Acer Aspire E1-531 CPU , Ram and HDD upgrade

Dietcoke2006

I have an old Aspire E1-531 I won't say I am super attracted to it but I have to use it for another 1 or 1.5 year until I get to purchase a new one so i would like to upgrade it rather then use it as is. the configuration -

Intel Pentium B960 (2nd gen sandy bridge)

15.6" HD LED LCD

Ram 2 gb -----> upgraded to 6 gb

500 GB HDD

Base Board Information: I have no information but I am sure that the cpu is not soldered

Now....this laptop was purchased way back in 2013 and was given to me by my father 2 years ago. I am still in school but I do need a laptop for presentation and other school related purposes and as I mentioned above I won't be purchasing a new one until I go to an university or college

So the point is I want to increase this laptop's life by another year or 2.

I know I can upgrade cpu and hdd to ssd on this but to what extent that is unknown to me

My basic requirements are simple and straightforward the laptop must be able to play 1080p videos in run Windows 10 20H1 or 1903 smoothly and without latency thanks to the new processor and SSD

Now can somebody assist me and let me know to which processor and SSD I can upgrade to and also where I can find these parts.

Thanks.

Accepted answers

billsey

Your E1-531 has a single SATA interface for a HDD or SSD, a separate connector for an ODD and a Mini PCIe connector for a WLAN card. So, upgrading to a SATA SSD is easy. I'd get an external SATA case and use that to clone the existing HDD to a new SSD then swap the the new drive in for the old one and you should be good to go. Once you are satisfied that everything is working right you can put the old drive into the case and use Disk Management to wipe all partitions and reset to be a data or backup drive.

What CPU do you have now? I believe this is the list of what they shipped with initially:

Those are 35W CPUs, so you should be able to put in any of the Sandy Bridge 35W mobile CPUs. I believe the highest end will be an i7-2620M or i7-2640M. Don't try for anything with a higher power requirement, it will run way too hot. There are also some options with 17W or 25W power and those should also work, and run cooler. You likely won't see a big change in performance, but the CPUs are old enough that they should be really cheap. The SSD is the best upgrade option, second is to bump the memory to 8GB, 8GB will run better than 6GB does.

William_mk2

@Dietcoke2006

I would like to provide some additional info which will really help you.

Kindly go through the details given below. The info provided below will be very helpful to get the current memory and ssd details of your computer and the options to upgrade it.

Please visit the website given below. There is an option to "start your scan " and " select your computer " . Please chose the options and try it. It will show you the memory and SSD’s details and the best upgrade options for you..

https://www.crucial.com/

It will tell you what you currently have and what you can add for memory and SSD's.

Note: If you decide to buy you can always compare the prices by visiting other websites or stores and then you can decide. We are providing the info of scan app just to show you the upgrade options. You can even download similar scan apps from other memory upgrade websites too.

To check the compatibility of ram which you can use on your computer.. Get CPUz and check it with that in SPD section of all the RAM and specs that you have, its a quick and simple way to check all OEM specs and what you have in your system.

All comments

Dietcoke2006

about the board information I have some information about it now —-Motherboard - EA50_HC_HR (U3E1) (type 2) ,

Southbridge Model - HM70 , Socket 988B rPGA

brummyfan2

Hi,

I don't think you need a CPU upgrade but you can get a cheap Samsung 860 Evo( perhaps a used one) and upgrade the HDD, you will be fine in my opinion, I wouldn't want you to spend money on this old laptop.

billsey

Your E1-531 has a single SATA interface for a HDD or SSD, a separate connector for an ODD and a Mini PCIe connector for a WLAN card. So, upgrading to a SATA SSD is easy. I'd get an external SATA case and use that to clone the existing HDD to a new SSD then swap the the new drive in for the old one and you should be good to go. Once you are satisfied that everything is working right you can put the old drive into the case and use Disk Management to wipe all partitions and reset to be a data or backup drive.

What CPU do you have now? I believe this is the list of what they shipped with initially:

Those are 35W CPUs, so you should be able to put in any of the Sandy Bridge 35W mobile CPUs. I believe the highest end will be an i7-2620M or i7-2640M. Don't try for anything with a higher power requirement, it will run way too hot. There are also some options with 17W or 25W power and those should also work, and run cooler. You likely won't see a big change in performance, but the CPUs are old enough that they should be really cheap. The SSD is the best upgrade option, second is to bump the memory to 8GB, 8GB will run better than 6GB does.

