Asus A53Z-NB61 15.6"; 1366x768x; A6-3420M 1.5GHz; 4GB; 320GB; AMD Radeon 6520G; USB 3.0; 1YR @ Newegg Canada / 347.49$!

ASUS A53Z-NB61 Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3420M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DL DVD+/-RW/CD-RW AMD Radeon HD 6520G

Excellent price for budget gaming (medium-low)

Source:
Newegg.ca - ASUS A53Z-NB61 Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3420M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DL DVD+/-RW/CD-RW AMD Radeon HD 6520G

 

Mine arrived about two hours ago and I've been cleaning out the bloatware and installing stuff ever since. I was actually wondering if someone could point me in the right direction for a RAM upgrade. There are two dimms, so I was thinking of getting two sticks of 4 GB laptop RAM and putting them in. Any recommendations? I'm unsure how to find out what is compatible. I assume 1600 RAM is compatible with this system but I'll have to look around.

Haven't played any games but I installed Steam and I'm downloading Fallout 3 Game of the Year right now. I got it as a cheap college notebook because I'll be doing a lot of coding and I didn't want to use a netbook anymore. The screen is quite an improvement, haha. Was gonna get a powerful Sager but I decided to settle with this for now since I was able to get it for $350 with no tax and free 2-day shipping. Newegg is great.

But yeah, any tips about the RAM would be appreciated. I might also consider putting in an SSD instead of the HDD that's in here right now.

 

You can get any 1600MHz RAM that you like, preferably on sale, of course

 

Finally, been waiting for a reply all day.

How do you know that any 1600MHz RAM will work?

 

Any 1600MHz DDR3 laptop memory will work.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

Given that your name is Mr. Mischief, I must ask for additional confirmation from someone else.

4 gigs of 1333 RAM to 8 gigs of 1600 RAM.

Will there be any discernible difference in performance? I'm using this laptop for programming and light gaming. Also gonna be writing and surfing the net.

 

Since the GPU uses the system memory, you should notice a small improvement in GPU intensive applications.

An awesome NBR member tested the differences between memory speeds and configurations:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...g-benchmarked-various-ram-configurations.html

 

Sorry to doubt you. Thanks a lot. I'm looking through this right now and it's awesome. So since my machine doesn't have a discrete card, then perhaps it'd be good to get two sticks of 4 GB 1600 AM.

Also, any idea how I can start overclocking the CPU? I don't know if it self-overclocks to 2.4 ghz. I uninstalled the Asus bloatware for "high performance" so if you know any good programs that can be used for overclocking, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

HTWingNut is a boss

I've had a few AMD A6 laptops, but I never ventured to overclock them. There CPU was more than fast enough for Call of Duty Black Ops and Far Cry 2.

HTWingNut has another awesome thread, this one on overclocking:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv6z-llano-overclock-optimization-guide.html

 

Wow, thanks. I'm gonna definitely check it out. His thread on the RAM was an awesome read, and very enlightening.

 

How can I find out if my motherboard supports the RAM? Or is it supposed to be self-evident that a recent machine will support new RAM?

 

Pretty much self-evident. If the RAM slots accept 204-pin DDR3 (it does), it'll accept whatever 204-pin DDR3 memory you buy. 1333MHz, 1600MHz, 1866MHz, 2133MHz, whatever.

However, past 1600MHz, marginal cost increases drastically compared to marginal performance gain (ie, it's not worth it ).

 

The motherboard in your laptop supports DDR3 SODIMMs at 1600MHz. HTWingNut's laptop is pretty much the same as yours, except it has dedicated GPU.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

Only MX (e.g. A6-3410MX) CPUs will support 1600mhz RAM. On M (e.g. A6-3420m) CPUs, the RAM will just downclock to 1333mhz. i.e. buying 1600mhz RAM on your computer won't do anything.

 

Wingnut said the same thing. So i guess I should just get 1333 RAM @ CAS 9? Or maybe 1600 @ CAS 9 since it's only a little more expensive and I can use it in a future machine, like when I get a Sager?

Also, too bad for anyone who waited. They marked the price back to nearly the original price. :O

 

The difference between 1600mhz and 1333mhz doesn't matter for anything besides benchmarks. If you want to spend $5-10 for that extra 5% performance difference, that's fine. If you don't, that's fine as well. If you're not even using up the stock 4gb I wouldn't even bother upgrading the RAM.

 

Well, since this machine has an integrated GPU instead of a discrete one, I was under the impression that additional RAM would improve performance when gaming or doing GPU intensive tasks. So 4 gigs to dual channel 8 gigs of 1333 @ CAS 9 seems, according to that thread linked earlier, to provide quite an improvement, no?

 

Oh, if it's not dual channel then yeah you should pick up another 4gb stick. I thought it was in a 2x2gb config.

 

Why not two 4 GB sticks from the same brand? Isn't it generally a bad idea to mix and match?

 

For maximum compatibility it is always recommended to use matching sticks from the same brand, model, capacity, speeds, etc. However, sometimes mixing and matching works out fine. Just be cautious.

 

Like davidricardo86 said, it's usually ideal to have the same brand. However, mixing brands will not hurt. I have a factory-installed Samsung 4GB 1333MHz stick and two aftermarket Mushkin 4GB 1333MHz sticks in my laptop, no issues. If there's a mix in speeds or timings, though, the RAM will be set to the lowest common denominator.

 

AMD Fusion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So can I technically put a 1080p screen onto this thing since it can support 1080p resolutions? Or...no? Also, I'm reading the guide for overclocking since I don't want this thing to be stuck at 1.5ghz. Any tips? I'm trying my best to see if the guide is even applicable. It's a guide for AMD Llano overclocking and I'm pretty sure the AMD A6-3420 is a Llano, right? I googled the phrase "AMD Llano" and came up with stuff about AMD Fusion APUs and whatnot.

I'm looking to definitely take advantage of the overclocking. Hopefully I don't ruin the machine since it's my first time trying, but I figure better now than later. I hope I'm not the only one who jumped on the wagon and bought one of these things during the sale!

Any idea on what temps should be safe for long-term overclocking?

I'm trying 2.3 ghz at 1.1125 voltage. Gonna let the torture test run for 5 minutes.

 

1080p should work, yeah. I do 2.4ghz @ 1.0625v, but I think I have one of the better chips. Still goes up to 90c under full CPU and GPU load, though. I don't think you really have to worry about temps since the CPU will just throttle itself if it gets too high. I would say anything under 95c is fine.

 

So I can buy a 1080p screen and manually attach it to this laptop? Or are you talking about watching 1080p content?

I've heard anything under 85C and now 95C. Does this mean I can safely crank up the CPU even more than 2.4ghz since I was hitting only around 60-61C after like 8 minutes of PRIME95?

I set P0 in K10STAT to 2,400 Mhz and the respective voltage and instead of leaving it unlocked, I made it locked on P0 and then ran the torture test that way. So it was at nearly 2,400 Mhz the entire time of the test.

 

I doubt you'll be able to replace the panel for a 1080p one. Typically, 768p laptop displays use one type of cable that's incompatible with the one that attaches 1080p panels.

 

I think he means an external display, and yes 1080p should work.

 

Ah. In that case, an external monitor at 1080p will definitely work.