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Product Name: | Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R74Z Slim Laptop | 15.6" Full HD IPS | AMD Ryzen 5 5500U Hexa-Core Mobile Processor | AMD Radeon Graphics | 8GB DDR4 | 256GB NVMe SSD | WiFi 6 | Backlit KB | Windows 11 Home |
Manufacturer: | Acer |
Model Number: | NX.A84AA.005 |
Product SKU: | B09J1MXS2Z |
UPC: | 195133137102 |
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Specs/Key Features:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuHtBAM
if I can make some suggestions.. snag a stick of ram (I'd say 16 GB not much price difference between that and a 8 GB stick) and a ssd ram (for example the crucial MX500 series which is on sale right now, $61 plus tax for the 1 TB version (or since it's a secondary drive you're using for data storage maybe a cheaper ssd drive would be okay too)
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NAND-SATA-Internal/dp/B078211KBB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=EL9A7H97V5QL&k... [amazon.com]
and just install all that stuff at once... more than likely the laptop will come with a hard drive enclosure bay type thing complete with screws you can use to install the extra hard drive into the laptop.
I found a small flat head screwdriver worked to get the laptop case off the bottom but it did scratch the silver finish somewhat... not sure if it's worth getting a laptop prying tool (do a search for it on amazon and one should come up) , a plastic one might not scratch the way my metal flat head screwdriver did .. and of course given it's a flat metal head screwdriver you want to be careful as all heck not to damage the laptop in the process.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuHtBAM
if I can make some suggestions.. snag a stick of ram (I'd say 16 GB not much price difference between that and a 8 GB stick) and a ssd ram (for example the crucial MX500 series which is on sale right now, $61 plus tax for the 1 TB version (or since it's a secondary drive you're using for data storage maybe a cheaper ssd drive would be okay too)
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NAND-SATA-Internal/dp/B078211KBB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=EL9A7H97V5QL&k... [amazon.com]
and just install all that stuff at once... more than likely the laptop will come with a hard drive enclosure bay type thing complete with screws you can use to install the extra hard drive into the laptop.
I found a small flat head screwdriver worked to get the laptop case off the bottom but it did scratch the silver finish somewhat... not sure if it's worth getting a laptop prying tool (do a search for it on amazon and one should come up) , a plastic one might not scratch the way my metal flat head screwdriver did .. and of course given it's a flat metal head screwdriver you want to be careful as all heck not to damage the laptop in the process.
Some food for thought.. this is significantly more expensive
https://www.newegg.com/pure-silve...6834360
although newegg claims you're saving $230 off the normal retail price... anyways for $570 you get 512 GB hard drive so double the storage space, 16 GB of ram which may or may not help you out depending on how many programs you have open at once and most importantly (to me anyways ) a faster processor AMD Ryzen 7 5000 Series 5700U .. I think, wiser heads than mine can probably weigh in on this, an online comparison between the two gave me conflicting results but generally the consensus seemed to be that the amd ryzen 7 was faster.
Given that by the time I was done with all the upgrades I planned for the amazon laptop that it would come to $561 I decided to heck with it and to just grab the newegg one... although really the newegg one is more like $621 with my intended upgrade and the intended upgrade I'd planned for the amazon one would have resulted in a 1 TB boot/windows drive (hopefully) as opposed to the 512 GB newegg version.
