Necessary amount of RAM

I have an older laptop with Win 7 and only 1 GB of RAM. It runs really good. You will be find with 4 GB.

Here's what MS says Windows 7 system requirements - Microsoft Windows
For 32bit or 64bit 4GB would be better and run quite well/ note 32bit would only recognize about 3.5GB due to the 32bit OS limitation.

cheezit said:

It is a Windows 7 64 bit machine. I had emailed Dell before I started this thread and they answered me after I started the thread. They basically told me that the computer is available in three prices. I could get 8 GB of RAM if I wanted to get the top of the line and pay $1300. Somehow, $700 for 4 GB of RAM and a bigger had drive seems just a tad bit on the outrageous side to me. At any rate, I emailed them back and asked if I could add RAM at some later time. They said that it's possible, but it is a difficult process as it is not a regular PC.

For informations sake, the computer I am referring to is the Dell Inspiron One 2320 non touch screen.

See Stormy's post. That is a ridiculous price!

4GB is plenty. For years I ran on 3GBs - now I have a new system with 8GB and really see no big difference. Half of my RAM is now empty most of the time. It is not even used for caching. Example - and this system has been running all day:

cheezit said:

...They basically told me that the computer is available in three prices. I could get 8 GB of RAM if I wanted to get the top of the line and pay $1300. Somehow, $700 for 4 GB of RAM and a bigger had drive seems just a tad bit on the outrageous side to me...

I've seen a lot of systems sold this way, especially in the last year or so since the bottom has fallen out on RAM prices.

My theory is that companies are having trouble unloading the smaller-sized modules. After all, who's going to want 2 X 2GB (4GB total) when 2 X 4GB (8GB total) costs only a few bucks more? (At retail, anyway.) Since they don't want to get stuck with a warehouse full of rinky-dink RAM they pretty much force you to either take the smaller ones off their hands or pay through the nose for what you really want.

stormy13 said:

They lied big time. All you do is remove 6 screws to take the back cover off...
...it takes DDR3 1333 ram, which you can pick up 8 GB (2x4 GB) for $40 or less...

Great advice. Dell could do it for you for peanuts, but then what would they do with the pair of 2GB modules? Buy the model you wanted, do the upgrade yourself if necessary (like ignatzatsonic mentioned), then spend the $660 net you saved on something else. :)

2-4gbs of ram would be efficient enough for win7 32bit or 64bit.I upgraded my uncles pc from vista to 7 and it has 3gbs of ram and runs 10x faster with 7 then vista. He's really happy with it. I basically cleaned out his pc and tried vista but it was still slow so i told him to get win 7. His pc runs like butter now and i did all the management including putting a anti virus like avast,codecs,video card drivers and cleaned the inside of his pc at no charge. All free

since you won't be using any memory intensive programs... 4GB should be sufficient to handle all your requirements.... anything more than that will not help you much... if you feel the need for greater performance then I would recommend you to get an SSD instead of the extra RAM

I would recommend you to get an SSD instead of the extra RAM

Absolutely. That's the way to go. Get a Crucial M4 for a hundred bucks and your system will really fly.