laptops with 6gb

[Mr. Bamboo Head]

isn't it a waste to ship a laptop with a 4gb sodimm in one slot and a 2gb in the other? doesnt this force the laptop to run in single channel instead of dual channel?
oogling this samsung and figured i'd need have to buy a decent 2X4gb sodimm kit to go with it

[Firestarter]

My C2D laptop (945 chipset) runs a 2GB and a 1GB DIMM (stupid 32bit ram controller!). At boot time, this is designated by the bios as running in 'asymmetric dual-channel mode', which means that the first 2GB run in dual-channel mode (1GB of each stick) and the last GB runs in single channel mode (2nd GB of the 2GB stick). It's not optimal, no, but it's better than having, say, 2x1GB.

[Mr. Bamboo Head]

so it wouldnt be particularly detrimental then. good to know; really don't need more than 4gb anyways

[r00t61]

Most mainstream computer applications are not going to be much affected by the performance delta between single and dual-channel memory operation. A few percentage points, at best.

There are some engineering/science/workstation type tasks that are very sensitive to memory bandwidth, but based on the linked machine's specs, this doesn't seem like a big concern, so I wouldn't worry about it.

RAM is dirt-cheap, though, and Windows 7 will use all the RAM your machine has via superfetch, so if you want the extra 2 GB, more power to you.

[Firestarter]

One could argue that it's a waste to ship a laptop with 6GB instead of 8GB. I mean, a portion of the users is going to swap that 2GB stick out, and what happens with it then? A significant fraction of that would end up thrown away (not even properly recycled).

[Mr. Bamboo Head]

well obviously i'd try to sell it on craigslist for $10..... but not that many laptops ship with empty slots these days

[Firestarter]

The problem being that $10 is about what it's worth, brand new in a brick and mortar store. With no packaging or warranty, selling it on craigslist, you'd be lucky to fetch $5.

[wibeasley]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm considering a Lenovo E420. The base memory is DDR3-1333 6GB in two DIMMS. The only other option is 8GB in two DIMMs for an extra $80, and I was wondering about the performance hit from a single channel.

(You can get an 8GB kit from Kingston or Corsair for $40). It's going to serviced by the department's IT, so upgrading the memory will be a little more administrative hassle than if I bought the laptop for personal uses.

[thegleek]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm considering a Lenovo E420. The base memory is DDR3-1333 6GB in two DIMMS. The only other option is 8GB in two DIMMs for an extra $80, and I was wondering about the performance hit from a single channel.

Exact same laptop I use for work. Came with 4gb of ddr3 ram, just added another 4gb ddr3 10600 ram to it, maxing it out. (can't go beyond 8gb in T420's). running win7 64-bit os.

[OneArmedScissor]

I was wondering about the performance hit from a single channel.

You need to qualify that question. Performance of what? Since you're talking about a basic laptop, you will increase the battery life a bit. That's a performance increase!

[wibeasley]

I was wondering about the performance hit from a single channel.

You need to qualify that question. Performance of what? Since you're talking about a basic laptop, you will increase the battery life a bit. That's a performance increase!

True. When talking about single- and dual-channel mode, I think most people (including you when you're not in an argumentative mood) assume I'm defining performance as some version of throughput. But I agree, increasing the battery life is an appreciated bump on a different metric of performance. Do you have a guess what that bump might be? More than 2-5%?

[spitfire650]

One could argue that it's a waste to ship a laptop with 6GB instead of 8GB. I mean, a portion of the users is going to swap that 2GB stick out, and what happens with it then? A significant fraction of that would end up thrown away (not even properly recycled).

It's a very, very small crowd that would upgrade from 6 to 8, though. We're the outliers.

[DPete27]

Shipping laptops with 6GB is nothing more than another ripoff from OEM's.
Look, I can buy one 2x2GB and one 2x4GB kit on newegg for a total cost of $20 + $35 = $55 and I can split them up to make 2 laptops = $27.50 per laptop. Or a 2x4GB kit for a total of $35 per laptop. It only costs the OEM $7.50 more to build an 8GB laptop, but on the other hand you can get a handfull of people that will spend an extra $80 to upgrade from 6GB - 8GB.

You're better off buying the 6GB model and paying $19 for a second 4GB module to swap out.