8gb or 16gb

CrazyFool · 9 Oct 2019 at 16:28

Hey guys

I've got one of these laptops (Currently 4gb RAM)
http://uk.dynabook.com/discontinued-products/satellite-c50-a-157/tab/accessories/

and I'm thinking of getting this RAM:
No competitors please

Im not sure if I need 8gb or 16gb.
I play dota 2, browse the web, play music and use office apps and would prefer to do all of the above in combination. AFAIK the on board graphics also uses 1gb too according to the above link.

I currently have 4gb ram and task manager says i sometimes hit 80% whereas CPU never goes above 20%.

Would be greatful for any advice.

CF

Randomface74 · 9 Oct 2019 at 16:38

Yeah 4GB isn't really enough anymore.
8GB is fine for most people, I'd say it's fine for you.
16GB is if you're pretty confident 8GB won't be enough for you, or if you're future-proofing, which you aren't.

Also as big an issue is the lack of SSD.
Anyone who's used an SSD wouldn't go back to using an HDD.

Also as big an issue is the system is old, the cpu is weak by today's standards.
The issue being even if you upgrade the ram and get an ssd, you'd still find yourself wanting a quicker cpu.

So tbh my judgement says start saving for a new laptop rather than spending on upgrading this one.
If your response is, not a hope in hell of getting that money together, then sure - get 8GB ram and call it a day.

Admiral Huddy · 9 Oct 2019 at 16:39

16Gb means you can safely turn off paging, so less latency with the HDD/SSD

CrazyFool · 9 Oct 2019 at 17:05

Thanks for the replys fellas.

I hadn't thought about buying a new laptop.
However I'm the kind of person who genuinely believes in using something until it breaks and just can't justify spending several hundred on something new when the old version is perfectly adequate (even with 4gb ram)
Besides, if I get a new laptop the budget range wont have 16gb ram so will still need upgrading to get it to where I want it.

I'll take your advice and buy a new SSD too:

No competitors please

£20 for SSD, £40 for 16gb ram, thats only £60 to modernise my laptop compared to splashing out another 300-400 on a new device all together.

What do you guys think?

Cheers

Crazy

jaybee · 9 Oct 2019 at 17:11

I'd say 8gb is not enough anymore. Since taking 8gb out of a PC at home that did have 16gb, now running with 8gb causes more crashes and out of memory errors in programs like photoshop.

CrazyFool · 9 Oct 2019 at 17:16

jaybee said:
I'd say 8gb is not enough anymore. Since taking 8gb out of a PC at home that did have 16gb, now running with 8gb causes more crashes and out of memory errors in programs like photoshop.

Yeah I just checked the PC I'm on and its 8gb, I wouldnt say its amazing.

Please could you double check to see if the kit that I'm looking to purchase is compatible:

No competitors please

with my laptop:

http://uk.dynabook.com/discontinued-products/satellite-c50-a-157/tab/accessories/

Thanks again

Crazy

JasonM · 12 Oct 2019 at 21:10

Admiral Huddy said:
16Gb means you can safely turn off paging, so less latency with the HDD/SSD

That's just wrong advice sorry, the page file is there when your short of memory, and even 16GB is not much anymore.

Other then potential stability issues, disabling pagefile will likely make the computer slower as there is less memory for Superfetch and disk caching.

To increase performance the page file should be spanned across multiple SSD's or multiple HDD's this gives a RAID 1 type operation and will increase performance. The performance will be limited by the slowest drive however, so no point spanning using a SSD and HDD.

CrazyFool · 13 Oct 2019 at 21:56

JasonM said:
That's just wrong advice sorry, the page file is there when your short of memory, and even 16GB is not much anymore.

Other then potential stability issues, disabling pagefile will likely make the computer slower as there is less memory for Superfetch and disk caching.

To increase performance the page file should be spanned across multiple SSD's or multiple HDD's this gives a RAID 1 type operation and will increase performance. The performance will be limited by the slowest drive however, so no point spanning using a SSD and HDD.

Thanks buddy.

I'm going to take the plunge.

Please could you review my purchase choices for compatibility.
going to go for 16gb ram and 240gb SSD.

Cheers!

aoaaron · 13 Oct 2019 at 22:32

16

Not 32 like i got.

CrazyFool · 13 Oct 2019 at 22:42

so 2 x 8gb from the link attached?

Anything else I need to consider?

Cheers again

JasonM · 14 Oct 2019 at 00:15

CrazyFool said:
Thanks buddy.

I'm going to take the plunge.

Please could you review my purchase choices for compatibility.
going to go for 16gb ram and 240gb SSD.

Cheers!

The SODIMM memory at 1600Mhz speed is correct for your computer, the SSD you have linked will work also.

