Acer Aspire 5 A515-56 upgrades
Released 2020 · end of life
CPU is BGA-soldered Tiger Lake-U (i3-1115G4 / i5-1135G7 / i7-1165G7 / Pentium Gold 7505) - not socketed and not upgradeable, so there is no CPU slot. RAM, M.2 and 2.5" bay are all behind the bottom panel (Phillips screws + clips); Acer publishes no public service manual. Soldered RAM is 4 GB on most SKUs and 8 GB on some, so max total is 20 GB or 24 GB depending on variant.
Upgrade guide → What fits, step by step, and official documents.
- 1x SO-DIMM DDR4 slot (plus soldered RAM): DDR4 SO-DIMM · 4 GB soldered · up to 24 GB total · 3200 MT/s
- M.2 2280 NVMe + 2.5" SATA (7 mm) bays: 2 × SSD / HDD M.2 2280 / 2.5" (NVMe / SATA) · max 7 mm thick
Slot map
1x SO-DIMM DDR4 slot (plus soldered RAM) DDR4 SO-DIMM · 4 GB soldered · up to 24 GB total · 3200 MT/s
Only one slot is free - buy a single module, not a kit. Soldered RAM is 4 GB on most SKUs (20 GB max total) but 8 GB on some (24 GB max total) - check your exact model number. Use DDR4-3200 CL22 1.2 V non-ECC; slower CPUs downclock it to 2666 and odd CAS latencies may fail to train. Acer's spec sheets listing 8 GB max only reflect the factory SKU limit. Ignore '2 slots / 32 GB' claims - they describe older A515-54/57 models. Kingston/Notebookcheck/Acer Community confirm soldered + 1 slot.
No compatible offers right now.
M.2 2280 NVMe + 2.5" SATA (7 mm) bays 2 × SSD / HDD M.2 2280 / 2.5" (NVMe / SATA) · max 7 mm thick
M.2 slot is PCIe Gen3 x4 - Gen4 drives work but run at Gen3 speed; Kingston specifies single-sided 2280 modules, so double-sided high-capacity drives may not fit. The 2.5" bay takes drives up to 7 mm thick (9.5 mm will not fit); 2 TB SATA and 1 TB+ NVMe confirmed working but no official capacity ceiling is documented. The SATA cable/mounting frame is normally inside the laptop, but some regional bundles omit it - check before buying a SATA drive. No SD card reader.
No compatible offers right now.