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#11
Thanks for the welcome. The mention of the power supply was directly referring to a CPU upgrade, which he apparently would not need to do. From that thread, the 720qm apparently will address 16GB of RAM. The following is from about 2/3 down:
"If you want to upgrade to 16GB RAM, you will need to upgrade to a 1st gen i7 CPU. Intel's specs do not say that they support 16GB, but both my i7-720QM and i7-920XM have run fine on 16GB RAM."
So, basically, the "awful lot of trouble" would be ordering CT2KIT102464BF1339 - 16GB kit (8GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM , DDR3 PC3-10600 from Crucial.com for $126, turning over the laptop and popping in the new modules.
Your RAM usage is extremely low if you're only using 2GB, so I wouldn't consider that normal usage for someone with a Qosmio. All I have to do is load up a GIS application I work on frequently and I hit 4GB usage. Add 1GB for each dev environment instance (I usually have 2 open) and I'm up to 6GB. Then I start working with a MongoDB instance and, voila, I'd hit the page file with 8GB. Anyone running virtual machines, heavy PhotoShop users, gamers who want to dual-box on a single unit with multiple monitors, etc. It's a high-end laptop so I don't think those are edge cases for that owner base.
As for why invest the effort into that laptop, it has an 18.4" screen and Toshiba's new Qosmios are only 17.3". It's a great laptop and I don't think there are any other 18.4" options right now, so it may be worth the minor cost of a RAM upgrade to extend it's usefulness. I'd also recommend a larger SSD while he's at it - the one it came with was way too small.
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