Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3UB Memory/RAM Upgrade Quick Guide

We've already talked in-depth about the Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3UB, a kick-ass laptop that has managed to become one of the most sought-after student laptops in the market thanks to its balanced set of specs and competitive price. However, while Acer should take plenty of credit for this laptop, it definitely has its set of weak points, namely the RAM being limited to a mere 4 GB.

Sure enough, 4 GB will suffice a basic user that's going to surf the web and edit a document here and there but any respectable multitasking is going to require quite a bit more than 4 GB of RAM. It's with that in mind that today we're going to explain step-by-step how to go about upgrading the RAM on the Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3UB. Not to worry, it's not going to take you much more than 5 minutes.

Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3UB RAM Upgrade Tutorial

What type of RAM unit can I use? How much RAM does this laptop take?

Not all laptops take the same type of RAM. Some are compatible with 3200 MHz, such as the Dell Inspiron 15 3511 memory upgrade, however, others work with different clock speeds. In the case of the Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3UB, you're going to need to get yourself a DDR4 2400 MHz SODIMM Unbuffered memory module. That's a 260 pin DDR4 module clocking at 2400 MHz.

As far as the amount of RAM you can install. As we mentioned earlier, this notebook features 4 GB of memory. Said 4 GB are already soldered onto the motherboard, leaving only one slot available for upgrade. One available slot which can take a maximum of 16 GB of compatible RAM. That's a total of 20 GB of RAM.

Having said that, we would recommend users to, at the very least, get themselves another 4 GB of compatible RAM to have some decent multitasking on their hands. 8 GB is also a possibility. However, the advantage to upgrading to 8 GB is that by having two 4 GB modules your laptop can work with dual-channel RAM, making the memory in itself much faster when performing everyday tasks.

How To Upgrade the Memory on the Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3UB

Step 1: As we always say, the first step to performing any type of laptop upgrade where you are going to need to access the laptop's internals is to make sure the notebook is fully turned off - not hibernating - and disconnected from the power source.

Once that's been established you should place the laptop upside down and remove the screws attaching the lower case to the chassis. Now that the screws have been removed you should use a prying tool of some kind to gently open up the laptop like so - excuse the lousy picture -:

Step 2: Now that you have removed the laptop case you should be able to quickly locate the available RAM slot. You will only be able to see one since the 4 GB of RAM have already been soldered onto the board and aren't visible to the user. For the sake of clarity, this picture already has the RAM module in place. However, your laptop will not have any RAM module in the slot.

Step 3: Now that you have located the available slot you're going to introduce the RAM module at a 45-degree angle. You need to make sure both the notch on the module and the notch on the RAM slot align, that's how you know you're introducing it correctly. This is what that should look like:

Step 4: Once the RAM module has been properly inserted at a 45-degree angle, press down gently but firmly. You will hear a clicking sound which is the sound the levers on the side of the RAM module make when they latch onto the module.

Step 5: Finally, re-attach the lower case and screw it back onto the chassis of the A515-46-R3UB. You have successfully managed to upgrade the memory. Now if you wish to confirm that you've done it correctly all you need to do is head over to "Device Specifications" and that is where you will see the new amount of memory reflected under "Installed RAM".

Soon enough we're going to cover how to upgrade the storage on this notebook so don't go too far.