In addition to the upgrades I mentioned above -which are very doable don't be scared just watch the video ! ... there's a way to upgrade the boot, m2 drive I believe that it comes with too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQX3GNQ
personally I don't bother unplugging the battery like he does though I probably should to be on the safe side.. for $8 might be worth grabbing the blue plastic guitar pick prying tools he mentions or you can just use the credit card method for free as my fellow slickdeals poster mentioned above
Anyways crazy thing, after saying " this sale price will end in X hours" the crucial MX500 1 TB drive dropped to $52 which is even lower than the sale price amazon was threatening to end soon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...UTF8&
which I'd still absolutely recommend installing as a secondary drive for data storage at the very least and it should work fine as far as installing programs on it so you don't take up space on the 256 GB boot drive if you want to go that route (depends on how much you want to install on that boot drive)
(EDIT AND UPDATE - I'm seeing conflicting information as far as the maximum ram you can install on this but the newegg website says even for the more expensive version of this I mention at newegg above the newegg website is stating a maximum of 20 GB ram can be installed when you look at the specs part of the description.. yet this reddit thread says the presumably older model .. or maybe less powerful? .. Aspire 5 A515-44 (45 is less than 44 which is why I make that assumption ) laptop can take 32 GB maximum
https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerOffi...m_up
and the crucial website says A15-45's in general can take up to 32 GB of ram
https://www.crucial.com/compatibl...-5-a515-45
could not find a data sheet for the newegg model wish I could
you could try this and hope the crucial system scanner is correct and does it's job properly
https://www.crucial.com/store/systemscanner
So maybe you could order both the 16 GB and 32 GB sticks from say amazon and make sure you have the "free returns" option going on when you buy it ... I've found, particularly if the item is sold and shipped directly by amazon (and even when it's technically a 3rd party seller but fulfilled by amazon which normally reads as "shipped by amazon" and "free returns", they're very good about accepting returns )
you could upgrade the ram with a 16 GB stick but for the less than $30 difference I find myself wondering if it's worth just going for the 32 GB stick of ram instead (could be total overkill though a lot of people would argue 16 GB is just fine, depends on what you're using the laptop for)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZLC7..._lig_
as far as upgrading the boot drive.. there was one amazon review where someone grabbed a used version of the amazon laptop for cheap (although his used price was pretty close to the new price amazon is offering right now) and he threw in a 16 GB stick of ram and swapped the boot drive out to the SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB which from what I see gets great reviews in general online
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MFZY2F2/?coliid=I2Y4BEAPHYDVKA&colid=LRYM2128IT1F&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_... [amazon.com]
currently $20 off at $80 ... so you could try doing the following ... install the ram and 1 TB crucial drive ... reassemble the laptop (you could probably get away without putting the screws back in long as you're careful and don't move the laptop)... use macrium reflect free edition to create an image of the "C" boot drive onto the secondary 1 TB crucial drive.. create a macrium reflect bootable usb drive.. hit F2 to go into bios with the usb drive attached (I would test out the usb drive first to make sure it worked and the laptop boots from it) , go into boot options, tell the laptop to boot from the usb drive first... boot into macrium reflect make sure it works.. turn off the laptop, disconnect usb drive, flip laptop over again and plug in your new m2 1 TB drive .. plug the usb drive back in , boot into macrium reflect again and restore the image to the new 1 TB drive ... then enjoy your new 1 TB boot drive.
Absolute worst case scenario I'm guessing you can just plug the original m2 boot/windows drive in that came with the laptop if that doesn't work but I've heard a lot of good things about happy users who were pleased with even the free version of macrium reflect for this sort of thing.
Re: the usb dock for the m2 drive (which is another option too but really you should be using macrium reflect or some other backup software to make backups of windows anyways, hopefully onto that secondary 1 TB drive you installed) .. some bitter complaints about the enclosure the guy in the video above used overheating.. this one is on sale right now for $25 and is made of aluminum so hopefully will not overheat ?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RVC6F9Y/?coliid=IR4PE4WA8XAT0&colid=LRYM2128IT1F&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_d... [amazon.com]
As far as the usb drives, a cheap usb 2.0 drive will work.. you should also create an acer recovery usb drive as mentioned here
https://community.acer.
for about $20 you can get five of these usb drives although you get what you pay for.. test each one to make sure it works (transfer a file onto it then maybe plug it back into the PC and see if the file took)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...0DER&
and as always check the return policy .. amazon is great about accepting returns as long as you made sure the "free returns" thing was an option when you bought the item in question.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...PDKIK