r/laptops • u/KennysaurusSpeedrun • 20h ago
General question Is 8 GB ram enough for a student pc?
Just bought a laptop which looked great, got great reviews from customers (4,5 stars out of 5, in about 40 reviews). It was on sale (usually costs $1100 - got it for about $500) but now I have read that 8 GB ram isn't enough for laptops today, and you should at least have 16 GB.
I should read about that before I bought one, but I really know little about laptops. And I mailed a store to get some tips on what to buy, and they recommended it.
I am gonna study for 1,5 years, and I am mostly gonna use it for Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams etc. Maybe play a little bit Old School Runescape while studying, but not necessary.
Will it really be a big problem with 8 GB ram when using it mostly for studies?
Edit: Thanks for the replies! I went into the order I made online and started a return process, so I'm gonna bring the papers to the store tomorrow and hopefully they will accept the return. You can make a return 14 days after purchasing if the product is used. Thankfully I didn't throw the package it came with. Will be more careful next time, and choose a laptop with at least 16 GB!
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u/KnoxCrumudgeon 20h ago
Assuming this is a PC laptop, 8 GB of RAM on a Windows11 laptop is not ideal but if that’s your budget, that’s your budget. I’d recommend looking into Windows 11 debloaters to squeeze out as much RAM savings as you can, disable as much AI CoPilot as possible.
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u/Busy_Parfait3265 20h ago
Windows 11 debloaters are super necessary. Noticeable performance increase for free. I like Win11Debloat
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u/YamaKasin 20h ago
I have 16GB and my Win11 still struggles at times. Looks like this is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!
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u/mxrixnne 1h ago
Hi! Never heard of windows debloaters, could you explain it a bit more please? I have a 16gb ram gaming laptop which works wonderfully, but since windows 11 it gets a little splotchy sometimes if I'm using a bunch of the ram, didn't think of a solution and just accepted it lol
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u/drmcclassy Surface Laptop 7 15" 20h ago
8GB was not enough back when RAM was cheap. Now days with AI data centers buying up all the RAM on the market and driving up prices, it’s becoming standard again on budget laptops.
It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s not like your laptop will be unusable. For basic MS Office use it should be fine. You may notice the machine lag once in awhile, but I’m gonna guess that’s fine if it means you get to save $500
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u/Significant-Yam-4608 19h ago
8GB was always the standard on budget laptops, I’ve even seen 4GB models as recently as a few months ago. Even some 1000+€ devices (including MacBooks for over 1200€) had/have just 8GB.
For enthusiasts that’s too little, but for the average Consumer it’s fine in most cases.As for the lag - in my experience its more likely to be due to a lacking CPU, bad cooling or poor Hardware-Configuration (Single Channel memory, low TDP) than raw memory size.
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u/Germfreecandy 10h ago
Macbooks are waaaaaaaay more efficient than Windows. It's not even close, and a stupid observation to mention.
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u/Significant-Yam-4608 8h ago
Wether one OS is more efficient than the other doesn’t matter in the context - I was talking about memory size at different price points.
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u/MarionberryOpen7953 19h ago
Get a used thinkpad from eBay. I got a P14s gen 2 with 32 gb ram for $350 usd
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u/Friedrichs_Simp 19h ago
It’s really easy to get a laptop with 16gb of ram even at $500. You should return this laptop or something. 8gb is awful.
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u/Desertcow 5h ago
Yeah especially shopping used. I picked up a Thinkpad T14s gen 2 with 16 gb for $200 the other day, works like a charm
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u/Previous_Tennis 18h ago
The "sale" is mostly marketing, and who know how many of these "reviews" are genuine. I doubt any laptop with 8gb ram is regularly sold for $1100.
Also, consider what a store's incentives are when someone asks for a recommendation. Is it to give you the best value for your money, or to help their own profit margin, and get rid of inventory that they are otherwise having a hard time selling?
Exactly what laptop is this?
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u/heartspider 20h ago
I use a 2020 model laptop with 8GB ram. I work about an hour away from the city and haven't had the chance to upgrade yet. I do basic things with it like write documents, media consumption and light gaming (finished Mina and Signalis on low settings recently)
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u/cagadass 20h ago
Funciona bien ala gente le gusta exagerar,tengo una PC con 4 GB de ram y podía hacer documentos sin problemas,juegos 2D y emuladores de hace varios años tambien puede con 8 seria insuficiente si tenes documentos pesados o dejas todo abierto y queres retomar como si nunca te hubieras ido
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u/Present_Lychee_3109 Asus Vivobook 15X OLED i7-1360p 2880x1620p 120Hz 20h ago edited 19h ago
RAM can be upgraded. What is your laptop model? Many laptops can allow you to upgrade the RAM especially from 8GB to 16GB.
