imo 250gb is not enough at all, at least spec a 500gb or 1tb. I don't even have games on my 256gb machine and it's out of storage because of proprietary software bullshit.
Buying storage directly from framework is expensive though, I recommend just buying it from a local hardware store. The cheapest out of the sn550/570/580/750/850, crucial p5, kc2500 should do.
Also, 1x16gb will halve your memory bandwidth, get a 2x8gb kit
imo 250gb is not enough at all
Depends entirely on what you're using the device for and how (if at all) you utilize networked (NAS, cloud, etc) or external storage. For me personally 256gb would be way more than needed, since I have nothing that would take large amounts of storage on local device.
Also, 1x16gb will halve your memory bandwidth, get a 2x8gb kit
1x 16gb would allow cheaper upgrade to 32gb later if that's something OP is concerned about.
Depends entirely on what you’re using the device for and how (if at all) you utilize networked (NAS, cloud, etc) or external storage. For me personally 256gb would be way more than needed, since I have nothing that would take large amounts of storage on local device.
I guess that might be true but for me just installing all the random proprietary crap like matlab takes up a lot of my storage (even more if you need multiple versions), so for using laptops in education I really doubt that 250gb is comfortably enough. I'd honestly rather pay the extra $15 than constantly worry about running out of storage.
1x 16gb would allow cheaper upgrade to 32gb later if that’s something OP is concerned about.
I don't really like this argument because by the time they'd be upgrading ram the price of ram (of that speed/spec) would probably have depreciated a lot and it would be just cheaper to buy it in the future. It also kinda limits you to staying on that generation/speed of ram which is bad.
Linux or Windows?
As for your questions:
Thanks, probably Windows just for the sake of not worrying about being the one guy trying to figure out how to make a specific software work mid-class on Linux.
I'll definitely make sure to shop around for that SSD. I'm a brief look I've found at least a 500GB model for the same FW is billing for 250 GB.
You can run Windows in a VM or try wine.
Would it be better to go 2 USB c + 1 USB A?
I'm not as familiar with how the framework laptops charge, but if it's done over USB C then it might get annoying if you need to charge and connect to something at the same time
They recommended 2 USB C + 1 USB A on their website as the most popular choice. I find myself using Type A more often with peripherals, flashdrives, & etc. So that's why I was going with 2 USB A. But maybe I'm behind the times on that and aught to move forward.
Fair enough! Whichever is more convenient for you. I imagine it's much easier to swap or upgrade with a framework laptop, so it's not a big deal regardless
@FireTower @otter I have 2 USB-A adaptors, because I use an external CD drive with additional USB-A cable to deliver power. Same for the external DVD drive.
I also have a 2nd (spare) USB-C in my bag if I need it, or in case one gets damaged.
The CPU is perfectly fine and like everyone else is saying, definitely opt for 2x8GB sticks of RAM. 256GB is perfectly fine if you use a Linux distribution such as Fedora Kinoite as it's not bloated like Windows. Get the new screen too
The RAM and storage choices are poor. Unless you're planning to upgrade to 32GB in the nearest future, do not get a 1x16GB RAM configuration - the performance drop for single-channel is negligible for normal use. Honesty, you won't need that, given the use-case. Stick to 2x8GB. If you're just taking notes, do you even need 2x8GB? I highly doubt it, maybe 2x4GB could be enough?
About the storage, get at least the 512GB, or the 1TB variant. I have a 128GB SSD, and it is just not enough - I have to delete files at the end of every week.
Too bad they don't sell a 7440U CPU, if that's what you're looking for. In fact, no device out there has a 7440U, excluding gaming handheld with the rebranded X1 alias.
I recommend getting 1x16g and then getting another 16g when you have some more cash.
2x4GB was a path I hadn't considered, I may have a look at that avenue if not 2x8GB.
It looks like you're planning on using windows, in which case I would strongly caution against only 8 GB ram. I have a 4 year old windows laptop with 8 GB RAM, and unless you do a lot to optimize things/kill processes it quickly becomes slow to a very frustrating point. The last thing you want is to open a new tab to look up something the professor said while running a note taking app and have the whole thing freeze for a few minutes and not be able to take notes. RAM is relatively cheap, so I would bit the bullet and either get 16 GB or run Linux.
@FireTower "note taking in class" isn't going to tax even the entry level machine. Goes double of you use #linux. You can always upgrade later if needs change.