Aspire Z5771 Upgrade Help

Jomac said:

I have recently bought an Acer Aspire Z5771 computer which i'm very happy with. I have upgraded the RAM to 8Gb and fitted an SSD retaining the original 1Tb as drive F for general storage.

The CPU fitted is the Intel G620 2.6GHz Dual core and and I would like to speed things up in this area. What alternative CPU's can i replace the original with that could make a speed difference without breaking the bank?

Another area the computer falls down on is the GPU with some pretty poor benchmarks, are there any suggestions here?

I've looked at overclocking both of the above and used the MSI Afterburner and the Intel Overclocking Utility, bur for some reason neither programs will do anything, all options are greyed out (BIOS locked?)

Any help here would be gratefully welcomed.

TIA

Look Jomac as billsey is saying “Unfortunately they used two different motherboards, and the early ones don't support the 3rd gen processors” your OEM “Model IPISB-AG (CPU 1)” can only cater for the lower spec Intel Pentium G620 (2 core, 2 threads, 2.6GHz, 512 L2 cache, L3 cache 3MB and 65W TDP) and the 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Socket 1150 CPU’s. I would upgrade your Intel Pentium G620 to the highest spec CPU of the Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge, Socket 1155 (4 core, 8 threads, 3.5GHz turbo 3.9GHz, L2 cache 1MB, L3 cache 8MB and 95 TDP) and also the other 2nd Gen that Acerfits to the other motherboard like the i3-2120 or the i5-2400S which will all fit and be compatible to your motherboard and are all good performers but and what I suggest is for you to get better CPU cooling fans, the i7-2700K top CPU will give you an increase of “Related Performance” of 215% above your OEM Pentium G620 performance which the i7-2799K is also 90% upgradeable and compatible to your OEM Intel Pentium G620T CPU as is your BIOS Version: P01.A0 titled “BIOS (No support Ivy MB)” which you can ONLY upgrade to the higher BIOS update of the Version P01.A1 titled “BIOS” ONLY!

Note: all the other BIOS updates are not suitable for your Sandy Bridge CPU, for example the Version P03.A1 titled “BIOS (Support Ivy MB)” for your Aspire Z5771 is only for the Ivy Bridge motherboard (see below) and the CPU’s which caters for the Z5771’s Intel Core i5 3330S QC 2.8G 6M 65W and the Intel Core i7 3770S QC 3.1G 8M 65W ONLY, also the Z5771 came with a UEFI BIOS that the BIOS version P11.B0 titled “BIOS - UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades)” which you cant mod your MBR/Legacy BIOS like I could do on my V3-571G from MBR/Legacy toUEFI BIOS.

You can  also have a lookat your RAM and increase its speed, do a Crucial Memory Scan to see if you can upgrade to more speedy memory like the DDR3-1600MHz as the specified memory for the Z5771 is: RAM Dual-channel 1333 MHz DDR3 SO-DIMM support: Up to 4 GB per memory module Upgrade option with 2 DIMM slots.

In regards to your motherboard, the mobo that you listed as your OEM “Model IPISB-AG (CPU 1)” which has the Intel H61 chipset but Acer has not made this mobo compatible with the 3rd Gen Intel CPU’s as your Z5771's BIOS support for that motherboard is only up to the Version  P01.A1. The only Acer Z5771 mobo that supports both the Intel Pentium Dual-Core G620.G630, G640, i3-2120, i5-2400S, i5-3330S and the top of the range i7-3770S CPU is the “Mainboard aParis Intel H61 Realtek RTL8111E-VL - Acer Logo Proprietary W/O 1394 V1.0 LF w/ - MCR/USB3.0/SPIDF, for UMA and switchable VGA – Acer part#: MB.SHM0P.001” so your mobo can’t, as I've suggested above, upgrade to the Intel 2nd Gen Core i7-2700K as that is your only option ifyou don't want to get the other model that I've listed.