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    If you're not really running out of RAM, is an upgrade worth it?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Pylon757, Jan 24, 2012.

  1. Pylon757

    Pylon757 Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey y'all.

    So I have 2 gigs of RAM on my Dell Latitude in sig in the form of 2 1GB SODIMMs. 95% of the time this computer gets used for internet and typing, with an occasional foray into flight simulation. Usually, with 20 tabs open in Firefox and about 5 Word documents open, I only use about 1.5GB according to task manager. When I run X-plane (flight simulator), it uses about 1.9 gigs, but I'm still usually getting 20-30fps and I'm probably far more limited by the fact I'm using integrated graphics. In day-to-day tasks I'm probably more limited by my slow HDD (boot and load times suck on this machine; I'll get an SSD eventually).

    RAM is pretty cheap nowadays, so I'm considering buying a 4GB stick and upgrading to 5 gigs of RAM (yes I'm ditching dual channel, but money's tight and I don't really need 8 gigs). However, will there be a noticeable speed increase in my day-to-day tasks? I heard Windows Vista and newer OS's do caching, which might improve speed. I have a friend with a Phenom II X6 desktop with 16 gigs of RAM (also Windows 7), and when he's doing the same stuff as I am (Firefox, Word, etc.), he uses about 4 gigs of RAM.
     
    Pylon757, Jan 24, 2012
    #1
  2. funky monk

    funky monk Notebook Deity

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    If you're getting to 95% capacity then getting some more would probably be adviseable.

    Are you sure your laptop has a 64 bit OS though? Even now companies are still shipping systems that have less than 4GB of memory with 32 bit versions of operating systems.
     
    funky monk, Jan 24, 2012
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  3. whitrzac

    whitrzac The orange end is cold...

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    8gb of ram is $35 at most, why are we still discussing this? :confused:
     
    whitrzac, Jan 24, 2012
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  4. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    If you're over 70% used, I'd say get an upgrade, RAM is so dang cheap, 4GB kit (2x2GB) will cost you less than $20. Go for it. 4GB in Vista or 7 will greatly improve performance. 2GB is borderline acceptable.

    edit: DDR3 2x2GB = 4GB $16.99 free shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226025

    Do you have 64-bit windows installed? Otherwise more than 4GB won't matter anyhow.
     
    HTWingNut, Jan 25, 2012
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