Question:
Is 2 GB ram/memory in a laptop enough for college?
anonymous
2016-08-08 13:50:32 UTC
A friend recommended the Lenovo ideapad as a cheap laptop with good battery. It says it has 2 gb ram, would this be enough to store my documents, use internet and such? Would you also recommend it?
77 answers:
Geek Squad
2016-08-09 12:31:44 UTC
Hello,



Congratulations on college and good luck! 2GB of RAM is good enough to run Windows 7 and 10 as long as media such as movies, etc are not in the picture. If you wanted a laptop with great battery life that's 100% business then a Chromebook might be just what you want. Battery life wise they normally last over 5 hours of use. They are less than $300 and will handle an Office or School setting. Google Documents and Apps allow you to use Microsoft Word documents and anything else that you might need. Also keep in mind Chromebooks are not vulnerable to virtually all malware currently.



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Re Vera
2016-08-11 10:17:43 UTC
Unless you're running a super-lean operating system (some linux distros or like... Windows Mobile), it is no where near enough. The baseline now (absolute minimum) for a standard laptop is 4 GB, but I wouldn't buy anything under 6. Odds are you're going to be multi-tasking with Spotify or a movie going in the background, with four or five tabs of Chrome open and maybe Word or Excel up. You need a lot more RAM to multitask like that.
Smokies Hiker
2016-08-08 19:18:34 UTC
4GB of RAM is the minimum amount of RAM you should have these days. With operating systems and software becoming more complex, RAM is used for everything. Many people will have two browsers open and running at the same time and a program like MS Word open for typing a paper. That computer would really be slow to use. But if cost is a concern, then you use whatever you can afford.
Yourmom
2016-08-09 12:11:38 UTC
If you're using it strictly for things like office and light browsing (i stress LIGHT) then you can barely get by with it. The real problem comes when other things like powerpoint and hard flash learning tool come to play. some colleges post things to their school site, in which you would have to submit things online, if this is the case, i'd recommend at least a 4 GB ram. If your classes are strictly in school, then you could maybe get by. I'd say a 6-8 gb or if you have to, 4 gb. Good luck mate
Anshuman
2016-08-14 05:55:08 UTC
It depend upon your requirement or subject.if you are in video editing department then 2 GB ram is not enough it must be more than 4 GB other wise your program will stop working.If you are in electronics or robotic department then it is enough for you.Or if you want to only watch videos playing small games then it is fine. But only ram cannot decide the speed or memory use you should use a plenty high speed processor.you can't play games like cod modern warfare and other high graphic game it need graphic card to play such type of game.i recommend you Asus-A555LF-XX263D-15-6-inch-i3-5010U-Graphics







Thank you

A.K.Sharma
Sneha
2016-08-09 05:10:30 UTC
I think 2 GB RAM will be enough but you will have to take care that cache, temporary files and junk files are not eating your RAM, so you should clean the disk space time to time. For this there are software available

1. DiskAnalyzerPro

2. CleanMaster

3. Ccleaner
?
2016-08-19 10:48:16 UTC
Tough Call.



I got one of those small laptops with 2Gbyte and 32Gbyte of Flash storage. It is slow but tends to go decently long on a battery. It is good enough for using office [or an alternative like LibreOffice] and small tasks. You can run youtube videos on it even... if you don't mind a bit of slow down.



But 2Gbyte, kinda puts it in that mark of, slow.



Its functional but slow. And yes for college, just taking it with you to classes? Nothing wrong with that. It probably is very small and light. For heavier work, oh ..oh no! They are not made for that.



I use mine to use LibreOffice and write documents. Thats about it.



Now if I would open 20 tabs in firefox and watch a few youtube videos. Well things will slow down considerable. So though it is enough for working on it probably it so slow for enjoyable usage.



Still why buy a 2Gbyte laptop? Because they are cheap. Because they are light. Because they offer basic functionality against a decent price. Because if all you need to do is office, take notes and need a half decent battery life guess what. These babies will do the job.



If you need entertainment a 4Gbyte laptop with a more powerful GPU/CPU will work out better. But those are heavier and tend to have worse battery life. Choices Choices.
anonymous
2016-08-08 14:45:46 UTC
It's pretty much minimum spec. It will work for light use (office, internet, youtube, playing music etc)



