RAM and the HP Spectre x360 Kaby Lake - Is it enough?

[matrodriguez]

Hey guys,

To give you a little bit of background information, I have a desktop at home with more than enough power to run any game at ultra and last me a long time. My desktop at home has 16GB of RAM and I find that it's more than enough for what I need. When running games or having something going I use about half of my RAM (8.7 GB)

I needed a laptop for school and homework and I needed it to be lightweight, portable, and good on battery life. I bought a Razer Blade at first, but with their QC issues and it having sub standard battery life, I returned it. I had no need or want to buy a bulky gaming laptop either and ended up really liking the HP Spectre.

I bought an HP Spectre x360 i7/8GB/256 and I can't help but think I am going to need some more RAM. When monitoring my RAM usage with just chrome windows and some music playing I find myself using about 3-5 GB of RAM on the laptop.

My question to you guys is if I am making a mistake with the 8GB version, or if I should go ahead and get the 16GB Spectre. The benefit would be the extra SSD storage as well, but I do not use my hard drive for really anything. I can get by with 256 easily.

My concern with getting more RAM is if there will be more heat and lower battery life. The laptop already gets amazing battery life and I wouldn't want to lose any of that. However, I do end up using a lot of chrome tabs and I do end up using the laptop for a lot of things. I don't use photoshop or any VM's, but I still like to consider myself a power user. At least more-so than the average person.

Thanks for your input

 

[GreyCatz]

Given your background details, I'd say your current setup on the Spectre is perfect. HP lists "up to 12.5 hours" of battery life, and while this may be somewhat optimistic, it should last you through a whole day, even with multiple programs and browser tabs active.

3GBs to 5GBs of RAM usage sounds about normal for any laptop. Just when idling, the computer is running as many as 100 programs and services in the background. If you insist on taxing its graphics capacity, battery life on the Spectre will take a hit - exactly how severe depends on the web sites themselves and what you do on those sites.

Of course, if you have the cash, 16GBs of RAM will offer increased 'peace of mind'. In other words, I think your concern is more psychological than technical.

 

[rgd1101]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from matrodriguez : "RAM and the Hp Spectre x360 - Is it enough?"

Hey guys,

To give you a little bit of background information, I have a desktop at home with more than enough power to run any game at ultra and last me a long time. My desktop at home has 16GB of RAM and I find that it's more than enough for what I need. When running games or having something going I use about half of my RAM (8.7 GB)

I needed a laptop for school and homework and I needed it to be lightweight, portable, and good on battery life. I bought a Razer Blade at first, but with their QC issues and it having sub standard battery life, I returned it. I had no need or want to buy a bulky gaming laptop either and ended up really liking the HP Spectre.

I bought an HP Spectre x360 i7/8GB/256 and I can't help but think I am going to need some more RAM. When monitoring my RAM usage with just chrome windows and some music playing I find myself using about 3-5 GB of RAM on the laptop.

My question to you guys is if I am making a mistake with the 8GB version, or if I should go ahead and get the 16GB Spectre. The benefit would be the extra SSD storage as well, but I do not use my hard drive for really anything. I can get by with 256 easily.

My concern with getting more RAM is if there will be more heat and lower battery life. The laptop already gets amazing battery life and I wouldn't want to lose any of that. However, I do end up using a lot of chrome tabs and I do end up using the laptop for a lot of things. I don't use photoshop or any VM's, but I still like to consider myself a power user. At least more-so than the average person.

Thanks for your input

8GB is heaps for a workstation, although you might want to get the 16GB version if you do heavy multitasking, which I find is the case for me personally. Up to you!

 

[matrodriguez]

Given your background details, I'd say your current setup on the Spectre is perfect. HP lists "up to 12.5 hours" of battery life, and while this may be somewhat optimistic, it should last you through a whole day, even with multiple programs and browser tabs active.

3GBs to 5GBs of RAM usage sounds about normal for any laptop. Just when idling, the computer is running as many as 100 programs and services in the background. If you insist on taxing its graphics capacity, battery life on the Spectre will take a hit - exactly how severe depends on the web sites themselves and what you do on those sites.

Of course, if you have the cash, 16GBs of RAM will offer increased 'peace of mind'. In other words, I think your concern is more psychological than technical.

This is what I was thinking. I had a feeling that my concern was more psychological than realistic because the laptop is very rarely going to be used in the same way that my desktop is currently being used. I may play a little bit of WoW or something a little less demanding on the laptop, but that's only going to be when I'm on the go and absolutely cannot get home.

I also understand that you use more RAM when you have more RAM, so my desktop RAM usage might be a little skewed.

Thank you for your input.