Planning on buying a laptop, would it be possible to hook up my monitor to it?

I'm planning on buying the Acer Aspire AS5050-5827 when I get it I was wondering if I wanted to when playing games at home would I be able to hook it up to my 19 inch widescreen lcd monitor? If so what would I need to do so? Could I just use the vga cable that I use to conenct my monitor to my computer to do it? Also how come on tiger direct it has the laptop to expand to max 2GBs but on Future Shop it has it that it can expand to 4 GBs of ram. It also says this Up to 2 GB of DDR2 533/667MHz memory, upgradeable to 4GB using 2 soDIMM modules (Dual-Channel Support) on the Future Shop web site about the laptop I want... what does that mean?

 

It means they are offering to take another $2000 off your hands to give you double the RAM, which may or may not help depending on your operating system.

You need to find us a picture of the laptop and its ports; I didn't even see VGA out in the specs, you'd need that at the very least. Ideally, your monitor would have DVI and a matching port on your laptop. They're like the VGA ports, but 1/2" wider and not blue.

 

Well it has a VGA port and video interface is VGA. Also what do you mean about the 4gigs of ram thing? How will I get it to have 4gigs of ram?

 

Pretty much a standard 1gb ram stick costs about $85-$110 depending on the current trend. 2gb sticks retail for about $800-$1200 per stick.

As for the ports, VGA works fine, but the quality isn't as good as DVI.

 

Okay that's good, thanks for the help also why does it say this Up to 2 GB of DDR2 533/667MHz memory, upgradeable to 4GB using 2 soDIMM modules (Dual-Channel Support)? Does it need a special type of ram to get 4 gigs out of it? Dual-Channel ram isn't that that double sided ram? Also since it's OS is Windows Media Center is there a way that I can watch TV on it? I don't think ti comes with a TV tunner but it has an S-Video connectors. How will I be able to watch TV on it?

 

Dual Channel Memory means that you will have 2 RAM Modules on your motherboard rather than one RAM Module. The reason it says upgradable to 4GB is that you use Dual Channel Memory with two 2GB sticks to make 4GB.

If however, you have 2 sticks of 1GB, that would only make 2GB but it would still be Dual Channel Memoey becuase you are using two RAM Modules.

I guess it means, you can have a max of 2Gb in each RAM slot. So the maximum RAM for one slot in 2GB and the maximum RAM using both RAM slots is 4GB, (using Dual Channel Memory).

It says 553Mhz/667Mhz because that is the frequency the RAM Modules operate at ie: The rate at which information is communicated between various components. The higher frequency the better, as it would mean that the RAM will be not a be a bottleneck to overall system performance. However, do bear in mind, that your computer will only work as fast as your slowest component. So if your chipset runs at 553Mhz, then buying 667mHz RAM will be a waste of money. But since is says "553/667 Mhz" you should go for 667Mhz if you are going to buy RAM.

You only have two 512MB RAM Modules in your laptop. IF you buy a 2GB stick and replace with a 512MB stick, then you would put the maximum RAM in a single Slot.

As with watching TV, you have to buy an external TV Tuner, something like this:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=316265


Hook it up via USB and use the software that comes in the package or you can directly use Media Centre. Instructions on how to do this will be in the Tuner pack.

Since your GPU isnt great, you may not be able to run the secondary monitor at its native resolution...at a good frame rate..but you can try. Just dont expect it work amazingly well.

you can easily hook up via S-Video to your TV, put on the AV Channel and press your External Display Quick button until the image comes up in the TV, which is usually Fn + Someother button.

Hope this helps,
Mayz

 

^^^
Wow thanks so much for the help, you explan every question I had, I'll be buyign this for the TV tuner http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1961041&CatId=1427

Once I get the laptop, I'll be upgrading the ram to 4 gigs once I see it start to bog down. Also when I upgrade to 4 gigs the graphics card is up to 128 shared memory would I be able to make it 256?

 

Depending on your video card, it may be able to siphon off RAm to emulate video ram, but it will never be as good as real video ram.

 

The graphics card is ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 and up to 128mb doesn't that mean that 128 is the max? How will you be able to add the ram if it's possible.

