[SOLVED] 4GB or 8GB upgrade

[Pimpom]

I just bought an entry level laptop online - an Acer A315-56-323J with i3-1005G1, 1TB HDD, 4GB DDR4 2400MHz and Windows 10. It's rather sluggish but this was not unexpected and I want to put in more RAM. Will it make a significant difference in user experience if I add 8GB instead of the 4GB I'd originally intended to make a total of 12GB vs 8GB respectively? (I'll probably put in an SSD later but the RAM comes first).

This is for my daughter's Ph.D. work and the main application will be word processing and opening lots of PDF files and web pages.

 

[white.a.drew]

I just bought an entry level laptop online - an Acer A315-56-323J with i3-1005G1, 1TB HDD, 4GB DDR4 2400MHz and Windows 10. It's rather sluggish but this was not unexpected and I want to put in more RAM. Will it make a significant difference in user experience if I add 8GB instead of the 4GB I'd originally intended to make a total of 12GB vs 8GB respectively? (I'll probably put in an SSD later but the RAM comes first).

This is for my daughter's Ph.D. work and the main application will be word processing and opening lots of PDF files and web pages.

Ram will help but get two 8gb sticks not one mixing ram is bad and mess with the system more then help

 

[kerberos_20]

hi, if its only 4GB ram, u can use 32bit windows, it will be same feel as with 8GB on 64bit OS
so u can get SSD now

 

[Third-Eye]

I just bought an entry level laptop online - an Acer A315-56-323J with i3-1005G1, 1TB HDD, 4GB DDR4 2400MHz and Windows 10. It's rather sluggish but this was not unexpected and I want to put in more RAM. Will it make a significant difference in user experience if I add 8GB instead of the 4GB I'd originally intended to make a total of 12GB vs 8GB respectively? (I'll probably put in an SSD later but the RAM comes first).

This is for my daughter's Ph.D. work and the main application will be word processing and opening lots of PDF files and web pages.

The laptop has only a single slot for extra ram and can use up to a 1x16GB DDR4 260pin SO-DIMM module. You will also want to upgrade the 1TB HDD with an SSD that is 250GB-1TB in capacity, because the ram upgrade alone will not help with such a slow HDD when launching programs or opening files. Boot up will still takes well over a minute until you upgrade to an SSD. If the laptop will be used for local storage of large files, a 500-1TB SSD will make the most sense or an external portable SSD would probably be fine if you installed a 250-256GB SSD.

Edit - It looks like the laptop has 4GB of DDR4 2666 or 2400 soldered to the motherboard, so even if you got a 3200 module, you will still probably be limited to DDR4 2666.

 

[Karadjgne]

Windows uses @ 1.5Gb by itself, just to run. That leaves @ 2.5Gb to do anything with at normal ram capacity. Doing Anything beyond 2.5Gb in size will force windows to use pagefile.sys and the HDD becomes virtual ram, and gets seriously sluggish.

So you'll need ram to at least fit the size of your use. Light games, emails, web browsing, office work etc you can get away with adding 4Gb for 8Gb total and that will help considerably. Adding 8Gb will get you the same performance as the extra size isn't used. If you run heavier ram amount apps, intense games etc, then the 4Gb won't be enough as the igpu uses system ram for its vram and you'll be back to pagefile again with 8Gb total. So adding an 8Gb stick would be recommended there.

With ram, it's Always better to have more than you can use and not need it, than have less than you do use and need more.

An SSD is @ 5x faster at doing anything than a hdd is, and that can vastly improve windows and gaming experience, whether it increases fps or not.

 

[Bob.B]

I just bought an entry level laptop online - an Acer A315-56-323J with i3-1005G1, 1TB HDD, 4GB DDR4 2400MHz and Windows 10. It's rather sluggish but this was not unexpected and I want to put in more RAM. Will it make a significant difference in user experience if I add 8GB instead of the 4GB I'd originally intended to make a total of 12GB vs 8GB respectively? (I'll probably put in an SSD later but the RAM comes first).

This is for my daughter's Ph.D. work and the main application will be word processing and opening lots of PDF files and web pages.

Run this.......Speccy - Free Download
Read this and post a link to the results......................Speccy...publish

 

[geofelt]

I think the laptop comes with 4gb soldered and only a 4 or 8gb upgrade is possible.
A ram upgrade is very worthwhile so long as you are using a 64 bit version of windows and not 32 bit.
Here is a link to crucial:
https://www.crucial.com/compatible-...DZo7Pn7gIVh_bjBx0SbwHKEAAYASAAEgKE8vD_BwE:G:s

Your current 4gb must operate in slower single channel mode.
Adding ram will allow faster dual channel mode.
With 8gb more, the first 8gb will operate in single channel mode and the odd 4gb will be in single channel mode.
More ram is better so don't worry about that which is called flex mode.

I would put a ssd at the top of my upgrade list.
It makes everything you do much quicker.
Likely, a more significant upgrade than the ram upgrade.
Here is a video on how to do an upgrade:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOdNYXGyBOM

The ram is trivial.
Adding a m.2 ssd requires a decision.
If all you want is extra ssd space, it is simple, just install the m.2

But, if you want to see everyday performance improvement, you need to have windows on the ssd.
Here is the simple way:
Buy a samsung 860 ssd.
It needs to be at least as large as the used capacity of the current hdd.
1tb will be about $100, 500gb half that.
Also buy a usb to sata adapter cable, about $10.

Down load the ssd migration app and user instructions.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

You run the app which copies the C drive to the usb attached ssd.
When done, swap the ssd for the hdd.
Set the hdd aside in case you ever need to recover the laptop to factory specs.

Upgrading to m.2 ssd is similarly possible but it is more expensive, and the performance difference is minor.