RAMming it in - 2x4 or 1x8

[astuart]

I'm looking at the new Inferno laptop.
I noticed recently that there were more RAM options added.
My current dilemma is whether to go for one RAM slot of 8, or 2 of 4.

Although the 1x8 is pricier and tends to slightly go over my budget, the advantage is I can possibly add a second eighter later!

Any thoughts on more pros and cons?

Sorry if this has been discussed before, couldn't work out a way of searching ('ram' was too short a word to search on)

Thanks in advance. :cowboy:

 

[Marks]

It comes down to weather you want to go to 16gb in the future.

If yes then get 1 x 8gb, if you don't then get the cheaper 2x4gb and save (quite a bit of) your money.

What are you going to use the laptop for?

 

[Yamikotai]

It comes down to weather you want to go to 16gb in the future.

If yes then get 1 x 8gb, if you don't then get the cheaper 2x4gb and save (quite a bit of) your money.

+1 to that. Plus if you get the 2x4GB you'll be in dual-channel mode and this have double the memory bandwidth. So I'd only get 1x8GB if you're going to add another 8GB module in future.

Edit: Though tbh memory bandwidth isn't nearly as much of a boon to Intel CPUs (which most if not all PCS laptops have) as it is to AMDs, so don't base your purchase decision based on any possible performance improvements unless you're using memory-heavy applications like database or F@H, that kinda stuff.

 

[astuart]

Thanks for the replies so far. Here's some details:

Usage: Mainly programming. Imagine on Ubuntu, a web server (eg apache), a database (eg mysql), a couple of IDEs (say eclipse..), and other related tools running. Apart from of course firefox (with 100+ tabs!), chrome, a calendar app, an email app, PDFs and office docs open, and a few command prompts.
No games, videos unlikely too.

Spec:
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3720QM (2.60GHz) 6MB
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
180GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)

My dilemma stems from the tendency that over time, as I pile things on, I'll start feeling it's getting slower. At that point, say in a year, I don't want to regret I didn't opt for the 1x8 option when I had it.

Of course, one consideration will be, whether eventually having 16GB will really add value to the processor spec I have outlined.
Thanks for your inputs.
:cowboy:

 

[Yamikotai]

With those use cases I'd go for the 16GB to be on the safe side.