"Pimp my ride - Acer Aspire 5920g"

Hey guys,

Hopefully I will be getting an alienware m15x soon, upgrading from an Acer Aspire 5920g.

However, I was thinking, since I have no practical experience with any sort of tinkering, about upgrading/learning to OC/etc on my 5920G.

The full model name is: Aspire 5920G - 5A4G32Mi

The specs as far as I can remember (cant run dxdiag cos I'm using another lappy now)

- Intel Pentium m: 1.8Ghz

- 2gb Ram 667 Mhz RAM

- 320GB HDD 4200 RPM

- nVidia Geforce 8600M GT

- So boys and girls, I have a bunch of questions:

- Which components are/are not upgradable on the lappy? I'm thinking more specifically of the GPU

- What is the upper "limit" of what I can upgrade to? (in hardware terms what are the best components I can upgrade to which the mobo/bios/etc would support)

- Which would be the most cost effective components to go for? (providing a decent/good boost to performance without costing a premium price)

- Is it worth trying for some upgrades/could I get them cheap enough or is it just a waste of money

- Should I just repaste gpu/cpu and give Overclocking a shot?




Ideally I would like to try and shoot for being able to perform better/on par with my brothers laptop; he had the same laptop as me but it got stolen and he got an upgrade; he has a dual core processor with about 2.2ghz, a 9600gt gfx card, cant really remember anything else..


P.S.: the only major defect of my laptop is its missing 1 key, together with the springy device thingy which makes the keys "click". Anyone know how much those cost?

 

Are you sure you got the CPU right? The Pentium M processors were common around 2003/2004ish, while the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT was a 2006/2007 GPU.

 

I think that model is a C2D T5550. And rather a 5400RPM drive, than 4200. Also, I may be wrong on this one, but I think that's one of the models with an MXM 8600GT. So quite a bit can be done to that one.

Edit: Ninja Post!

 

owait, it says intel centrino. My bad... anyway it doesnt matter that much, its still 1.8ghz

 

I stole the details off of notebookcheck, so I might be wrong regarding the specifics (cept for gpu and cpu, pretty sure on those)

Also, elaborate on the "quite a bit" if you arent too lazy please

I'm most interested in:

what the upper limit of components I can get into the lappy

and you know, any general reccomendations/advice.. (if you haven't noticed, I'm a newb )

 

Well, that's a socket M CPU, so any socket M Core 2 Duo with a 667MHz FSB. The T7600 is as high as you can take the CPU. The HDD can be upgraded to a model with 7200RPM, with a little more cache. The GPU MIGHT can be upgraded if it's the model I think it is. If it is, then you can slot in a 9600GT or HD4650 quite easily.

EDIT: Yes. It is the model I was thinking it was.

 

You can do a lot to the 5920g. You can upgrade everything you listed if you want to put money into it. CPU could be a T9300 for a good price performance ratio and the GPU could be upgraded to an ati 4650.

 

So the 5920 accepts 800MHz FSB C2D's.... That opens up quite a few more doors.

 

I am almost sure it does. I think there are a few members with 5920gs and T9300s

 

The 5920g has an Intel PM965 chipset, found that out, hope that helps.

"...it's based on the GeForce 9600M GT, which has been shown time and time again not to work on the 5920G. The fastest Nvidia GPU you'll be able to upgrade your 5920G to is the GeForce 9500M GS DDR2 (it's a refined 8600M GT), or possibly the GeForce 9600M GS GDDR3.
The going trend for Acer MXM upgrades is the ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4650 DDR2, which is the most recent (and quite possibly final) release for the aging MXM-II slot.

so, the laptop has an MXM-II slot (whatever that is. Has anything changed since when the quote I posted was written? (in terms of what I can upgrade to). Also, which one would be better then, the 4650 or the 9600gs gddr3?

 

Ahh. Yea, I just read it's MXM slot is only powered UP TO 25W. So...

 

OK so so far the upgrades I've found that I might shoot for:

ATI 4650m/9650m GT (btw would my lappy support gddr3?)

pretty much any intel core 2 duo processor? (please correct me if I'm wrong on this

2x2g 667 RAM

and a 7200/5400 rpm HDD.

That sound about right?


I have no idea how much all of this will add up to, but will try shopping around on ebay. Would be nice if I could get it all for bout 200$ or less...

 

9600m GS would be the highest Nvidia like stated earlier. Or the 4650m. You have to keep your current draw under the 25W envelope. The higher cards draw too much power and are not MXM II compatible. MXM III is it's successor, and you can't use MXM III cards.

