Which Acer Spin 5 (2017) SP515-51GN model has either 16 GB of memory or at least one slot?

Callistemon

The newer Aspire series has a matte screen, and the newest Spin series laptops are only available in a smaller size without an HDD slot. I would have preferred AMD, but I need an HDD slot and a glossy screen. Looks like the slightly older Spin 5 SP515-XXXX from 2017 is good, but I can't find a model number for the version with 16 GB of memory. Does anyone know what the model number is for the 2017 Spin 5 with 16 GB of memory (or 8 GB with at least one slot for future expansion)?

StevenGen

Callistemon said:

The newer Aspire series has a matte screen, and the newest Spin series laptops are only available in a smaller size without an HDD slot. I would have preferred AMD, but I need an HDD slot and a glossy screen. Looks like the slightly older Spin 5 SP515-XXXX from 2017 is good, but I can't find a model number for the version with 16 GB of memory. Does anyone know what the model number is for the 2017 Spin 5 with 16 GB of memory (or 8 GB with at least one slot for future expansion)?

 The Spin models you are looking for are the "Spin SP515-51N/SP515-51GN" which has an 8th Gen Intel of either the i5-8250U or the i7-8550U CPU's and has a max ram of 16GB into its 2x slots (2x 8GB of DDR4-2133 MHz max at 1.2V of 288-pin SO-DIMMS modules) and has provisions for a 2.5" drive at 6 GB/sec, max that can accomodate either an SSD 2.5" or a 2.5" spinner HDD and provisions for a 1x M.2 22 x 80 mm of either PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe of the likes of the "Intel SSD SSDPEKKW512 G7X1" type M.2 drives or the M.2 SATA 6 GB/s type drives of the likes of the "Micron SSD MTFDDAV512TB N" drives. 

Callistemon

The SP515-51GN was reviewed by Notebook Check in 2017, who showed that the memory was soldered. The SP515-51N is just a lower end version, so it is probably even less likely to have 16 GB on-board or have a slot. Some websites show a second dash and then more digits. Maybe the slots were added later.

Callistemon

An archived version of the Spin 5 web page from 2018 shows one 15.6" model, the SP515-51GN-807G. Some sites say the memory is 8 GB and soldered, and iFixit has images of the internals showing only soldered memory and no slots. Crucial's website says they only have SSD upgrades and that the memory cannot be upgraded. At the same time, Offtek and KingstonMemoryShop sell 260-pin memory sticks that claim to be compatible. I am so confused.

Callistemon

So many models, no resources to differentiate. Are these even sold anywhere?

billsey

I have looked at all the models I have access to for specs, and although the motherboard supported being populated with 16GB of memory, they didn't build a model for the USA or Canada market with 16GB populated. There are, however, motherboards shown in the FRU list with 16GB populated, so some models somewhere did have it. The two MBs with discrete graphics and 16GB of ram are: NB.GTQ11.008 and NB.Q2Y11.005. They both have i7-8550U processors and I don't see anything in the descriptions about differences between the two. There's also a 16GB MB with the integrated graphics, number NB.GSF11.004.

You could potentially find one of those MBs on the secondary market, then swap it into a working 8GB system. You'd have to purchase a Windows license separately, since the license is linked to the MB...

Callistemon

There's another archived version of the Spin 5 models page from October 2018, after more models were released. Most of these models actually have slots that can be expanded to 32 GB (for the 15.6" models) or 16 GB (for the 13.3" models). Only the oldest SP515-51GN-807G has soldered memory and no slots. Crucial's website is definitely the most comprehensive and accurate, but it does have a 404 error for the SP515-51N-544J, and also incorrectly states that the SP513-52N-8326 comes with only 4 GB, when it actually has 8 GB. As long as the memory can be upgraded, 8 GB is enough. The biggest problem is that none of these are available anywhere except for Amazon and eBay.

15.6" (With HDD Slot)

SP515-51GN-807G (i7-8550U)   8 to 8 GB (0 slots)         Separate GPU 1 TB HDD

SP515-51GN-83YY (i7-8550U)   8 to 32 GB (2 slots)     Separate GPU 1 TB HDD

SP515-51N-59EE (i5-8250U)       8 to 32 GB (2 slots)       Integrated GPU 256 GB SSD

SP515-51GN-8884 (i7-8550U)  16 to 32 GB (2 slots)   Separate GPU 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SSD

SP515-51N-51RH (i5-8250U)      8 to 32 GB (2 slots)       Integrated GPU 256 GB SSD

SP515-51GN-52B3 (i5-8250U)  8 to 32 GB (2 slots)     Separate GPU 1 TB HDD

SP515-51N-51GH (i5-8250U)     8 to 32 GB (2 slots)       Integrated GPU 1 TB HDD

SP515-51N-544J (i5-8250U)        8 to (404 Error)              Integrated GPU 256 GB SSD ?

