Looking at two laptops, both are identeial besides for that one has 3gb and the other has 4gb.

windows 7 64 bit, intel core 2 duo t4400

I can get the one with 3gb for 200 bucks cheaper then the 4gb one.....is the extra gb really worth that much more??

also would I notice any difference in speed between the two?

 

What do you plan on doing with it? Average user just surfing the web and watching some vids would be fine with 3GB.

 

I just bought a new laptop just so I could have an extra one around the house for surfing the net and so the wife and I don't have to battle over who gets the machine.

Mine has 3GB and for what I use it for (surfing the net and maintaining my itunes account) it is more than sufficient.

Now if you're into gaming or something like that, bigger would be obviously better, but for basic useage I don't know that you'd notice much of a difference......

 

Yeah I would just be doing the normal stuff with it....internet, word docs, music, and vids along with a few HD vids maybe.


I Just looked on newegg and I see that I can get 1 2gb stick for about 50 bucks or so...so if I went with the 3gb laptop I can upgrade later and still be saving 150 bucks.

 

^ Now were thinking!

 

theres gotta be something different to have a $200 difference. got any links?

 

Yep

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/pr...tion=push#spec

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...-6-Widescreen/



I also get a discount at office depot so that makes it right at a 200 dollar differnce for me.

 

The link for Sam's club comes up not found.

That is not considered a Core 2 Duo. Just a Pentium dual core per Intel.
From the looks of it, there are 2 memory slots. One with 2GB and 1 with 1 GB. You would have to pull the 1GB and add a 2GB memory to go to 4GB, the max. That is not a lot for a 64bit operating system.

 

Keep in mind that the Office Depot computer's 3GB of RAM is only DDR2, which is already outdated. Its doable for standard internet surfing, but thats about it. I'm running 6GB DDR3 SDRAM in my computer for minimal gaming and its alright.

 

I always tell my clients, friends, and family. It's okay to get the cheaper one. But, Make sure it's upgradeable. Make sure there are extra dimms, extra pic,epci, etc slots.

If it's a desktop make sure it has at least one extra HDD bay and one extra optical bay for later upgrades.

If your getting a laptop make sure you get current technology. DDR3 ram, Processor sockets, SATA, ePCI, and so on.

I will tell you that Pentium core 2 - Is an out dated processor. It even only has a 2 out of 5 star rating on the office depot site..

I will tell you though if you get a laptop, and want to use it on trips, vacations, etc, it would be worth getting a blu-ray or at least a DVD drive to watch movies... otherwise you'll be wishing you had it later.

Also, I would make sure it came with an internal wireless card... no point in having to lug around a USB dongle.

Also check to see what ports the laptop has on it. How many USB, 1394, what out's does it have, S-video, HDMI, etc?

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At least shoot for an Intel Core 2 Duo... They are cheap now, like the Q6600...

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Right now you think it's just for browsing the internet, but like when I bought mine, I hardly ever touch my desktop now. You'll use it more than you think. I even go to campus more often and use the wifi to study.

If you can afford to spend a little more, you'll be happier in the long run.

 

If all the guy want's to do is surf the net then any cheap laptop will work...

I have an old dell Pentium with a 1.3ghz and 1gig of ram that surfs the net just fine. Won't play HD video, but other then that it's a champ.

 

Unless you're gaming, you won't need more than two gigs. Heck, I game on two gigs with my desktop.

 

^ exactly. I have 3gb in my desktop with XP Pro, and I have never seen it go above 40%. Music, pictures, movies, editing, surfing...

 

I also forgot to mention that I run Vista 64bit. Supposedly a memory hog. Still games fine.

 

Games have more to do with video cards than memory. More memory with a 64bit system will definitely improve things. With a 32bit system, 3 or 4gb (depending upon OS) is all that is recognized or used by the OS.