Acer Aspire E1-531 CPU , Ram and HDD upgrade

Hi there,

I have an old Aspire E1-531and i am kind of attached to it and i would like to upgrade it rather then throw it away. So this is the configuration:

Intel Pentium 2020M Processor (2.4 Ghz, 2MB L3 cache)Intel HD Graphics
15.6 " HD LED LCD
6 GB DDR3 Memory
500 GB HDD
DVD-Super Multi DL drive
Acer Nplify 802.11 b/g/n
6-cell Li-ion battery

Base Board Information: Acer EA50_HC_CR Type2

Now.. i know that an Intel Core Intel Core i7-3940XM is supported by old Aspire E1 laptops, but what i don`t know is if this particular base board supports it. If you need any other info about the laptop, in order to answer to my question, i shall try to provide it.

Second thing is the RAM… i know that it supports 2 units of 4 GB DDR3, but i was wondering if i upgrade the CPU to I7 3940XM or another one (in case this one is not supported), maybe i could put 2 units of 8 GB DDR3 instead?

And the third thing would be if i can upgrade the HDD to a SSD sata III? is it possible? or it has to be a 5400 rpm HDD?

I am looking forward for anyone`s help..thank you very much .

Accepted answers

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/685300/acer-aspire-e1-531-cpu-ram-and-hdd-upgrade

Does your Aspire E1-531 have a UEFI bios and are you running the last bios version 2.21 or is your laptop running legacy bios version 1.13? If your Aspire E1-531is an UEFI bios laptop and running Win-8,1 and came with the 2020M TPD 35W Ivy Bridge CPU then the mobo will support more upper spec 3rd Gen i5 and i7 CPUs, but not the Xtreme type CPOU's of the i7-3940XM TPD 55W. The E1-531 laptop will work very well with a moderate CPU upgrade to the i5-3230M TPD 35W CPU or if you want to upgrade to an i7 CPU, then upgrade to the max of the i7-3632M TPD 35W, that will work perfectly and will also be very well balanced and will not overheat your laptop.

You don't need the Xtreme i7-3940XM CPU as this laptop will never ever utilize this CPUs performance, especially with the E1-531 that dosent have a dedicated GPU and its not the E1-531G model. Note, that whenever you upgrade the CPU you need to upgrade to a well-balanced CPU to GPU and appropriate RAM speeds to balance everything out.

Just as an example, I've upgraded an Aspire 5750 that came oem with an i5-2410M, that I upgraded to 8GB 2x4GB DDR3-1600Mhz and to the i5-2540M CPU and this laptops performance improved at least 75% and considerably, then I updated it once more, to the i7-2640M and it didn't do anything and it slowed the laptop down by at least 30%. Another laptop that I've got is an Aspire V3-571G that I upgraded its RAM to 8GB 2x 4GB DDR3-1866MHz RAM that came OEM from Acer with the i7-3610QM CPU and has the NVidia GT640 dedicated GPU and this laptop is an absolute oven, it overheats fiercely and gets so hot that you can't touch the bottom of the laptop, so be very careful to what3rd Gen CPU you upgrade the E1-531 to.

What I would do is upgrade your E1-531 laptop to the following:

RAM - Upgrade to 8GB - 2x 4Gb DDR3-1600MHz RAM or try the DDR3-1866MHz as it works with my V3-571G with the I7-3610QM.
CPU - Upgrade to i5-3230M TPD 35W or max to the i7-3632M TPD 35W
SSD - Samsung 1TB 870 EVO SATA III

Doing all the above will make your laptop perform at least 100% better and will work with Win-10 or Win-10 Pro perfectly, like the Aspire 5750 that I had and the V3-571G laptops that I still have.

Dionisie94

Thank you very much for your elaborate answers.

