Adding RAM to Aspire V5-573P-6896

Ace123
Ace123 Member Posts: 5 New User

Currently my Acer Aspire V5-573P has 4GB RAM and it is very slow, Need to add more RAM and here is the datasheet info. 

Standard Memory : 4 GB

Maximum Memory:  12 GB

Memory Technology: DDR3L SDRAM

Number of Total Memory Slots: 1

I can add 8 GB RAM , Need more info on type of RAM? Brand of RAM works best with old Aspire laptops ? 


-Thanks


Best Answer

  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓
    @Ace123

    As you can see, disk is frequently at 100% , that is the bottleneck. It just cannot process data fast enough.

    Adding another 4GB RAM will enable the dual channel performance, making it little faster.

    Personally I do not have preferrence for 2.5" SATA3 SSD, thinking this technology is somewhat matured, and almost all of these SSDs have pretty much same spec ( 550 MB/s read, 500 MB/s write, they are like three times faster than traditional spinning HDD). Most of my SSDs are Patriot Memory brand and a couple WD and Samsung brands and some even off-brand drives. Basically satisfied with all of them.

    With your PC, I think it is definitely worth it to upgrade to SSD (even if you change to a modern PC in the future, you still can use this SSD with the future PC). The RAM upgrade is secondary but it will help. Adding another 4 GB is rather cheap now.

    If you are not a gamer or having heavy video editing tasks but just use your PC for general usages, these little upgrades should be enough for the mean time. Just don't think about upgrading to Windows 11.

Answers

  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Ace123

    I think why your laptop is slow is because it is still using traditional HDD, it is the bottleneck. Try change it to a 2.5" SATA3 SSD and you can see a big difference. Just adding RAM alone will not cause a big difference unless your original usage getting close to hitting the 4 GB RAM limit.
  • Erick-Acer_Retired
    Erick-Acer_Retired Member Posts: 503 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    edited December 2021
    Hi @ Ace123
    In technical aspect, a 8GB RAM stick can be added to a computer 4GB RAM as long as both of 8GB and 4GB have the same speed front side bus speed. For better performance, the both of RAM sticks should have also same size not only same speed. It means that, the second RAM stick should be 4GB instead of 8GB stick.
  • Ace123
    Ace123 Member Posts: 5 New User
    Current CPU on this laptop is: Intel Core i5-4200U CPU @ 1.6GHz , 4 logical processors .
    HDD size : 465 GB
    Avg Memory utilization is around 80%
    Disk Util frequently 100%

    How to find where the bottleneck is - CPU/RAM/Storage?

    Given the above CPU speed, is it worth upgrading the RAM size or the storage type to SSD?

    Any recommendation on specific SSD models to buy?


  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓
    @Ace123

    As you can see, disk is frequently at 100% , that is the bottleneck. It just cannot process data fast enough.

    Adding another 4GB RAM will enable the dual channel performance, making it little faster.

    Personally I do not have preferrence for 2.5" SATA3 SSD, thinking this technology is somewhat matured, and almost all of these SSDs have pretty much same spec ( 550 MB/s read, 500 MB/s write, they are like three times faster than traditional spinning HDD). Most of my SSDs are Patriot Memory brand and a couple WD and Samsung brands and some even off-brand drives. Basically satisfied with all of them.

    With your PC, I think it is definitely worth it to upgrade to SSD (even if you change to a modern PC in the future, you still can use this SSD with the future PC). The RAM upgrade is secondary but it will help. Adding another 4 GB is rather cheap now.

    If you are not a gamer or having heavy video editing tasks but just use your PC for general usages, these little upgrades should be enough for the mean time. Just don't think about upgrading to Windows 11.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Ace123

    Glad that you have accepted the answer.

    Even though you are using a traditional HDD, the disk utilization should not be at 100% frequently if not doing multi-tasks. 

    Are you running a third-part anti-virus software ( not the Windows Defender) at the background? If so, it is surely a source for "Slowness".

    One thing you can speed up your PC a little is to remove unneeded startup processes ( check the Startup tab under Task Manager) too.
  • Ace123
    Ace123 Member Posts: 5 New User
    1. Given this low speed cpu i5-4200U CPU @ 1.6GHz, will there be any user perceivable performance improvement with SSD or RAM upgrade?
    2. How to check if this laptop in question supports 
    PCIe NVMe Gen 3 for the internal SSD drive? Any commands that help?

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,064 Trailblazer
    edited December 2021
    Ace123 said:

    Currently my Acer Aspire V5-573P has 4GB RAM and it is very slow, Need to add more RAM and here is the datasheet info. 

    Standard Memory : 4 GB

    Maximum Memory:  12 GB

    Memory Technology: DDR3L SDRAM

    Number of Total Memory Slots: 1

    I can add 8 GB RAM , Need more info on type of RAM? Brand of RAM works best with old Aspire laptops ? 


    -Thanks


    The best for all RAM and SSD types of components and to find out the best specs for upgrades is to run the Crucial System Scanner as this will give you all the info. Btw, I’ve got an Aspire V3-571G and I’ve used this scanner to do the same and the Acer quoted max RAM for this laptop is 8GB and Crucial recommends 16GB total at 2x DDR3-1600MHz at 8GB into its 2x slots and I’ve done that and it works 100%.Also, running an SSD drive will increase your laptops boot and speed by 100% as a spinner HDD's are ancient and don't work anymore as a boot drive with Win-10. 

    Remember that increasing the RAM is not the solution for speed as and especially having a speedy drive like an SSD and your software’s streamlining is the ost important so do that, keep your Win-10 up to date, do a disk clean-up always and especially windows update disk clean-ups after an update always to streamline your OS and clutter, as all this will make your laptop perform at its peak always and also don't install unnecessary software especially a 3rd party antivirus or malware software. Take it from me as I’ve done all this to my older Aspire V3-571G laptop with its 3rd Gen Intel CPU and fitted a Samsung 2.5” 850 EVO SSD with the 16GB RAM and it works unbelievably smooth and fast with Win-10 Pro without any problems.


  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Ace123

    Using M.2 NVMe SSD will be the fastest, but your PC is using fourth generation i5 Intel CPU, don't think there was such a thing called M.2 NVMe SSD in the consumer market by that time. 

    In our earlier communication I mentioned changing to a 2.5" SATA3 SSD will be the best choice. Adding another 4GB same spec RAM will also improve performance a little. 

    After these upgrades you will find that your PC having a new life, totally different from before. That's about the best you can do for this PC.

    You still have not answered whether you are running third party antivirus software?

    Now you can pay attention on how to clone the Windows to the new SSD or do a fresh Windows installation after backing up your data.

     Anyway, I suggest to download the latest Windows from Microsoft site to a flash drive and then boot from this flash drive and perform a clean installation to the new SSD without the need of cloning. Your Windows license should be embedded in the motherboard if your PC came with Windows installed.

    If you have further question, start a new thread and we will start from there.