Is this upgrade feasible?

*Witch-of-Swords Dec 11, 2012 Student General Artist

I've been planning to upgrade my Acer Aspire 7741Z-4433 laptop for a while now. I want to ghost my drive onto a drive with a much larger memory capacity, change it to 8-16GB of RAM, and swap out the Intel graphics card with something a lot more powerful and better suited for graphic design and digital sculpting.

What I need help finding out is how much of a pain it is to get to and switch out this laptop's graphic card and drive, and how much RAM I can get the BIOS to accept for usability.

Help on this would be greatly appreciated!

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Devious Comments

~PR-Imagery Dec 13, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Sell the laptop and buy one that can actually do what you need it to...

*CinderBlockStudios Dec 13, 2012 Professional Traditional Artist

the manual for your computer should tell you your upgrade options.

*pyrohmstr Dec 12, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

So, you actually can change the processor and video chip in that acer model. See here: [link]

You can also get a better GPU in there if you switch out the motherboard with one that came with the optional, faster video chip. I did some research and it looks like the 7741's used the same motherboards as the 7741z's. It depends on what video chip you have on there now as you don't have too many options. As far as I can tell the only board for sale right now with a GPU is the MBPT501001. It has a GPU but I don't know which one... you'll have to ask Acer and ebay sellers

~TheWalkingGhost Dec 13, 2012 Student Digital Artist

I stand corrected.
Good find!

*pyrohmstr Dec 13, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

A lot of laptops are socketed processors. It's just that they're a bitch and half to actually replace the things and the heat pipes are glued down so replacing them is just really difficult.

`Pakaku Dec 12, 2012

Your only realistic option would be to just get a better laptop, or tower PC.

*Witch-of-Swords Dec 12, 2012 Student General Artist

I actually have a fantastic tower, but that doesn't help me when I'm at school and working on projects in class. Thanks for the tip, though

~TheWalkingGhost Dec 12, 2012 Student Digital Artist

I only ever recommend ghosting drives if the drive you're putting the image onto is the exact same size.
Otherwise it takes up too much space on the larger drive and can screw around SSD's.

The Acer Aspire 7741Z-4433 can only accept up to 8GB RAM maximum. See link: [link]

You cannot change the graphics card at all.

To get it faster, I suggest to get a Crucial M4 SSD, 8GB DDR3 RAM @ 1066Mhz (or 1336Mhz and it will downclock).
You could get an external graphics card if you plan to sit at a desk, otherwise the Intel Graphics will do you fine.

Next time go for something with a dedicated GPU, either nVidia or AMD.
If you plan to digital sculpting it'll help a lot more.

Average decent build:
i5+ CPU
nVidia or AMD GPU
8GB+ RAM
SSD>HDD, but it doesn't really matter all that much.

RAM you could get for like $50.
SSD price varies from $100 - 500, however Crucial M4 is one of the better ones.

..... Soooo yeah, all the best, mate.

*Witch-of-Swords Dec 12, 2012 Student General Artist

Thank you a lot! That info's definitely going to come in handy

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