See how much if will cost to upgrade the RAM to 4 or 6 gb. If it's only $20-30 do that and the machine will work a lot better.
Belgariad
2016-08-08 16:00:50 UTC
You may want between 4 and 6 GB of ram. Otherwise you laptop will crawl. Even if you don't have any games downloaded.
Sulabh
2016-08-09 05:10:06 UTC
It depends upon why are you using laptop. If it's for serious IT work or something then you will need to get laptop with higher requirements. If you are using just to browse internet and watch movies then its fine to go ahead with 2 GB RAM.
sanjay agal
2016-08-12 02:24:09 UTC
Goof luck for college and as per the ram concern i feel i am an IT professional and till today i did not found that 2 gb is not enough so i can say that its well enough for educational work
anonymous
2016-08-09 15:01:09 UTC
4 GB is enough, not 2 GB. But if you are Bill Gates, 640 KB RAM is enough. For using office, firefox with 20 tabs, adobe, VLC, games, and so on, i don't think 2 GB is enough.
?
2016-08-08 13:53:46 UTC
Adding ram is the most cost effective way to increase laptop performance. 6 GB at least. SSD is not a bad idea either
kapils
2016-08-09 20:16:27 UTC
Hello ,



If you are using your laptop just for normal usages like watching Movie , using Facebook and other websites then 2 GB is enough for you , but if you are a software Engineer and write program's the memory is not enough .

regards

Kapil
?
2016-08-08 13:52:35 UTC
Laptops today have 16 gb of ram.
Little_c81
2016-08-08 15:22:00 UTC
well if your doing very simple stuff for the next year or two yes, but if you have anything like video, gaming, and or programming then no. Its standard to have four cores and 4 gb of ram, now days eight is an average as the apps on windows are starting to get heavy. plus websites.
Rosalyn
2016-08-10 06:02:57 UTC
i think 2 gb RAM is less for college because now days there are so many useful softwrae and they are very heavy so 2 gb ram can't run them.
Dominic
2016-08-09 12:29:14 UTC
2 GB RAM is good enough for normal work but not for multi-tasking. For college purpose i think it should be ok
anonymous
2016-08-26 05:06:43 UTC
i think 2 gb ram is less for college 'cause now days there are so numerous useful softwrae and they are very heavy so 2 gb ram cannot run them...
anonymous
2016-11-11 19:56:05 UTC
well if your doing very simple stuff for the next year or two yeah, but if you have anything like video, gaming, and or programming then no... its standard to have four cores and 4 gb of ram, now days eight is an average as the apps on windows are starting to get heavy... plus websites...
Jordan
2016-08-08 16:22:29 UTC
No. Your laptop will be very very slow!! 6-8 GB Minimum
zIndex
2016-08-13 03:16:36 UTC
I do professional work with 2 gb ram, so you must can perform your college work with 2gb ram.
Renee G
2016-08-14 10:08:44 UTC
It might be enough for taking notes, writing papers, email, and light surfing - but I'd limit the number of open tabs while using it. I'd also make sure that it is password protected & that you can access it remotely (in the event of theft) to save your information to your other computer (or the cloud) and then shut it down.



Laptops, tablets, and cell phones do get lost or stolen.
phonegrade
2016-08-09 16:22:13 UTC
Its OK but not the best most Apple laptops have average 8GB RAM thats why they are so fast usually expect it to be a little slower and screaming at it
anonymous
2016-08-09 11:49:31 UTC
Barely minimum. Your need to update it to at least 6 or 8 GB if you can.
cosmo
2016-08-09 16:19:04 UTC
2 GB is very small for Microsoft Windows but may work well with a Linux system.
anonymous
2016-08-11 12:05:40 UTC
If you only plan to browse you're way better off with a chrome book. They're cheap, last long, light weight, and fast. If you're not familiar with the chrome alternatives tof windows go on Google and check it out. You can pretty much do all your school work on that.
Jon
2016-08-14 12:08:21 UTC
Go with 4
Be5
2016-08-11 10:02:16 UTC
I just purchased a 8gb ram lenovo for college for £280 and its quite fast. Would reccomend getting lower but maybe im just to fussy and impatient :)
Giermin
2016-08-09 07:29:01 UTC
it depends on your degree program if you are taking science , computer or technology major. I think you need like 8-16gb of ram. because you will be using hard core software like autocad, matlab and other stuff.

but if not 2-4gb of ram will do but i reccomend 4gb of ram
Tamara
2016-08-12 01:43:41 UTC
Newer operation systems need more ram so it wiser if you can buy extra 2,4 gbs of memory.
akp
2016-08-10 07:13:15 UTC
Better go for atleast 4gb .. 2 gb is very basic these days
shoharabul
2016-08-12 23:12:44 UTC
Yes
anonymous
2017-03-11 01:14:38 UTC
goof luck for college and as per the ram concern i feel i am an it professional and till today i did not found that 2 gb is not enough so i can say that its well enough for educational work
anonymous
2017-03-09 02:52:39 UTC
4 gb is enough, not 2 gb... but if you are bill gates, 640 kb ram is enough... for using office, firefox with 20 tabs, adobe, vlc, games, and so on, i don't think 2 gb is enough...
Mathis
2017-03-02 08:32:45 UTC
Books better your sentence structure, reading level, spelling, vocabulary, and generally tend to be more educational than T.V.
anonymous
2017-01-30 10:02:48 UTC
After I watch Television set I usually feel like I will be doing something more fruitful
kristerso55
2016-08-09 10:28:18 UTC
I think the best should be 4 gb
Marvin
2016-08-12 19:13:28 UTC
No, and keep in mind that Lenova is a Chinese brand. They are known for pre-installed spyware.



