Does more RAM use more or less power

Configuring my Envy 14 at the HP online store and I'm trying to decide whether to get 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The standard 4GB is actually a 2 stick configuration. You can upgrade to 4GB 1 stick config or 6GB 2 stick config. I'm not a big gamer or into anything that is going to be THAT CPU intensive, other than multi-tasking and some photo editing. I don't really NEED the extra RAM but I found an awesome discount coupon and I've got some extra cushion to burn it up. My question is, will adding more RAM decrease my battery life?

 

It can use more power but YMMV according to how often the ram hdd cache is getting flushed. I can tell you with a 2GB and 4GB stick compared to 2x2GB you will now be dual channel asynch mode rather than dual channel synch mode..........

 

Get the RAM, it's not like you are gonna use up 1hr more battery life. Maybe 2 minutes most. LOL. Some might even say having more RAM will use less battery as a result of the HDD being able to sleep longer. If the OS puts all the data it needs in RAM then the HDD can idle for longer periods.

 

I would say less also if you have a HDD, but either way it won't be by much, don't expect differences of more than 5 or 10 min. But HP charges $55 more to get the 6gb when you can get 1 stick of 4gb RAM for about $50 from stores like newegg, I say get the 4gb 1 DIMM then upgrade to 8gb yourself. If you need to get to $1399 for the coupon, I think your money would be better spent on the travel adapter (90W charger, for $62), it comes in handy...for me at least.

 

less components = better battery

 

not necessarily..different components use different amounts of power

 

More RAM = Less HDD usage = Less power needed

Now go and compare the 2 statements above and if you are lucky, you might find a difference of about 1-2 minutes in either direction. Worth considering? I don't think so.

 

more sandwiches = more coke = more ram

ill get the 6gb or the less ram u could get and buy a 8gb kit

 

get the i5-580 + radiance screen 2x2gb ram and 640GB 7200RPM HDD

This will come out to 1399.99 and it accepts the coupon which brings it to 899.99.

That's a killer deal 2.66ghz turbo to 3.33ghz 1600x900 radiance screen 4GB dual channel ram, and the largest size 7200 rpm they offer. Backlit keysboard and all the other standard goodies all for 900 dollars. Really cant be beat

pretty sure the i5-580 is base clock 2.66ghz dual core turbo 2.93ghz single core turbo 3.33ghz

 

As stated above, adding more memory will use up slightly more power and theoretically (at least) reduce HDD power usage simply because the page file won't be need to be accessed so often. In real use however the differences will be minor at most.

This link should shed some more light on the topic:
Will adding more laptop memory affect battery life?

 

optimus graphics switching adds an extra gpu and additional graphics switching hardware to the chipset. quite a few more components and dramatically increased battery life.

so, wrong.

the extra memory does take more power. a correct statement might have been that every active component in your computer does draw power.

however, the effect on your overall battery life may be positive or negative, it certainly depends on usage. if you often have a ton of information loaded into memory, so you would be using all the memory whether it's there or not, then your battery life and performance will increase dramatically, because it was using the hard drive before as spare memory.