Is the extra RAM worth it ??

When I got my laptop I didnt go higher than 4 Gig , as it seemed a little steep for going that bit higher and I knew i could upgrade myself for less later.

I have seen on Crucial's website that I could upgrade to 8Gig for £57, which seem fairly reasonable.

How much of a differnce (if any) will i notice from doing this ,, and is it worth doing just yet

 

Well depends on what you use your laptop for. Are you going to be running multiple instances of video encoding software or have many many applications open at the same time? Do you virtualize other OSes? If so extra ram can help. Remember the amount of ram hardly affects single applications. My best advise is to phase it in. If you really think you need the extra space, get a single 4GB chip and have 6GB, then later on move to 8GB.

 

I was actually wondering the same thing. I found a nice price of $89.99 for 8 gigs. Did not know if I would see the difference enough to actually buy it.

 

What widezu69 said. You won't see a difference if you run one application. But then again, I mean, if you decide to run three instances of one game, it may help.

 

i was thinking of upgrading too .. i think its worth it just have everything loaded into ram and not worry about hdd caching =) ...

but im more concerned about the brand of the ram ... what would you guys recommend? =)

and i just noticed widezu69's specs ...very nice! =) ..

how much was the 6990? was it hard to set it up in the m15x and how hot is it running? (im also contemplating upgrading CPU and GPU) ;-)

 

I upgraded to 8GB of ram (Crucial as it happens) a few months ago. My primary purpose was to allow disabling the pagefile to avoid constant writing to the SSD without the risk of crashing when operating needs exceed 4GB. It seems quicker after the upgrade, but I don't know how to actually test the results, so it may be a placebo effect. Still, given the price (~$90 USD), I'm more than satisfied. My research at the time indicated no material difference between the leading brands, but Crucial was top-rated in a couple of comparison reviews on an overall value basis.

 

Gaming = no difference unless it is a real killer game. 99% of the games will not benefit from 8GB ram.

Multitasking = In some cases yes. If you have like 10 applications or more active at the same time, you will want 8GB ram.

 

"640k should be enough for anybody"
sorry, had to say it

with ram, if you need more... you'll know.
first question to ask yourself....
are you running cad/photoshop/protools or some other ram intensive app?
if not then most likely the difference will be minimal. still though it doesn't hurt just be aware that your mileage may vary.

for me, it was well worth it. i still keep a page file for apps that complain but it's a set size and rather small.

you did the wise thing and chose to upgrade later when it's cheap.

 

Disabling the pagefile is not a good idea, since Windows needs it even when you have 32GB of RAM. I don't remember why it does but I think it's something to to with memory mapping.

If you have for instance 8GB of RAM you should consider turning half of it into a RAM Disk, and then put the pagefile or the temporary forlder into this virtual/RAM disk. This will reduce direct accesses to the harddrive. Also since the pagefile is inside the RAM, the laptop will be snippier.

A few tested have been completed by Tom's harddware. The had various configurations with 8, 12, and 16GB in one system. With 12 GB of RAM, they used 4GB as RAM, 4GB as RAM disk for the pagefile, and 4GB RAM disk for the temp folder. You can read about it here.

To create RAM disks you can use the freeware "Gavotte RAM Disk".

 

hey all ...

here is an article from the boffins at MS, explaining why Windows still uses a page file and all that jazz =)
RAM, Virtual Memory, Pagefile and all that stuff

And another article about write endurance myths of SSDs .. it was written in March 2007, and apparently, modern SSDs can last ages!!! 0.o ...
SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance" article in StorageSearch.com

 

I've had 4GB of RAM for almost a year and never needed more - until I needed to run several virtual machine simultaneously. Even with 4GB you can still run 2 older Microsoft machines(or loadsa Linux ones))) Regarding gaming/performance speed when single tasking - it's the speed of the memory rather than the amount(as long as it's not ridiculously small ofc) that matters most. Sadly M15x is limited to 1333 by the mobo(

 

really, i thought i could run it asynchronous and put it higher?
damn i have to check as soon as i get my m15x working again

can still benefit from tighter timings though

 

can you overclock the RAM on the M15x? .. I was thinking of upgrading my RAM soon and thought that 1333 was the max the m15x could handle

 

Ya the m15x can handle max 1333mhz if you have an i7, the i5's are 1066mhz max. Unfortunately the m15x was discontinued (for some stupid reason) before the sandy bridge's which can handle max 1600mhz.

 

Xeroxide, there's a guy in this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/571268-m14x-vs-m15x-8.html

who's comparing m15x vs m14x and lists 16gb 1600Mhz RAM as possible on m15x(unless he's misinformed). I've been looking for a way to get more memory into my machine, but alas no luck so far. A soluton would be welcome.

 

No 8GB 1333Mhz is all that is supported. Anything more is overkill for everything unless you are virtualizing or running the laptop as a server.

 

I am virtualizing) Running 2008r2 and a test client in VMware and another Win7 via KVM in Kubuntu installation. I tend to assign RAM dynamically so it's always nice to have enough in reserve. As to the speed increase - it's just curiosity, wide) Would be cool if it was possible, but it's by no means needed)

 

ok, so i just got my new 8GB of ram, and i can confirm that it is so worth the upgrade!!! =D ...

previously, when i ALT-TAB from games to my desktop, it would take ages! .. now its flip flop, back and forth ... fast as can be! wooo hoooo ....

im guessing previously, with only 4GB, some paging was still going on ... now its totally sweet! =D

 

I just upgraded from 4gb to 8gb and noticed the same thing