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Framework Dives Into Desktops, Building Off Of Its Modular Laptop Experience
Framework launched a new upgradable 12-inch laptop earlier today, alongside a refresh for the Laptop 13 with AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 series processor inside. However, the company also pulled a surprise by introducing its first modular desktop PC, unsurprisingly called the Framework Desktop. It looks every bit like a desktop that you would expect from the company, but with a retro-chic colorful kit presented in diminutive format.
The front panel takes 21 color-coded customizable tiles with an open-sourced design approach, which means customers can 3D-print their own shades and patterns. The Expansion Card system has also been borrowed from the laptop line, letting users swap a tile with two port slots on the front. For aesthetic customization, Framework offers a choice between black and translucent side panels, alongside optional carrying handles.
It’s a powerhouse 4.5 liter Mini-ITX desktop PC that doesn’t skip on the brand’s signature approach to modularity and I/O uptake, offering a PCIe x4 slot, a couple of USB-4 ports, an equal number of DisplayPorts, an HDMI, and a 5-Gigabit Ethernet port. There are a couple of PCIe NVME M.2 2280 slots that allow storage expansion up to 16TB, alongside a Wi-Fi 7 module upgrade.
Of course, it’s a desktop, so it’s already customizable, right? “We want to make this space as accessible as we possibly can by building a desktop that is simultaneously small and simple and incredibly powerful and customizable,” explains the company. Well, it seems Framework achieved their goal, inside and out.
A surprisingly powerful desktop
The base variant of the Framework Desktop features 32GB of RAM and draws power from AMD’s octa-core Ryzen AI Max 385 processor aka the Strix Halo line. Based on the 4nm processor and AMD’s Zen 5 architecture, it offers a peak clock speed of up to 5 GHz and configurable up to 120W TDP output. The onboard graphics engine is the 32-core Radeon 8050S while AI chores are handled by an in-house NPU with 50 TOPS output. For comparison, the NPU packed aboard Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite silicon goes up to 45 TOPS only. This configuration starts at $1,099, which is reasonably good.
Framework, however, also offers a beastly AMD configuration that packs 128GB of RAM and relies on AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 silicon. This one doubles the CPU core count to 16 units and goes up to 5.1 GHz. The onboard Radeon 8060S engine features 40 graphics cores. It starts at $1,999, which Framework claims, is a “truly wild value proposition for AI workloads.” The company says it will deliver the full 120W sustained output, and 140W grunt in boost mode without having to worry about melting the kit.
Framework claims this combination is so powerful that users can run the full DeepSeek R1 AI model (with 67 billion parameters) locally by connecting multiple Mainboards. There is one major hiccup though: the LPDDR5X RAM is soldered. Framework says it was not technically feasible to use modular memory to achieve a high 256GBps bandwidth tied to a 256-bit memory bus.
Source: http://www.slashgear.com/1799998/framework-modular-desktop-coming-off-success-experience-with-laptops/
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