Is more RAM necessary?

[CG_Gamer]

Currently I own a Toshiba Satellite C655-SB5128 or something like that, It comes with a 64bit Windows 7 OS and 4gb of RAM

It comes with an i3 and Intel HD 2000 graphics

The system tops out at 8gb using 2 slots for 204 pin ddr3, right now those are occupied by 2x2gb RAM sticks

Most of my expertise is within the desktop world so my question is whether or not the increase in RAM would even be noticeable, keep in mind that the laptop is used mostly for school or a media interface (i.e. iTunes, Facebook, Youtube, Spreadsheets and Word)

Other than using the extra 4gb as cache for temporary files and such is it even worth the upgrade?

 

[corroded]

Since the only things you can do to a Laptop are add RAM and change the HD... As long as the cost is not going to keep you from buying lunch for the next month... Do it.

As to the HD change an SSD would speed it up but you sacrifice capacity to get there...

 

[Guest]

You won't notice a huge difference(like going from 2gb to 4bg) considering what you use it for. Unless you can sell your current memory for a good price I wouldn't recommend it. As a previous poster said an ssd would be a better upgrade. You could use your old hd as a backup.

 

[CG_Gamer]

unfortunately my laptop doesnt have a double hdd bay, and im not sure if this was a problem with the intel ssd's but i was unable to have windows recognize the drive suring the installation phase

 

[tricecold]

You would only need more ram, if you were doing video editing, compositing, because more ram means more caching of the frames in to ram thus speeding up the workflow. For your applications more ram will not give ypu any advantage.

 

[jaguarskx]

4GB is generally enough for most people. If you know you are using programs that can use a lot of RAM, like PhotoShop, then it is not necessary to ad more RAM.

Also, if I am not mistaken all mobile Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs have the Intel HD 3000 graphics core.

 

[Wamphryi]

8 GB RAM is pointless in the scheme of things. The applications that would use more than 4 GB in a meaningful way need 16 GB. I tried out Abode Premier Elements and Cyberlink Power Director and they really hammered my 2600 K 16 GB RAM Rig. Adobe has an auto analyser component which chewed up 10 GB RAM in seconds (and we are not talking caching here) and Power Director cached up all 13 GB of RAM on top of the 3 GB already in memory. My 2600 K was topping out at 98% across all cores the whole time. Imho 8 is to much for most things and not enough for anything that would require more than 4 GB.

 

[cybneo]

Most are right but if you multitask alot (If you open 10+ instances of IE, view a movie, and have any other programs open) you can see how much RAM is being used under task manager. If you see its at a higher percentage 80%+... then upgrading might help. Another good indicator is if you start getting alerts "Windows is increasing page file"...

 

[CG_Gamer]

the newer sandybridge i3/i5/i7 cpu's have the 300 chipset, but anything older than that has the intel HD2000 chipset, which is pathetically slow

thanks for all the answers btw