4 GB is minimum
FreeSpirit
2016-08-12 11:30:51 UTC
I would personally go with atleast 4GB, 2GB isnt enough space for newer windows Operating Systems to run smoothly.
William
2016-08-08 13:55:57 UTC
2GB RAM is not alot, my home computer has 4 GB of RAM, and its not very much
?
2016-08-09 08:16:24 UTC
Buy a Macbook with 8GB Ram and SSD drive.
vic
2016-08-12 19:56:40 UTC
Thas not enough ram to check your email
anonymous
2016-08-09 06:26:43 UTC
Cool
sukanya
2016-08-11 10:51:30 UTC
yes it is good and 2GB is enough for college when we are using it for the only work and not for watching movies and not for the gaming on laptop.And it is good to clean up the temporary memory time to time.
sdnferf
2016-08-10 16:10:06 UTC
if you are just using it for normal reasons but if you are going to have 20 tabs open at once or play video games no. But simply using the internet and watching video will be fine
?
2016-08-09 04:55:56 UTC
2GB will work, but its not advisable.



Also, you don't store documents in RAM, its volatile memory, everything in it is cleared when the computer is switched off.
Rodd
2016-08-10 16:43:43 UTC
No, at least get 4GB. If your a busy student and want things to finish loading quickly, then 2GB is too slow.
anonymous
2016-08-08 13:53:08 UTC
That would be fine for basic internet access and office use. It probably wouldn't be any good for gaming or any high-end video/photo editing etc.
Bill-M
2016-08-08 14:13:01 UTC
NO. 2GB is barley enough to run the operting system

You need a minimum of 4GB.
anonymous
2016-08-09 03:47:45 UTC
Eee
Jack
2016-08-09 04:55:06 UTC
Yep
0003310
2016-08-10 16:05:04 UTC
Not for intensive use, but for basic word processing and internet browsing then yes... you could always upgrade it later if you find it is not sufficient
Abarajithan
2016-08-09 07:41:25 UTC
Yes sure, its still enough for Mid range gamers also.
?
2016-08-12 11:37:51 UTC
I wouldn't get anything less

than 4
alex
2016-08-11 01:55:27 UTC
2GB RAM is quite enough for a computer.
Andy T
2016-08-09 15:08:57 UTC
Yes it's good
Alizad
2016-08-09 07:24:38 UTC
no its not at least 4GB needed

i think it will crash if you want to install a program like photoshop even google chrome

sorry bad EN
Jonathon
2016-08-09 21:42:36 UTC
It is depend your Laptop configure.
erik
2016-08-10 13:42:49 UTC
Oh yes
?
2016-08-09 01:55:52 UTC
No, 2GB is not enough to run your college programs.
AcReppinStp
2016-08-11 10:32:43 UTC
Yes 2gb is enough....For windows xp.
pen
2016-08-10 06:31:48 UTC
yes
?
2016-08-11 13:37:44 UTC
yes
Anisur
2016-08-10 00:32:47 UTC
yes
MD
2016-08-09 10:28:45 UTC
100% enough
Anangam
2016-08-14 20:54:00 UTC
2gb is enough unless u use it for heavy gaming
mike r
2016-08-09 20:03:14 UTC
8gb man, trust me...and the reason being... MULTI-TASKING!! from getting the system started and everything booted-up, to the multi windowed tasks you will be doing.
Michael
2016-08-09 01:20:41 UTC
not enough, you need a minimum of 4GBs
H
2016-08-10 00:12:57 UTC
No. 8gb is average
piszozo
2016-08-11 02:00:06 UTC
That should be enough
tuyenba
2016-08-15 02:46:35 UTC
i think u should use a 4gb laptop
anonymous
2016-08-11 04:24:55 UTC
no way, it will be so slow the first time you boot it up.
ison All
2016-08-10 16:10:52 UTC
Should be
?
2016-08-08 14:56:18 UTC
4gb at least.
?
2016-08-10 21:23:23 UTC
No
Avemfly
2016-08-09 21:31:07 UTC
yes. sure.....


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