Any C2D that has a FSB of 667MHz-800MHz.

Correct.

7200RPM would be an upgrade to what you have right now (5400).

 

hmm ok, how about just keeping the current components and trying to OC? how far apart in terms of performance is say, the 8600gt and the 4650? and how high could I go with a 1.8ghz processor? I know that this can vary from one laptop to another, but if I were to get thermal paste, just on average, what would the highest stable clocks be?

 

Well, the 4650m should perform a good deal better than an 8600m GT. Plus the 8600m is a ticking timebomb. They fail quite often. And with OC'ing the CPU, it all depends on several factors... cooling, BIOS, software.... Basically the C2D's overclock pretty good, and Acer's usually can handle a moderate OC. Just remember the T5550 is a first-gen 65nm part, and can produce a bit more heat than newer 45nm Core 2's. I have the T5500 in my old Acer 3680 and I can reliably push it to 800MHz FSB or more, but it heats up really quick and can't cool itself without external help.

 

If you're considering an upgrade, the go along with H.A.L.'s recommendations.
As far as the gpu goes, you'd be better off putting in 4650m.
It's far more powerful/reliable in contrast to the existing 8600m, but in that case, try to make sure the 4650m is a DRR3 and NOT DDR2.

 

Guys, that 25W limit for the MXM-II isn't a hard limit; it just means that you'll be pushing your power supplies (battery and AC adapter) harder. People have stuffed Radeon HD 4670s into their 5920Gs with success. The Radeon HD 4670/9650M GT aren't MXM-III cards; they're MXM-II, and will work in your machine.*

Overclocking a CPU is notoriously difficult to do; better to spend a bit more and get the faster CPU out of the box.
In terms of CPU upgrade, you'll want a Socket P Core 2 Duo with a maximum FSB of 800 MHz. That means the fastest you could get would be the T9500 at 2.6 GHz.

*As a sidenote, I have no idea why everyone has suddenly become concerned about wattage limits (only article I found was this ancient one from MXM's launch). If a 9650M GT is released on the MXM-II form factor, it should theoretically conform to any wattage limits that exist and work in all MXM-II equipped notebooks, right?

 

I read up on the 9650gt and it uses 23w according to an article I read so should actually be fine.

NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

I upgraded my old 5920g to a HD 4650, and a T5750 CPU. Made a hell of a difference (see sig for details). The most important thing to consider is that a 4650/70 GPU is significantly shorter than the 8600, so you will NEED to bridge the gap to the heatsink...I did this with an aluminum fin from an unused desktop CPU heatsink.

The record for best 5920g has to go to triturbo though, he has a 4670 DDR3 in his lappy

And guys, TehSuigi is right, if it fits the MXM conformation then wattage won't be a problem (outside of getting a new PSU - I mean the external power brick, but this is probably not ever going to happen either).

 

Mmmm 4670 mxm II goodness. I know the feeling

OP the best card you can currently get is the 4670 1GB GDDR2 card for your 5920g. For sale at mxm-upgrade. Slower then the 4670 GDDR3 card myself and triturbo have but at least it is obtainable and better than nvidia's offerings. Good luck upgrading!

 

Don't forget the X9000, although if the OP has a M15x on the way its is not worth it and I would recomend the T9300/T9500.

 

X9000 is hot. I believe the 5920g uses the same heatsink for both CPU and GPU. Get a X9000 and his nice new GPU will probably fry. When pushing laptops to their limits one must always balance the components against one another to achieve stability.

 

My X9000 runs cooler than my old T5550. It only starts to get hot when I overclock it.

 

the 5920g doesn't have the cooling for it... get a T9300 at most but really , not worth spending on an obsolete X9000... spend it instead on a i7-920xm or something for the M15x.

 

Might just as well get a new machine for what I suggested, but it was fun.

 

that's what i mean.. just sell this or spend the money to upgrade ur M15x instead.

 

Yeah I figured in the end it wouldnt be worth the money upgrading the Acer, but it was still a fun idea while it lasted

 

Does the M15X 5850 come with GDDR5?

 

yup... would have been a joke if its came with a GDDR3 Card... but Alienware won't go that low ... but still no 5870 which killed it for me.

 

Surely you could just flash it with a 5870 bios....

 

Yeah but you risk bricking it. You could just as easily just overclock it every time you want to game, most 5850's can easily go up to 5870 stock levels or even above with a stable OC.

 

with extra heat