Acer Extensa 5420 Upgrade

The Acer Extensa 5420 is an interesting machine. The 5420G model has an MXM slot for replaceable video cards. The 5420 lacks the slot but it has the leads for the slot (see pictures below). The Acer Extensa 5420 I got a hold of to repair actually started up and I couldn't find any problems until I opened it up. The heatsink was clogged with dust and lots of it.

The Acer Extensa 5420 has a fair amount of space for upgrading. The WLAN card can be upgraded to the latest and greatest 802.11 ac (no WLAN whitelist to worry about). The processor can be upgraded from a 1.9GHz to a 2.4GHz AMD Turion 64 X2. The memory can be bumped up to 4GB. And the real performance boost, an SATA SSD.

Before starting, here's the specification so of the machine.

Specifications:
AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-58 1.9 GHz processor
15.4-inch display
1280 x 800 (WXGA)
ATI Radeon X1250
2 GB DDR2 RAM; 120 GB hard drive
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed
Chipset: ATI RS690
Southbridge: ATI SB600
Memory: 2GB (2x 1GB) (4GB max)
160GB HDD
Broadcom BCM94311MCG 802.11 b/g

Slots

• PC Card
• ExpressCard/54

Interfaces

• Microphone
• S-Video output
• Line-out/headphones
• Line in
• Modem (RJ-11),
• Ethernet 10/100 (RJ-45)
• Infrared (IrDA)
• VGA
• 4x USB 2.0
• IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
• Network

Memory Card Reader

• 5 in 1 card reader (Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMediaCard, xD-Picture Card)