2 or 4GB of RAM?

After trying to find a decent 15" laptop that could also double as a desktop replacement for some gaming, I decided to just go with a small laptop and a true desktop for all my gaming/video editing. This is for college next year. After looking at reviews, I'm really liking the Dell XPSM1330. The battery life on it is amazing and it has everything I need. However, I have some questions on how much of an upgrade I need?

I want this laptop to be able to run a firefox browser with like 5-6 tabs open, a music player, an IM program, word/PP/excel, and some other misc programs I might need. I want things to be very smooth Most likely I will be going with Vista Home Premium.

This is the setup I'm looking at right now:
C2D 2.0 Ghz
2GB RAM
Integrated graphics
LED Screen


Should I go up to 3GB or 4GB to be able to run things smoothly on Vista or would 2GB be enough? Do I need to upgrade the CPU anymore or will this be fine (or will 1.8 possibly be enough)?

 

I would actually get the cheapest memory possible from Dell, and upgrade with aftermarket memory. You can buy 4gb of high performance memory from newegg for $65-70, which is significantly cheaper than dell's prices.

If you want your system to run quick and smooth, you will want a good fast harddrive. I would recommend at least a 250gb or 320gb 5400rpm drive, or a 200gb 7200rpm drive.

The processor will be more than capable of these kinds of programs, but the integrated gpu may not be able to handle high def video very well.

K-TRON

 

2gb is plenty for all that for my bloatware riddled sony.. It usually uses slightly more than 1gb when doing that kind of multi-tasking

 

I most likely won't be watching many high def videos on this laptop as I'll also have a very powerful desktop which is reserved for gaming/video editing (most likely a Quad Core CPU, 4GB RAM, nice graphics Card, lots of fast storage).

I don't need that much space on this laptop since word files and the like don't take up much space (my current laptop only has a 40GB HD and I've only come down to 5GB left of free space after four years of owning it).

Is it easy to install the RAM into a XPSM1330? Is it as simple as a desktop install, just open the case (I assume laptops have a little cover over the RAM to make for easy upgrades) take out the old RAM and pop the new RAM in?

 

4 gigs if you have a 64bit OS, or 3 Gigs if you plan on using a 32bit OS. RAM upgrades are possible the easiest ones,just open up the back panel(usually) where you can remove the older sticks and place the new ones.
K-TRON is right,newegg has ridiculousely LOW prices for RAM sticks, just make sure they`re 200pin.

 

I agree with Willy - You'll run that system just fine on 2gb. I had 2gb and typically never saw it go much above 60-65% and I have similar program usage as you, but did have a lot of disk activity. I did want to go with an additional GB to lower my pagefile requirements. I found a good deal on a Crucial 4gb kit and just decided what the heck, life is too short not to spend ~$30 extra! Now I don't use pagefile at all and this puppy runs good. Memory is relatively cheap, IMHO, so just upgrade to 4 and don't worry about it.

 

Your system should be absolutely fine at 2GB, but if you feel the interface is sluggish AT ALL (and if it isn't bloatware causing it), immediately order up some more RAM, 3 or 4 is just fine and can smooth out a lot if you are having trouble.