However that laptop will need a 9.5mm drive. The size is not given on the SSD you have listed, but expect it's 7mm, because of this you may need to order a 7mm to 9.5mm adaptor to space the drive. I would contact the company selling the SSD and ask them if it's 7mm or 9.5mm, if it's 7mm you can order a bracelet separate from anywhere on the internet, the brackets are universal.

The only other thing. I don't like products from cheap'er branded companies, normally I would recommend brands such as Kingston, Crucial, Western Digital or Samsung, this said the reviews for those products are good so they will probably work ok.

theforce · 14 Oct 2019 at 00:26

If you want to have multiple programs and browser with many tabs open at the same time, then 16GB of ram would be preferable. I never heard of that brand of SSD. I would get a more reputable ssd or at least something with dram which will speed things along better than a dram-less solution.

CrazyFool · 14 Oct 2019 at 00:43

Thanks for the replys.

JasonM said:
However that laptop will need a 9.5mm drive. The size is not given on the SSD you have listed, but expect it's 7mm, because of this you may need to order a 7mm to 9.5mm adaptor to space the drive. I would contact the company selling the SSD and ask them if it's 7mm or 9.5mm, if it's 7mm you can order a bracelet separate from anywhere on the internet, the brackets are universal.

Thats smart, how can you tell its a 7mm drive over a 9.5mm drive? I thought 2.5" drives were standard size.

theforce said:
If you want to have multiple programs and browser with many tabs open at the same time, then 16GB of ram would be preferable. I never heard of that brand of SSD. I would get a more reputable ssd or at least something with dram which will speed things along better than a dram-less solution.

please could you explain what dram is?
How much more performance improvement for Dota, office apps, and web browsing can I expect?
I'm guessing its going to be significantly more expensive?

Cheers

JasonM · 14 Oct 2019 at 00:57

CrazyFool said:
Thats smart, how can you tell its a 7mm drive over a 9.5mm drive? I thought 2.5" drives were standard size.

7mm is normally the standard, but not always, you need to contact the company selling that SSD to find out. If it's 7mm you will need the spacer to bring to 9.5mm

Quartz · 14 Oct 2019 at 01:05

CrazyFool said:
going to go for 16gb ram and 240gb SSD.

If you can afford a larger SSD, go for it.

CrazyFool · 14 Oct 2019 at 01:08

JasonM said:
7mm is normally the standard, but not always, you need to contact the company selling that SSD to find out. If it's 7mm you will need the spacer to bring to 9.5mm

The diagram shows its a 9.5mm drive so thats good.

Quartz said:
If you can afford a larger SSD, go for it.

I've never used more than 100gb of space. What do you think?

JasonM · 14 Oct 2019 at 02:22

CrazyFool said:
I've never used more than 100gb of space. What do you think?

What software and apps are you using, 240gb is not that much, I would get at least double this.

CrazyFool · 14 Oct 2019 at 14:35

JasonM said:
What software and apps are you using, 240gb is not that much, I would get at least double this.

Only Dota, Office, and Web browers.
I don't download anything.
Like I said, I've never been over 100gb. 120gb would probably be enough but I'm doubling it.

Admiral Huddy · 15 Oct 2019 at 09:37

JasonM said:
That's just wrong advice sorry, the page file is there when your short of memory, and even 16GB is not much anymore.

Other then potential stability issues, disabling pagefile will likely make the computer slower as there is less memory for Superfetch and disk caching.

To increase performance the page file should be spanned across multiple SSD's or multiple HDD's this gives a RAID 1 type operation and will increase performance. The performance will be limited by the slowest drive however, so no point spanning using a SSD and HDD.

"when your short of memory"

Hence the reason why I suggested that this should only be done when you know you have sufficient main memory.. 16gb + is fine.

I've had paging turned off for the 6 years or so or ever since I've had 16GB. I use heavy memory applications such is LR and PS plus games and never had any issues. Having this set to off reduces SSD/HDD latency and valuable SSD writes. What's the point of a having a super fast Processor and memory only for it bottleneck back to the HDD.

JasonM · 15 Oct 2019 at 18:29

Admiral Huddy said:
Hence the reason why I suggested that this should only be done when you know you have sufficient main memory.. 16gb + is fine.

I've had paging turned off for the 6 years or so or ever since I've had 16GB. I use heavy memory applications such is LR and PS plus games and never had any issues. Having this set to off reduces SSD/HDD latency and valuable SSD writes. What's the point of a having a super fast Processor and memory only for it bottleneck back to the HDD.

In 2011 my computer at time had 16GB, I would use a lot of page file when dealing with RAW photos or Adobe Premier Pro.

Other then this, by disabling page file there is less space for disk caching and super fetch, memory caching is faster then any SSD, so by disabling page file will likely increase HDD/SSD access, not reduce it.