16 gigs of ram on the m11x R3?

Hi,

If money is not an a real big issue is getting 16 gigs of RAM on a new M11x R3 worthwhile? Rest assured I'll be getting everything else (i7, solid state) too, but this one option seemed kinda "out there". Even the 8gb said "alienware preferred" instead of the 16gb option. Plus, it is about $800. I mostly play first person shooters like the COD series and Battlefield Bad Company, occassionally an MMOG. Would the 16 gigs pay off if I end up keeping this laptop for 5 year or so, as I hope to do? Is this a futile future-proof attempt? Would 16 gigs ever be useful if I were say, running a game, a word processor, a spreadsheet, acrobat reader, and a few other applications at once?

I'm not real big into the technical aspects of computers, I just like to play games and unfortunately live out of a suitcase due to my job so a desktop or 17" isn't an option. With that said, I spend a ridiculous amount of time on my laptop so I don't mind spending the extra money to get a good one when I buy something.

Thanks!

 

It won't make a difference. 4GB is enough for the M11x R3.

 

Complete overkill.

Just get 4GB or even 6GB is you must. 16GB is completely uncessary in my opinion. Plus I think you can upgrade the RAM yourself so don't bother with Dell's overpriced options.

 

I put 8 in my R1, as it was cheap at Newegg, but it never even uses 4 save your cash

 

As cool as M11X is... last you 5 years?


Maybe you should look at the Sony Vaio Z's upcoming succesor Sony Vaio SA! It will cost you around 4000 USD if you go all in, but it's a 13'' that is lighter than M11X and is around the same size even though it has 2'' more screen. M11X is quite bulky. (Here is a thread someone else made: http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...-vs-sony-vaio-z-i5-comparison-benchmarks.html )


That's the only thing I could imagine would last anyone 5 years, but truthfully, all laptops even after a year, or two is outdated. M11x R3 can run the latest games at medium settings. People are questioning if stuff like Battlefield 3 or Skyrim will even run fluently.
Only time will tell of course.





16 Gigs of Ram is fine if your video editing. It helps with rendering of HD content, but the processor is not really up to snuff, and you can't do much with that small screen, so... I guess more than 4 Gigs of Ram can help with multitasking. I would get 6 Gig 1333 Ram(good quality) and then spend the rest on a really good SSD.

Good SSD's are expenssive. If you're going to get one with 512 GB ram, it's going to cost you A LOT. But that will be a much more worthwhile investment than 16 GB Ram!

 

I was about to say the same thing, Overkill mate!

 

If you do web development and need to flip between IE10, IE9.0, IE8.0, IE7.0 and IE6.0 where each browser is housed on a separate VM, then the extra memory is required, but that's the only thing I found that encroached over 3GB of memory used on my M11xR1.

Even having an SQL server on my notebook doesn't generally impact on memory.

I would say, at least 4GB of RAM on an M11x is required.

 

There is one good argument for using 8GB over 4GB, SSD or not. With 8GB of RAM, you do not need a swap file on your HDD. Basically eliminating the need for windows to use the HDD for anything temporary based. This could be very useful to some, while others it makes no difference at all.

Myself, I did find a benefit of 8GB over 4, but my situation is different than most, as I use mine for more than just games. I have 2 VM's open at most given times, 3 rarely but sometimes.

16GB? Eh, not on the M11x. A desktop, I can see the need but not a laptop.

 

4GB = Gaming;
6GB = Music Production;
8GB = 3D/Heavy Adobe;

...16GB is overkill

 

Yeah, right now for me it's down to either the M11x R3 or the Vaio SA. I guess I should probably go with the vaio but thought that the gt 335m in the m11x would be noticeably better than the Radeon 6630m in the Vaio. I guess they're about the same really....

 

I may be wrong, I am not as current on my tech knowledge as I used to be, but I do not think that the i7 will even support 16GB.


From Intel® Core? i7-2617M Processor (4M Cache, 1.50 GHz)with SPEC Code(s)SR03T


Memory Specifications
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 8 GB
Memory Types DDR3-1066/1333
# of Memory Channels 2
Max Memory Bandwidth 21.3 GB/s
ECC Memory Supported No

 

I have 8GB, and I've only gone over 4GB of usage a couple times... 16 would definitely be overkill for me.

 

16GB = VM based development.

 

For the op's proscribed usage, 16g is overkill. For heavy photo editing or video production 16g is great.

Even with an unlimited budget I wouldn't elect for the ssd or ram option from dell. You can more easily match these components to your usage when buying elsewhere.