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Modular laptop computer maker Framework not too long ago unveiled its new mini PC, the Framework Desktop. This cutesy laptop is powered by AMD’s Strix Halo line-up, together with the beefy Ryzen AI Max+ 395, which is a chip I’ve longed to see inside a mini PC since not less than final week. Now, Framework has ripped one aside (gently) to see what it is product of.
You can see the iFixit video teardown above, however a few highlights value shouting about embrace the 2 simply accessible NVMe SSDs, lack of instruments required to peel it open, and growth playing cards taken from its laptops, just like the Framework 13 our Dave likes to items (actually). The Noctua fan you may match inside it’s a bonus, if a consumer chooses to suit it, although it is attainable so as to add a Cooler Master fan or most different off-the-shelf 120 mm followers as a substitute.
The different large plus for this Framework machine, as famous by iFixit, is that it is meant to come back aside with solely a single instrument. That’s possible a Philips-head screwdriver bit on one facet, and a Torx screwdriver on the opposite. Yeah, I suppose that is two instruments, but when Darth Maul’s double-sided schtick was okay, so is that this. I can already hear the older Star Wars followers getting irritated at me for that one.
My level is, one instrument for such a compact desktop PC with the CPU energy of a bigger desktop tower and the graphics energy of a good gaming laptop computer—that is fairly nice. My current mini PC construct went slightly easily, I ought to say, and although it isn’t fairly as compact as Framework’s machine, it’s a lot highly effective for gaming. So, there are different choices if this strategy from Framework does not attraction.
One draw back we have identified about for the reason that announcement, although additionally proven up-close and private within the video, is using soldered reminiscence. I imply, I say draw back. Soldered reminiscence will be a problem if reminiscence chips malfunction otherwise you wish to improve down the road, however the Framework comes with 32 GB, 8000 MT/s LPDDR5X as commonplace, and these Strix Halo chips include a chunky 256-bit reminiscence bus to feed the (as much as) 16-core CPU and the (as much as) 40 CU iGPU, so it should not be an enormous situation.
I not too long ago reviewed the ROG Flow Z13, which was mine and plenty of others’ first take a look at Strix Halo in motion. It’s a powerful chip, however I discovered the odd ‘gaming pill’ type issue, restricted storage, and excessive worth just a little offputting. I steered a greater answer for this chip could be one thing akin to a Mac Mini, “Call it the Zen Mini. Or the Strix Mini, since Asus owns the NUC design now. Now that sounds fascinating. In a gaming pill, eh, not a lot.”
Well, I would not have to attend too lengthy for one thing alongside these traces. Turns out Framework had been engaged on it already, and because it’s Framework, it is much more spectacular than a PC crammed right into a tiny case. It’s shaping as much as be a surprisingly upgradeable, repairable and outright beautiful little factor.
