Aspire 5 A515-43-R19L needs increased capacity

KEW

I purchased an Aspire 5 A515-43-R19L for my granddaughter over the summer, and she is now trying to use it for digital art, animation, and music projects.  When I purchased it, I did not realize she would be doing all of this, thinking that it was mainly for her high school curriculum. It has a 2.60 GHz Dual Core Ryzen 3 processor and a AMD Radeon Vega 3 Graphics controller. It has 4 GB DDR4 SDRAM and 128 GB SSD (m.2 nvme).  A computer shop told me that the Ryzen 3 processor would not be capable of handling the types of files she is trying to create, that it would operate slowly.

If we add a 2.5 inch 500 GB or 1 TB SSD or HDD, and add an 8 GB SDRAM to the 4 GB that is already there (total of 12 GB), would it improve the ability to support what she is doing with her files?  She could retain the 128 GB SSD as C Drive and use the 2.5 inch as the D Drive to store her files.  Which would be better to add, a 2.5 inch SSD or HDD the empty slot, or just replace the 128 GB SSD with 500 GB or 1 TB?  Adding the 2.5 inch drive I think would prevent us from having to clone the data.

Any suggestions would be helpful

KEW

JackE

Replacing the 128GB m.2 would probably be a better option because a bigger nvme is about twice the speed of a 2.5" SSD D : \ drive. But more expensive too. Migration/cloning with something like minitool is relatively painless using an m.2-to-usb adapter cable (about $15).  Increasing RAM will certainly help too but any software depends on heavily on processing speed will not be affected much by read/write storage speed.   Jack E/NJ

KEW

So increasing the capacity in the suggested manner would equip the laptop to better handle the files I mentioned?

JackE

Increasing storage capacity & speed can't hurt. But if the files depend more on processor speed (the CPU) than on storage speed/capacity (the m.2 drive & the RAM) then it might be noticeably a little faster but not a lot faster. Since the CPU is soldered to the mainboard it cannot be upgraded. Jack E/NJ

RonL59

I've cloned the original NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (256 GB) that was in the first Aspire 5 (A515-43-R19L) that I bought to a 1 TB Acer Predator GM7000 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD using Acronis True Image OEM (a link came with the SSD to download one tailored just for this computer and drive), and it was quick and easy (I used a M.2 to USB adaprer card so that I could clone the old C: drive to the new 1 TB drive). I'm getting ready to install a new Crucial 32 GB memory kit to boost the system RAM to the max it can use (again, this is compatible with this laptop. I'll be getting a 2.5-inch SATA SSD in a month or so for the D: drive (the retaining bracket and flexible cable are already inside the laptop as they came with it). For now, I've been using an external 1 TB Seagate HDD to backup my system to.

Now, as for doing digital art and such…I'm a published author and artist (besides being a retired Computer/Electrical Engineer and I.T. pro with 30 years exp.) and I'm running Corel Paintshop Pro 2022 Ultimate 64-bit and the laptop does okay for digitally painting my character portraits, even when the file sizes get huge (in the near 200 MB range). Since I've added the faster and larger capacity SSD card, I have the swap file for Paintshop set to use the C: drive. That helps some. The extra memory is necessary because I'll be running Corel Painter 2022 64-bit and it needs a minimum of 8 MB of free system memory, though the more the merrier as far as it's concerned. :) I have run Gimp and an old version of Adobe Photoshop (v.10 from back in 1999-2000), though since Adobe went to the SaaS (Software as a Service) subscription-based business model, I opted for Corel Paintshop with a lifetime license.

I also have VSDC Free Video Editor for making videos with soundtracks, and I haven't had any problem running that on this laptop.

The CPU's clock speed and the onboard graphics are the only thing that can't easily be changed (you'd have to have specialized soldering/desoldering equipment with the know-how and experience to use, and that's if the particular motherboard can handle anything other than what it comes with). However, it's been my experience so far that I can do normal digital art, such as digitally coloring my hand-drawn character portraits that I start on paper, then scan at 600 dpi, and open up in Paintshop to color. I haven't tried doing 3D graphics, though that will likely require a desktop PC with much faster hardware if you don't want to wait several hours for a rendering to complete.

I hope this helps some in regards with doing (2D) digital art and video editing on the Aspire 5 (A515-43-R19L). :)

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/583779/aspire-5-a515-43-r19l-needs-increased-capacity

Besides upgrading the SSD there is the meager 4GB installed that you should replace (Windows11 needs 8GB RAM at least)

The laptop has two RAM slots, enabling you to install up to 32GB of RAM. I suggest that you buy 2 x 16 GB DDR4 2400 MHz like the Samsung 16GB DDR4 PC4-19200 2400MHz SoDimm Laptop Memory, you can install 2600 MHZ modules but the clock speed is limited to 24OOMHz (Dual Channel) so it will still run at 2400 MHz in Dual Channel.