Upgrade question- Acer Predator Helios 300

MSparks

I just got my Acer Predator Helios 300, and love it. I want to polish it up with some upgrades since I'll be using it for music recording (I'm a guitarist). I already upgraded it to Windows 10 Pro, and want to swap out the Kingston internal M.2 with an ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB. Faster write speeds will mean less pops and cracks in my realtime audio recording. Two questions, for seasoned Acer laptop experts:

1. Will I run into heat issues with the new M.2 drive? It's faster, but I wouldn't suspect too much in the way of heat. I don't suspect I'll need to use thermal paste on the heat spreader on the new M.2 drive. Fair assessment?

2. I also guess I could add another 16G memory module if I match brand and part numbers. Memory isn't as important as storage. I could take off the bottom again, but only want to minimize it if possible. Do the Predator 300 (2019) use one memory slot, or 2x8GB?

Thank you. I only want take off the bottom once more. I'm a 30 year hardware and software tech, but I want to respect my new laptop since it's new. I've opened my Lenovo y410P so many times that it probably hates me.

Thanks all.

Edited the thread to hide personal information
Acer-Samuel

phatfreeza

1) heat issues should not be a problem as the 300 comes with a heat pad to go over your m.2 drive. 
2) mine came with 2x8gb

i hear you about opening it up as few times as possible. i'm gathering all my parts so i can do this in one go.

xapim

MSparks they usually come with 2x8gb dual channel so if you wanted to add 16gb to make it 32gb dual channel you would have to probably get 2x16gb and get rid of the stock sodimms the issue here is that its an inverse mobo so theres one slot on each side you would have to disassemble it completely to access the second memory slot (depending on each exact model and number of slots may vary from country to country) and if you have any warranty seals you cant disassemble it as you will void your warranty

MSparks

Thanks everyone. I'll stick with 16GB of ram. I'm going to be doing music recording and light gaming, so no need to take a mobo out to add ram. The HDD will be a nice upgrade though, and as soon as I clone it, it'll be my primary drive. Data throughput is the key to running a laptop DAW.

Greatly appreciate the answers. Peace, fellow Acer brothers and sisters.

m.

belik

The main upgrade you should do is repaste 

MSparks

Repaste? Not sure I follow...

StevenGen

Repaste means, pasting your CPU, GPU by taking the heatsink/fans assembly out, cleaning the components (CPU and GPU) and then repasting them with probably the best paste on the market called 'Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut' thermal grease, that was created especially for the extremely demanding applications and the highest expectations of the overclocking community. or you can use the 'Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad' series which is a very elastic and flexible surface area pad(s) with very high thermal conductivity, compensating for even the smallest of gaps between components and is available in a variety of different sizes and thicknesses. That's all you have to do. 

xapim

MSparks bare in mind that if youre gonna repaste it yourself (this if you dont have any seals to void your warranty if you have dont touch it and send it back to get it repasted) regarding the thermal pads if they arent damaged/or you didnt damaged any on disassembling it you dont need to replace them i have never replaced mine i repasted it the first week i got it with kryonaut and never had a single issue since this was 2 years ago and my temps are exactly the same as they were the day i repasted it they dropped down 25+ after repaste and also the new h300 2019 they replaced most of the thermal pads with a special thermal paste so be careful

MSparks

Thank you for all the info. I have the new m.2 ADATA 1tb in there. Interesting thing of note though, for the 2019 Helio 300 I have...

Both memory modules are topside (I grabbed a picture). I may go with a memory update after all, but only if 16GB proves to be insufficient for recording. I can't imagine that being the case.

Let me know if you want to see the undercarriage of my Helios 300. She seems to be okay with it, as long as it's tasteful pictures. LOL.