Questions about upgrades to Aspire AS5552-7474

[gilla409]

Hi,

I'm new to the forums, but have found lots of good info here, so I thought this would be the best place to ask questions like this.

I'm buying the Acer Aspire AS5552-7474 in the next couple of days, and while it's a solid notebook on it's own, I'm considering a few upgrades. First, I'm planning to max out the RAM to 8gb 1333mhz memory, and possibly upgrading to a 500gb 7200rpm 16mb buffer HDD. I'm certain these upgrades are doable, as the hard drive and RAM are the easiest components to access.

The thing I'm not sure about, is upgrading the DVD burner to a Blu Ray drive. Is this upgrade possible on this notebook? I'm confident I can get to it in order to install it, but I'm not sure if the system will support it. I've never installed an upgrade optical drive in a laptop before, much less a Blu Ray drive, so I'm venturing into uncharted territory here.

If anyone has done such an upgrade, what should I expect? Is it difficult, or even possible? Is there any specific type of Blu Ray drive I need to get in order to work in this system? Is there any other recommended upgrades I should look into?

Thanks in advance for any help, it's greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys have to share on the subject!

Ez,

Clayton

 

[Pyree]

Yes, possible. For my ASUS laptop it is only 3 screws holding the driver to the chassis. Once they are removed, I can pull it out. No need to open the covers. For the Lenovo I have, it is even easier, eject drive on My Computer then there is a little switch you push and a stick come out and you just pull the whole drive out.

Of course they are different designs so you better check with Acer.

 

[chemdoctor]

Hi,

I'm new to the forums, but have found lots of good info here, so I thought this would be the best place to ask questions like this.

I'm buying the Acer Aspire AS5552-7474 in the next couple of days, and while it's a solid notebook on it's own, I'm considering a few upgrades. First, I'm planning to max out the RAM to 8gb 1333mhz memory, and possibly upgrading to a 500gb 7200rpm 16mb buffer HDD. I'm certain these upgrades are doable, as the hard drive and RAM are the easiest components to access.

The thing I'm not sure about, is upgrading the DVD burner to a Blu Ray drive. Is this upgrade possible on this notebook? I'm confident I can get to it in order to install it, but I'm not sure if the system will support it. I've never installed an upgrade optical drive in a laptop before, much less a Blu Ray drive, so I'm venturing into uncharted territory here.

If anyone has done such an upgrade, what should I expect? Is it difficult, or even possible? Is there any specific type of Blu Ray drive I need to get in order to work in this system? Is there any other recommended upgrades I should look into?

Thanks in advance for any help, it's greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys have to share on the subject!

Ez,

Clayton

I have the same notebook. had it a few days now.

Just upgraded my ram to 8gig, and installed a ssd in place of the hdd, i can boot in about 21 seconds. No, im not lying. if you have any questions about the install lemme know. I just got this notebook and love it.

also, if you use a usb mouse, which i recommend, disable the touchpad with fn+f7 trust me, you cannot type on this notebook without hitting the touchpad with your fingers.

I also used the backup utility and made backup discs. I then downloaded a clean bloatware free version of windows 7 with sp1 preinstalled and did a fresh install of w7 without any of the crap that comes on the notebook from the factory, runs so smooth it blows my mind. I would forgo the ram for the ssd if money is an issue, and im gonna look into the bluray drive, that sounds interesting.
lemme know if you need anything!

 

[gilla409]

Thanks for the advice, it has helped immensely!

As for the SSD upgrade, the price per GB is a bit high at this point, and definitely out of my budget. I believe upgrading to a 7200 rpm HDD will give me a decent performance boost, and I'll look into an SSD once the prices drop a bit. I got this laptop for audio production, and my audio apps and samples take quite a bit of drive space... so an adequate SSD will end up costing close to what my system cost. However, I'm considering saving up for a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive, as it will provide the storage I need, as well as provide performance surpassing standard 7200 RPM HDDs (due to the 4gb flash memory, 32mb cache, and Adaptive Memory Technology.)

The first thing on my list is to max out the RAM to 8gb of 1333 mhz. The HDD can wait a bit, as my system is performing great as is. Rather than install a bloatware-free copy of Windows 7, I just spent the first night uninstalling and disabling all of the bloatware and vigorously cleaning my registry. So far so good, though I'm sure I'll find more unnecessary wares to banish as I get more familiar with my system. If anyone could help me identify the crap that can be removed, I would be quite grateful for the help.

A major priority is to get a quality bag that will fit my system, MIDI controller, headphones, external HDD, and all my cables and accessories. Unfortunately, the only bags that fit the bill are $80+. I've looked into cheaper options that aren't specifically designed for the gear I use, but none are anywhere near adequate. Oh well, quality does come with a price.

Edit-

While shopping for RAM online, I ran a system scan and discovered that this notebook comes stock with 1333 mhz RAM, when the specs on the Acer website says it comes with 1066 mhz RAM. Needless to say, it was a very pleasant surprise!

Chemdoctor- What memory did you use for your upgrade,and how much did you end up spending? I have a limited budget, and would like to spend around $50 on the upgrade. Pretty much every brand I've researched has their ups and downs... some users have no issues whatsoever, while others end up with one or more chips arriving DOA or dying in a short period of time. So far, my search has come down to G.Skill, Patriot, and Corsair modules, as they have the best ratings. I would really like to go with Kingston, though the only modules in my price range are their "value" series, which I gather is iffy at best. I've found a few sites that test their memory modules to ensure they're working before shipping them out, which is definitely worth the extra $3, but that doesn't really say anything about it's longevity. Also, what are your thoughts on heat spreaders? The shroud covering the memory has an aluminum heat sync installed beneath it, so in your opinion, does it do the job of heat spreaders? I realize this is a lot of questions, but if you could point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it.

 

[gilla409]

Best answer selected by gilla409.

 

[chemdoctor]

another surprise you will find is this.

The onboard video chipset is not a radeon hd 4250 with 512mb of shared ram, but its actually a hd4200 with 256 dedicated and 1024 shared! Ive not had any problems viewing hd content and running a dreamscene patch has pretty much been a cakewalk, nothing on my desktop has slowed my nb down.

I went with Corsair on the ram, been saving for a new NB so I splurged a bit on the hardware, I dont like waiting for my pc to catch up to commands.

Side note: I just installed Ubuntu, gotta say its pretty easy and it sees all of the hardware.

If you stay with windows, Make sure you go to the AMD website and download the newest drivers (catalyst) for your video. Also, if you arent tired of the keyboard yet, remember FN+F7 to disable the onboard trackpad so you can actually type, probably my only complaint about this NB is that you have no choice but to mess up when typing.

Didnt know that about the ram, I thought the same thing. Doesnt matter now, went with 8g of ddr3 1333 pc10600. about 50 bucks for two 4gb sticks.

lemme know if ya have any questions, Im playing with linux now so Im pretttty busy lol.

 

[chemdoctor]

ps, you can get a decent SSD for around 70 bucks (60gb) and get an external case for the HDD that came with the nb to use as an external drive for storing and keeping backups of files for like 10 bucks. Follow the tweaks for W7 guide to get about 6gb of extra space outa your SSD and you will see the biggest performance increase of your life. More ram is great, but do you really need more than 4gb of ram? this nb screams once configured. very happy with my purchase. (sorry for being insistant on the ssd) My WEI on the drive went up to 7.5. Still sits at a mean of 4.0 due to dated onboard video, but im not a gamer and just do some photo editing here and there.

Download Ad-aware free antivirus, its pretty great and gets the highest ratings for free antivirus.