8GB vs 16GB RAM Dell Inspiron 7000

8GB RAM, or 16GB RAM for an extra $300?

  • 8GB

    Votes: 2 100.0%
  • 16GB

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2

Lamortykins

Reputable
Aug 2, 2014
1
0
4,510
Greetings!

I am getting ready to purchase a laptop. I've worked out most of the kinks and I've narrowed it down to a Dell Inspiron 17 7000 series, mostly because Dell has a 4 year warranty AND accidental damage protection (I'm going off to college and I would like the peace of mind of acc. damage protection).

The only issue remaining is how much RAM I should get. Obviously 16GB RAM is better and, while it won't be necessary for gaming (pretty much the only thing this laptop will be used for other than typing papers), it seems like it would be a safer investment in the long run as my laptop won't become obsolete so quick.

However, the difference between 8GB and 16GB of RAM in the Inspiron laptops is $300. This is a ridiculous amount of money for an extra 8GB since the actual difference in value is around $80. I'm fairly annoyed, because I can't "customize" the amount of RAM in the laptop - Dell makes you choose a different "preset" of the Inspiron 7000 with more RAM (as if to disguise the huge price hike). My only other qualm with choosing more RAM is my graphics card, processor, etc. will probably be obsolete long before the extra RAM anyway.

I simply can't decide. Would the always reliable internet offer me it's expertise and guidance? 8GB or 16GB - is the $300 really worth it?
 
I wouldn't pay remotely that much for a RAM upgrade. On the vast majority of laptops(not ultra books) you can upgrade the ram yourself and getting a 4x4 kit of DDR3 SO-DIMM ram shouldn't cost $300, it also won't give you any performance boost unless you are doing things that require a large amount of RAM. 32-bit games cannot use more than 4GB of ram, and the only applications i have ever found needing more ram than 8GB are Adobe apps and engineering apps like Matlab and Solidworks.

It certainly isn't worth $300