OT: How much RAM should I get in a new laptop ?

Ed Greshko Ed.Greshko at greshko.com
Fri Dec 23 15:26:34 UTC 2011


On 12/23/2011 11:15 PM, linux guy wrote:
> Thanks for the replies.
>
> I was more wondering if its worth about $150 to get 4 DIMM slots
> instead of just 2 DIMM slots.
>
> I was thinking I could get away with 2 x 4 GB for a total of 8 GB.
> But given its an i7 and all, I'll probably keep it for a while and
> should probably plan that someday I'll want 16 GB (!) and should thus
> pay about $150 extra for the 3D screen (which is brighter and has a
> faster refresh rate) and then one gets 4 DIMM slots as well.
>
> To get to 16GB with 2 DIMM slots would require 2 x 8 GB modules, which
> would probably make up for most of the $150 over 4 x 4 GB modules.

If you have the $ then 150 doesn't seem that much for the added
flexibility.  Not having looked at the system, it is often that the
slots need to be populated in pairs. 

If that is the case, I would still go with 4 slots and populate now with
2 x 8GB.  If you went with 4 x 4GB you'd end up having to trash modules
to add more memory when you found that you'd really like to have more
than 16GB.  :-)

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