3 ms·

Most people run Windows just fine on cheap laptops with 4GB of RAM. These won't run Crysis, but they don't need to.

bitwize 7mo ago
Windows doesn't run "just fine" on 4 GiB of RAM. I had a laptop with 6; Windows 10 became barely usable. If you want to run one, small, program at a time I think you'll be ok. Forget about web browsing; you'll get one tab and it'll be slow.
- johnebgd 7mo ago
  Agreed. Windows 10/11 can run just fine on 4GB of RAM. You just can't run anything inside of Windows 10/11 with 4GB of RAM. The last version of Windows that felt like 4GB of RAM was performant for me with applications was Windows XP. Not that every computer running the 32-bit edition of Windows XP could even see/utilize a full 4GB of RAM properly, but at least it was fast.
  - accrual 7mo ago
    I found even Windows 7 ran very well with just 4GB of DDR2. I only upgraded to 8GB when I started testing Windows 8/8.1 on that rig. Though I get by just fine with 512MB on my favorite Pentium 3 XP system. :D
  - alpaca128 7mo ago
    My Windows 7 laptop had 4GB RAM and I played Crysis 2 on it. 4GB was absolutely enough for a performant system.
  - bitwize 7mo ago
    I ran a Windows 7 system with 3GiB as a gaming machine and it was just fine. Windows 7... the last Windows release that was acceptable-ish. Memories...
- hn_acc1 7mo ago
  HDD or SSD? SSD can effectively make up for SOME amount of less RAM due to faster swapping, in my experience.
  - bitwize 7mo ago
    2015 laptop, spinning rust. Nevertheless, it was at least somewhat acceptable at purchase, but crapware installed with successive system updates brought it to a standstill. An SSD might've helped, but not by much. I wiped it and put Kubuntu on it to give to my wife, for whom it ran acceptably. She gave it back when she got a shiny new MacBook Air.
    - wolrah 7mo ago
      > An SSD might've helped, but not by much. A SSD would have made an absolutely massive difference. Source: I have clients that still have 2nd/3rd gen i5 systems running 3-4 GB of RAM with Windows 10 and they're tolerable solely thanks to SSDs. Swapping that much on a hard drive would just be painful to use. Nobody should be interactively using a computer post-2018ish (whenever SSDs fell below $1/GB) that's booting and running primary applications off spinning rust. They're perfectly fine for bulk storage drives but anyone waiting for an operating system booting off one has wasted enough of their life in the last year to have paid for the SSD. Companies that wouldn't spend $100 on an upgrade are literally throwing money away paying their employees to wait on a shit computer.
- zozbot234 7mo ago
  A lightweight Linux desktop can keep a decent amount of browser tabs (using Firefox; avoid Chrome) on 4GB RAM if you set up compressed RAM properly. It's not foolproof like 8GB would be, but it's absolutely fine for casual use.
hulitu 7mo ago
> Most people run Windows just fine on cheap laptops with 4GB of RAM. Windows 7. Windows 10 eats about 6GB (custom IoT with a lot of things disabled). Neo is a parody of a computer.
- johnebgd 7mo ago
  Neo is powered by a fast and battery-friendly chip. It's definitely not a novelty any more than Chromebooks or Windows 11 notebooks with integrated graphics have been.
- monegator 7mo ago
  lolwut? check your install mate
dragonwriter 7mo ago
> Most people run Windows just fine on cheap laptops with 4GB of RAM. And if they can do that, they can get them (at full MSRP) for about half the price of a MacBook Neo. Heck, you can get 8GB Windows laptops with twice the SSD size of the MacBook Neo's for a little over half of the Neo’s price (again, at full MSRP.)
- kstrauser 7mo ago
  > Heck, you can get 8GB Windows laptops with twice the SSD size of the MacBook Neo's for a little over half of the Neo’s price (again, at full MSRP.) Let's see one of these $300 Windows laptops with 512GB of SSD (in a reasonable format, e.g. not an SD card), a body that isn't disposable, a screen that isn't a dim potato, a CPU that's within 20% of the Neo's performance, and a GPU that isn't embarrassed to be called a GPU. I doubt they exist.
  - xnyan 7mo ago
    > I doubt they exist. I think you're misunderstanding, of course they do not exist. People don't get $300 windows laptops for their performance, build quality, or anything similar. Nor do they care about screen brightness, and 256GB is fine for the use case which is running word or some other simple application for as little $$ as possible.
    - kstrauser 7mo ago
      The implication in the comparison is that they’re similar. The similarity between a Neo and a $300 PC is that they can both boot up and run at least one program. That’s about where it ends.
  - wolvoleo 7mo ago
    They existed on AliExpress. Chuwis and the likes (though the latest ones are lying about the CPU model). You usually get nvme storage, not the very best of course but it does the job. And IPS display. It's overall ok stuff, but the memory crisis has pushed them above 300 now.. They usually run N150s. I also got two N100 NUC like boxes with 16GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe for €115 each. Bought them as the memory crisis was starting. One is now my home assistant, the other one runs matrix. I still use an ancient chuwi for going to the makerspace. It's still got hours of battery. It's all ok stuff if you know what you're doing.
soupbowl 7mo ago
Windows 11 on 4gb of ram? I doubt it unless they are in hell and that is their eternal torture.
MrDrMcCoy 7mo ago
I recently helped a friend ditch Windows for Linux on an 8GB budget laptop he had. It had win11 on it which could barely function with nothing running, kept swapping like crazy to it's anemic eMMC "SSD". Windows can't really run reasonably with 4GB of RAM. It will only technically boot.