"CPU - Upgrade to i5-3230M TPD 35W or max to the i7-3632M TPD 35W"

do you mean Core i7-3630QM ? 3632M is not in the list of G2 / Socket rPGA988B supported processors…at least not in this list

About my fist choice (the 3940XM) ..i think i got it. It is too powerful for this machine.

i7 3630QM is not so bad either an i even found it in my country so it would be nice if this is the one you were talking about…

Rudolphmason

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/685300/acer-aspire-e1-531-cpu-ram-and-hdd-upgrade

Hello,

I would like to tell your questions answer. First thing is It is unlikely that the Acer EA50_HC_CR Type2 base board would support an Intel Core i7-3940XM processor. While some old Aspire E1 laptops do support this processor, it ultimately depends on the specific motherboard model and chipset. It would be best to check with Acer or the motherboard manufacturer to confirm if the i7-3940XM is compatible with the EA50_HC_CR Type2 board.

Second thing The Aspire E1-531 laptop supports a maximum of 8 GB of RAM, so it is possible to replace the existing 6 GB with two 4 GB modules. However, upgrading to two 8 GB modules may not be possible, as it depends on the maximum RAM capacity of the motherboard.

After that talk about HDD be upgraded to SSD SATA III. So, Yes it is possible to upgrade the HDD to an SSD SATA III. It is important to check the compatibility of the SSD with the laptop's SATA interface, which in this case is SATA II. While a SATA III SSD will be compatible, it will operate at SATA II speeds, which may limit its performance. It is recommended to choose an SSD with a 2.5-inch form factor to ensure compatibility with the laptop.

I hope this information useful for you.

All comments

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/685300/acer-aspire-e1-531-cpu-ram-and-hdd-upgrade

Does your Aspire E1-531 have a UEFI bios and are you running the last bios version 2.21 or is your laptop running legacy bios version 1.13? If your Aspire E1-531is an UEFI bios laptop and running Win-8,1 and came with the 2020M TPD 35W Ivy Bridge CPU then the mobo will support more upper spec 3rd Gen i5 and i7 CPUs, but not the Xtreme type CPOU's of the i7-3940XM TPD 55W. The E1-531 laptop will work very well with a moderate CPU upgrade to the i5-3230M TPD 35W CPU or if you want to upgrade to an i7 CPU, then upgrade to the max of the i7-3632M TPD 35W, that will work perfectly and will also be very well balanced and will not overheat your laptop.

You don't need the Xtreme i7-3940XM CPU as this laptop will never ever utilize this CPUs performance, especially with the E1-531 that dosent have a dedicated GPU and its not the E1-531G model. Note, that whenever you upgrade the CPU you need to upgrade to a well-balanced CPU to GPU and appropriate RAM speeds to balance everything out.

Just as an example, I've upgraded an Aspire 5750 that came oem with an i5-2410M, that I upgraded to 8GB 2x4GB DDR3-1600Mhz and to the i5-2540M CPU and this laptops performance improved at least 75% and considerably, then I updated it once more, to the i7-2640M and it didn't do anything and it slowed the laptop down by at least 30%. Another laptop that I've got is an Aspire V3-571G that I upgraded its RAM to 8GB 2x 4GB DDR3-1866MHz RAM that came OEM from Acer with the i7-3610QM CPU and has the NVidia GT640 dedicated GPU and this laptop is an absolute oven, it overheats fiercely and gets so hot that you can't touch the bottom of the laptop, so be very careful to what3rd Gen CPU you upgrade the E1-531 to.

What I would do is upgrade your E1-531 laptop to the following:

RAM - Upgrade to 8GB - 2x 4Gb DDR3-1600MHz RAM or try the DDR3-1866MHz as it works with my V3-571G with the I7-3610QM.
CPU - Upgrade to i5-3230M TPD 35W or max to the i7-3632M TPD 35W
SSD - Samsung 1TB 870 EVO SATA III

Doing all the above will make your laptop perform at least 100% better and will work with Win-10 or Win-10 Pro perfectly, like the Aspire 5750 that I had and the V3-571G laptops that I still have.

Dionisie94

Thank you very much for your elaborate answers.

"CPU - Upgrade to i5-3230M TPD 35W or max to the i7-3632M TPD 35W"

do you mean Core i7-3630QM ? 3632M is not in the list of G2 / Socket rPGA988B supported processors…at least not in this list

About my fist choice (the 3940XM) ..i think i got it. It is too powerful for this machine.

i7 3630QM is not so bad either an i even found it in my country so it would be nice if this is the one you were talking about…

Rudolphmason

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/685300/acer-aspire-e1-531-cpu-ram-and-hdd-upgrade

Hello,

I would like to tell your questions answer. First thing is It is unlikely that the Acer EA50_HC_CR Type2 base board would support an Intel Core i7-3940XM processor. While some old Aspire E1 laptops do support this processor, it ultimately depends on the specific motherboard model and chipset. It would be best to check with Acer or the motherboard manufacturer to confirm if the i7-3940XM is compatible with the EA50_HC_CR Type2 board.

