[OT]: Memory & Performance

[Chris]

On Tuesday, 3 September 2013 at 17:48:22 UTC, Wyatt wrote:
> On Tuesday, 3 September 2013 at 16:15:51 UTC, Chris wrote:
>> If you had the choice between:
>>
>> - 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 1 X 4 GB
>> - 8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 4GB ( + $49.00 
>> )
>>
>> Is it worth the extra money or is the increase in performance 
>> not worth mentioning? Any experience with that.
>>
>> The processor
>>
>> 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor ( 2.4 GHz 6MB 
>> L3 Cache - 4 Cores plus Hyperthreading )
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> That's a little pricey for a 4GB DIMM, but the prospect of 
> living with less than 8GB is unfathomable with my usage habits.
>  Do you run a lot of things?  Do you use browser tabs?  Do you 
> compile code?  If the answer to any of these is "yes", more 
> memory will probably help.  If nothing else, you benefit from 
> OS caching to memory and not swapping.  That's a nice thing to 
> have.
>
> -Wyatt

Thanks to all for the replies. Yeah, the answer is "Yes". It's 
the whole shebang: Youtube + compiling + surfing with tabs, image 
editing, recording and editing music, watching DVDs etc etc.

The machine I was looking at is this one:

https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/gazp9#

If you go to "Configure & Buy" you will see that the original 
price soon skyrockets, if you configure it a bit e.g.

16 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 8 GB ( + $139.00 )
240 GB Intel 530 Series Solid State Drive ( + $249.00 )
[...]

I would also have to pay $130 shipping + 23% VAT on top of that. 
Unfortunately it's the same story with every brand. I have looked 
at many brands now and they all have the same pricing policy. 
Cheap at first sight but then it goes up and up, if you want 
better specs. This one is at least a pure Ubuntu machine (no 
Windows fees) and other brands often get bad reviews (plus they 
are not really cheaper and might have issues with Ubuntu).

Maybe I could buy the memory myself at a later stage, if I notice 
any performance hits.

As regards the SSD, it's still a lot of money. Are those hybrids 
any good? Performance wise? E.g.:

750 GB 7200 RPM SATA III Hybrid Hard Drive with 8 GB SSD ( + 
$109.00 )