Frameworks First desktop is a mini gaming PC

Framework’s First Desktop PC: Status, Perspectives, and Prospects for a More Thermally-Constrained Desktop-Like Laptop

The prices of all of these are a bit better than a gaming oriented mini PC like the Asus ROG NUC, which starts at nearly $1,300, and comes with half the amount of RAM. It is also cheap compared to what you can find out of a mini PC based on graphics, which is all you need for around $500.

In Framework’s first party case, the PC starts at $1,039; it comes with a 8 core processor and 32 cores, and over 25GB of RAM. You can get a fully loaded 128GB with a 16 processor chip, 40 processor core and 40 graphics card configuration for $1,999. There’s also a build with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip and 64 MB of RAM for $1,599. If you just want the mini ITX board to put in a case of your choosing, that starts at $799.

The Framework Desktop is powered by a single processor, an integrated graphics card, and up to 128Gb of soldered-in memory. Over at Ars, we reviewed a more thermally constrained version of these chips in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 tablet—despite technically being an “integrated” GPU built into the same silicon as the CPU, the number of compute units (up to 40, based on AMD’s RDNA 3.5 architecture) plus the high-speed bank of soldered-in RAM gives it performance similar to a midrange dedicated laptop GPU.

One of Framework’s announcements this week was for the company’s first desktop PC. Unsurprisingly dubbed the Framework Desktop, it’s aimed less at the general-purpose PC crowd and more at people who want the smallest, most powerful desktop they can build and will pay extra money to get it. Preorders for this system start now, and Framework says it should ship in Q3 of 2025.

My first question was what a company trying to build a more desktop-like laptop would have to bring to the desktop community, where things already are standard, upgradeable, and repairable.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED’s parent company, Condé Nast.

The framework laptop 12: A super-powerful laptop with 1920 X 1200 resolution and 400 nits of brightness in an ultra-high performance processor

modularity is Framework’s key selling point again. Unlike Chromebooks—and virtually all Windows laptops—the Framework Laptop 12 is fully modular, just like its bigger siblings. The Mainboard system is still in place, which means that you can easily swap out the central processing unit for something more up-to-date. It’s so easy that an IT administrator could upgrade a boatload of these PCs in just a few hours.

We don’t know the weight or thickness of the laptop, but the photos show a PC that looks better than any budget laptop I’ve ever seen. There are five new colors that don’t hurt.

It has some very thick bezels around the display, though, something you won’t find outside the budget Chromebook world these days. The display in the Laptop 12 is better than you would typically find on a budget laptop. The 1920 X 1200 resolution and up to 400 nits of brightness make it the most powerful laptop on the market.