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Framework Laptop Mainboard
- wormer 5y agoI would buy this laptop once my current laptop dies (don't want to produce unnecessary e-waste) if it had coreboot. Until then, I'm planning to use system76. I'm conflicted between that though, because I want to support small business, but I'm not sure which one to support!
- riyadh144 5y agoYou cannot go wrong with either, I have been very happy with my system76 laptop, One company is open source hardware the other is open source software. I wish both could cooperate and do some great work.
- Kab1r 5y agoIs there any way to get two 10gbe Intel nics on one of these?
- disqard 5y agoYou could use "USB-C to Ethernet" converter(s).
- wmf 5y agoVia Thunderbolt probably.
- bb88 5y agoI never understood why someone just didn't build a Ethernet over TB-4 switch with USB-C cables instead of RJ45/SFP+ ports. Yes you'd be limited to 1 to 2 meters of cable length, but you could still add a proper ethernet port as a backhaul. Yes it might not be as fast, but in the end, all SATA, TB4, and ethernet does is push bits over a wire.
- nrp 5y agoI'm happy to answer any questions anyone has on this. This is an initial set of documentation, and we'll prioritize writing/creating more based on what is most useful to enable Mainboard re-use.
- SSilver2k2 5y agoIncredible work.
- strohwueste 5y agoFirst of all great work! But did you also consider the step after re-use? What happens to the components and the materials in recycling?
- nrp 5y agoWe hope and expect that many of the re-use use cases can have longer lifetimes than a laptop normally would (e.g. a pfsense box that happily chugs away in a closet for a decade), but past that point, it enters the same disposition stream that electronics can safely be recycled through by consumers. We're working on making that experience easier by having the QR code on each module point to a page that includes local certified recyclers in the future.
- strohwueste 5y agoOk great that's already way better then most ;) if you're interested in a LCA let me know
- bobsmooth 5y agoAny plans to sell this or other mainboards separately?
- nrp 5y agoYep, the Mainboard is available as of today: https://frame.work/products/mainboard?v=FRANFG000A https://frame.work/products/mainboard?v=FRANFG000A
- byefruit 5y agoMy current laptop needs to be replaced really soon, I'm hoping Framework will announce either a recent AMD Ryzen or Intel's Alder Lake. The difference between the 11th and 12th gen Intel is big enough I don't want to spend the next three years regretting it. Unfortunately Lenovo or Dell might get my budget if it looks like that's not going to happen for a while. This laptop has had a few too many drops off of my bike (which is why repairability would be great!).
- pizza234 5y ago> The difference between the 11th and 12th gen Intel is big enough I don't want to spend the next three years regretting it. With the Framework though, the CPU (motherboard) is intended to be replaceable. There will likely be (assuming there isn't one already) a secondary market of individual parts.
- wmf 5y agoBuying an obsolete laptop now and upgrading it in a few months is not a good use of money though.
- delusional 5y agoIt's also not a good use of the earths resources, which i think is part of the ethos of framework.
- ryukafalz 5y agoThis is incredibly cool. Love to see anything that encourages repair and reuse of parts that still have some life left in them! If I hadn’t just recently bought a new laptop I’d likely be going for a Framework today, and provided they’re still around when it’s time for an upgrade it’ll probably be my next laptop. (I suspect it’ll be a while before I need a new one though.)
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y agoOh, that's cool - so you could use the mainboard as a SBC? Put a few of them in a case with a (big) PSU and some I/O (storage, probably) and have a cluster-in-a-box? Or, in the opposite direction, is this material enough to create a drop-in replacement board with, say, an ARM (or eventually RISC-V) processor that you could put in a Framework Laptop?
- nrp 5y agoThis release is aimed more at the former. We're happy to connect with and support anyone who wants to make a serious attempt at a drop-in replacement board though, and would use that exercise to create more documentation to share publicly.
- Scramblejams 5y agoI'm looking forward to people putting Steam Deck motherboards into Frameworks...
- yellowapple 5y agoOr Framework motherboards into even more ludicrously large Steam Decks.
- fernandogrd 5y agoThe blog post has more information: https://frame.work/blog/mainboard-availability-and-open-source-release https://frame.work/blog/mainboard-availability-and-open-sour...
- bobsmooth 5y agoWas looking forward to this. Excited to see what people can make with an easily available high powered SBC.
- lowbloodsugar 5y agoOh. Intel, huh?
- TheMagicHorsey 5y agoWow, these guys are awesome. Love to see a company take a new, and potentially long view towards customers and profitability. Most companies in their position would be jealously guarding this information and would be paranoid about cheap clones taking away their market/customers. But this team is not. Shows they are confident in their ability to not just rest on laurels, but continue to develop a platform, add value, and earn their customers business. Now, if only we could get a lovely M1 Pro chip (or something like it) into their deserving hands! At the moment my Mac 16 Pro is unbelievably better than all the x86 competition out there ... except for the fact that its a totally proprietary and unrepairable black box. I would love to see AMD, Nvidia, or a company like SiFive release something like the M1 Pro, and then an integrator like Framework put it all into a great package and finally give Apple the competition they need.
