4 or 8 GB RAM?

[Kelly_McMahon]

Is anyone buying Chromebooks for K-8 students with 8 GB RAM in them?  Just deciding when/if we will need to start doing that.  Thoughts? Thanks!

[steve]

We're wondering the same thing. We've been doing fine with 4G on student devices so far, we don't make much use of things like Android on the Chromebooks. But with the potential of keeping the devices for longer now we're wondering if we should step up. Don't want to spend the extra money though!!

[bethhughes]

The devices I ordered for this fall for the students will have 8GB RAM. I found the difference in the cost of a 4GB and 8GB device was not significant for the Acer model I had quoted. (I think it was about $20.) Since the AUE has been extended beyond 4 years, I figured this would help to "future proof" the tech requirements for applications and testing apps. Now if I can only get the students from hoarding tabs, that would be great.😬 😂

[Kelly_McMahon]

Thanks, I am going to get the 8 GB price to compare.  You make a good point.  We have the same issue with so many tabs open!  

[dochxp]

Interesting, I was seeing a bigger cost differential than that here in the UK. There was an 8GB model I saw but was not available in the UK which was frustrating. 

[panderson]

Personally I think the minimum now should be 8GB memory and 64GB storage and that Google should force this. (which we all know would lower the price of 8GB machines) At this time, many are struggling with  4GB of memory, I can't imagine that 4GB would be enough memory in five years, much less in 10 years so why are manufacturers still putting 4GB in the machines and why are we still buying them.  One of the main reasons to go to 10-years was to reduce waste.   What is your current refresh cycle today, are you going to increase it and by how much.  What percentage of devices that you buy today will still be usable in 4-6 years?  If you don't change the refresh cycle, what will be the resale value of 4GB machines versus 8GB in 5 years?

On a side note, I think it would really be great if Google came up with an admin setting for the number of tabs/Windows a user can have open, where admins can set their own numbers if they wanted to.