Another 2GB or 4GB thread

[Mountain]

Hi.

I'm planning to buy a laptop asap but am a relative newbie to the computer jargon, so apologies if I'm repeating a thread but I didn't really understand the others.

Anyway, I'm planning to get an XPS M1530 and have the option of customizing it from a 2GB RAM to a 4GB RAM for £70. The OS is 'Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English'. It can be upgraded to 'Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (32Bit) - English' for £70 aswell.

I've read on another thread that a 4GB RAM is only really beneficial on a 64Bit Vista, but I have not yet seen a laptop with a 64Bit Vista, nor any options to customize one to that standard.

Therefore, I wanted to know whether there is any point in paying the £70 for the 4GB RAM or whether I should just keep with the 2GB RAM.

Right now I do play games on my computer which has a 2GB RAM, and it seems to work fine most of the time, although it's still a fairly new computer. Therefore, it may seem like a 2GB RAM is ideal, but I'm thinking more in the long-term. I have the option to get a 4GB RAM for an extra £70, so for me it's more a question of 'why not?' rather than 'do I need it?' I'm not even sure if an extra 2GB is worth £70 or not, and even if I did get it separately, I don't actually know enough about computers to know how to add it on/install it, lol. Also, from previous experiences, laptops for me seem to be greatly inferior to Desktops in terms of general speed/memory usage (not sure what I'm supposed to call this) despite having the same RAM, so I feel more inclined to upgrade to the 4GB.

Finally, those reading are probably wondering why I'm not opting for a Desktop rather than a laptop, and the reason is that I'm a university student who's finding it difficult to rely on university computers for all my technological needs.

Thanks for your advice!

[shaithis]

I would talk to Dell about 64bit versions of Vista. Seems silly if they offer 4GB+ of RAM but not a supporting OS......

Either way, 4GB is probably the way to go, on a laptop you would probably end up with over 3.5GB usable with a 32bit OS anyway.

[Rosaline]

The big question is, what will you be doing with the laptop?

Some programs simply will not notice the increase in ram, as they use so little to start with. However for certain games, the additional ram might well make a big difference, especially since most laptop graphics chipsets utilise some of the system ram as well as their own.

[s_kinton]

Originally Posted by Mountain

The OS is 'Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English'. It can be upgraded to 'Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (32Bit) - English' for £70 aswell.

Ultimate offers no real benefits to the average home user/gamer. Unless theres a specific feature of Ultimate you want, then its just £70 down the drain.

The 4Gb upgrade for me is a worthy selection and will work with 32bit, although you would be much better off with 64bit Vista, try speaking to a Dell sales rep and asking about 64bit OSs

[Bugbait]

If you want to run Vista then get 4Gig, no question. I find a desktop with 2Gig unbearable under Vista so a laptop would be worse.

[this_is_gav]

512mb was usable on a laptop I was testing stuff out with and regardless of the supporting system 2gb should be more than enough for most.

4gb will work fine with Vista 32-bit, but as shaithis said, it'll only see 3.2gb to 3.8gb of it (depending largely on how much memory the video card uses). Any single process can only address 2gb max of RAM on 32-bit, which would likely be a larger limitation than the overall limit.

4gb on 32-bit would still be very nice, if only for SuperFetching (I got 8gb in my home PC for this very reason). It's not critical to have to have a 64-bit OS to take advantage of it, it's just ideal.

[GSte]

4GB makes a big difference on Vista for me too, even on the 32bit version, I find that 2GB isn't quite enough.... but the 3GB that windows can use improves things.

[Mountain]

Hmm, it sounds like it'll be quite expensive. Is the Home Premium version of Vista any good? Or is it seriously lacking in everything? If it's still good enough (i.e. still clearly years ahead of the Windows XP) then I might just get that on a 2GB RAM. That would be enough, wouldn't it?

I think I'll save the 4GB RAM for a Desktop with a 64bit Vista, since Desktops in general seem to withstand the pressure better than a laptop.

I'd much rather get the bare minimum or the absolute max (relatively speaking) rather than compromise.

Oh, I was only really looking on the Dell website rather than in shops and they all seem to have the 32 bit Vista as their max, which I did find odd. Also, I haven't found any XPS M1530 in the shops yet, and would have missed it if I didn't look on the Dell website. In the shops, the only 15" Dell laptop I've found is the Inspiron 1520, which seems far too over priced compared to the XPS M1530.

[this_is_gav]

Home Premium will have everything you'll likely need (so long as you don't have to log onto a Windows Server domain, which is highly unlikely in a home system).

Get the laptop and try putting the serial number into Microsoft's media ordering system - you might be able to get 64-bit media for a couple of quid (delivery only), though it can take a couple of weeks.

Many OEMs aren't supplying 64-bit media as standard as it can be a bit picky if you don't know what you're doing regarding things like codecs (DivX need to pull their finger out...) and so on. You're unlikely to run into problems, but they do happen, and you'd have to look a little further for support.

[Mountain]

Originally Posted by this_is_gav

Home Premium will have everything you'll likely need (so long as you don't have to log onto a Windows Server domain, which is highly unlikely in a home system).

Get the laptop and try putting the serial number into Microsoft's media ordering system - you might be able to get 64-bit media for a couple of quid (delivery only), though it can take a couple of weeks.

Many OEMs aren't supplying 64-bit media as standard as it can be a bit picky if you don't know what you're doing regarding things like codecs (DivX need to pull their finger out...) and so on. You're unlikely to run into problems, but they do happen, and you'd have to look a little further for support.

You lost me with the whole 'Windows Server domain', 'Microsoft's media ordering system', 'OEMs' and many other things, lol. So maybe a 32bit or 64bit Vista will be dangerous in my hands, lol. Plus, the 64bit Vista sounds like tricky business, so I think I'll just wait awhile before considering getting a Desktop with a 64bit Vista, although I do urgently need some type of computer now.

So is a 2GB RAM sufficient for a Home Premium Vista? Will general online games play well on a 2GB RAM?