- noveltyaccount 5y agoThe 3D printable, open-source, case that allows you to use the mainboard as a standalone computer is such a nice touch! https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Mainboard/tree/main/Mechanical/Printable%20Case https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Mainboard/tree/main/Mec...
- Karsteski 5y agoI would love to buy one of these and hack it into something absurd, if only I had the money to burn! Love what you're doing Framework, I will purchase one of your products in the future for sure :)
- thelazydogsback 5y agoGreat stuff! Can't wait for an old-man version that's 15.6", 16" or 17" :)
- ge96 5y agoSide note, I think the STL viewer in github is such a cool feature
- disqard 5y agoTIL -- thank you for pointing that out!
- stonefall 5y agoAre these going to start shipping to Australia within the next 2~3 months?
- btgeekboy 5y agoThis announcement's quite neat on its own. But if the board had an exposed PCIe connector, they'd be fantastic to build a SFF PC around.
- asojfdowgh 5y ago> I did a quick check with a TBT2 eGPU I have and it is recognized. We can grab some newer GPU docks and test to confirm they work. But yes should work. > yes, tbt3/usb4 tops out at 32gbps, which is about the same as pcie gen 3 x4 - so will not be the same speed as a x16 slot on a desktop, but still plenty fast for a lot of use cases. from the frame.work forums so you practically have a PCIe slot/s available if you get an adapter for them
- btgeekboy 5y agoThat’s not as great as a typical x16 slot you’d find for a native graphics card, and comes with all of the usual TB baggage. But it’s definitely an option for some other types of cards.
- varispeed 5y agoIt's really sad that we got so low that something so trivial gets to the front page. Where are schematics, board layouts, BOM? I am not even mentioning "Theory of operation" sections and "Calibration" which was quite common decades ago.
- martyvis 5y agoWhy is it trivial? Did you follow the link from GitHub to the main https//frame.work website? There are close to zero other offerings of a modular mobile computing platform that function as a laptop and single board computer.
- userbinator 5y agoIt's trivial in terms of how much documentation there is. Pinouts and dimensions are basically a given in any mobo manual. From that perspective they are just on par with the other SBCs out there. Here's a random example to compare to... http://advdownload.advantech.com/productfile/Downloadfile4/1-12TF1HI/RSB-3850_User_manual_Ed.1.pdf http://advdownload.advantech.com/productfile/Downloadfile4/1... The comment may also be referencing the original IBM PC manuals, up until the AT, which contained far more information, including schematics and even BIOS source code listings.
- ZekeSulastin 5y ago> Where are schematics, board layouts, BOM? Open your own repair shop and you can get all the schematics you want![1] If you're not a repair shop, enjoy your FRU replacement? [1]https://frame.work/blog/preparing-to-ship-and-respecting-your-right-to-repair https://frame.work/blog/preparing-to-ship-and-respecting-you...
- IE6 5y agoperfection is the enemy of progress or something
- kevinherron 5y agoI hope these guys are around long enough to put out a V2 and I hope that V2 has some different screen options. For me the resolution either needs to be ideal for 100% scaling or for 200% scaling, nothing in between.
- vlmutolo 5y agoI have the Framework, and I haven't noticed anything off with the display's "in-between" resolution.
- juanci_to 5y agoI have one too, using it with Linux. I'm using it with fractional scaling at 175% and I notice that it's less sharp than with either 100% and 200%.
- devn0ll 5y agoI use pop!_os 22.04 beta with wayland and fractional scaling 125%. Some software needs to be told to use wayland stuff, but otherwise it is sharp as a tack. For instance: MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 firefox
- nikodunk 5y agoSame here. I’m using it with Fedora and wayland’s 150% scaing works perfectly nowadays.
- jjice 5y agoEverything appears sharp? I had had issues with Ubuntu and fractional scaling a while back with blur, but I'd elated if this is something that's been worked out in wayland. Come to think of it, wayland may have been fine, and xorg was the issue. I'm forgetting at the moment.
- mshroyer 5y agoI haven't tried Fedora lately, but I had trouble with fractional scaling on Ubuntu, especially when combined with X11 apps. Ultimately this was part of what (but not the only thing that) drove me to switch to running Windows 10 on my Framework, which handles the laptop's screen resolution very well.
- warmwaffles 5y agoHow long until we see someone cluster 10 of these in a 4U rack?
- cosmiccatnap 5y agoBig fan, few small things. AMD models, and maybe even arm64 mainboards would be lit. 16 inch variant, black and white options. Oh, and if possible, coreboot please. Keep up the good work, you have my money
- peatmoss 5y agoI’ve gotten into handtool woodworking somewhat deeply this year, and this is giving me serious desires to create a wooden chassis for something... retro.
