Frankly, I can burn through 8 GB of ram faster than Lindsay Lohan can finish off a brick of coke...
As xxBURT0Nxx said above, 8 GB is nothing in today's world for a Professional User. Now, I don't mean that in an elitist way but actually running professional applications:
-VMWare is big memory hog because you are running an entire computer. I usually have a VM for Windows 2008 R2 Server, Windows XP, and a Windows 7 client.
The Windows 2008 R2 Server runs MS SQL Server 2008, Apache, Tomcat, Notepad++ and a few other server based applications for development.
The Windows 7 Client usually has VS 2010 Pro and other tools to compile against the server and test items out.
The Windows XP Client is for compatibility checking with older OS/Browser
Between those three I can blow 6 gig at a bare minimum. That leaves 2 GB for everything else...
I also run Eclipse for Java development, XCode for iOS, MS Office, and Photoshop CS 5.
I paid $700.00 for 8GB when it first came out and will probably pay the same amount for 16GB when it reaches that price.
I think the people that slam you for opting for the better upgrades don't really understand the TCO and probably have no use for it themselves. However, that is not the case for everyone.
Example: You read these posts about i5 VS i7 and what a waste of money the upgrade is. I think its a very cheap upgrade when you consider the total sum over the length of time you will own the computer. If it saved me 2 mins for every compile I make over the course of a year, that is a substantial amount of time. My time is valuable. I charge a great deal of money for my time. People expect me to complete projects on time.
Opting for 8 or 16GB to not only run more VMs but reduce time in switching from app to app over the course of a year is again a substantial amount of time.
I'm not saying it's for everyone but there are real reasons people buy the upgrades and its not always for bragging rights...
-P
As xxBURT0Nxx said above, 8 GB is nothing in today's world for a Professional User. Now, I don't mean that in an elitist way but actually running professional applications:
-VMWare is big memory hog because you are running an entire computer. I usually have a VM for Windows 2008 R2 Server, Windows XP, and a Windows 7 client.
The Windows 2008 R2 Server runs MS SQL Server 2008, Apache, Tomcat, Notepad++ and a few other server based applications for development.
The Windows 7 Client usually has VS 2010 Pro and other tools to compile against the server and test items out.
The Windows XP Client is for compatibility checking with older OS/Browser
Between those three I can blow 6 gig at a bare minimum. That leaves 2 GB for everything else...
I also run Eclipse for Java development, XCode for iOS, MS Office, and Photoshop CS 5.
I paid $700.00 for 8GB when it first came out and will probably pay the same amount for 16GB when it reaches that price.
I think the people that slam you for opting for the better upgrades don't really understand the TCO and probably have no use for it themselves. However, that is not the case for everyone.
Example: You read these posts about i5 VS i7 and what a waste of money the upgrade is. I think its a very cheap upgrade when you consider the total sum over the length of time you will own the computer. If it saved me 2 mins for every compile I make over the course of a year, that is a substantial amount of time. My time is valuable. I charge a great deal of money for my time. People expect me to complete projects on time.
Opting for 8 or 16GB to not only run more VMs but reduce time in switching from app to app over the course of a year is again a substantial amount of time.
I'm not saying it's for everyone but there are real reasons people buy the upgrades and its not always for bragging rights...
-P
