Laptop Memory Upgrade advice

[Click This IT Solutions]

I want to upgrade my laptop's memory, but I haven't done this in years. I know how to do it, but I want to make sure I do it right.

What I need advice on is the amount it can be upgradded. It's an Acer Aspire V5-571 and on the Crucial website under this V5-571 it says upgradable to 8GB. I also checked with SiSoftware Sandra and there it says upgradable to 32GB.

Now I would like to upgrade it to 16GB and would like to get a place that can help me with this. Ideally I want to take my laptop to a reasonably priced shop in Pretoria and have them just make sure I can upgrade to 16GB before I purchase and see it's not possible. I can go to some suppliers that I deal with, but they're probably not going to want to help me with the testing, they just want an order and payment.

Please if anyone knows a place, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

PS - someone willing to help me without a sale would also work, then I can buy from my suppliers

 

[NorthPole]

I have a v3-571g. I'm running 4GB and 8GB sticks. I'm positive you can run 16GB safely, But check how many slots you have open, you could have 4 or 2.

 

[NeoAcheron]

Hi Rudi_C

From what I can see, that laptop comes with 6GB of RAM already?

From a technical point of view, that should be sufficient for day to day tasks. The lack of performance can probably be attributed to the slow hard drive or the CPU. In which aspect are you not satisfied with the performance of the machine, and I might be able to give you a better alternative?

Sisoft Sandra looks at the CPU and the memory controller, which matches their internal database. This controller has the ability to address up to 32GB of RAM, but it is up to the manufacturer of the laptop to physically populate that hardware. This is why Crucial knows that the hardware only supports 8GB (as it probably only has a single slot capable of fitting single sided memory modules only).

RAM will only improve performance of the computer if you have used all the free memory in the system. If you open task manager in windows 8, select "More Details" and and go to the performance tab, you can check the amount of used memory by your machine. If your machine constantly has less that 15% free, upgrading your RAM is a good idea.

While you are there, check your Disk (C. If thee active time is high (90% and up) and the average response time is higher than 150ms, your bottleneck lies with your hard drive, and replacing it with a newer (and bigger) hard drive or and SSD would make your PC sky rocket in performance. Just make sure to check these stats while you're doing the things you find slow.

6GB of RAM is quite a bit, even for gaming. I have 32GB of RAM in my PC at home, and the only time I am using more than 6GB is when I'm writing software and the whole development environment is running.

 

[Click This IT Solutions]

I have a v3-571g. I'm running 4GB and 8GB sticks. I'm positive you can run 16GB safely, But check how many slots you have open, you could have 4 or 2.

I just opened it and there are two slots and it's got one module fitted. It's got 4GB currently. Am I correct, you have 12GB in your V3-571 at the moment? I would like to fit 2 x 8GB

 

[Click This IT Solutions]

Hi Rudi_C

From what I can see, that laptop comes with 6GB of RAM already?

From a technical point of view, that should be sufficient for day to day tasks. The lack of performance can probably be attributed to the slow hard drive or the CPU. In which aspect are you not satisfied with the performance of the machine, and I might be able to give you a better alternative?

Sisoft Sandra looks at the CPU and the memory controller, which matches their internal database. This controller has the ability to address up to 32GB of RAM, but it is up to the manufacturer of the laptop to physically populate that hardware. This is why Crucial knows that the hardware only supports 8GB (as it probably only has a single slot capable of fitting single sided memory modules only).

RAM will only improve performance of the computer if you have used all the free memory in the system. If you open task manager in windows 8, select "More Details" and and go to the performance tab, you can check the amount of used memory by your machine. If your machine constantly has less that 15% free, upgrading your RAM is a good idea.

While you are there, check your Disk (C. If thee active time is high (90% and up) and the average response time is higher than 150ms, your bottleneck lies with your hard drive, and replacing it with a newer (and bigger) hard drive or and SSD would make your PC sky rocket in performance. Just make sure to check these stats while you're doing the things you find slow.

