What can be upgraded in my laptop?

I just bought an Acer Aspire AS7551G-6477 17" Laptop. I'm curious what can be upgraded in it. I know that I can upgrade the RAM and the Hard Drive, but I was wondering if I could upgrade the Video Card and the CPU. Here's a link to the specs for the laptop:

Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS7551G-6477 NoteBook AMD Phenom II Triple-Core N850(2.2GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

I already plan on upgrading the RAM (will cost me about $85 to go to 8 GB) and I'll probably throw a SSD in it when I can. I was wondering if the CPU could be replaced and if so, which CPU's could be put in it (possibly a Phenom II Quad Core?). I'd also like to know what options I might have for replacing the Video Card.

I'd like to get 3-4 years out of this laptop and I'd like to know that I have some options to keep it somewhat current without replacing it (I've had 18 laptops so far this year and my wife has banned me from trading it again).

I'd appreciate any input!

 

You can upgrade the CPU as long as you get another S1G4 CPU or older (no point of the older ones though). Major upgrade would be going to a Phenom Quad Core or down to a faster Phenom dual core

 

Thank you for the information. I'm very Desktop Techy, but I'm not as familiar with the requirements for a Laptop Processor. Are there Wattage restrictions that I need to be aware of? Can anyone point me to a good list that would show me S1G4 compliant CPU chips? Is there a recommended place to purchase them?

 

There aren't really wattage restrictions, but what your laptop was designed to cool. Your N850 is 35 watt so you could go to a Phenom II Quad core that is 35 watt. There are 45 watt unlocked multiplier Phenom II quad cores but you pay an arm and leg for it.

I would go on Ebay, plenty of OEM sellers.

 

Ok. It looks like the Phenom II N970 is the fastest 35 Watt Quad Core. I checked for it on Ebay but I didn't come up with anything. I didn't find anything under Google Shopping Results either. Where does everyone buy their mobile CPU replacements?

 

Oh, and by the way... We haven't mentioned anything about the video card yet. Is there anything that I can upgrade that to? I honestly prefer Nvidia and I'd be thrilled if there was an option to swap it out at some point.

 

I believe, but somebody correct me if I'm wrong, Acer does not use MXM for their new stuff. It was mostly last generation Acers that used MXM standard. Pretty much you are stuck with the GPU you get nowadays unless you have a Clevo based notebook or Alienware (basically uber expensive gaming laptops). The 5650 is a good mid range card, it should handle all modern games at decent resolution medium settings.

 

I have a similar question. I have the HP dv7-4170us (link: Newegg.com - HP Pavilion dv7-4170us NoteBook AMD Phenom II Triple-Core N850(2.2GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 ) with the same N850 2.2Ghz CPU and would like to know what my upgrade options are.

I'm a graphic designer, and I also like to play games from time to time (mainly SCII and WoW). I bought this model because getting one built on the HP site would take 1 month and I needed it for work and this one seemed like really good value ($650 after rebate), but after working with large files and running multiple CS5 programs on it at once it just becomes too sluggish for my taste.

I'm going to install and SSD and possibly add more Ram, but I also want to know what my CPU upgrade options are. Any and all help would be appreciated. I would like to know where the best place for buying the replacement CPU would be. I would prefer not to use e-bay if possible.

Below is some information from Cpu-Z's output file. Let me know if I need to add anything else.

 

The problem with the AMD Phenom II quad cores is they do not have the Turbo Boost. They are capped at the 1.6, 2.0 GHz. For average users it is overkill.

 

It's helpful to determine the actual bottleneck in your system before upgrading it. Off the bat it sounds like you are low on RAM. Check the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and watch your memory usage in the Performance tab. If it is getting within 500-700MB of what you have consistently, it is probably a good idea to upgrade.

Also watch your CPU usage. If your CPU hovers at 85%+ usage for several seconds at a time consistently, then you would likely benefit from a CPU upgrade as well.

