Currently looking at a DIY AMD 7640U, 1x16GB RAM, 250GB storage, 1 USB-C, 2 USB-A, 1 HDMI.
My use case will mostly entail note taking in class. I’ve got a built PC at home.
But I’m not a hardware guy, would I be better served w/ different CPU or RAM set up in your opinions? I’ve mostly picked bottom tier specs but is there anything in your opinions that is worth splurging on, all things considered?
If you’re going to school I absolutely have to recommend a tablet + OneNote. There was no better learning tool while I was in school. I still refer back to those notes several years later. Being able to jot notes on top of pages from class, record audio from classes that’s automatically transcribed, just makes staying organized so much easier.
Fuck Microsoft and Dell and a dozen other companies but to my knowledge, there is nothing comparable. Unless it’s an iPad or something.
If you go to engineering school, you’ll need a computer eventually to run various software. I’m not sure about other degrees however.
I don’t understand why you’re telling me this. Are you under the impression that a tablet is not a computer?
A tablet doesn’t cover all use cases for college work, but I suppose with the push for cloud computer instances this could actually work.
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:
- this CPU will be fine for years for absolutely everything except AAA gaming.
- On Linux, 16Gbs of RAM is fine. As other said, prefer 2x8Gb instead of a single 16Gb.
- 250Gb of storage is very cramped by modern standards. I would go at least 512Gb. Buy your SSD from elsewhere, it’s much cheaper.
- maybe grab an extra USB-C in case you need to plug an external drive while charging your PC.
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.
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.
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