- user123456780 5y agoI have an old metal break in the garage I have been meaning to make a laptop chassis out of copper or brass. I think it would be dope to have a unique looking steam-punkish designed laptop
- peatmoss 5y agoHand-made has given me a new perspective on opulence. Maybe it’s just the Ikea effect on overdrive, but making the things you want is so satisfying in terms of the process, and the one-of-a-kind results can be really prideful.
- mappu 5y agoThe EOMA68 project had some similar goals to Framework and had an optional wooden chassis: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop They haven't had much activity in the last few years though, and the compute card for it is now very outdated.
- roldie 5y agoDo you have any resources that helped you dive in? I'd love to get into it myself. Besides some general woodworking classes, I'm not sure where to start.
- peatmoss 5y agoFor hand-tool woodworking specifically there are a number of youtube content creators that are good: James Wright, Paul Sellers, Rex Kreuger, etc. I pay James Wright a token sum each month via patreon, because his pedagogy is so good and comprehensive. I do the same for Rex Kreuger because his woodworking forum is extremely well run and full of people who'll take time to answer questions and offer support on projects. One thing I wish I could have done was visit someone who already had tools. Getting started with hand-tools can be expensive, and I've both over- and under-spent on some of the bootstrapping gear. After getting some of the basic gear, a good first step is building a workbench, as it's impossible to do much of anything with handtools without.
- yellowapple 5y agoAs if I didn't have enough reason to be happy about my decision to buy a Framework, here they are, giving me yet another reason - and possibly even a reason to buy a spare mainboard for a tiny desktop.
- asdfghjkl12 5y ago[flagged]
- exikyut 5y ago*Flyswat*
- praveenhm 5y agoIt would be interesting if you can build something like Mac Studio desktop for linux.
- Flankk 5y agoI mean, you can build your own with any Mini-ITX motherboard. The only thing is you don't have the tight integration of soldered RAM, the quality slave-assembled parts, and the two years of faster speed before lowering performance for power consumption reasons.
- CalRobert 5y agoI'm 3 days in to using a Framework running Ubuntu as my main computer, switching from an XPS 13. So far, I'm delighted. Thank you for making this computer.
- ibz 5y agoI'm a few days away. Waiting for my Framework to arrive. I probably have never been this excited about a laptop in my whole life.
- shriek 5y agoDon't let battery drain scare you like it did to me. There is a workaround that alleviates that a little with deep sleep mode on. Although, not perfect it's bearable. Aside from that I've been a happy customer for a solid 5 months now. Random aside, just last week one of my friend's kid dropped some sticky food on keyboard and closed the lid leaving my keyboard virtually unusable. I was able to just unscrew everything and clean the keyboard and get it to working again. Would have never been possible with Macs. :D
- CalRobert 5y agoI'm not too worried about the battery issue. 22.04 lts comes out tomorrow so I'll do a clean install of that and get things dialed in this weekend.
- slaw 5y ago16 inch, 500 nits matte screen, better CPU and Linux as first class citizen.
- IE6 5y agoI agree and also 17 inch :)
- cbrogrammer 5y agowill this laptop ever ship with a non-US keyboard layout? The enter key is so bad on them, I hate that it is long and not high. Dealbreaker unfortunately, wish I could buy one of these.
- GrantZvolsky 5y agoAs with other manufacturers, keyboard availability is determined by the region. If you import one from the UK, you'll have different keyboard options. On top of that, the US marketplace has different keyboards available[1]: https://frame.work/marketplace/keyboards https://frame.work/marketplace/keyboards [1]: if you're getting a redirect, switch your region to US
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- GrantZvolsky 5y agoIf anyone from Framework is reading this: It appears as though the image[1] accompanying the US International keyboard on the US Framework Marketplace[2] is inaccurate. It seems to be an ANSI keyboard with the word 'gr' crudely photoshopped into the right alt key. This is most likely a mistake, as the term 'US International' typically refers to an ISO keyboard. I would humbly suggest that Framework correct the image and clarify whether the keyboard in question is ISO or ANSI. [1]: https://frame.work/marketplace/keyboards https://frame.work/marketplace/keyboards [2]: https://frame.work/products/keyboard?v=FRANBKEN05 https://frame.work/products/keyboard?v=FRANBKEN05
- nrp 5y agoOur English International keyboard is indeed ANSI. The two differences are "Alt Gr" and a euro symbol (which is missing from that image, and which I've just captured as a bug internally). This is the keyboard layout most popularly used in the Netherlands.
- GrantZvolsky 5y ago^ edit: To elaborate, I believe ANSI is the correct layout for US International, but unfortunately more often than not, when I ordered US International, I got an ISO layout (n=2 out of 3). This leads me to believe that the term is ambiguous. It can mean either US layout + international labels, or US labels + international layout (the I in ISO).
