Laptop Upgrade

1642 Views 10 Replies 3 Participants Last post by TheMatt, Dec 26, 2006

Rebellion88

Discussion Starter · Dec 23, 2006

I have an Acer Aspire 3002 laptop with the following specification:
AMD Sempron 2800+
2x256MB Ram
60BG Hard Drive
SiS M760GX 64MB VGA Graphics
DVD-ROM

Firstly i was curious because i know the motherboard on this laptop is able to support AMD Turion Processor, the 25w version, would this have a lower tempreture than my sempron it currently runs around 50c normal and 55c on a full load, wth no cooling pad. Is this too hot for the sempron? The next question is can i mix RAM sizes as long as i get the same brand and speed so a 512 and a 256? The next major question is, prepare yourself :wink: Would another motherboard fit this laptop that has a better graphics card intergrated. Like the Acer Ferrari laptops i belive are based on what i have with much better specs? Any help i'll be most grateful. Links of pictures or anything else you need to know just. Thanks TSF oh and have a merry christmas and happy new year all!!!!! :grin:

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TheMatt

· #2 · Dec 23, 2006

You can upgrade to the Turion MT processors, but they will run hotter than the Sempron. Upgrading the CPU can be kind of a pain since you have to open up the entire bottom and remove the hard disk to access one screw to remove the heatsink.

You can mix RAM sizes, but I would avoid it as you will get dual channel with matched pairs. It really won't do any harm, but you would be doubling the RAM bandwidth by using pairs.

And finally, I seriously doubt you will find a motherboard that will work. The best option is to upgrade your RAM for better gaming performance. You can also increase the amount of video RAM in the BIOS from 64 MB to 128 MB.

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V0lt

· #3 · Dec 23, 2006

Yeah, plus those Ferrari series notebooks aren't all they're cracked up to be. Last I checked, they run the Mobility Radeon x1400 card, which isn't bad- but you'll see better cards in less conspicuous machines, like the regular aspire 5xxx series.

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Rebellion88

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 23, 2006

Thanks, in the bios it only gives me the option of 32mb or 64mb for the graphics maybe thats the 3003 model that has 128mb as mine is the 3002. Do you know any good online shops for cheap components located in Australia or that ships world wide, the main one i use at the moment is Umart or Techbuy

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V0lt

· #5 · Dec 23, 2006

Unfortunately I don't know of any myself, but we have a ton of Australian members- maybe one of them will point you in the right direction

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TheMatt

· #6 · Dec 23, 2006

It is because you have the 3A37 version of the BIOS, which only supports 64 MB of VRAM. The 3A27 and 3A18 versions supported 128 MB.

BTW, if your temps don't go above 55 degrees under full load, then you are fine and don't need a cooling pad.

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Rebellion88

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 24, 2006

Ok thanks i have 3A32, do you know where i can go to get the bios download?

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Rebellion88

Discussion Starter · #8 · Dec 24, 2006

no worries found what i was looking for, put it up to 128mb, guess i need some more ram now as im down to 384 i think another 512 should do the job.

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TheMatt

· #9 · Dec 24, 2006

I would not flash the BIOS over the extra RAM since it is shared, which isn't as good as dedicated. Also, increasing the shared video RAM on a system with only 256 MB of RAM can slow the overall performance. I think your best option is just to upgrade your RAM to 1 GB.

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Rebellion88

Discussion Starter · #10 · Dec 26, 2006

You said that my board would upgrade to a turion MT processor how about the turion ML version?

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TheMatt

· #11 · Dec 26, 2006 (Edited)

The board and the BIOS will support it, but it will require 10 w more power, which the laptop might not be able to support. You can get the Turion MT32 - MT40 at newegg now for not too much, so I would stick with those. But first, upgrade your RAM to 1 GB and see how much more of a performance increase you get. You will only notice a difference with the new processor if you do a lot of CPU intensive stuff like MP3 encoding.

For 768 MB of RAM, you can get one of these, and for 1024, you can get two.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231037

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