A laptop you can upgrade the parts of instead of buying a whole new laptop? Sounds pretty cool. Did I dream it up or is this a real thing?
Laptops were much more modular back in the day and you could replace most parts (even the screen). Since capitalism breeds innovation, laptops became plastic bricks with planned obsolescence that couldn’t be repaired easily. Apple computers were so much more customizable but now they are just metal bricks.
Frameworks are really expensive, you could try buying used models or their older gen ones and then slowly upgrade from there. Old thinkpads (like decades old by now) allowed you to swap thing a lot of things but their age is showing. The most you’ll get outside of that is being able to replace the RAM/SSD/battery.
I have one and it’s pretty great, more expensive than a used thinkpad, but cheaper than most other new laptops with similar specs. The 3:2 screen on the 13” is the killer feature for me. I couldn’t go back to a 16:9 laptop at this point. Also not needing to pay the windows tax on the diy version is cool.
… So what is it!!! Send a link or give us a name ya goof!
Framework, probably this model
Yea lol sorry I dunno why I forgot to add a link. Also if you’re using or planning on ever using linux I would highly recommend the new 2.8k display, it’ll be a nice 2x scaling factor which is quite handy is you run any older x11 programs (games, some proprietary software, etc).
I might get a framework when the used thinkpads dry up. I have 4 atm so i don’t think I’m running out any time soon
A friend told me about those maybe 4 years ago. We both dismissed them at the moment, I because of the lack of discrete graphics cards, they because it was still too pricey and not customizable enough. The price looks about the same but there’s now an option for a discrete graphics card and a bunch of other things now so maybe both of our issues have been solved.
Yes! Are they good? They look cool as fuck. Maybe one day when I’m rich I’ll get one.
Haven’t the slightest. I am in the used Thinkpad demographic.
Noice
The only thing I know about them is that Linus of LTT invested heavily into them and he’s a total shitbag. But they do look cool and I don’t have any real reason to believe they’ll be shit other than LTTs involvement
Alright what’s the tea on Linus being a shitbag beyond just being a west coast techbro? I used to watch ltt quite a bit but it’s been years now
Shitheads ruin everything :(
Other people have talked about them but I have a 13 and love it. It’s not perfect by a long stretch but it’s very repairable, they’ve done well with their commitment to upgradability, and it’s by far the best Linux support I’ve ever had, not that I have tons of experience with that
several laptop brands are relatively easy to upgrade things like ram and storage. lenovo, dell, and system76 come to mind. i’ve got an old dell i’ve been keeping long past its shelf life with some judicious replacement parts and upgrades. i haven’t used the frame work laptops, but those are intended to be more or less completely modular.
What’s up with ThinkPad? I hear people talk about those too.
Those were the bees knees a decade ago but not any more. They used to be extremely durable, upgradable and cheap to find used because businesses would buy them in bulk. There was a whole scene around maintaining them. But now they’re just another laptop with a certain aesthetic. Still a good laptop but not the same.
Those were the bees knees a decade ago but not any more.
good to know, that’s probably the last time i touched one
ThinkPad
yeah those are a lenovo brand, very durable
A laptop that I can throw, huh… Hmmmm
How do MSI’s fare in terms of upgradability? I might throw some more ram and a bigger SSD in one of these days.
MSI
i’m not terribly familiar but anything with dimm slots for ram and pcie slots for ssd like at least some of their models are probably going to be pretty easy to swap out for new ones
I stumbled upon this by watching Sigrid’s 9front videos, pretty cool little laptop :)
Where the Framework’s current niche is to make a more or less standard, yet repair-and-upgrade-friendly laptop people can get the hang of right away, the MNT Reform is, at this time, for nerdy tinkerers: its aim is for all of its hardware and software to be non-proprietary. MNT’s potential is way more exciting, but it has a longer road to maturity, with more pitfalls.
I can’t imagine its economical. laptops aren’t modular to cut down on size. At most, you can probably upgrade ram/harddrive. But replacing things like mobo, cpu, psu, gpu; not gonna happen. Just get a desktop!
Yeah but I can use a laptop for work.
I did a bit of research for a friend in the market and this one had an extra m2 hdd slot and ram up to 32gigs. If you’re looking for cpu and gpx
Modular used to be more common, but nowadays while you can still find “socket-based cpus” and “upgradeable mxm graphics” you’ve gotta search those terms on a Clevo-based reseller like Sagernotebooks or eurocom. or maybe xmg
Edit: fixed link
Framework is neat because you can buy the components from them, but S76 and Thinkpad are good because they’re easy to take apart and you can usually just slap off the shelf components on them as long as the main board still works.
Some older Thinkpads even have socketed CPUs.