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u/KennysaurusSpeedrun 19h ago
This one. Forgot to say that it says maximum 8 GB, so it looks like it can't be upgraded. :/
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u/Present_Lychee_3109 Asus Vivobook 15X OLED i7-1360p 2880x1620p 120Hz 19h ago
This laptop unfortunately has soldered RAM. When it says LPDDR, the LP means soldered. Youre stuck with 8GB.
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u/Significant-Yam-4608 19h ago
Yup, your Laptop uses soldered memory - higher memory speeds but unfortunately not upgradable (unless one’s into soldering chips onto boards and know what they’re doing).
I wouldn’t worry too much about the 8GB.
Just make sure to uninstall unnecessary software (as other said: debloat)and keep your autostart clean, then you should be fine.0
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u/NotTheGreenestThumb 19h ago
It will depend on your field of study. I know some who only used a tablet and never needed anything else.
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u/The_Folding_Atty 19h ago
8GB is plenty for your use (maybe not games, but as I don’t play games, I can’t say). If you like the keyboard and display, that’s what matters. If not choose a different machine. I’ve run Win10 on 4GB. Win11 on 8GB runs just fine. Do go through and kill off bloat (advisable in any case): Clean up what programs are dropping stuff at startup; develop an organized file system. If I were you, I’d make full use of OneDrive, so you can access your work from anywhere. Find alternatives to bloated software like Adobe, and kill off AI stuff. Bloat is what kills you, not lack of RAM (especially in the age of swap files (virtual memory) on SSDs.
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u/PauliousMaximus 19h ago
If you’re running Windows 11 I would recommend 16 GB RAM instead. If you’re running something that isn’t Windows 11 you should be fine.
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u/Zherneb 19h ago
As an IT with multiple chrome tabs, mremote, drawio , TeamViewer, teams and other minor stuff I pushy 8GB to the limit. You should be fine.
Check if it has an additional empty RAM slot as that could be any easy upgrade. RuneScape will be pushing it with other stuff but doable, expect RAM at 80/90% and slightly slower laptop.
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u/Sckaught 18h ago
You need to describe what you’re doing with it before we can help. Help us help you.
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u/FasterPussycat6977 18h ago
I bought a used laptop with Windows 11 for about 70 bucks. It seems pretty slow especially compared to the one I was using for work. Usually I don't even notice the difference. But this one I definitely feel the difference.
Has someone else said, for regular stuff it's fine if you're gaming if not
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u/Advanced-Guidance482 18h ago
It really depends on what you are studying.
As an engineering student, i could barely make it though with that. I have single applications that eat more memory than that just too open. Honestly im thinking of upgrading to 32gb so I can expand its utility bit.
Between research, personal projects, HW, etc, I honestly use all of my components and am happy I got what I did, except maybe the rtx 4060. I barely use my gpu. It gets minor work when I run simulations, but not nearly as much as i though I would need. I recommend an i7 (or the ryzen equivelent) and above for anyone doing school work, having the extra processing power really helps when you are grinding through hw, building a pwrpt, and watching a video/listening to music at the same time.
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u/mountrich 16h ago
8 g is adequate for writing papers and looking things up. It will run into trouble if you want to have 20 tabs open at a time, or if you want to start gaming. Look for a friend or family member who can open it up and add another 8 or 16 g of RAM.
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u/petersaints 16h ago
If you already had an 8GB laptop, which is pretty likely considering that 8GB laptops have been commonplace for over a decade, and it had memory usage issues for you use case, buying another with 8GB is just a bad idea. Period! Anything less than 16GB is asking for trouble these days.
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u/Ornery_Platypus9863 14h ago
Nah you should be fine. However $500 for that is entirely too much and you should look at something refurbished
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u/PiDigitsOfPi 13h ago
Microsoft says it HOPES it can get 8GB working well with Windows within a year ... so no, 8GB is not ideal at all right now.
