The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Acer Aspire Total Ram Capacity?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by builttospill, Mar 16, 2010.

  1. builttospill

    builttospill Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi,

    I'm looking at this laptop:

    http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-A...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268790035&sr=8-1

    An Acer Aspire 5740, with 4 gb of DDR3. I called Amazon and they weren't able to give me a definitive answer.....but I am wondering whether this laptop has space for more ram or if 4 gb is maxed out. Does anyone know? I wouldn't be installing the additional ram myself, but would like the option at some point, and am mainly just curious.

    If you need other information about the laptop, let me know....I might be able to provide it.

    Thanks!
     
    builttospill, Mar 16, 2010
    #1
  2. H.A.L. 9000

    H.A.L. 9000 Occam's Chainsaw

    Reputations:
    6,415
    Messages:
    5,296
    Likes Received:
    552
    Trophy Points:
    281
    8GB. 10Char
     
    H.A.L. 9000, Mar 16, 2010
    #2
  3. builttospill

    builttospill Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Awesome, thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it.
     
    builttospill, Mar 17, 2010
    #3
  4. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    613
    Messages:
    6,705
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    8GB for sure.. but 4GB is more than enough unless u use photoshop or memory intensive apps...
     
    sean473, Mar 17, 2010
    #4
  5. builttospill

    builttospill Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Out of curiosity, how do you define "memory intensive apps"? This is a question I've had for awhile now. I won't be using photoshop (I have a desktop computer for any of that that I do), the laptop will be my school computer.

    I will be running stata and other statistical analysis programs and I'm not sure whether they qualify as memory intensive. Is there a way to tell or does someone know (similar programs are SPSS, R and maybe some others).

    Thanks.
     
    builttospill, Mar 17, 2010
    #5
  6. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Memory intensive applications include Photo/Video editing applications, database applications, 3D modelling applications but only with files that contain lot of objects, CAD applications also with files that contain lot of objects. An AutoCAD file with 1 milion lines would require more than 4GB.
     
    naton, Mar 18, 2010
    #6
  7. SomeFormOFhuman

    SomeFormOFhuman has the dumbest username.

    Reputations:
    1,037
    Messages:
    1,012
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Say if you run VMWare (say WindowsXP on it) then the amount of RAM is also important as well which determines the smooth and non-laggy performance of your Virtual OS.

    In photoshop, if you are merging multiple photos into a panorama that will require alot of RAM as well and theoretically the performance should also suffice in photoshop. I deal with large .psd and large format .psb files all the time, and RAM usage is important.

    Sometimes even I feel 8GB still not enough...

    I believe for your case, since you run analysis programs, I believe CPU power is important as well too(?) Anyway, when you run those programs next time, you may want to check your RAM usage via your task manager and see how it fares.
     
    SomeFormOFhuman, Mar 18, 2010
    #7