6GB of RAM is quite a bit, even for gaming. I have 32GB of RAM in my PC at home, and the only time I am using more than 6GB is when I'm writing software and the whole development environment is running.

The reason I want more memory is because I need more memory. I use this laptop for web design and a few other things all at once and the memory is low, especially when I have a lot of tabs open in my browser. It's got 4GB in and I want 16GB. Memory increases the performance and is what I need. I agree with you on the HDD performance and at times it is slow, but I will get to that some time in the near future.

 

[Johnatan56]

I just opened it and there are two slots and it's got one module fitted. It's got 4GB currently. Am I correct, you have 12GB in your V3-571 at the moment? I would like to fit 2 x 8GB

So one stick is removable and the other one is soldered on?
8GB will give you more than enough RAM, so a single 8GB stick is enough (better would be 4GBx2).
Would you mind posting your machine stats and what you are doing? The only reason for more memory than 8GB would be a lot of VMs/Photoshop/3D animation/software development (in extreme cases).

 

[Click This IT Solutions]

So one stick is removable and the other one is soldered on?
8GB will give you more than enough RAM, so a single 8GB stick is enough (better would be 4GBx2).
Would you mind posting your machine stats and what you are doing? The only reason for more memory than 8GB would be a lot of VMs/Photoshop/3D animation/software development (in extreme cases).

I use machine for Photoshop/Dreamweaver with lots of open tabs on Chrome and then still use email and would also like VM's.

Nothing is soldered on, one 4GB removable and one open slot - current config

The spec is i5-3337U @1.8GHz with 4GB and a slow Hitachi HTS545050A7E380 500GB 5400 drive. I know the drive is slow, but I really want to get my memory upgraded and then do the HDD next. Otherwise I would do HDD and 8GB and later get another 8GB ram. I'm upgrading because I feel this laptop still has a lot of life left in it, and an upgrade would work out a lot cheaper than getting a new laptop. This way it would keep me happy for probably another year or two. I have had it for about 20 months and I want a change and upping the performance is going to be a nice change.

 

[Johnatan56]

I use machine for Photoshop/Dreamweaver with lots of open tabs on Chrome and then still use email and would also like VM's.

The spec is i5-3337U @1.8GHz with 4GB and a slow Hitachi HTS545050A7E380 500GB 5400 drive. I know the drive is slow, but I really want to get my memory upgraded and then do the HDD next. Otherwise I would do HDD and 8GB and later get another 8GB ram. I'm upgrading because I feel this laptop still has a lot of life left in it, and an upgrade would work out a lot cheaper than getting a new laptop. This way it would keep me happy for probably another year or two. I have had it for about 20 months and I want a change and upping the performance is going to be a nice change.

Try with one 8GB stick first to see if it's compatible, then another if the first one isn't soldered on.
The HDD is not that important for VM/Photoshop, though it's always nice to have an upgrade in that department.

You could try this: http://www.wootware.co.za/g-skill-f...3l-9-9-9-28-204pin-1-35v-notebook-memory.html
It's a higher clockspeed, but your motherboard should underclock it.

EDIT: You might have to manually set it lower in the motherboard if it doesn't do it automatically. You could also try second hand laptop memory from carbonite.

 

[NorthPole]

I just opened it and there are two slots and it's got one module fitted. It's got 4GB currently. Am I correct, you have 12GB in your V3-571 at the moment? I would like to fit 2 x 8GB

Yes, correct, I also have two slots. I originally also only had 4GB but added another 4GB... but changed to a single 8GB with one 4GB.

Running windows(8.1), chrome,steam, origin, and some other small programs my computer usually idles at around 2.9GB usage so theres still another 9GB.

 

[Click This IT Solutions]

@NorthPole yes I think I should go this route, just get myself a 8GB and if it doesn't work I can just take out the 4GB and "sell it!"

If I have the memory sorted out, I will look into HDD upgrade to enhance the poor performance there.