Framework 13 motherboard standalone with external GPU?

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

Hello hivemind,

 

I have an 11th gen Framework 13 with the i7 1165G7, which while still more than enough for me still makes me look for a potential upgrade, if intel 14th gen mobile turns out to be worthwhile. Might also give the AMD options a try, but that is not really the point of this question.

 

My main concern and what keeps me from upgrading is basically: what do I do with the still perfectly usable CPU+motherboard+RAM I already have?

 

One idea I had was to use it as a slim desktop using either the Coolermaster case or something like that, and give it to someone in my family to use. Now, I also got an older 2060 Super lying around as well. Has anyone tried to come up with a nice package of the Framework mainboard and an external GPU? It would need an extra PSU as well, but most importantly a somewhat nice enclosure that keeps everything together.

 

Any ever done something like this?

 

Plan B would be to put it in a case with Vesa mount and build some sort of all-in-one, though it would obviously also need some sort of extra dock for expansion.

[8tg]

Put it in the shell of a dead vintage laptop

 

or realistically just sell it so someone else can do their framework upgrade with your used parts 

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, GarlicDeliverySystem said:

which while still more than enough for me still makes me look for a potential upgrade

Id just keep it if it's perfectly fine really.

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

26 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Id just keep it if it's perfectly fine really.

You are right, probably best to keep it. There are just two things that I could really use an upgrade for though:

• Battery life and thermals, the 11th gen doesn't do really well there.
• The first gen Frameworks have an issue that if you leave them unplugged for too long or something like that, the CMOS battery drains and you can only boot it up again when plugged in.

The latter is of course more an indicator of me using it not too often, but it is still annoying when you go traveling and even happened sometimes when I was still regularly using it for work. Really annoying when you show up somewhere and it doesn't start, then you have to find an outlet etc.

[jaslion]

10 minutes ago, GarlicDeliverySystem said:

The first gen Frameworks have an issue that if you leave them unplugged for too long or something like that, the CMOS battery drains and you can only boot it up again when plugged in.

You can fix this actually they have a guide for it!

[OhYou_]

9 hours ago, 8tg said:

Put it in the shell of a dead vintage laptop

 

 

or realistically just sell it so someone else can do their framework upgrade with your used parts 

why did you ruin a 701c of all things
I'm like actually mad

[8tg]

7 minutes ago, OhYou_ said:

why did you ruin a 701c of all things
I'm like actually mad

this is a rant:

Not mine but I totally understand why they did that, speaking as someone who used to own a 701c

And not just any 701c, I had an amd x-5 one, maybe one of a dozen remaining examples

the 701c is a piece of garbage in every way except it’s keyboard, they were very popular laptops, they’re rare now because the following series of events occurred to 99% of them

1) a businessman stops using their old work laptop in the late 90’s and puts it in storage

2) the battery violently ejects its contents into the chassis, coating the entire multi layer board in acid

3) in the mid 2000’s the businessman finds it in storage, now covered in delicious blue battery crystals, and throws it away

 

Suddenly they’re rare, but wait, it gets worse. 
They’re all made of very thin plastic which has aged extremely poorly and is too brittle to handle. Even normal operation cracks the chassis. The keyboard sliding mechanism tends to break itself apart. Trying to take apart the machines to repair them will cause the chassis to shatter.

And then wait, it gets even worse. They’re some of the earliest models with a matte rubberized coating. Fun fact about rubberized coatings, they chemically degrade and will attempt to return back into an oily goo. You can not physically touch a 701c until you’ve stripped the entire coating and repainted it. Because every touch will leave permanent fingerprints in the coating. As well as being impossible to dust because it’s like leaving a gummy candy out in the open for 30 years, it will attract dust.

 

They are actually awful machines, and while I’d love to have one again, I’m never touching one that isn’t entirely reconditioned already. 
They’re also just underpowered even for their time, their screens age pretty bad, and overall they’re just not that great in the grand scheme of rare thinkpads.

You want a cool retro thinkpad that isn’t a piece of garbage? Get a 360P, 555BJ or max spec 770Z.

Tablet convertible, integrated bubble jet printer, the pinnacle of 1999 options, respectively in that order.

 

my 701c fell apart when I attempted to do any work on refinishing it so I gutted it and sold the parts to a person who paid me way too god damn much money for a 701c x5 board, and instead bought an x1 nano, new, max spec

[OhYou_]

25 minutes ago, 8tg said:

this is a rant:

Not mine but I totally understand why they did that, speaking as someone who used to own a 701c

And not just any 701c, I had an amd x-5 one, maybe one of a dozen remaining examples

the 701c is a piece of garbage in every way except it’s keyboard, they were very popular laptops, they’re rare now because the following series of events occurred to 99% of them

1) a businessman stops using their old work laptop in the late 90’s and puts it in storage

2) the battery violently ejects its contents into the chassis, coating the entire multi layer board in acid

3) in the mid 2000’s the businessman finds it in storage, now covered in delicious blue battery crystals, and throws it away

 

Suddenly they’re rare, but wait, it gets worse. 
They’re all made of very thin plastic which has aged extremely poorly and is too brittle to handle. Even normal operation cracks the chassis. The keyboard sliding mechanism tends to break itself apart. Trying to take apart the machines to repair them will cause the chassis to shatter.

And then wait, it gets even worse. They’re some of the earliest models with a matte rubberized coating. Fun fact about rubberized coatings, they chemically degrade and will attempt to return back into an oily goo. You can not physically touch a 701c until you’ve stripped the entire coating and repainted it. Because every touch will leave permanent fingerprints in the coating. As well as being impossible to dust because it’s like leaving a gummy candy out in the open for 30 years, it will attract dust.

 

They are actually awful machines, and while I’d love to have one again, I’m never touching one that isn’t entirely reconditioned already. 
They’re also just underpowered even for their time, their screens age pretty bad, and overall they’re just not that great in the grand scheme of rare thinkpads.

You want a cool retro thinkpad that isn’t a piece of garbage? Get a 360P, 555BJ or max spec 770Z.

Tablet convertible, integrated bubble jet printer, the pinnacle of 1999 options, respectively in that order.

 

my 701c fell apart when I attempted to do any work on refinishing it so I gutted it and sold the parts to a person who paid me way too god damn much money for a 701c x5 board, and instead bought an x1 nano, new, max spec

ok all of that but still the parts alone are worth tons of money because many people are now putting in the effort to restore them since there is a great demand.
theres plenty of other models that are much less desirable that its perfectly fine to cut up and modify.
 

I have 4 755CDs and only one of them has the gummed up plastic, I'm pretty sure that is all to do with how its stored or the environment.
It actually took me buying 4 to put together one good one and about half of another

[Re_Moor]

I can provide an idea, just don’t have the technical expertise to make it. But how about one of the Razer egpu casing.