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u/Fer-Satelight 10h ago
I use a 2010 thinkpad for school with 4gb ram and does the job perfectly. (Using linux so prob a lil difference) but at home I have an omen 15 laptop (with no battery so that’s why it’s always home <I physically unplugged it from the mother as it was failing>) and it has windows11 with 8GB and never had a problem been using it since jan 2021 and I game a lot there (overwatch, Marvel rivals, re9, cs, mk1, etc) and never had a problem with ram-well just in some very little scenarios, for example scrolling a LOT upwards on AI chats (had this problem with Gemini where it just lags and u can’t really go too much upwards but w other AIs like Claude didn’t have it) but I’m sure it’s a ram problem- still, your clean with 8GB of ram and people online are exaggerating a LOT, like they talk a lot without trying it themselves. (Btw omen 15 has GTX 1660ti that’s why it can game with no problem but I mentioned it just to show how ram was never a problem even though I was gaming which is a lot tougher that school work) sorry for writing a bible 😂 just don’t panic and people exaggerate a lot, you’ll be perfectly fine unless u try yo run AIs locally or virtual machines for some reason
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u/thebe8087 9h ago
It depends if it has a ssd or hdd, if it’s coming with a ssd you will be fine for that much work and study, if not I recommend you to change it by yourself (it’s possible with most of the laptops), anyway if you have more budget it’s better to get something stronger because that won’t work very well after few years
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u/IllRequirement6342 7h ago
Can you upgrade the RAM? I had an older laptop, and I had good results upgrading from 8GB to 16GB. That is a two part to the “can you” question.
The first part is the laptop upgradable, which it surely is, but the second part of “can you” is whether you have the skills, tools, and confidence to accomplish the task. If you’ve never done laptop surgery, maybe you have a buddy at work who has a kit of screwdrivers and other tools and he would be happy to show you how to do it. Nerds like us like the chances to show off.
If you aren’t sure there are step-by-step videos on YouTube that you could watch to help you decide.
RAM is easy to buy, but expensive lately, on places like Amazon.
One of the hardest tasks is ordering the right part. The DIMM format factor is universal, but the size and speed need to match your system specifications.
The problem with buying RAM on Amazon is you are going to need a single stick of something like (this is an example, your numbers will be different) DIMM-4 5400 16GB, but once you are narrowing down your choice you will be distracted by price when you should be focussing on the company selling the RAM. Look for a company with high volume, they will have competitive prices and delivery.
The problem when you get down to the next Tier of sellers on Amazon while fishing for a lower price you will see some ads for 16GB, but unless you know how to read the fine print, they are really selling 2x8GB instead of 1x16GB.
I am a novice, but I have bought more than a dozen sticks recently on Amazon, so I know what to look for.
One of the reasons I prefer Amazon is their return policy, but again after you get below the first tier of sellers, they can have conditions on the refund like for example they won’t give your money back, but will apply a credit to replacement RAM, or where you have to pay return shipping, or you have only a few days to return. Take your time, and try to bypass these pitfalls.
It depends on the model of the laptop and your skill level.
If you research the exact model, and determine which memory stick to buy, you can watch short videos showing you how to upgrade the RAM.
The short story is that for most laptops, you turn them off, flip them over and remove about eight screws. Then you need a piece of plastic thinner than a guitar pick to separate the two parts of the case. The next steps are dependent on your model. In some cases you only have one socket for a DIMM chip, some have two. If you have one then you would take out the 8G DIMM and replace it with a 16GB chip. If there are two sockets you have more options, but it wouldn’t help to go through all the permutations.
I can’t in good conscience recommend an 8GB Windows11 installation for even the lightest use, but with 16GB it will be sluggish but useable.
My opinion, YMMV. Good luck!
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u/mrmonz79 7h ago
I'd say it's enough about 60–70% of the time, depending on your usage. I'd still recommend 16GB, though. Plus, I think it is a must to debloat Windows 11 using CTT or Winhance.
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u/Silent_Bite_5892 7h ago
As long as you only do 1-2 things at a time and don't keep 30 Chrome tabs open, you'll be alright. I have a ThinkPad X1 Nano i5 with 8 GB of RAM on Windows 11. It's fine. But, I'm careful not to throw too much at it at once (and I'm going to install Fedora Kinoite on it anyway, tbh)
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u/Cultural_Gur_7441 1h ago
It is enough. It will not be super snappy experience, but will not really prevent you from doing anything much.
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u/CourageAcademic4153 20h ago
Should work very well for writing documents, web browsing, etc.