11th gen vs 12th gen mainboard choice?

Framework Laptop 13
1

I’m interested in joining the Framework family of owners… but I’m not sure what to choose. My work requires windows 10, and a good strong battery life is important. Win10 officially isn’t supported (i.e. no drivers) with 12th gen boards due to a lack of scheduling differences between E and P cores that only Win11 has. I’ve read people using the win11 drivers with no issues for win10, it just may schedule tasks onto the wrong cores. So should I attempt to use 12th gen boards with win10 or just swap out to the 11th gen?

I seriously don’t mind being on the older silicon and almost prefer it because the 12th gen is so much more power consuming and battery life in important for me. To do that I’d have to buy a 12th gen DIY kit & an 11th gen board separately and swap. Then do I stay on the i5-1135 or try the i7-1165, apparently ~10% faster and who knows how much more power consumption. Do I risk continuing with an obsolete mainboard even though it’s probably my better choice? I’m going to install only 16GB and start on the Hynix P31 ssd, so minimizing my power draw there.

Yes I know how much more powerful the 12th gen chips are but so it their power draw! I was sad to see no options for the 12th gen U series chips, since these appear to be very good with speed vs heat / battery consumption. And really wish AMD was a choice.

3

@Christopher_Brown You don’t have to buy 12th gen and an 11th gen board. You could buy a refurb. That’s how I got mine. Although it looks like only the 1185G7 is left.

1 Like
4

Yes I was on the announcement request for the 1135 and 1165, and one 1135 came up but was gone the next day. There’s also no reference if the refurbished ones have the new CNC lid design? Also do all laptops come with the stronger hinge now? No clue what the wait is for other refurbished ones would be. Saw some on ebay, but there should be a marketplace spot in the community forums here!

6

No laptops come with the stronger hinge, it’s strictly an add-on. Refurbs do not come with the CNC lid. Hasn’t been a problem for me, might not be a problem for you.

1 Like
7

Since you mentioned battery life as an important consider, be mindful of the power draw of certain expansion cards while the computer is sleeping. I know the HDMI expansion card still draws power while sleeping, while the USB-A and USB-C do not draw power.

8

Good plan.

Also a good plan.

I got the 12th gen instead of a refurb 11th gen because I:

  1. Compile a lot of code.
  2. On Linux.
  3. Don’t care a whole lot about battery life.

If you have a different use-case I’d absolutely consider a refurbish 11th gen.