<p>Hi, im looking into laptops for college and have been wondering if cs majors need more than 4gb of ram. If youre running virtual machines, is 4gb enough?</p>
<p>Ive been looking into thr lenovo x1 carbon with windows 7 (i cant stand windows 8)</p>
<p>Thinkpad</a> X1 Carbon Business Ultrabook | Lenovo (US)</p>
<p>I’d definitely go with 8gb. I’m not in college yet, but I use virtual machines a lot and it tends to get a little laggy even with 8gb (I allocate quite a bit of RAM to them though). I think for the extra memory, $200 is definitely worth it.</p>
<p>Virtual machine requires 8GB. 4gb is fine for single application, or multiple non-taxing applications. Virtualization is like running two separate taxing applications.</p>
<p>I’m surprised 8 GB hasn’t become standard for new computers considering 4 GB has been standard for several years and especially considering the current move towards 64-bit computing where one needs around double the RAM for the same levels of performance compared with their 32-bit counterparts…especially on Windows machines.</p>
<p>While I am sure that this reply is too late for the OP, this post will turn up in future searches on the topic. Basically, get the most RAM you can afford. It is the least expensive feature that will permit you to extend the useful life of your machine. Right now 8 GB sounds luxurious when in reality, it should be the minimum. Two years from now 8 GB will be standard and six years from now anything with 4 GB or less will be considered to be beyond its useful life (in business applications). </p>
<p>I have worked in the area of the design and testing of proprietary, sophisticated electronic products for stand-alone rugged box use in harsh environments. Without question, the first resource that becomes the limiting factor in a deployed product is system memory. This is even more common in consumer products such as desktops, laptops, etc. New applications become available every day and unlike stand-alone uses, the developers simply assume that there will be sufficient memory resources available in the form of RAM or temporary storage in auxiliary devices such as HDD. The management of memory resources is left to the operating system and without becoming too technical, this has been the cause of many consumers’ computer problems and the common, and acceptable, solution is to simply reboot the system. The most cost effective method to reduce these type of problems is to provide sufficient RAM.</p>
<p>8 GB is the most common default for new Macs, though some 4 GB and 16 GB defaults are offered.</p>
<p>Lenovo way overprices their memory. Is the only difference between those models 4 vs. 8 GB of RAM? If so, it’s not worth the $200 price difference to pay them for the extra RAM. Looking on Newegg, you can get 8 GB of RAM for under $70 (single DIMM). You would be better off getting the 4 GB model and swapping it out for an 8 GB you buy yourself. You’d still save $130.</p>
<p>Also, just checked and saw that they have slightly different models of i5 processors. The more expensive one is slightly better, but not $130 better.</p>
<p>My recommendation is the cheaper model and upgrade the RAM yourself.</p>
<p>I know I’m a bit late to this thread, but just to warn you - the ram in the x1 carbon and many other ultrabooks is soldered and CANNOT be upgraded afterwards. You have to get the manufacturer upgrade there.</p>
<p>Part of the reason I am currently looking at the T440p instead of the T440 is because the plain 440 only has one DIMM for RAM, and they want to charge $130 to upgrade from 4 to 8 GB. The 440p is a bit bulkier, but it has more options for specs, including 2 RAM slots.</p>
<p>I didn’t see the limitation on X1, though, J1772protocol. Good catch. And annoying. That’s the problem with a lot of the ultrabooks. You end up having to pay through the nose for some higher specs because you can’t make upgrades yourself because of the limited space in the machine.</p>