I like the case. Nice and compact, and the swappable tiles are cute. If the case works well with non-Framework Mini-ITX motherboards I'd be tempted to pick one up.
The innards, however, are disappointing:
- I get the explanation for why soldered RAM was necessary, but that's still pretty darn close to a dealbreaker for me; I'm inclined to wait for a future motherboard revision without that limitation
- Only two Expansion Cards is vastly fewer than what I'd expect from a "Framework Desktop"
- The lack of a dGPU is unfortunate for a desktop
If I were to design a Framework Desktop, I'd replace the entire rear panel with nothing but Expansion Card slots. Literally as many as will fit; fucking fill it to the goddamn brim. And then throw in some USB4 headers to connect to even more Expansion Card slots on the front. I want a terrifyingly large number of Expansion Cards. More Type-C ports than any computer has any business having, and then even more. I don't just want people questioning my sanity; I want it to be known, plain as day, that I have gone certifiably batfuck insane.
I'd also expose the same Expansion Bay interface as the Framework 16, and offer a desktop-grade GPU in that form factor (presumably too thick and power-hungry for a laptop, but if a Framework 16 owner wants a laptop with a dummy thicc dumptruck of an ass and 30 minutes of battery life, then who am I to judge?).
And air-cooling? So 20th Century! Good opportunity as any to make liquid cooling a mainstream option.
The whole point of the expansion card system is to be able to choose which six ports. For all anyone knows I might need six USB Type-A, or two Ethernet and four storage, or a bunch of HDMI or DisplayPort, or what have you; yes, some of these are going to be limited by what the chipset can pump out, but still. That sort of modularity and swappability is something I leverage daily with both of my Framework laptops; that's indeed half the point of a Framework.
And as for the space-efficiency... the existing non-swappable ports are already pretty sparse and spread out. The expansion cards ain't all that big; stacking a bunch of 'em shouldn't take up more space.
The innards, however, are disappointing:
- I get the explanation for why soldered RAM was necessary, but that's still pretty darn close to a dealbreaker for me; I'm inclined to wait for a future motherboard revision without that limitation
- Only two Expansion Cards is vastly fewer than what I'd expect from a "Framework Desktop"
- The lack of a dGPU is unfortunate for a desktop
If I were to design a Framework Desktop, I'd replace the entire rear panel with nothing but Expansion Card slots. Literally as many as will fit; fucking fill it to the goddamn brim. And then throw in some USB4 headers to connect to even more Expansion Card slots on the front. I want a terrifyingly large number of Expansion Cards. More Type-C ports than any computer has any business having, and then even more. I don't just want people questioning my sanity; I want it to be known, plain as day, that I have gone certifiably batfuck insane.
I'd also expose the same Expansion Bay interface as the Framework 16, and offer a desktop-grade GPU in that form factor (presumably too thick and power-hungry for a laptop, but if a Framework 16 owner wants a laptop with a dummy thicc dumptruck of an ass and 30 minutes of battery life, then who am I to judge?).
And air-cooling? So 20th Century! Good opportunity as any to make liquid cooling a mainstream option.