Framework Introduces Desktop Computer

Framework is quite popular among certain group of laptop users who want their device to be customizable, repairable and upgrade-able. Back in 2021, the company initially started with manufacturing their own laptop for consumer market. However, yesterday the company announced their first ever desktop computer and you are welcome to pre-order it starting from the day of their announcement. It is being expected that they will start shipping the computer from the third quarter of this year.

Powered by AMD's new Ryzen AI Max processors, this computer comes in mini-itx form factor only at 4.5L. The desktop computer will be available in three different configurations. The based model will feature the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 processor with in-built 32 GB of LPDDR5x memory. You would also have option to pick from Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor with either 64 GB or 128 GB memory which is the maximum limit that this processor can handle.

Unfortunately though, Framework has confirmed that their system won't be able to utilize the 256 GB/s memory bandwidth with it's entirety due to some of the technical limitations.

The mini-ITX main board includes ATX headers, a PCIe x4 slot, and a variety of rear I/O options such as dual USB4 ports, two DisplayPort outputs, HDMI, and 5 Gigabit Ethernet. This system can handle upto 16TB of storage through two PCIe NVME M.2 slots and Wi-Fi 7 through an RZ717 Wi-Fi module. Both the Windows 11 and various other Linux distributions will also be supported.

Perhaps one of the most exciting part of about their system is, you should be able to run AI models like like Llama 3.3 70B Q6 at real-time speed. With USB4 and 5 Gbit Ethernet networking, you can connect multiple systems or Mainboards to run even larger models like the full DeepSeek R1 671B.

The front panel of the case can also be customized with 21 tiles. You can pick some of the tiles from the Framework while you check out the system. The design of the tiles are open sourced so you can 3D print them as well. The module based card system from Framework laptops can also be used with this desktop which are located at the bottom of the front panel.