Modder Slickbuys Mods recently took on a serious challenge by upgrading the Asus ROG Ally’s memory from 16GB LPDDR5-6400 to a beefier 32GB LPDDR5X-7500.
This upgrade comes with big promises—better multitasking and smoother performance for memory-heavy tasks, giving the handheld PC a significant speed boost. But, it’s no walk in the park; this kind of upgrade requires some serious tools and skills.
The memory chips are soldered onto the board, which means the first step is desoldering them using a hot air soldering station. Once that’s done, it’s all about meticulous cleaning of the contact points, applying a mask and special solder paste, and introducing new solder balls. After this, it’s time to carefully place and solder the new memory chips onto the board.
But that’s not all. The BIOS chip also needs to be removed and reprogrammed using an external flash device to recognize and make the most of the new memory. Surprisingly, this doesn’t impact power usage or heat generation.
However, these kinds of tweaks are best left to electronic workshops familiar with this level of soldering and equipped with the necessary materials. Adventurous hobbyists might give it a shot, but caution is advised.
This successful modification highlights the untapped potential of the AMD Ryzen Z1 processor used in the ROG Ally. It’s a call to action for device manufacturers to consider offering models with similar memory capacities. Currently, alternatives like those from Ayaneo opt for the AMD Ryzen 7040U instead.
Sadly, there aren’t any concrete benchmarks available yet to show exactly how much of a performance leap this upgrade delivers. Theoretically speaking, the LPDDR5X-7500 should be around 17% faster than the LPDDR5-6400.
Given that both the CPU and integrated graphics rely heavily on memory, the expected boost in performance, especially for gaming, is something to look forward to. Despite the possibility of upgrading existing devices since the handheld PC’s launch, the high risks and costs involved are likely to keep most customers at bay.
