Is 8GB Ram worth it to ME?

I'm currently running 3GB Ram with some virtual ram on my T400. It has a Core 2 Duo running at 2.4GHz and I've upgraded the HDD to 320GB @ 7200RPM.

Ram is the only thing I have not replaced myself yet. I am leaving for college in two weeks. My T400 runs great about 85% of the time and the other 15% I am really slowing it down surfing the web, videos, etc. I don't really edit video and I know my computer is not the biggest of beasts.

It runs at 42% physical memory being used just at idle right after boot up.

I don't see any reason to go just up to 4GB. It would be ~$50 for 8GB minus what ever I can get selling my old ram.

Do you think the upgrade is worth it to me?

 

I recommend everyone in this day and age to go with 8 GB. It's just so cheap it's really irrelevant and sort of a "might as well" upgrade, especially if you're one of those people that depend on the computer to do EVERYTHING (aka college).

 

With virtual VM's, the more RAM you can get, the better. And considering how cheap 8 GB DDR3 notebook RAM it is, why not?

 

Have you considered buying a single 4 gig stick and replacing one of your 1 gb dimms for a total of 6 gigs of ram? 6 gigs on my T420 works fine for just about everything with page file off too.

 

Seems like a great idea to me. 6GB is very good IME, and only buying a 4 GB stick should be pretty economical.

 

doesn't using mismatched sticks mess up the dual-channelness of the RAM?

 

No it does not. If you have 4GB and 2GB sticks you'll have 2GB of each stick running in dual channel I believe.

Check your resource monitor, how much "Free" RAM do you have? If it's close to zero, yeah, 8GB of RAM would probably be put to use for you.

 

Supposedly, asynchronous dual channel (2 sticks of different capacities) is slower than synchronous dual channel. I doubt it'd be noticeable in practice, though.

 

My question is to the OS, if it is 32 bit do not bother upgrading the ram........

 

I haven't heard that but I guess it makes sense.

Frankly, if you're going to upgrade, go all the way. It'll be like... an extra 20 bucks.

 

yea especially since it looks like we'll be using DDR3 for the next 2 years at least, you can probably use it in a new computer if you're planning to upgrade before DDR4 becomes the new standard.

with chrome/firefox open with about 15 tabs, msn, skype, running about 2.5gb of ram is used. when i had 4gb my free ram was only about 700mb.

when i upgraded to 8gb i noticed more ram was being used- i guess windows had more space to cache. my ram usage usually hovers around 3.8-3.9gb.

when opening large TIFF files or ms word, pdf etc simultaneously it definitely goes above 4gb used.

 

The Windows cache isn't considered "used" RAM and only shows up in the resource monitor. Specific programs, like web browsers, will sometimes increase RAM usage based on how much you have.

 

probably thats what happened. my point is its a bit difficult to tell if you need more ram until you actually upgrade and then find that various things start using it and makes things smoother.

 

What he said.

 

The question is why your computer is slowing down in that 15%.

I would guess it's not your memory. I think there's a way to check if you're running out of memory in those cases. Something with buffer overflows in the system manager.

What 320GB 7200 rpm are you using?

 

Not really. Free RAM isn't being used for anything, it's not holding a single file. Therefor if you have lots of free RAM it means you've utilized all of the RAM to its fullest or there's some issue. If you've got close to 0GB of Free RAM it means you can still probably cache more.

Available RAM is your total amount of Free RAM and Cached RAM together I think.

 

42% of 3GB, that's 1.2GB after boot, that's a lot even for Vista.

The laptop I'm using to write this reply has Win 7, and it is running Avast, Daemon tool, RMClock, JAVA, Chrome with four tabs, Google update, and a couple of other things. My memory usage is only 35% out of the 2GB installed (i.e.700MB).

I might be wrong but it sound that the OP has a lot of applications running in the background. I suggest the following:
1- Press Windows + R to bring the Run window
2- Type MSCONFIG
3- Press OK
4- Go to the STARTUP tab. I suggest to uncheck all the apps that are not required at boot up. I recommend to leave the Antivirus, Firewall (if you have one), and the drivers.

5- Download CCleaner and Defraggler from here. These are freeware. CCleaner is good for cleaning the harddrive and Windows Register. It can be used to uninstall programs. It can also be used instead of Step 1 to 4. Defraggler can be used to defrag the harddrive.

The above are if you want only tweaks. If you can you should consider formatting your harddrive and installing a fresh copy of Windows as this will ensure a blot free system.

Unless you're using memory intensive applications (virtualisation, photos and video editing, etc) you don't need to upgrade the RAM. For a normal usage, 2 GB of RAM is more than enough for both Vista and Win 7

 

i disagree, 2gb is the bare minimum for vista/7. web browsing is quite memory hungry nowadays.

 

The task manager only shows how much RAM that your applications are using/ the system is using actively. IT does not reflect caching.

Caching is incredibly important and helps reduce disk I/O and keep your computer "feeling quick."

I would also say that 2GB of RAM is the minimum for 7 and Vista. You'll see benefits moving to 3 or 4GB due to cache and those benefits slowly degrade as you move to 6 and 8GB though they're still there.

 

if you're like me and your applications alone take up almost 4gb then 8gb would be good so it can cache

 

All RAM besides Modified and In Use is immediately available. Cache can be cleared virtually instantly.

I see your point I guess. I personally got 8GB mostly for VM's but also because I want to use it for caching.

 

You didn't mention OS but I assume it's already a 64 bit? In any event, basted on your use I would say no, it's not necessary.

That said, RAM is like storage where you can never really have too much. So if the price is right, I'd say go for it.

 

I would definitely go for 8GB RAM.
I'll actually upgrade to that myself soon and to a Q9100 cpu (provided it will work in my PM45 chipset - that's why I will test it).
Should provide a decent boost in processing power for my 3ds Max, plus doubling the RAM will allow me to get more breathing room.
Right now I'm using over 60% of RAM with just Chrome Plus (then again I do have 32 tabs open).

Internet browsing CAN be demanding... but it also depends a great deal on the amount of tabs you keep open simultaneously.
Generally though, 3GB should be fine for your needs (but I would still go for the 8GB option in your case).