Windows doesn't run "just fine" on 4 GiB of RAM. I had a laptop with 6; Windows 10 became barely usable. If you want to run one, small, program at a time I think you'll be ok. Forget about web browsing; you'll get one tab and it'll be slow.

johnebgd 7mo ago
Agreed. Windows 10/11 can run just fine on 4GB of RAM. You just can't run anything inside of Windows 10/11 with 4GB of RAM. The last version of Windows that felt like 4GB of RAM was performant for me with applications was Windows XP. Not that every computer running the 32-bit edition of Windows XP could even see/utilize a full 4GB of RAM properly, but at least it was fast.
- accrual 7mo ago
  I found even Windows 7 ran very well with just 4GB of DDR2. I only upgraded to 8GB when I started testing Windows 8/8.1 on that rig. Though I get by just fine with 512MB on my favorite Pentium 3 XP system. :D
- alpaca128 7mo ago
  My Windows 7 laptop had 4GB RAM and I played Crysis 2 on it. 4GB was absolutely enough for a performant system.
- bitwize 7mo ago
  I ran a Windows 7 system with 3GiB as a gaming machine and it was just fine. Windows 7... the last Windows release that was acceptable-ish. Memories...
hn_acc1 7mo ago
HDD or SSD? SSD can effectively make up for SOME amount of less RAM due to faster swapping, in my experience.
- bitwize 7mo ago
  2015 laptop, spinning rust. Nevertheless, it was at least somewhat acceptable at purchase, but crapware installed with successive system updates brought it to a standstill. An SSD might've helped, but not by much. I wiped it and put Kubuntu on it to give to my wife, for whom it ran acceptably. She gave it back when she got a shiny new MacBook Air.
  - wolrah 7mo ago
    > An SSD might've helped, but not by much. A SSD would have made an absolutely massive difference. Source: I have clients that still have 2nd/3rd gen i5 systems running 3-4 GB of RAM with Windows 10 and they're tolerable solely thanks to SSDs. Swapping that much on a hard drive would just be painful to use. Nobody should be interactively using a computer post-2018ish (whenever SSDs fell below $1/GB) that's booting and running primary applications off spinning rust. They're perfectly fine for bulk storage drives but anyone waiting for an operating system booting off one has wasted enough of their life in the last year to have paid for the SSD. Companies that wouldn't spend $100 on an upgrade are literally throwing money away paying their employees to wait on a shit computer.
zozbot234 7mo ago
A lightweight Linux desktop can keep a decent amount of browser tabs (using Firefox; avoid Chrome) on 4GB RAM if you set up compressed RAM properly. It's not foolproof like 8GB would be, but it's absolutely fine for casual use.

hulitu 7mo ago

> Most people run Windows just fine on cheap laptops with 4GB of RAM. Windows 7. Windows 10 eats about 6GB (custom IoT with a lot of things disabled). Neo is a parody of a computer.

johnebgd 7mo ago
Neo is powered by a fast and battery-friendly chip. It's definitely not a novelty any more than Chromebooks or Windows 11 notebooks with integrated graphics have been.
monegator 7mo ago
lolwut? check your install mate

dragonwriter 7mo ago

> Most people run Windows just fine on cheap laptops with 4GB of RAM. And if they can do that, they can get them (at full MSRP) for about half the price of a MacBook Neo. Heck, you can get 8GB Windows laptops with twice the SSD size of the MacBook Neo's for a little over half of the Neo’s price (again, at full MSRP.)

kstrauser 7mo ago
> Heck, you can get 8GB Windows laptops with twice the SSD size of the MacBook Neo's for a little over half of the Neo’s price (again, at full MSRP.) Let's see one of these $300 Windows laptops with 512GB of SSD (in a reasonable format, e.g. not an SD card), a body that isn't disposable, a screen that isn't a dim potato, a CPU that's within 20% of the Neo's performance, and a GPU that isn't embarrassed to be called a GPU. I doubt they exist.
- xnyan 7mo ago
  > I doubt they exist. I think you're misunderstanding, of course they do not exist. People don't get $300 windows laptops for their performance, build quality, or anything similar. Nor do they care about screen brightness, and 256GB is fine for the use case which is running word or some other simple application for as little $$ as possible.
  - kstrauser 7mo ago
    The implication in the comparison is that they’re similar. The similarity between a Neo and a $300 PC is that they can both boot up and run at least one program. That’s about where it ends.
- wolvoleo 7mo ago
  They existed on AliExpress. Chuwis and the likes (though the latest ones are lying about the CPU model). You usually get nvme storage, not the very best of course but it does the job. And IPS display. It's overall ok stuff, but the memory crisis has pushed them above 300 now.. They usually run N150s. I also got two N100 NUC like boxes with 16GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe for €115 each. Bought them as the memory crisis was starting. One is now my home assistant, the other one runs matrix. I still use an ancient chuwi for going to the makerspace. It's still got hours of battery. It's all ok stuff if you know what you're doing.

soupbowl 7mo ago

Windows 11 on 4gb of ram? I doubt it unless they are in hell and that is their eternal torture.

MrDrMcCoy 7mo ago

I recently helped a friend ditch Windows for Linux on an 8GB budget laptop he had. It had win11 on it which could barely function with nothing running, kept swapping like crazy to it's anemic eMMC "SSD". Windows can't really run reasonably with 4GB of RAM. It will only technically boot.