new Acer Extensa Laptop (5620 / T5250)

ntroAcer Extensa Laptop (5620 / T5250) Upgrade & Tweak Guide
Some time ago I posted about installing Windows XP onto my new Acer Extensa 5620-6830 laptop. It's a nice little machine- the price was right, and standard specs aren't bad. But here's some information that could be helpful to anyone with this budget best Buy laptop and wants to get the most bang for their buck!

This guide will cover tips for upgrading, maintenance, plus tweaks and tricks specific for this and other similar model laptops. Learn how to double your battery life, what hardware can be replaced, and if it's smart to do so. In conjunction with my other Instructables, this has some valuable tidbits specific to notebook computers.

step 1Memory (RAM & Hard Drive)
The Extensa 5620-6830 comes with 1GB of DDR2 memory. That's two sticks of 512MB. This unit technically supports 4GB; 2 x 2GB modules. However, unless you're running a 64-bi…

step 2Bluetooth/Wifi
While our 5620 has a front switch and light for Bluetooth, the actual module is not installed. Supposedly you can get one from Acer themselves... but be prepared to pay a …

step 3CPU (hardware)
The stock CPU, at first glance, is nothing special. It's a Intel Core 2 Duo T5250; that's 1.5GHz on a 667MHz bus with a 2MB L2 cache. It uses the new Socket P design, howe…

step 4CPU (software)
That's right- software for your cpu. The stock T5250 cpu has another nifty, little-known characteristic. If we take advantage of it, we can make our laptops run cooler…

step 5Misc. Tweaks
These are a collection of tweaks I learned over the past few months using this laptop. Most of them should be applicable to other makes / models. '''Tweaking the vide…

step 6Final thoughts
This laptop turned out to be a smart purchase. It has future upgrade-ability, has held up well the past half a year, and is pretty easy to work on. As I previously stated,…