 

Meaning hypermemory, where the intergrated video card steals RAM from your original RAM source and uses it for video ram(which it doesn't really do well in).

 

Is there a reason why you're looking at putting $1600-$2400 worth of RAM into an $800 laptop? Get a better laptop in the first place if you're willing to put that much money into it. 1GB should be fine, and 2GB should be more than you'll touch. I don't even use all 2GB in my system, and I'm a pretty hardcore geek. Just get a better machine with dedicated graphics if you're worried about that memory. With notebooks, it's almost always better to buy what you need now than to try and upgrade later.

 

Well I like doing a lot of multitasking, like be on msn, have limewire open, burn a dvd, download something from bitlord, have a few sites open and still have not bog down. Also I want to upgrade to vista when it comes out, since it will coem with a free express upgrade to vista, I know vista will be very demanding so I want it to run smooth so by having 4 gigs of ram it will run betetr right? Also how much will a stick of 2 gigs Dual Channel Memory ram cost? So how will I be able to increase the amount of video ram going to the graphics card?

 

This is the RAM you are looking for:

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.Asp?IMODULE=CT25664AC667

 

Personally, I'd stick with 2GB for Vista. Even with all that you plan on doing; there is nothing on that list you gave that makes me think more than 2GB is needed.

4GB is way too much $$$$ right now, so keep in down and wait until the prices lower a LOT. Only then upgrade if you complain about the speed. By then you might need a new computer anyway (for if something requires 4GB RAM then you'll probably need a more powerful CPU or GPU).

Anyway, regarding the hypermem: look around in the BIOS for options pertaining to that. Usually, laptops come with the feature enabled at a set amount which may increase a little bit if you put in that 2GB RAM. BIOS might do the on/off, but the GPU will determine the amount it borrows.

Example: GMA950 borrows up to 224MB RAM, but only if you have 1GB or more. If you have less I think it will only take 96MB or 160MB... I think.

 

Well, I could actually do that on my 4 year old pentium 4 mobile, which is on my old Precision M50. It wasn't THAT painfull. Dual core will definately help much more than 4gb ram. 64bit is worth much more than the extra ram.

2gb ram for BF2 will help, though anything over that makes pretty much NO difference. Vista will run fine on 1gb or even 512mb ram. Don't worry about that, 1-2gb will be plenty.

Good luck on your purchase!

 

Wow that's so much money isn't this what I need http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2217057&CatId=150 ?? Can you someone please find me what I'll need if I decide to upgrade to 4 gigs.

 

Your laptop has two physical slots for memory so the only way you will get 4GB ram on it, is to use 2x 2GB modules. The link you provided is the right type of memory but they are 1GB modules meaning you can have a max of 2GB.

AS MENTIONED stay clear of 2GB modules for the time being because there is a HUGE premium on them. 2GB total should be fine for what you're doing and even Vista. Remember you can always sell 2GB (2x 1GB modules) later and recoup a large portion of the money back.

Don't waste money on 4GB now... Later if you decide you need more and when prices has fallen substantially for 2GB sticks then consider upgrading but not now.

Update: The Acer laptop comes with 2x 512MB modules totalling 1GB which means you will have to remove both modules before upgrading to 2GB (2x 1GB). Sell them, give em to me or do whatever you want to do with them.

 

Okay I'll just have 2 gigs of ram. I want vista sicne it comes with a free express upgrade to it. I'll be with one gig for a while will one gig or ram be fine to run vista? Also I want to play games liek Counter-Strike 1.6 the highest end game I'll be playing are source games, will one gig be enough? I'll be getting a 4gb usb drive so I can do the Windows ReadyBoost thing to help it run better. Is this usb drive meet the requirements for Windows ReadyBoost? Does anyone here run vista yet ( like beta 2) if so what are your specs and how well does it run?

 

No problem. Feel free to leave a REP Point.

As Corolis suggested, the extra RAM will make a difference, but just bear in mind your GPU isnt actually designed for intense gaming. it will still work though

 

Yeah I tried to give you a rep a couple days ago when you made the post, but I couldn't figure out how to give a rep how do I do it?