Will doubling RAM make any difference on laptop with SSD?

spotify95 said:

Hi,
I'd personally check what laptop you have, as well as what the service manual says for your device and what your current RAM is like.
If you only have one slot, there's not much you can do.
If you have two slots and they are both populates (2x 4GB, for example) it may not be worth sourcing 2x 8GB sticks.
If you have a single RAM slot used and an empty RAM slot then the best thing you can do is fill it with another RAM stick of the same capacity. So if you have 8GB, upgrade to 2x 8GB (16GB RAM).
RAM shouldn't cost that much nowadays, I've seen RAM sticks (8GB) for about £30, or whatever the equivalent is in other currencies.
As for other people suggesting a larger SSD, 500GB should be OK for use in a secondary device. Besides, when I last checked, upgrading to 1TB would cost at least £80, normally its closer to £100. It would be cheaper, and more beneficial, to go 16GB RAM especially if you have a spare RAM slot.

I do have 2 RAM slots. Presently, they're occupied by 2x4GB RAM. Laptop specs say it'll go to 16GB. It's a nice heavy laptop (5.6 lbs), sturdy feel about it. I think the HDD to SSD was the best move. Certainly cut down on boot time, ambient heat, and is kinder to battery life. Touch screen works great. But it's a dinosaur now (released in 2013)... so I think I should abandon the idea of updating the RAM given the nominal improvement it would deliver.

spotify95 said:

Thanks for the info :) If you already have both RAM slots occupied by 4GB sticks, and you're not hitting the limits when it comes to RAM usage, then doubling to 2x 8GB isn't really worth it. however, if your lpatop, like mine, originally came with 1x 8GB, then it seems like an obvious choice to just shove another 8GB in :)
Yeah, changing from a mechanical drive to an SSD is probably the best option. I'm going to do that upgrade on one of my laptops myself, but my main laptop is still going 2TB mechanical as it needs enough space for dual booting, and a 2TB SSD is way out of my price range for this laptop.
So unless you're actually using up all of your 8GB, I'd say stay on 8GB.

No problem. :)
Yep, I'd have done the same in your shoes--added 8GB to that empty slot. Well worth it, considering the price.

SSD has come down quite a good bit these days. You get yourself a solid 500GB and you're all set. I'd been double-storing my digital archive, keeping a copy on both laptops. The 500GB one is only 20GB shy of full, so I'm going to selectively reduce some of that archive. No need to carry "everything" on it. And better to do this than bumping up to 1TB (as on my primary). Then it hit me... ah yes, the original drive was 750GB HDD. Why not clear it out and repurpose for supplemental storage?

Hi folks
For the original topic - there's really no point in doubling RAM on these sorts of computers unless any of these apply :

a) you run a lot of Virtual Machines concurrently.

b) you host a web server with a lot of concurrent users.

c) you host a lot of shared files which a lot of users also access concurrently.

d) mega sized video editing e.g editing 4K UHD video files -- and then for this stuff you'd need a pretty hefty CPU and a decent GPU.

Other than that so long as the PC has 8GB RAM there's nothing on a Windows 10 domestic system that requires any more RAM - the best thing people can do to improve computer performance generally is to fit the fastest possible HDD's / SSD's.

In around 30 years of messing around with various flavours of Windows in my experience the biggest inhibitor of performance was poor / slow HDD's - although some recent insider builds of W10 seem to have poor performance whatever you do !!

Even today a lot of people don't realize how poor Disk performance can kill even systems with powerful CPU's.

Cheers
jimbo

Steve C said:

Try playing MS Flight Simulator 2020!

Hi there
I'm sure some things require loads more RAM - that was the point of the post -- but most people should find at least on typical laptops 8GB RAM adequate. Of course if its cheap and installable OK nothing wrong - but whether one will see any improvement is totally a moot point.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks,
For the original topic - there's really no point in doubling RAM on these sorts of computers unless any of these apply :
a) you run a lot of Virtual Machines concurrently.
b) you host a web server with a lot of concurrent users.
c) you host a lot of shared files which a lot of users also access concurrently.
d) mega sized video editing e.g editing 4K UHD video files -- and then for this stuff you'd need a pretty hefty CPU and a decent GPU.
Other than that so long as the PC has 8GB RAM there's nothing on a Windows 10 domestic system that requires any more RAM - the best thing people can do to improve computer performance generally is to fit the fastest possible HDD's / SSD's.

In around 30 years of messing around with various flavours of Windows in my experience the biggest inhibitor of performance was poor / slow HDD's - although some recent insider builds of W10 seem to have poor performance whatever you do !!
Even today a lot of people don't realize how poor Disk performance can kill even systems with powerful CPU's.
Cheers
jimbo

Hi Jimbo, thanks for the details. Most of the used & tested A-OK memory modules I've been seeing for PC3L-12800S SODIMM are coming up between $55~$65 USD. So it sounds like any performance improvement I might gain from the upgrade would be so nominal, making that cost outlay a waste. Even reselling the 2x4GB SODIMM presently running (Kingston) probably wouldn't get me any more than $15 USD (minus reseller fees & shipping).
Cheers,
~Gary