Dietcoke2006

i dont think i will be able to run windows 10 1903 even if i upgrade my ssd , currently i am on windows 10 1607 LTSB , even though this version of windows is considered light relatively , that too is taking a toll on this piece of beauty @brummyfan2

Dietcoke2006

@billsey i am okk with purchasing i7 2640 and an SSD , i have enough saved up for that . i checked it on ebay it is about 40 GBP . but i have a question which i have seen on many threads regarding aspire e1 531 that after upgrading the CPU the machine turns of after 30 minutes ( what = because of incompatibility )
is this statement true ?
and also i have not used ebay ever so can you see to it if this is legitimate or not
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184255679736?epid=111235259&itmmeta=01HYA2X2HV5W48D9G3SP057VVK&hash=item2ae67e8cf8:g:RlgAAOSw8PNemEJ5

brummyfan2

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1276497#Comment_1276497

You can get it much cheaper than £40, have a look at these links:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386922903342?itmmeta=01HYA71QJW0SFF4Z2E9AWYGFKW&hash=item5a1666f72e:g:Mb0AAOSwCPtlrrfU&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4PWTlrglrltW4HfdoQjpHZGNviUJOzAtzjSEklIv%2BrYtSS%2B4KWhhaeCu8UpesfTi%2BH%2BGfiaYJBY5g1tY1PPsempI0UAf5ytFsB0YXkfnL4cM2OLQ8XM2JZvB0TU9Mg08%2FJnGr59HNuFtUOXTj91x6mMraADIoCCVgk2Q1BnHJ7%2FL6mgodLzBejbDXZbN9%2B97MgRK2oZau0Ur4Qzg8NNXHGnj3tIfq2WtfVGhaecBSfKBFHlQwTG4kS00znyMI4tFgay%2FsDPPJTzfhes9zB9sK2DHoq1s8CqNUNphSm3HhrOS%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8r5hsfyYw

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185590386691?itmmeta=01HYA71QJWZP9MZN7ZW2CDYRKK&hash=item2b360c9003:g:ePAAAOSwSWpj563I&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4J1DYrjF5eJz0UvZjYT6UMYxfX8fGqvSxdRW1YY%2B60IsrX3uJBqmIsqcGytbmMLXLTvKDiqAgU%2FyJT5Ca2za4wpiDDleYNjVdKdHUmidR2bx9PeSLmPtkMRLUvj%2FYCzILOinItdBi0j3Ig%2BCoPimVtocEKJCxYBuPb0IJTxwa0F2gXPKnFerIKdRN923AIZlBAFxcOs%2FQctEJe0XYZyBLhrQJV%2FHyiQ05ZMgpPzaXcRGF%2B%2B9f7lrXPWkv2zVk%2FLNcbeWm8C7RDQMM4HjA82Uh211pXj2NkudU1IJUbIJl9ic%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8z5hsfyYw

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235435906687?epid=219516776&itmmeta=01HYA71QJW73PSMK17TCF9AB21&hash=item36d112d67f:g:DPYAAOSw~L1mLTTG&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwHBG8AkoAgIDoAeec5v2u2XNmqE5HT5VHjWEKXf9Bsly0OK41tj7mGes50ctyVNwhAldhHHDjY2gPO5psSsUUgJrAy1TiwNBteGSGYDY7ad9kAVxiHAjUwS29uf45L2gbw5ztnidSNgb0mPL5%2BMsqBOylBCHE351Nl0smWfmCwMPvg8oV0ZxxtNPTpJlnZPu1GwaY6mYHF5cq8chmQ58g%2FHZaU5E7LPsUcRYr4PfcfNqWXXbLwjpFl3y0e3RRgQL8Q%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8z5hsfyYw

Dietcoke2006

@brummyfan2 thanks

This will work right....what about the 30 minutes lockdown problem

Dietcoke2006

@brummyfan2 you said that changing the processor is not going to make much of a difference right so tell me if i were to only change my HDD to SSD will i be able to run windows 10 1903 or higher smoothly ?

William_mk2

@Dietcoke2006

I would like to provide some additional info which will really help you.

Kindly go through the details given below. The info provided below will be very helpful to get the current memory and ssd details of your computer and the options to upgrade it.

Please visit the website given below. There is an option to "start your scan " and " select your computer " . Please chose the options and try it. It will show you the memory and SSD’s details and the best upgrade options for you..

https://www.crucial.com/

It will tell you what you currently have and what you can add for memory and SSD's.

Note: If you decide to buy you can always compare the prices by visiting other websites or stores and then you can decide. We are providing the info of scan app just to show you the upgrade options. You can even download similar scan apps from other memory upgrade websites too.

To check the compatibility of ram which you can use on your computer.. Get CPUz and check it with that in SPD section of all the RAM and specs that you have, its a quick and simple way to check all OEM specs and what you have in your system.

billsey

The switch to a SSD will give a bigger performance boost than anything else you can do. Second is to max out the memory. Last is the better CPU. If you have seen reports of users who get a shutdown after 30 minutes or so, I'd bet they have put a CPU in that has a higher TDP, so they are overheating. There is no reason otherwise that I can see for an issue like that. The new CPU, if at the same or lower TDP, will either work or it will not.

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