Is 16Gb RAM with 256Gb SSD a good option?

[simon48]

It looks like we have an answer.

There is some controversy about how much power the Haswells use. It could be as low as 4.5 watts: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Haswell-4.5-watt-Bay-Trail-Fanless-2-in-1,23660.html

Or it could be as high as 15 watts: http://ark.intel.com/products/75028/Intel-Core-i5-4250U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_60-GHz

Either way, RAM uses around 4 watts per DIMM. That's means a RAM upgrade would increase your power consumption anywhere from 30% to 88.8% of your CPU's consumption.

With that in mind, I'd estimate that a RAM upgrade will reduce your battery life by up to an hour or more.

You need to stop posting this. Go read your replies for the last time to posted the exact same post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1663179/

 

[GSPice]

It looks like we have an answer.

There is some controversy about how much power the Haswells use. It could be as low as 4.5 watts: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Haswell-4.5-watt-Bay-Trail-Fanless-2-in-1,23660.html

Or it could be as high as 15 watts: http://ark.intel.com/products/75028/Intel-Core-i5-4250U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_60-GHz

Either way, RAM uses around 4 watts per DIMM. That's means a RAM upgrade would increase your power consumption anywhere from 30% to 88.8% of your CPU's consumption.

With that in mind, I'd estimate that a RAM upgrade will reduce your battery life by up to an hour or more.

Please stop spreading false information.

 

[rMBP2013]

Not many that's why I rarely recommend it. I plan on keeping mine for 4-6

Precisely my point. It's not a good idea to spend the $200 for something that you won't even utilize. Might as well buy something else with it.

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I don't think this is a very good comparison. You don't buy a brand new high range machine to be 'fine' you want optimal.

My old windows phone from 2006 can get email and browse the web 'fine' as well, am I going to use it instead of a quad core 2GB phone though? No.

Saying that I agree with 8GB for most tasks

Oh and can we have some figures to back up the higher capacity, faster SSD claims? This is not a universal constant and was only true with earlier SSDs.

i.e. Samsung 830 is slower at 128GB but the 256GB up are identical speeds. But the Asus Zenbook 256 uses two 128GB in Raid 0 so is faster.

Anyone got any metrics to show why they're faster here or is this just a general assumption.

Maybe it's not a "good" comparison 'cuz it was an extreme example. But the point is that 8 GB would still be enough for everyday tasks 5 years out.

I also want to know more about SSDs along with its speed. From preliminary research, it appears that if an SSD is almost full, the performance decreases significantly (though no formal studies have been done to test this).

This does make sense 'cuz of load levelling. One guy here did a test on his 1 TB SSD and it was quite a bit faster to write than the 256 GB one. When i get my laptop (i got 512 GB SSD), i will do a test to see if it is faster than 256 GB and will post the results.

Stay tune!

 

[T-Bob]

Precisely my point. It's not a good idea to spend the $200 for something that you won't even utilize. Might as well buy something else with it.

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Maybe it's not a "good" comparison 'cuz it was an extreme example. But the point is that 8 GB would still be enough for everyday tasks 5 years out.

I also want to know more about SSDs along with its speed. From preliminary research, it appears that if an SSD is almost full, the performance decreases significantly (though no formal studies have been done to test this).

This does make sense 'cuz of load levelling. One guy here did a test on his 1 TB SSD and it was quite a bit faster to write than the 256 GB one. When i get my laptop (i got 512 GB SSD), i will do a test to see if it is faster than 256 GB and will post the results.

Stay tune!

Yes but you also have ssds that already have dedicated wear provisioning. The problem I have with these claims is that they're generalisations and not based off the actual pci-e ssds in the macbooks. We'll probably get some data off anandtech.

 

[Chuck-Norris]

I think you missed the point. I am not asking about RAM but more about SSD performance..

Thank you all for your inputs.

If the only apparent difference between 256 and 512 is sole capacity I really don't need to go for 512 (I don't play games, I don't have massive music library, I don't keep more than a few movies).

I know that capacity wise I am perfectly happy with 256... the question was does 256 work significantly slower than 512... I saw a few threads about excellent speed on 1T (faster than 512) and about the big difference between 128 & 256...

16Gb RAM is investment as I am planning to keep this laptop for the next 3-4 years (not more than 5). I can't see SSD as an investment.

you dont buy 16gb of ram because u may think u need it in 4 years. by the time 4 years hits and 16gb is necesary or the standard, everything else will be to out of date to even matter!!!!!!!

 

[simon48]

Is 16Gb RAM with 256Gb SSD a good option?

you dont buy 16gb of ram because u may think u need it in 4 years. by the time 4 years hits and 16gb is necesary or the standard, everything else will be to out of date to even matter!!!!!!!

If you want to keep your computer for ~4+ years and you would really start to want/need 16GB of RAM in ~2 years I don't see why you wouldn't get 16GB. For some user preferences and usage your post is not true at all.

 

[brdeveloper]

you dont buy 16gb of ram because u may think u need it in 4 years. by the time 4 years hits and 16gb is necesary or the standard, everything else will be to out of date to even matter!!!!!!!

My white macbook seems rather up-to-date with a SSD and 8GB. If it was in the standard spec, would be totally obsolete.