Second thing The Aspire E1-531 laptop supports a maximum of 8 GB of RAM, so it is possible to replace the existing 6 GB with two 4 GB modules. However, upgrading to two 8 GB modules may not be possible, as it depends on the maximum RAM capacity of the motherboard.

After that talk about HDD be upgraded to SSD SATA III. So, Yes it is possible to upgrade the HDD to an SSD SATA III. It is important to check the compatibility of the SSD with the laptop's SATA interface, which in this case is SATA II. While a SATA III SSD will be compatible, it will operate at SATA II speeds, which may limit its performance. It is recommended to choose an SSD with a 2.5-inch form factor to ensure compatibility with the laptop.

I hope this information useful for you.

billsey

Your Pentium 2020M is part of the 3rd gen Ivory Bridge family and you can upgrade to any others in that family that meet the 35W TDP spec (or lower). The highest end CPU that meets that is the i7-3612QM. The i7-3940XM is a 65W chip and you would encounter significant cooling issues with it. For memory the chipset and motherboard support a maximum of 8GB, using two 4GB SO-DIMM modules, DDR3 1066/1333 (not DDR3L which uses a lower voltage). As for the drive, you can put any SATA 2.5" drive in, HDD or SSD in any capacity you can afford. If you are running with the 1.x BIOS you are limited for partition size to under 2TB due to the MBR drive format, but you can have multiple partitions on the drive, so something like a 4TB drive would require at least two 2TB partitions. If you have the version of the machine with the 2.x BIOS then you should be using UEFI and GPT, which removes that restriction. Note that the 1.x BIOS versions are not upgradable to 2.x.

Dionisie94

OK. Thanks everybody for all the information. You have been very helpful.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1202347#Comment_1202347

Dionisie94. as I've said above, and you can make/take whatever decision you want? But one thing, I’ve done these CPU upgrades many times for old laptops like your E1-531 laptops, and I’m telling you all this from my personal experience, take it as you will?

The best and most suitable upgrade for your Aspire E1-531 imo is the 2 core 4 threads i7-3632M CPU (that is a natural upgrade to your E1-531 oem CPU the Intel Pentium 2020M) the i7-3632M was tested and proven to be compatible and has an 815 chance of a successful upgrade, the lower the upgrade the less effective a CPU is as it might not work at all or it will make your laptop work allot worse, so be very careful of what CPU you choose!

The i7-3630QM CPU has an upgrade chance of 44% as its a 4 core 8 thread type CPU, which is acceptable but its not as ideal and will not work as well as the Core i5-3230M 2 core 4 threads CPU that will operate with your Aspire ES1-531 the BEST. More is NOT better in this case, its like putting a V8 into a Fiat 500 bambino.😂

Try to get the below CPU (see CPU Upgrade site for the best upgrades for your OEM Pentium 2020M CPU) and upgrade your Aspire E1-531 to the i5-3230M CPU and upgrade the RAM to 8GB total at DDR3-1600MHz and fit a 2.5" Samsung 870 EVO SSD drive, as all this will improve your laptops performance by at least 200% and will make it operate with Win-10 perfectly. If you have the UEFI bios board then upgrade the bios version to the last Acer bios version 2.21 also.

Dionisie94

I bought an old i7 3632QM …it works just fine for 30 minutes then the laptop shuts down. At first i thought that is overheating..61-65 Celsius. But actually the motherboard it`s limited to intel pentium processors. People on this forum failed to tell me this, the dude at service shop failed to tell me either… until i came back to replace the i7 with the old one… after i paid for the processor and the installation/uninstallation.. so, thanks for nothing dudes.

I just realized one thing after this experience… never ask on forums about anything. There is a lot of experts that don`t know what they are talking about.

I`ll buy a new laptop and it will definitely not be an Acer.

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