I bought an Acer Nitro 5 back in January 2021 for €1099, and upgraded the RAM from 8GB to 16GB the following year. Unfortunately, my GPU stopped working in August 2024, and by April 2026, the laptop completely stopped receiving power—it won't charge or turn on at all. I tested the charger with another laptop and confirmed it's fine, and I've tried other chargers as well with no success, so I suspect the motherboard is shot. I'm now considering what to do with the spare components. I have a SK Hynix 512GB SSD and am wondering if it's worth using as extra storage in my new build, or if I should search for a refurbished laptop that could accommodate both the SSD and the DDR4 3200 RAM. I'm also unsure about the reliability of sellers in Italy for used parts. Selling them is another option I'm considering. Any advice?
3 Answers
Your new motherboard has two M.2 slots that can support NVMe drives, so you can just slot in that Hynix SSD. For the laptop RAM, if you decide to keep it, definitely look into those SODIMM-to-DIMM adapters. Just keep in mind that the limitations could affect performance due to signal issues.
You can definitely use that SSD in your new desktop setup; it should work just fine! As for the RAM, it's a bit tricky since laptop RAM typically isn’t compatible with desktops. You might want to try selling the RAM, although I’ve heard of people using SODIMM to DIMM adapters to repurpose laptop RAM in their builds, but it might not give you the best performance.
Have you thought about taking your laptop to a repair shop? Sometimes it might be a simple fix. My old laptop had freezing issues, and it turned out to be just a €90 soldering repair. Given your laptop’s relatively newer age, it might be worth checking out before giving up on it completely!
Yeah, I’ve seen those SODIMM adapters too! They can be a budget-friendly solution, though you might have to lower the frequency for stability.