RAM Upgrade Advice?

I'm planning on putting a small investment into my m11x, being that I want to add more RAM as that's the only thing that really could be updated (that I know of xD) anyways.

I was wondering if anyone knows if upgrading RAM would improve daily performance? I'm right now running on the stock 4GB that came with the machine and I find that maybe its time I invest a little bit more into this machine when I could do everything on it.

I'm just starting to use video editting tools, illustrator, photoshop and some simple design sketch tools. Mainly, gaming is a breeze as this thing can handle almost anything I throw at it, but with extra RAM I'm sure that it wouldnt hurt the experience!

However, this is where I need a lot of help as I don't know anything about memory. Is it even effective if I'm planning on upgrading to 8GB? Also, I remembering seeing some called "corsair memory" and such and they would cost a bunch as well. Do those improve performace significantly over simple retail ones? As you can see, my knowledge in this area is...laughable so if anyone is willing to help, it'd be greatly appreciated, thanks for reading!

 

Newegg.ca - CORSAIR 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9

Are these any good or are there better?

 

8GB is silly, I'd just stick with 4GB total.

 

Kind of agree. I'd only get 8GB if there is a really good deal

 

you dont need to get a faster pair of 4gb either because the m11x makes it run at a straight 800mhz. Or max of 1000 if you oc

 

Best performance gain would be to buy yourself a hybrid or solid state drive.

 

If you do a lot of photo/video editing, you may need 8gb ram. It is better to wait untill you really need it, in the future ram will be even cheaper than now

 

DDR4 isn't scheduled to be released until 2015, and will take at least a year before it becomes mainstream, by which point we'll be talking about how awesome the m11x R8 is going to be.

It's difficult enough to forecast your expected RAM need for the next year, nevermind how much RAM you expect you'll need 5 years from now when the price of DDR3 will go up.

This is not a good reason to buy more RAM.

proof?

Myth. If you know you don't need 8GB right now (and don't know that you'll need it in the near future), then in all likelihood, you will not ever need it. Peoples' computer habits rarely change unexpectedly.

So as others in this thread have already said, a far better way to invest into the "perceived performance experience" of an m11x is to buy an SSD. And if 2 years down the line you all of a sudden need more RAM, then buy it then, as it'll be much cheaper anyway.

 

Well it also depends on a user, sure alot of people would be fine with 4gb or heck 2gb of ram, But there users that need more than 4gb for more stuff than just editing like myself.

Let me get some proof when i get some gaming in.

But heres some which isn't what normally what i use on my desktop which usely says 5gb too 6gbs.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3267/capturepdu.png

As you can see i would be using up 4gb of ram which i was when i had 4gb and everything was sluggish, And if i didn't need it i wouldn't got it,

Which i needed it because i couldn't stay in a game which i name couple, Fallen earth is 1 which is a very heavy memory hog game when you run everything maxed out and 1920x1080 res which was even worser when i had eyeinfity and would crash under a hour and my memory was pinging at 4gb and was using page file and took forever too recover back too the desktop, 2nd one is apb when realworlds was running it i also had alot of crash's with that with 4gb maxed out and exiting the game was so slow. Theres more but not going too name all of them... lol

And i like too have all my stuff in the background when im playing my game too, And my desktop is running 24/7 steaming music and the more you pc is on it will eat more memory every day and the programs that runs on it.

But for my m11x yes i can get away with ony 4gb of ram because its not my main machine and i hardly do anything heavy on it but i got my m11x r2 in outlet which was already configured with 8gb with it and was the same price as 4gb m11xs which i got it for 819$ shipped.


All i know it helped me and my pc is running much better with it, And for ssd yes that also would help too but some people don't want too spend alot of money on them and for the small space they give, I have a ssd in my desktop 64gb but its ony for a boot drive which i have like 6tbs of hard drives for games and other stuff But me i never would put a ssd in my m11x because i need space and anything under 250gb ain't enough for me and the price of a 120gb+ ssd is crazy, But i might try a seagate xt.


I get some more screenshots when i play those games.

 

Thanks for the input guys! This is what I love about the notebookreview community as I can always get help.

Although there is a lot of merit in just keeping 4GB, the thing is with me planning on keeping this machine for at least 2 more years and with a heavy dose of design programs, I find that investing into more memory might help.

I've read through tons of debates online, and the general consensus is that I won't need it unless of specialized needs. In this case, I would then merit this need because programs that I use really tests the limits of the m11x and anything that I can do right now would help it along the lines. I use programs like photoshop, illustrator, indesign, premiere pro, after effects and sketchbook pro. These are the bulk of the design programs that I assumed would need more memory. Now I know that because of the weak processor in the m11x, it may be this reason alone that a lot of effects or photos themselves load very slowly. However, if adding more memory, would it help loading photos faster?

Also, as posted earlier, if I do plan on purchasing the memory, are the ones I posted previously compatible (and any good?) for the m11x? Just pretend that I have money to throw away on this just for a good try, as talked about here, it is not too big of an investment being that I only throw at most $200 at this.

Anyways, thanks again to everyone for the help, and would be looking forward to a little bit more!

 

bump????????????