Do I need 8gb of RAM on 2011 15" Macbook pro?

I bought the new 2011 higher end 15" model about a month ago but only with 4gb of ram. Is there any reason to upgrade to 8gb of Ram? How much of a difference will it make? I pulled up my activity monitor and the most free space I could really get down to was around 700mb. The page ins: 1.19GB, page outs 756 KB and swap used was 11.4MB. This was with alot of programs open which probably isnt realistic. Realistically there is about 1 gb free with about 1.2gb inactive when I have email,chrome,skype,ical, itunes and word opened which is probably around normal usage. Will 8gb improve these stats significantly enough for me to notice during my daily use? Also I was wondering if I choose to start gaming how much of an effect will 8gb have? Will it be noticeable? I dont have any games currently installed which makes it hard to gauge but Im thinking about playing Diablo 3 if it ever gets released...supposed to be the end of this year?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. I was looking online and couldn't find anything exactly so I figured joining the macforums would be a good idea.

its good for multi tasking, but if you have 1.2GB inactive, and only a small amount of pageouts, it seems for your usage, you dont really need it.

i cant say for gaming, but no games are requiring more than 4GB at the moment.

Thank you. Thats what I figured. I guess I can always upgrade in the future too. Prices will go down by then also

To be honest, I pretty much feel like 4G is the new bare minimum and 8G is the new standard. Yes - 4G will suffice - but leaves little margin. I like to have margin - and if you do any photo editing at all - you will quickly exceed 4G. My "normal" use - usually shows me above 4G in use - and that's with nothing exotic open. It's very easy to get Safari up to over a GB on its own thanks to flash. (And that's just the flash I allow to run for whatever reason).

So - do you "need" it? no. Do you "want" it? Probably. It's pretty cheap these days.

No you dont need it, but you can take advantage of it. Aswell as a upgrade your hard drive
to a faster one like a 7200RPM since the stock is 5400RPM. and yes you'l see inprovement in everything!! and dont take this the wrong way but if you can afford a 2300 computer you definitively can spend 100$ on 8gb crucial. apple will charge you around 300$ and you can do it yourself.

Is crucial the best memory to buy? How hard is it to install and are there any risks? Like the memory being faulty? How much of a difference does the 7200 from the 5400 make?

RAM is extremely easy to install in MBPs. take the bottom off, take the old sticks out, new in. memory could be faulty, but you will notice that. Crucial are a very well trusted brand on this forum.

7200rpm - my estimate from mine is about a 10% increase in general performance, and a boosted start up of around 20-30 secs. (it takes about 45 - 1m now.)

Let's say I wanted to get a new hard drive and new ram next year. Would the apple store do that for me? Would they transfer all your files from the old to the new HD?

they would do it for you, for an extortionate price. you can clone your HD onto the new one, then putting the new one in is like nothing has changed, apart from it has more space and is quicker.

ram: about £50-70 for an 8gb kit

500gb 7200rpm Seagate drive : about £40-50

apple charge at least 20-30% extra for the parts, and charge labour. its up to you. it literally takes 10 minutes to upgrade both.

Haha I wish you could just do it for me. I think I'll just wait until I need it. Maybe a year or two when this get even cheaper and the minimum standards are raised. Thank you for the help

thats alright. i understand the worries: "what if i break something?" it is kinda daunting.

LOL no dude you won't brake anything. First theres Time machine for back-up. google also this SuperDuper extremely fast. also Techtool pro 6. (cloning). As far as Memory is concern is just two chips, tools need it to remove your thumb. When you decide to do it yourself let me know i'l send you the repair manual for you specific model. as for removing the Hard drive. easy. plus 4 screws.
Im testing right now the Seagate momentous XT 500gb 7200RPM 4gb SSD(Hybrid). faster than a traditional 7200rpm.
you may need a torn to remove the hard rive.(star screw driver)t4 i believe pls correct me if wrong. just buy the set is like 20$.
If your near NY i'l help you too.