Keep in mind upgrading the CPU will void your warranty in most cases. As long as you keep the old one handy and switch it back in case you have to send the notebook in for warranty . . . shouldn't be too much of a problem. No guarantees though.
Usually I tell people that if you have to upgrade the CPU, it's a good idea to get a new notebook. In your case, it sounds like you just got a new notebook so you probably wouldn't be interested in a new one . . .

As noted, the best you can do is an AMD Phenom II quad-core. Check what the 2.0GHz+ versions are going for on eBay.

Above all, an SSD will give you a guaranteed performance boost in every application that requires hard disk access. Alternatively consider the Seagate Momentus XT, which gives much of the benefits of an SSD without the cost.

 

Photoshop was taking around 700mb of ram so I don't think that was it. CPU seems to hit 30-33% when it was getting sluggish and I assumed that was one of the cores getting maxed out, but I will try and leave task manager open tomorrow and monitor it more carefully.

It's possible it's the hard disk slowing me down as I was working with 100mb psd files among other things. Most of the lag was while opening photoshop/illustrator/indesign and saving files. Does that sound like the hard drive is the bottleneck?

My desktop rig is a phenom II x4 965 3.4ghz with 4gb of ram and an ocz agility 2 ssd, and it just seems way faster than this laptop, even before I installed the SSD. Could it be the HP bloatware, or is my cpu or hdd just slow?

As for buying a new laptop, I would if I could return this one (newegg only exchanges) or sell it off, but I'd have to be sure I have a buyer before ordering the new one, and I need a laptop for work.

I tried looking on ebay for cpus but N970/960/950 etc didn't return anything. Neither did google. Does anyone know if you can actually even buy laptop CPU's?

 

Bump

Anyone know where to buy the replacement CPUs?

 

Sounds like you are correct, it very well may be that the CPU is your problem.

The Task Manager shows overall CPU usage; 3 cores means that if it's at 33%, one core is being used to the max. Sounds like the applications you are using are not multi-CPU enabled.

In that case, the quad-core Phenom II will not help you. Look for the dual-core Phenom II -- there are 2.8GHz versions (somewhere around there). eBay is the only place I can think of where you can buy them.

 

You can upgrade:

screen (to 1080p)
CPU
Memory
Hard drive(s)
Wireless card
Optical drive
Bluetooth (if you dont have it)

The best way to look for AMD mobile CPUs on ebay is to use the socket type, put "S1G4" (without the quotations) and choose include description.

The fastest I could see was the N620.

It runs at 2.8ghz.

It would be a trade off, the real power consumption would likely be a bit less and single threaded apps would see a large boost. Properly 3 threaded apps would see a slight hit to performance however.

 

Thank you. This was very helpful.

 

hi i bought the same laptop online and i was wondering if it was MXM in anyway. ive herd it go both ways that the

Acer Aspire AS7551G-6477 hd5650m can be upgraded and also that its soldered onto the mainboard. does anyone know for sure? http://forum.notebookreview.com/6924095-post1126.html

that clearly shows that the 5650m is a mxm3.0 a card this is getting really confusing for me and i been searching for around 8 hours and cannot find any info

 

I cannot speak for the Acer Aspire AS7551G, but not all 5650Ms are MXM 3.0 cards. The 5650M comes in MXM 3.0, proprietary, and soldered versions, depending on whom is making the GPU. So just because some models of 5650M are MXM 3.0, that does not mean that the Acer Aspire AS7551G version is MXM 3.0. It might be, I don't know, but the existence of MXM 3.0 5650Ms does not necessarily mean that the Acer Aspire version is.

 

i figured that much i guess ill really have to wait and see when i gets here later this week. from what i see i should be able to see if it is by taking the back panel off.

i only planned on upgrading it so i would be able to play battlefield 3 later this fall. desktop doesnt really suit my needs now and the last one i had was stolen i cant go through that heart break again

 

I thought the newest Acers don't use MXM anymore (though anyone correct me if I'm wrong).

 

yeah i dont know for sure. havent found anyone that can confirm this laptop does or doesnt