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Is more RAM always better?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Memory - Is more RAM always better?

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jkandell   06-16-2009 at 01:17:11 AM

I'm getting a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop for my wife. She runs mostly Word, Excel, Outlook, and some web surfing, simple photo editing, and on-line streaming video. No games.

The base system running Vista Intel T4200 (2Ghz/800Mhz/1MB cache) comes with 3GB shared DDR2 at 800 Mhz. I can also upgrade to the T6400 (2Ghz/800Mhz/2MB cache).

I had always been taught you always need to max out your RAM memory, cause bad things happen when you don't.

Is that rule of thumb still true?

Is 3 enough or should I go to 4?

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Bronze Motherboards badge badge   06-16-2009 at 01:23:22 AM
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Quote :

I had always been taught you always need to max out your RAM memory, cause bad things happen when you don't.



The worst that could happen is the system would write to the slower hard dive in the event all the system RAM was used. A faster processor with more RAM is fine if you can afford it and desire a faster machine. But 3 Gbs and a slower procesor would be plenty for the applications you listed.

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505090   06-16-2009 at 02:42:45 AM
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for what you describe you don't need more than 2 gig, and i doubt you would use all of that

------------------------------ E8400 : GA-EP35-DS3L : mushkin 4GB DDR2 800 : HD 2600PRO : 450W ATX12V : Windows 7
 Reply to 505090
jkandell   06-16-2009 at 03:39:31 AM
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Thanks guys! Will the faster processor be noticeably faster with vista and word for the type of stuff she does?

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505090   06-16-2009 at 03:47:16 AM
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better processor will help more than over 2 gig all day long for your use

------------------------------ E8400 : GA-EP35-DS3L : mushkin 4GB DDR2 800 : HD 2600PRO : 450W ATX12V : Windows 7
 Reply to 505090
505090   06-16-2009 at 03:48:25 AM
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although nominal increase in processor for a lot of $ is rarely worth it

------------------------------ E8400 : GA-EP35-DS3L : mushkin 4GB DDR2 800 : HD 2600PRO : 450W ATX12V : Windows 7
 Reply to 505090
r-sky   06-16-2009 at 05:18:35 AM
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With Dell the 4gig upgrade gets you Vista 64 too...

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jkandell   06-16-2009 at 06:17:46 AM
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The 4gig ram update seems to not give me vista64, just "vista home premium sp1 32 bit."

FYI, the processor upgrade from Dual Core to Core 2 Duo is $35. (Still wondering: if both are 2.0/800, why is latter faster than former?)
3 to 4 GB ram is $25.

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nocteratus   06-16-2009 at 06:06:25 PM
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T6400 has more cache on the CPU and maybe a few more instructions.

I have a T5250 with 2Gb of ram in my laptop. I wish I had at least 4Gb of ram because I have a lot of IE8 tabs open with a few Office documents, spreadsheets...

When I have big Excel spreadsheets open it get slower browsing through my data as I open more IE8 tabs. I'm on Win 7 32bits.

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megamanx00   06-16-2009 at 06:28:14 PM
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If it's using a 32-bit OS then having 4GB isn't going to make much of a difference because she won't be able to use all that RAM. At best 3.5GB will be usable.

------------------------------ Playing X-Men Origins: Wolverine Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @3.24 Brisbane | GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-DS4 | 4GB Mushkin DDR2 1066 | Plextor 760A| 2x 3850 512M CF| WD 1TB Black| Fortron Blue Storm II 500W | APEVIA X-Dreamer Black | Win XP Pro & Vista Buisness 32bit
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nocteratus   06-16-2009 at 08:20:52 PM
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I'm using Win 7 32bits because now I only have 2Gb of ram, if I had 4Gb I'd install win 7 64bits...

And 4Gb on a 32bits O/S on a laptop it's not that bad if the video memory is shared with the ram because the O/S will reserve maybe 512MB for the video and 3.5 Gb for the ram anyway. 32 or 64 bits O/S, 4Gb won't make a huge difference.

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 Reply to nocteratus
jkandell   06-16-2009 at 08:27:51 PM
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I was going to ask about that, since the integrated graphics (rather than dedicated card) takes up a lot of RAM, no?

nocteratus wrote :

I'm using Win 7 32bits because now I only have 2Gb of ram, if I had 4Gb I'd install win 7 64bits...

And 4Gb on a 32bits O/S on a laptop it's not that bad if the video memory is shared with the ram because the O/S will reserve maybe 512MB for the video and 3.5 Gb for the ram anyway. 32 or 64 bits O/S, 4Gb won't make a huge difference.


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xruntime   08-09-2009 at 06:06:11 PM
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jkandell, a laptop with half the specs you listed could run those applications perfectly.

you won't notice a difference with any of the upgrades you mentioned, the only thing that might change something is if you upgrade the processor a lot or get a graphics card

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