.

And remember - the slowest part of any computer is always the person using it!

 

Thank you for all the help, has made this a TON easier.

 

I have a question too if someone can help...
Can i add a 800 or 1066 ddr2 on my acer 6920? as i read it gots a gm965 but i didnt understood what type of ddr2 memory it accepts

Is there any real deal to go for a 7.2k hdd??
Thank you

 

Yoshi_Alien, please double-check the last post date on a topic before posting. This was over a year old!

But to answer your question, the 965 chipsets are limited to DDR2-667 RAM modules. You can put faster ones in, but they will automatically downclock to the chipset's limit.

As for going to a 7200rpm HDD, there are some advantages. Since the platters spin faster, the heads can read or write data at a faster clip. Access times and write/read speeds tend to go up, but so do power usage and heat output.
The Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB hard drive is the newest 7.2K drive on the market, and since the data density is so high, expect great results from the upgrade.