Notebooks & Netbooks

[Michael1]

I just picked up the new R7 from Best Buy.  They didn't know anything about purchasing the stylus.  Does anyone have a link to do so?

The RAM has changed since the last model, which had 4G soldered and room for an 8G stick (12 total).  The new model has 8G but is that soldered and what kind of stick(s) do I need for an upgrade?

Finally, is the hard drive an mSATA or a 2.5 or a 1.8 drive?

Thanks all.

[surfaceproartis · Accepted solution]

Don't know why Acer seems intent on hiding its stylus, but here's the link:

http://store.acer.com/store/aceramer/en_US/pd/ThemeID.35703000/productID.291669400

For ten dollars less you can buy a Sony Active Pen which works just as well. http://store.sony.com/WFS/SNYUS/en_US/-/USD/-zid27-VGPSTD2/cat-27-catid-All-Computers-Tablet-Accesso...

[Michael1]

Thanks for the link!  Just bought it.  Can't wait to try it out with Creative Cloud.  I searched for it too but couldn't find it.

Any thoughts on upgrading RAM or HD?

[surfaceproartis]

Be aware that Adobe apps still use old WinTab drivers so you won't have pressure sensitivity in Photoshop, etc. Rumor is that Adobe will be adopting Microsoft 's .ink API in a future release. Presently, Manga Studio, Sketchbook Pro. ArtRage 4 will recognize N-Trig digitizer found in the R7.

Unless you 're working on massive RAW files, 8 GB RAM should be plenty.

[Michael1]

Ok, thanks for the tip.

I also code in Visual Studio, hence the need for max ram.  The R7 is great for that while traveling because the keyboard, monitor's pivot, and touch screen make airplane seats easier to code in.

[cabowden]

The Device Manager on my R7 572 purchased 11/27/2013 at Best Buy says that it is a Western Digital Blue (wd10jpvx-22jc3t0) which according to the spec sheet is a 2.5" SATA 5400 RPM with 8 MB cache.  It was performing miserably (kb data transfer rates instead of mb) until I installed the driver that Acer posted recently on the R7-572 Driver page.   It made a world of difference.

[Michael1 · Accepted solution]

I was hoping to place an order before I cracked open the machine, but alas. 

After removing the visible screws you need to uncover 3 hidden screws by removed the rubber nubs.  The two rubbers by the speakers are left alone.

It has two 204-pin SO-DIMMs with 4GB sticks.  This probably means there is no soldered memory.  I ordered two 8GB sticks to max this thing out. 

The hard drive is indeed a 2.5.  I ordered a Samsung EVO 500GB that claims to use excess RAM as a hard drive cache. 

I'll update this thread after the install and let everyone know how it went.

[greg1 · Accepted solution]

There are 2 SO-DIMM slots.  I put 2 8GB sticks of Patriot PSA316G1600SK DDR3L 1.35V CL11 memory in.  Some 1.5V RAM I already had did not work.

The hard drive is a standard 9mm 2.5" SATA.  That I replaced with the Samsung EVO 840 1TB SSD.  You can use Acronis True Image WD Edition (free) to clone the original WD drive to the SSD.  Two nice advantages to the Samsung: first, it is exactly the same size as the original drive, so you can clone identically without having to resize partitions; second, the latest Samsung Magician software will manage a 1GB ramdisk to accelerate the SSD even more.

[Michael1]

I forgot to mention that the memory is low volt.  It's 1.35V DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800). 

[Michael1]

Hey Greg, thanks for the post.  Looks like we clipped each other on timing there.

How was the performance boost for you?