Upgrading an Acer Aspire 5051

somurray

Hello,

I am loath to either spending too much money upgrading my current oldie and even more so spending a few €100s or more on a new laptop.

I am using an Acer Aspire 5051:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-5051AXWMi.2725.0.html

• Same CPU
• Originally had 512mb of RAM but put in an extra 2GB stick of RAM to make it 2.5GB
• Same rust bucket 60gb HDD (Sata 1 I'd imagine)

I am tempted to do the following:

1. Buy this SSD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007ZW2LY4/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1265VVVDXMCHBHN8WDR9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455333147&pf_rd_i=468294
2. Buy this Ram to make 4GB http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004LTCGQW/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=1P1A1T31S7HDC50B7S2V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455333147&pf_rd_i=468294
3. Potentially swap my current single core CPU to another dual core CPU (within the S1 Socket) Something I'm not terribly sure will do much anyway.

I am currently finishing my thesis and I just need a PC that isn't so slow, good with word processing and isn't being bummed by the sheer amount of updates Windows 7 is doing recently. I know throwing money at a laptop from 2006 isn't the smartest of moves but £54 (SDD + 2GB RAM) to get it functioning might do the trick.

How would anyone advise me on this?

mordeith

somurray wrote: »

Hello,

I am loath to either spending too much money upgrading my current oldie and even more so spending a few €100s or more on a new laptop.

I am using an Acer Aspire 5051:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-5051AXWMi.2725.0.html

• Same CPU
• Originally had 512mb of RAM but put in an extra 2GB stick of RAM to make it 2.5GB
• Same rust bucket 60gb HDD (Sata 1 I'd imagine)

I am tempted to do the following:

1. Buy this SSD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007ZW2LY4/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1265VVVDXMCHBHN8WDR9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455333147&pf_rd_i=468294
2. Buy this Ram to make 4GB http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004LTCGQW/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=1P1A1T31S7HDC50B7S2V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455333147&pf_rd_i=468294
3. Potentially swap my current single core CPU to another dual core CPU (within the S1 Socket) Something I'm not terribly sure will do much anyway.

I am currently finishing my thesis and I just need a PC that isn't so slow, good with word processing and isn't being bummed by the sheer amount of updates Windows 7 is doing recently. I know throwing money at a laptop from 2006 isn't the smartest of moves but £54 (SDD + 2GB RAM) to get it functioning might do the trick.

How would anyone advise me on this?

Have you tried a reinstall of the OS?

jca

You're scuppered with that drive because it has a pata connection. I have that exact model and it's flying along. I upgraded it to 4gig ram and a 120 gig drive. The processor struggles a bit watching videos sometimes but I can live with that, part of its character I suppose. I was my first laptop and I haven't the heart to dump it. It had windows mce originally and it's running W7 perfectly now.

bonzodog2

You might use a class 10 micro sd card in a USB adapter (or does it have an SD slot?) for ReadyBoost, that would help the memory needs. You can probably get a disk caddy to fit in place of the optical drive, for more storage.

somurray

mordeith wrote: »

Have you tried a reinstall of the OS?

I have the original USB stick I used to install Windows 7 onto both my desktop and laptop which a friend of mine gave me for free (a legitimate copy of Windows 7) back in 2012, but I tried to do a reinstall with the USB stick and it no longer works, it is read as a Windows 7 Boot USB but the files seem to not work.

You're scuppered with that drive because it has a pata connection. I have that exact model and it's flying along. I upgraded it to 4gig ram and a 120 gig drive. The processor struggles a bit watching videos sometimes but I can live with that, part of its character I suppose. I was my first laptop and I haven't the heart to dump it. It had windows mce originally and it's running W7 perfectly now.

Ah balls, so no SSD upgrade for me? What drive should I get?

bonzodog2

somurray wrote: »

I have the original USB stick I used to install Windows 7 onto both my desktop and laptop which a friend of mine gave me for free (a legitimate copy of Windows 7) back in 2012, but I tried to do a reinstall with the USB stick and it no longer works, it is read as a Windows 7 Boot USB but the files seem to not work.



Ah balls, so no SSD upgrade for me? What drive should I get?

You could put the SSD in something like this
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Universal-IDE-PATA-TO-SATA-2nd-HDD-Caddy-Tray-for-9-5mm-CD-DVD-ROM-Optical-Bay-/110905319048?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d278de88

Maybe not that exact one, your optical slot might be thicker. Check your BIOS to see it you can boot from 2nd drive

Take out the optical and check the connection! Usually 1 screw.

edit: a thicker one: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/2nd-Sata-to-IDE-Hard-Drive-HDD-Caddy-Tray-for-Toshiba-Equium-A200-A205-A210-A215-/271081037627?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f1db05f3b

jca

bonzodog2 wrote: »

You could put the SSD in something like this
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Universal-IDE-PATA-TO-SATA-2nd-HDD-Caddy-Tray-for-9-5mm-CD-DVD-ROM-Optical-Bay-/110905319048?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d278de88

Maybe not that exact one, your optical slot might be thicker. Check your BIOS to see it you can boot from 2nd drive

Take out the optical and check the connection! Usually 1 screw.

edit: a thicker one: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/2nd-Sata-to-IDE-Hard-Drive-HDD-Caddy-Tray-for-Toshiba-Equium-A200-A205-A210-A215-/271081037627?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f1db05f3b

They're a brilliant idea. Can you get them in full size for a desktop? That would bring my ancient Dell kicking and screaming into the 21'st century.... If only I could get pci ram..

Capt'n Midnight

use CPUZ to ID what type of ram , socket and cpu you have.

check to see what people have upped the CPU for in that model, BIOS upgrade probably necessary , CPU's for that socket maybe up to 2.4GHz but use 15% more heat which is a bad thing. extra cores help with some things, but unless the apps you use are multi threaded then they wont use them. Good for browsing , not so good for some games.

If using a 32 Bit version of windows then changing the 512MB for a 2GB won't get you a lot more than 3.25GB of usable memory due to the 32 bit limitations. 1GB will give you 0.5GB extra. 2GB will probably only give you 0.75G extra. 1GB sticks are a lot cheaper than 2GB


making the slow things faster is usually better than making the fast things faster.

SSD's are way faster than spinning rust, and if SATA you can move them to a new laptop in the way RAM and CPU's don't migrate. spend €80-100 on a 250-256GB one rather than being cramped on a 128GB they pop up on bargain alerts every so oftern

http://www.buyincoins.com/?r=search/index&cid=0&keyword=bay for various bays

jca

I have 64 bit W7 in mine and it runs perfectly. It has a standard hdd and I got the memory from one of those online sites that scans first so I'll know for certain that it works. Every 3 months or so, I give it a good clean up and defrag and that seems to keep it happy.