6gb enough for schoolwork?

[xnoobftw]

Will be running chemical engineering programs like aspenhysys of that sorts

Is 6gb of ram enough? I dont really wanna jump to 8gb because i have 2gb rams spare and i have a laptop that has 4gb built in ram

[another random person]

7 minutes ago, xnoobftw said:

Will be running chemical engineering programs like aspenhysys of that sorts

Is 6gb of ram enough? I dont really wanna jump to 8gb because i have 2gb rams spare and i have a laptop that has 4gb built in ram

 

Preferably you should make the jump to 8 GB RAM so that it enables you to be able to run programs smoother

but if you are unable to afford it then 6 GB should be enough

[tekgeek1205]

aspentech states 8 as the min. also its best to use the same size DIMMs to get the bet performance out of the ram.

http://www.aspentech.com/Hardware-Spec-Version-8-7.pdf

[Mark77]

6gb is barely enough for a Windows 10 machine just running a spreadsheet, email program, and a few web browser windows.  Definitely aim a bit higher unless this is an older machine and you just need it to survive a few months until you can afford something better. 

 

SSDs really, really help low-RAM (and 6gb is on the verge of being a low-RAM) machines. 

[tekgeek1205]

If you can get a sample of the software to test out before class starts you could test it on your own, but running on system with low ram is no fun.

 

Are you using an SSD or HDD. If you using a SDD you might do fine with just 6GB, but the experience wouldn't be ideal. The recommended ram is 16GB. That tells me the program could possibly use 16GB in worst case scenarios. Could you imagine swapping 10GB of data to a HDD. It would be a nightmare!

[Mark77]

If the engineering programs in Singapore are anything like the engineering programs in America, if there's anything extraordinary that is required of a student PC, the school will probably have machines, in computer labs, or even accessible remotely, that they can be run on.   I'm on a laptop-specific forum, and every year we have first-year engineering students coming in thinking they need the latest/greatest Quadro-equipped quad core laptop for "engineering" because of the marketing, but its really unnecessary and I used to spend a lot of time explaining that.

 

Also, that 16gb amount is probably for the most complex scenario they could come up with, not the relatively small scenarios that would be part of coursework or even a design project. 

 

I'd say to the OP, if all you have is 6gb, fine, run with that, and make sure you have a SSD.  But do make sure there's some $$$ in your pocket, at least available at some point in the future, to upgrade.   As even a computer with 6gb of RAM running common business applications and browsers, is starting to creep up on the threshold of inadequacy.   With every software update, Windows seems to grow larger and larger. 

[xnoobftw]

58 minutes ago, another random person said:

Preferably you should make the jump to 8 GB RAM so that it enables you to be able to run programs smoother

but if you are unable to afford it then 6 GB should be enough

51 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

6gb is barely enough for a Windows 10 machine just running a spreadsheet, email program, and a few web browser windows.  Definitely aim a bit higher unless this is an older machine and you just need it to survive a few months until you can afford something better. 

 

SSDs really, really help low-RAM (and 6gb is on the verge of being a low-RAM) machines. 

56 minutes ago, tekgeek1205 said:

aspentech states 8 as the min. also its best to use the same size DIMMs to get the bet performance out of the ram.

http://www.aspentech.com/Hardware-Spec-Version-8-7.pdf

49 minutes ago, tekgeek1205 said:

If you can get a sample of the software to test out before class starts you could test it on your own, but running on system with low ram is no fun.

 

Are you using an SSD or HDD. If you using a SDD you might do fine with just 6GB, but the experience wouldn't be ideal. The recommended ram is 16GB. That tells me the program could possibly use 16GB in worst case scenarios. Could you imagine swapping 10GB of data to a HDD. It would be a nightmare!

If i wanna make the jump i'll have to buy a separate 4gb stick instead of using the 2gb one i have now

And the laptop is running on a HDD

 

 

42 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

If the engineering programs in Singapore are anything like the engineering programs in America, if there's anything extraordinary that is required of a student PC, the school will probably have machines, in computer labs, or even accessible remotely, that they can be run on.   I'm on a laptop-specific forum, and every year we have first-year engineering students coming in thinking they need the latest/greatest Quadro-equipped quad core laptop for "engineering" because of the marketing, but its really unnecessary and I used to spend a lot of time explaining that.

 

Also, that 16gb amount is probably for the most complex scenario they could come up with, not the relatively small scenarios that would be part of coursework or even a design project. 

 

I'd say to the OP, if all you have is 6gb, fine, run with that, and make sure you have a SSD.  But do make sure there's some $$$ in your pocket, at least available at some point in the future, to upgrade.   As even a computer with 6gb of RAM running common business applications and browsers, is starting to creep up on the threshold of inadequacy.   With every software update, Windows seems to grow larger and larger. 

The ram upgrade is actually for a friend. My personal laptop has 10gb of ram i have afterburner installed. TBH i've never seen any usage above like ~5gb with just aspen on

SSD upgrade would be highly dependent on the person im helping i suppose... 

 

[tekgeek1205]

i just re-installed windows 3 days ago. i checked the ram after the updates had finished and on a fresh boot and win10 was useing 3GB.

[xnoobftw]

2 minutes ago, tekgeek1205 said:

i just re-installed windows 3 days ago. i checked the ram after the updates had finished and on a fresh boot and win10 was useing 3GB.

Hmmm my desktop running a hell load of programs (steam origin bnet etc) with 6tab chrome uses like 6gb 

[tekgeek1205]

i would got to class with 6GB expecting to buy the 4GB stick, but hoping not.

 

[another random person]

2 minutes ago, tekgeek1205 said:

i just re-installed windows 3 days ago. i checked the ram after the updates had finished and on a fresh boot and win10 was useing 3GB.

 

idk but for me windows only takes 200-300 mb Ram

Inventor and revit however takes 0.5 up to 2 gb for basic models and shapes

[xnoobftw]

58 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

If the engineering programs in Singapore are anything like the engineering programs in America, if there's anything extraordinary that is required of a student PC, the school will probably have machines, in computer labs, or even accessible remotely, that they can be run on.   I'm on a laptop-specific forum, and every year we have first-year engineering students coming in thinking they need the latest/greatest Quadro-equipped quad core laptop for "engineering" because of the marketing, but its really unnecessary and I used to spend a lot of time explaining that.

 

Also, that 16gb amount is probably for the most complex scenario they could come up with, not the relatively small scenarios that would be part of coursework or even a design project. 

 

I'd say to the OP, if all you have is 6gb, fine, run with that, and make sure you have a SSD.  But do make sure there's some $$$ in your pocket, at least available at some point in the future, to upgrade.   As even a computer with 6gb of RAM running common business applications and browsers, is starting to creep up on the threshold of inadequacy.   With every software update, Windows seems to grow larger and larger. 

Oh ya i should probably mention this

My school's desktops are wayyyyy too equipped for sch

They are running xeons e3-1271, 16gb of ram, quadro k2000s (i suspect it's just to display something) and a WD blue 1tb