4GB or 6GB of RAM?

I'm going to be getting a new laptop for my first year of college as an engineering student (probably the Lenovo Thinkpad x220 tablet) and I was wondering if I should go for 4GB or spend the extra 80 bucks (cost from Lenovo) for the 6GB of RAM? I'll be using the computer for umm... engineering school stuff haha not 100% sure what that entails yet

I'll be using it with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 by the way

 

If you're using your computer for intensive CAD modelling and other workstation modelling, more RAM would be very beneficial.

However, most colleges don't do that kind of work since students can't reasonably be expected to own laptops with 6GB of RAM and a quad-core processor.

 

Order the notebook with the least amount of RAM as possible, and then go on the newegg website and order 8gig of memory for under $60 or $50 shipped!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...-10666-l-top-memory-49-99-shipped-newegg.html

 

As a bioengineer, I can say that even though you're going into an engineering discipline, you still won't need more than a budget basic laptop with 2-3GB of RAM. What you want is different, though: if you are a civil/mechanical engineer, in 3rd-4th year, you may work on CAD modeling, in which case more RAM can help, although your bottleneck will definitely be the X220's integrated GPU (and besides, your computer labs usually have machines with the power necessary for your work). As a CS/EE major, in 3rd-4th year you may work with larger programs where compile time becomes significant--at that time, more RAM may help you, although your CPU will be the bottleneck.

Bottom line is, you'll only need 4GB of RAM.

 

4gb is plenty. If needed you can easily upgrade later but i doubt
you would need more. Its cheaped to upgrade on your own anyways.

 

QFT. In reality most programs that you run under as a Computer Scientist/ Bioinformaticist is really going to tax your CPU, as you are mostly number crunching and running algorithms. However as an Engineer that uses visual creation and rendering, your GPU is going to be your main power source.

RAM is only helpful really to help store or cache rendering data temporarily as your CPU, GPU or both is doing the number-crunching. The more RAM you have, the faster the processing units can fetch the next bit of data to continue down the rendering pathway. However, most of the pre-fetching data that the processing units use are in small chunks at a time and they are mostly never over 2 GB total per fetch chunk in even the most taxing CPU or GPU-dependent software you use in the current PC architecture. However, more RAM does help in a sense that the amount of caching of data chunks can increase and therefore keep the speed of the rendering up as there is less at a time for the rendering data chunks to be copied over to the RAM from the HDD, which can really slow down the rendering production line, so you will see speeds slightly faster.

However, you can think of it as a diminishing return under the current x86-64 architecture as the price you pay for more RAM capacity, the amount of speed improvement gets smaller and smaller. So if you want to spend a good bit of money on more RAM, then yes it is helpful but... In the practical and economical sense, anything over 4 GB is not totally necessary and might not worth the rewards for the price tag you pay.

That being said, 2x4 GB DDR 3 SDRAM is pretty cheap now a days at around $80 USD so most people justify to go that route. However, if you want to save your $80 for something else, then sticking with 4 GB is plenty and focus on getting a good CPU or GPU depending on what tasks you are going to your laptop for as in the long run, the processing unit is still the most influential part of your laptop.

I usually would say to avoid 6 GB anyways because you can break dual-channel capabilities, which having your RAM on dual channel can speed up the bandwidth speed of your RAM, but most people usually says dual channel is a gimmick and not really significant to the effect of the RAM speed. However, I still think a 2x2 GB or a 1x4 GB is a solid standard. I'd would go 8 GB and be sure for the next couple of years you will have enough RAM to power that aspect of your PC in case the next biggest thing would start taxing 4 GB, but at $80 it is your call. Otherwise, 4 GB is decent and fine as that sets the standard for justifying the use of x64 architecture anyways.

 

4GB is still fine for most use today and it also allows to use dual channel mode on all your RAM. If you however opt to go for 6GB (2GB + 4GB SODIMM) then you'll get a small hit as some of your RAM will run in single channel mode. However, if you use some demanding software more RAM should still win out.

 

dual channel doesn't make much difference anyhow. I've run with two chips vs. one chip in a couple laptop configs and there is little to no difference in benchmarks. 8GB is so cheap now, take kobe_24's advice and buy 8GB yourself, and then won't have to worry about it.

 

I agree with HTWingNut, even with single channel RAM the bandwidth is huge and shouldn't be the limiting factor even when large, CPU-intensive data sets are being used.

 

@OP

Going into college, get a low-end laptop (save everywhere you can) enough for web surfing, document editing, and giving presentations. As you progress through college, take note of what you really need to do. Find out where the computer labs are and if it is feasible for you to use those labs. Technology is improving faster and faster. Two years down the road, you might end up actually needing something much more powerful and at that time, you can use the money you save now.

Do your RAM upgrades using after-market parts.

 

I really wish the dual channel argument would stop on these forums. It stopped being important after the PIII and P4.

4GB is fine for now. If you need more RAM later it is going to probably be even cheaper than the $50 quoted above a year or two years from now.

Believe me when I say that as an engineering student you are going to need your own personal computer. Labs are often busy for one, if you need software that they don't have installed your screwed, and...well...they're lab PCs that are not well maintained and most of them are probably going to be bottom of the barrel machines anyway. Being able to take your PC with you when you need to is definitely going to help.

I would also avoid G.Skill, personally. Bad experiences with multiple RMAs being fulfilled with RAM that was also faulty. Also avoid OCZ RAM as they're exiting that business if they have not already.

Anyway, happy hunting with the laptop and good luck with college!

Before buying any software make sure to check if your university has an academic software program. I got W7 Ultimate (~$30), two copies of Pro (~$5 total), MS Office 2007 (~$5), 2008 (incl. w/ 2007), 2010 (~$10), and 2011 (incl. w/ 2011), Visual Studio 2008 (~$30) and 2010 (free), MATLAB (free with university site license, $40 for your own copy), etc, etc, etc. Seriously cheap software and it saved a crapton of money that I would have had to spend otherwise.

 

Well, I currently own nothing but G.Skill in desktop and notebooks and have had nothing but a good experience. Perhaps you had some bad luck. For the most part unless you're overclocking to extremes beyond spec'd configuration then most any RAM brand will be sufficient.

 

Meh, maybe it was bad luck but I'm not the only moderator that had issues with them a few years ago. Anyway, back on topic .

 

Yea my thoughts exactly as far as why I need a personal laptop for college. Also thanks for the advice on the RAM and software, my school does offer some software such as microsoft office 2007 for free or 2010 for $15 as well as some discounted anti-virus software so that'll definitely save me some money