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- nivenkos 5y agoThe Framework pricing seems crazy, it'd cost about 2400 euros to get it in my country (where it isn't sold directly atm). That's over 2 months of discretionary spending (net income after mortgage + student debt). And it doesn't offer an ISO keyboard either. For 2400 euros I could almost buy a whole computer, TV and an Xbox...
- spoonjim 5y agoThe prices are more comparably reasonable in the US, but still on the expensive side compared to Apple because they don't have the economies of scale. Important thing to realize is that the Framework laptop is a super-premium piece of hardware. Holding it and using it the quality level is better than anything other than an Apple laptop.
- sirkiller 5y agoIf it's not sold directly, how would they be able to control the pricing? Framework starts at 1149 € for the base spec, the DIY version starts at 899 €. A MacBook Pro starts at 1449 €, seems fair to me.
- ahaferburg 5y agoI don't understand why you'd write "my country". How is that supposed to mean anything to anybody. Why not write which country it is?
- cge 5y agoThey certainly do offer ISO-ish keyboards (with the exception of the unfortunate arrow key layout, which breaks 9995-5), as I'm typing on one right now. They don't offer them pre-installed for US orders, if you're looking there; try looking on their EU site instead. In the US, however, you can order the keyboards separately for around $40; the case is designed to support both ISO and ANSI layouts with the same cutouts. As another commenter has pointed out, there is the quirk, however, that their "English International" keyboard is ANSI. Their British, German, French, etc keyboards are.
- b0m 5y agoHow to get an invoice? For some strange reason it's still not possible to get an invoice and people and businesses are having issues with that. https://community.frame.work/t/how-to-get-an-invoice/16033/ https://community.frame.work/t/how-to-get-an-invoice/16033/ https://community.frame.work/t/where-can-i-find-my-invoice/14021 https://community.frame.work/t/where-can-i-find-my-invoice/1...
- emptyfile 5y agoha ha... what? how is it even legal for goods without invoice to enter the EU?
- tecleandor 5y agoI guess it's similar as when you buy through eBay or something (only guessing, not justifying it) Until a while ago it was notoriously difficult to get an invoice when buying from Amazon Europe.
- thomasfl 5y agoThat's how you do it!
- Dave3of5 5y agoI welcome the approach here it's much better. I think the company has some way to go yet in terms of maturing overall as a laptop manufacturer. You can see a few of the problems on here e.g. invoices, old cpu ...etc. To me though the biggest problem is that there laptop isn't really bringing any feature that's new to the table. The repair-ability is awesome don't get me wrong but getting a laptop repaired isn't something new it's just they've made that part easier. Example here is the new M1 macbooks have insane battery life, excellent touchpad / gesture support, insanely thin. Asus Rog make crazy fast gaming laptops with almost desktop like performance and still in a reasonable looking form factor. Dell make really cheap (and shit) laptops with amazing availability. System76 make linux based laptops. I could go on but I think if they want to survive as a company they need something more than "it's easy to repair".
- RF_Savage 5y agoNice to see the mechanical designs getting published. Has anyone yet designed an adapter board for fitting rpi compute module 4 in the case?
- pharmakom 5y agoSurprised to see the prebuilt laptops come with windows. I was expecting Ubuntu or some other mainstream Linux distro. I assume a large segment of users install Linux? How does the trackpad experience compare to macOS?
- pjerem 5y agoI think they just wouldn't have had the same press coverage in the tech press if they were selling a "Reparable Linux laptop" instead of a "Reparable laptop". For the general public, it's not obvious that an OS can be changed.
- nrp 5y agoWe ship the DIY Edition without an OS to let folks bring their preferred distro. We looked at doing a pre-built SKU with a Linux distro, but found that preference is fairly even among the top five or so most popular distros with a long tail of distros beyond that. We recently launched a Linux compatibility page to make it easier for folks to select a distro for their DIY Edition: https://frame.work/linux https://frame.work/linux
- nicolas_t 5y agoI wish I could justify buying a laptop from Framework because I like what they do and would like to support them.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Synersoft 5y ago[flagged]
- occamschainsaw 5y agoThis might be a tangent. Do you have any plans for eink display modules for the Framework laptop? I know it’s a niche and the eink panels are expensive, but it would be amazing for a portable machine.
- pcdoodle 5y agoThis is so cool!
- jotm 5y agoThis is rather cool. I sometimes think about using a laptop motherboard in a custom built case and pushing the CPU/GPU to their limits (no bueno without that, BIOS must allow full voltage/TPL control). Is it practical? Maybe if you want a very thin/light/quiet desktop that can run a long time on a built-in battery... otherwise, just an interesting project and a way to reuse older laptop boards.