13.3" (No HDD Slot)

SP513-52N-52PL (i5 8250U)       8 to 16 GB (2 slots)    Integrated GPU   256 GB SSD

SP513-52N-85LZ (i7-8550U)      8 to 16 GB (2 slots)    Integrated GPU   256 GB SSD

SP513-52N-85DC (i7-8550U)     8 to 16 GB (2 slots)    Integrated GPU   256 GB SSD

SP513-52N-58WW (i5-8250U)   8 to 16 GB (2 slots)    Integrated GPU   256 GB SSD

SP513-52N-52VV (i5-8250U)     8 to 16 GB (2 slots)    Integrated GPU   256 GB SSD

SP513-51-55Y9 (i5-6200U)        4 to 8 GB (1 slot)         Integrated GPU   128 GB SSD

SP513-52N-8326 (i7-8550U)     8 to 16 GB (2 slots)    Integrated GPU   256 GB SSD

SP513-52N-3978 (i3-8130U)     8 to 16 (2 slots)           Integrated GPU   128 GB SSD

There are some more models that were suggested by Google and are not found here, but there are only a few archived copies of this web page showing the models.

rkg

I have Acer Spin 5 SP515-51N-51GH with 8GB RAM. The crucial.com website showed that there is compatible DDR4 RAM available, and I bought a 16GB memory stick. Upon opening the laptop, I do not see a slot for inserting the memory stick.

Can anyone help verify if there is indeed either an empty slot or upgradable RAM slot or it cannot be upgraded?

A picture inside the laptop is attached for reference.

Thanks in advance for your attention.

billsey

There is no upgrades available for memory on the SP515-51N models. Some come with 8GB soldered in, some with 16GB but none come with a memory slot for expansion. Crucial is wrong here, both in the memory upgrades and in the total memory size supported.

Callistemon

billsey said:

There is no upgrades available for memory on the SP515-51N models. Some come with 8GB soldered in, some with 16GB but none come with a memory slot for expansion. Crucial is wrong here, both in the memory upgrades and in the total memory size supported.

Does this apply to the SP515-51GN-83YY? If so, the only acceptable model is the SP515-51GN-8884, which was exceptionally rare even in it's time. I still want one of these Spins with Spindle HDDs. No, experiencing an SSD has not lured me into favoring SSDs.

billsey

Yes, the major difference between the N and GN is the inclusion of a discrete GPU on the MB. The rest of the MB specs are the same. Note that a lot of possible configurations aren't going to be available in all markets, they tweak the offerings for each locale to fit both their sales forecasts and supply.

I personally don't see a reason to build laptops with HDDs, though they can be a great choice for desktops that need extra space. Anything that is subject to failures caused by sudden movement doesn't really belong in a portable system. In the case of systems that are designed as thin and light it's even more of a hindrance to sales to put a HDD in, due to the higher weight and thickness requirements. Consumers look at talking points and will often choose just based on who has the thinnest and lightest models.

Callistemon

Thin and light is absolutely not a reason to sacrifice HDD! Thin and light is so unimportant compared to having an HDD. Yes, HDDs are more susceptible to shock than SSDs, but that doesn't mean disks don't belong in laptops. SSDs are much more susceptible to corruption on power loss. If there's a laptop that fits a PCIe server SSD card with full ceramic capacitors, I will take it. But if it has to be an NVMe stick with only tantalum capacitors, then by all means HDD is superior.

Too much emphasis is placed on how fragile HDDs are. I am writing this from an operating system installed on an open HDD (HTS543232A7A384). It has spun for 9 hours since opened, and was completely formatted for 4 hours yesterday. It took another 1 hour to install Linux onto it, and it has not crashed or glitched yet. By no means does this indicate that HDDs can be opened safely, but people underestimate durability of HDDs in general. Too much attention is given to how SSDs wear out, when burning out from overheating and corrupting on power loss are larger issues.

Callistemon

Too much emphasis is placed on how fragile HDDs are. I am writing this from an operating system installed on an open HDD (HTS543232A7A384). It has spun for 9 hours since opened, and was completely formatted for 4 hours yesterday. It took another 1 hour to install Linux onto it, and it has not crashed or glitched yet. By no means does this indicate that HDDs can be opened safely, but people underestimate durability of HDDs in general.

I have to add that disks would need to consistently and predictably tolerate at least 20,000 hours without a cover to be safe to open. Regardless of whether it lasts minutes or hours opened, it is unsafe to open either way. Spinning for hours does demonstrate to some extent that quality is underestimated. Similar to how the disk lasted over 10 hours instead of the expected minutes, HDDs can safely tolerate being moved while spinning and heated up to 50 C (of course, the former is how long it takes to be completely ruined, whereas the latter is about conservative safe levels, so this does not imply there is any safe level of being open). Dust, shock, and temperature tolerance revolve around many of the same core technologies, so dust tolerance is not entirely irrelevant.