Question Acer Nitro 5 Upgrade Compatibility

[Quadratojugal]

I have an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52-56HJ. This is one of the lower tier models with i5-8300H, 15.6 IPS Full HD 144HZ, 4GB GTX 1050Ti, 1TB HDD, and 4GB of RAM (yep, i know).

I'm looking to upgrade my RAM because 4GB of RAM on an entry level gaming laptop is an abomination. I searched the net and came across GSkill Ripjaws Sodimm 8GB DDR4 - 2133 - F4-2133C15S-8GRS. Would this be a good upgrade for my laptop? On the other hand, is it possible to remove the provided 4GB RAM and replace 2 sticks of that 8GB? Is the provided RAM removable/replaceable? (Existing 4 GB Ram is running at DDR4-2666 C19) I heard that if you are upgrading RAM, it would be good to upgrade the other too because you would possibly have issues.

Next, my laptop supports M.2 slot and supports also NVMe. I'm considering in the future to buy a Samsung EVO 970. What EVO model would be good to buy? The base EVO, EVO Plus, or EVO Pro? Is the performance upgrade worth it with the price increase? I read that although my laptop supports NVMe it cannot use its full potential because of factors I have no knowledge about. Someone said: "I asked Acer they said Acer nitro 5 has m.2 slot that uses Pcie X2 lane so you can use NVMe but not achieve full potential. It's M key form factor so it supports both B key and M key SSD's ."

I just want to squeeze every bit of efficiency with every penny that I spend.

I did my research on the the Acer Community Forums but just want to confirm with some of the knowledgeable members here.

Thanks!

 

[hang-the-9]

If the existing RAM is 2666 speed it would be a bad idea to get lower speed. In theory any DDR4 RAM of the same speed as installed should work, but there may be issues. Not a big chance but enough that you may want to go through a site like Crucial that sells RAM with a guarantee it will work.

For the SSD, yes the 970 is fine to get. Don't worry about "full potential", it will work and if there is a bit of a speed loss you won't notice it.

 

[Quadratojugal]

Thank you for replying!

The SODIMM I suggested was a c15 but on a lower clock speeds. Should I go for lower CAL but lower clock speeds or higher clock speeds but higher CAL?

As for the NVMe SSD, what do you suggest getting? The base model, Plus, or Pro?