Completey new to all this.... be kind lol

[Shaun Parker]

Hey everyone.

Just very recently purchased my first ever gaming laptop and haven’t had a laptop at all for over 10 years!!

I purchased an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-55..

Intel i5 10300h
1660Ti
512gd
8gb Ram
RGB
144Hz screen

I appreciate there’s better out there etc but I got it for a good price and had some vouchers to spend so this was my only option really.

I’m going to be updating it imminently to 16/32gb Ram and a faster M.2 SSD.

I have some newbie annoying questions regarding those upgrades.

I believe my laptop can run up to 2993mhz but I’m unsure. I’m looking at getting the Corsair Vengeance or Kingston HyperX.

As for the SSD I’m swaying towards the Adata 8200 over the Samsung 970 evo plus as it just seems better for gaming.

Any and all help will be massively appreciated as I’m COMPLETELY new to all this,

Thanks,

Shaun.

 

[thenewoc]

I take it you realise that it won't take conventional DDR4 memory that's used in desktops? They will need to be SODIMM DDR4. Have you looked in the BIOS to see if you have any memory configuration options? If you don't then I'll presume they're hard coded into the BIOS and will only support as high as the BIOS designer allowed for. You could try the Acer forum for more advice on that to try and find some others that have done the same upgrade as to whether they can confirm they have something working at higher speeds. Have you also confirmed that the memory can be upgraded, some manufacturers don't make this easily possible by soldering the memory onto the motherboard?

The SSD is a bit more tricky from the perspective you're talking about, replacing the existing one which will be configured with hidden recovery / partition(s) and all the bespoke Acer apps and drivers. Ideally you'd need to research cloning the existing drive onto the new one and whether that process can also inject the appropriate driver for the new drive and whether it can preserve any extra space if you're going for a larger drive. The latter point is really the only reason I'd consider it as I don't think you'll notice performance differences between different PCIe Gen 3 drives. Might be worth researching whether it has more than one M.2 connection as adding an additional drive would be less hassle.

I would also take a look at Crucial memory as their web site will allow you to enter your laptop model and suggest suitable options. I can get 3200 Mhz SODIMM's for my HP laptop for just over £100 for 2 x 16GB.