2 Questions for Acer Aspire 5 A515-51G-58EY.

Hello, I'm new to the community and I'm glad to see that lot of people answer questions!
I have an Acer Aspire 5 A515-51G-58EY laptop that came with 8GB RAM, and 1TB HDD. I would like to upgrade RAM and put an M.2 SSD on my system. I would like to highlight that any of my questions are answered by Acers manual that came with the laptop. First of all, what is the maximum GB of RAM I can have in my laptop? I emailed Acer UK and they told me 20GB of RAM, but when I look at my system info at Windows 10 Pro x64 it says that 7.88GB is the highest possible use (I'll attach a screenshot too -in Greek-).

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/av/zp5nas0d6cpe.jpg

My second concern is about the type of M.2 SSD I should purchase cause I've read a lot of different ideas on the web. I would like you to tell me if this laptop supports PCIe or SATA III M.2 SSDs. If it supports PCIe then should the SSD be AHCI or NVMe? I have contacted Acer UK and they told me only that it is PCI compatible but they didn't specify if I should get an AHCI or a NVMe one. I wanted to buy the Samsung 970 EVO M.2 2280 SSD but they told me I may experience compatibility issues. I've seen an user of a similar laptop (Acer Aspire 5 A515-51G) saying that his laptop supported the Samsung 960 EVO but with half the advertised read/write speeds. Am I going to face something like this?

Thank you for your time!

Accepted answers

Jack22

System Memory

DDR4 1866/2133 SODIMM memory interface design:

• Supported memory size per socket is up to 20GB

• Supported on-board memory is 4G

Storage Subsystem

• Hard disk drive / Solid state drive

 Supports SATA/SSHD up to 2TB

• SD Card

 Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, Mini SD™, Micro SD™, SDXC™, SDHC

Commodore_1995#

1) This model has 4GB ram onboard and has only one expansion slot to add a memory comb of up to 16GB of 260 pin ddr4, 1866 or 2133mhz, 1.2v! However it is good to check if memory slot is installed in your notebook, as there are some models that do not have expansion slot for ram:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/5w/d59754nuxzbj.png

2) These 7.88gb shown by the system, does not have to be with the memory limit supported by the notebook! What happens is that part of the 8GB RAM memory is used by the onboard video card; so that is shown a smaller amount!

3) It supports ssd m2 2280 sata III; there is no information that support nvme:

4) The ahci mode was a specification made for the hd's and the nvme uses the input sata, however the ssd nvme has a speed higher than ssd m2 2280 sata III

5) You can buy one of these compatible models!

Commodore_1995#

The corsair memory will not work because it is designed for desktop!

The second option https://www.amazon.com/G-Skill-Ripjaws-260-Pin-SO-DIMM-F4-2133C15S-16GRS/dp/B017UC3NNG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1536130716&sr=1-1&keywords=F4-2133C15S-16GRS&dpID=51kj%2B-OBvHL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch" will work fine on your notebook!

All comments

Jack22

System Memory

DDR4 1866/2133 SODIMM memory interface design:

• Supported memory size per socket is up to 20GB

• Supported on-board memory is 4G

Storage Subsystem

• Hard disk drive / Solid state drive

 Supports SATA/SSHD up to 2TB

• SD Card

 Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, Mini SD™, Micro SD™, SDXC™, SDHC

Commodore_1995#

1) This model has 4GB ram onboard and has only one expansion slot to add a memory comb of up to 16GB of 260 pin ddr4, 1866 or 2133mhz, 1.2v! However it is good to check if memory slot is installed in your notebook, as there are some models that do not have expansion slot for ram:

2) These 7.88gb shown by the system, does not have to be with the memory limit supported by the notebook! What happens is that part of the 8GB RAM memory is used by the onboard video card; so that is shown a smaller amount!

3) It supports ssd m2 2280 sata III; there is no information that support nvme:

4) The ahci mode was a specification made for the hd's and the nvme uses the input sata, however the ssd nvme has a speed higher than ssd m2 2280 sata III

5) You can buy one of these compatible models!

panos_chr

Jack22 said:

System Memory
DDR4 1866/2133 SODIMM memory interface design:
• Supported memory size per socket is up to 20GB
• Supported on-board memory is 4G

Storage Subsystem
• Hard disk drive / Solid state drive
 Supports SATA/SSHD up to 2TB
• SD Card
 Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, Mini SD™, Micro SD™, SDXC™, SDHC

Thanks for the help. So I should be fine if I put this Corsair or G.Skill 16GB memory (https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/Categories/Products/Memory/Mainstream-Memory/CORSAIR-Memory-—-16GB-(1x16GB)-DDR4-2133MHz-CL15-DIMM/p/CMV16GX4M1A2133C15) or (https://www.amazon.com/G-Skill-Ripjaws-260-Pin-SO-DIMM-F4-2133C15S-16GRS/dp/B017UC3NNG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1536130716&sr=1-1&keywords=F4-2133C15S-16GRS&dpID=51kj%2B-OBvHL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch)

panos_chr

egydiocoelho said:

1) This model has 4GB ram onboard and has only one expansion slot to add a memory comb of up to 16GB of 260 pin ddr4, 1866 or 2133mhz, 1.2v! However it is good to check if memory slot is installed in your notebook, as there are some models that do not have expansion slot for ram:

2) These 7.88gb shown by the system, does not have to be with the memory limit supported by the notebook! What happens is that part of the 8GB RAM memory is used by the onboard video card; so that is shown a smaller amount!
3) It supports ssd m2 2280 sata III; there is no information that support nvme:

4) The ahci mode was a specification made for the hd's and the nvme uses the input sata, however the ssd nvme has a speed higher than ssd m2 2280 sata III
5) You can buy one of these compatible models!

Thank you for your answer. I did check if there is an expansion slot for RAM so I should be able to upgrade. So if I put 16GB RAM it will say ~15.88GB is the highest possible use?
Now about the M.2 SSD. I received this email yesterday from Acer UK claiming that the Samsung 970 EVO works. Also they told that it supports up to 512GB of M.2

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/6a/x58k96vwopqq.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/eb/nap9wdotmi98.jpg

So that means I can buy a 500GB NVME SSD regardless the overheating issue it may cause. Cause I don't think it will overheat so much!

Commodore_1995#

Was there a 4GB ram memory stick installed in this slot? I'm asking this because, this model comes with 4gb ram onboard memory!

In that case, if you install 16gb of ram, you will get 19.88gb of ram!

About ssd, if technical support told you that the model supports nvme, then buy the 970 evo!

panos_chr

egydiocoelho said:

Was there a 4GB ram memory stick installed in this slot? I'm asking this because, this model comes with 4gb ram onboard memory!
In that case, if you install 16gb of ram, you will get 19.88gb of ram!
About ssd, if technical support told you that the model supports nvme, then buy the 970 evo!