ASUS: Recommended Upgrade Components for ASUS Laptop Q500A-BHI5N01?

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thenextpage

Honorable
Sep 11, 2013
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10,510
Hello, and thank you in advance for your experience driven insight and helpful recommendations.

I own this ASUS Q500A-BHI5N01. Overall, I'm pleased with it's performance, but I'd like to make some hardware investments to improve the overall speed, performance and quality of it. If you can please provide any recommendations on hardware upgrades, I'd appreciate it (for example; hard drive, RAM, etc..). I'm particularly interested in upgrading the HDD, possibly to a SSD, but I'm not sure how powerful of an upgrade to purchase. I'm concerned that I could end up overspending on hardware that is too powerful for the other components to handle - and therefore won't make a noticeable improvement in the performance. For example, if I spend $200 on a SSD, and I only get half the performance benefits of it due to the other components holding it back, I'd like to know that before making any investments.

I hope that what I'm asking is clear, despite my lack of appropriate "tech" terminology. Thank you so much for your help. If you have any recommendations, please include detailed models or specifications in your reply - below you'll find the specs inside this laptop:

Processer: Intel Dual Core i5-3210M (3M Cache; 2.5 GHz Clock - 3.1 GHz Turbo; rPGA)

RAM: 6GB DDR3 (4GB + 2GB)

Max RAM: 8GB

Max Resolution: 1366 x 768 (HD LED-backlit)

Touchscreen: No

HDD: 750GB @ 5400 RPM

Intel HD Graphics 4000

* Here is a link to the Laptop, which includes Specs:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8009551&SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&utm_source=Linkshare&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=TnL5HPStwNw&AffiliateID=TnL5HPStwNw-vG1qxZM9cM723fYWM9xgiw
 
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thenextpage

Honorable
Sep 11, 2013
3
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10,510


@sheag123 - Thank you for your response. Do you know if there is a certain SSD that I should shop for? I have no idea how to select these types of components. For example, what types of specs should I look for? Do I have to pay attention to the SATA type? Should I look for a specific read/write speed?
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

Glorious
Dec 17, 2012
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well... the ssd will provide an immediate improvement in load times, as your hard drive is the slowest part of your machine. the next slowest part is the intel hd 4000 graphics; which is not good for much of anything quite frankly. get the ssd, should make the whole thing seem like 100x better on the spot. i think you'll have to live with the hd 4000 graphics.
 
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T

thenextpage

Honorable
Sep 11, 2013
3
0
10,510


@ingtar33 - Thank you for your insight. In follow up to that, what types of specs should I look for in a SSD? Do I have to pay attention to the SATA type? Should I look for a specific read/write speed?
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

Glorious
Dec 17, 2012
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the samsung 840 lineup are all good, get the one that matches your budget and space needs.
 
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SteveNaples

Distinguished
Sep 24, 2011
8
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18,510
Did you go ahead with the upgrade? I have an Asus Q500A-BHI7T05. I want to upgrade from 8GB to 16 GB. I contacted Asus via their tech support chat, and the guy told me you can't, it's max'd out at 8 GB. But there is a video on Youtube where a guy takes out the 4 GB cards and puts in two 8 GB cards and then boots the computer and the bios shows the memory as 16 GB. So now I'm confused.
 
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RobotKimchi

Reputable
Jan 18, 2016
3
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4,510
Have you guys tried to upgrade the LCD Screen?

This notebook has a few different models and some of them are 1366x768 and others are FullHD. I read somewhere that the panels are interchangeable.

I am going to buy a FullHD Panel that is compatible to the one that comes in the fullHD model(It seems that the original panel is pretty hard to find nowadays), and I will test it out.
 
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RobotKimchi

Reputable
Jan 18, 2016
3
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4,510
So i bought the screen, installed and i got response as soon as i turned on. But when i boot windows it tries to update and fails, so im stuck in a loop right now. I will let it try to update overnight. I think the screen is causing it but if its case i will format the windows and report again.
 
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RobotKimchi

Reputable
Jan 18, 2016
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4,510
I DID IT!! Wow, I am almost crying from happiness. So basically now i have a glorious FullHD matte screen panel on my Q500a! Next thing is to buy a ssd and upgrade ram to 8gb. Im so happy!
 
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rhindo

rhindo

Commendable
Sep 2, 2016
1
0
1,510
hello i have the same laptop its a great machine overall i had the same specs as you and what i did is i put a i7 3632qm in it a 500gb ssd and 16gb of ram and it fly's thru everything no problem even plays some games on the integrated graphics (black ops 2 all the assassins creed up to ac3 and a few others) on low settings of coarse but at native resolution. the thing is most laptops now a days have the cpus soldered on the mother board the q500a however does not and is fully upgradable. now the i5 3230m and i7 3632qm both draw 35w there are other faster i7's u can put in there and will work but i would stick to the 35w tdp seeing how the stock heatspredder is not all that good, at full load it hits anywhere from 80 to 90c intel says it can handle up to 105c but i dont know if i like that. 9im used to my watercooled gaming rig running a lot cooler :p) i hope this info helps hace a good day

 
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