I was batch 2 on the FW 13 AMD, and I’ve wanted to give a 6 month update on this computer, as it’s had its ups and downs.
My specs are a Ryzen 7 7840U, 32gb DDR5 FW whitelabel, 2tb NVMe ssd, and am still rocking the included RZ616 after going back and forth with an AX210.
To get this out the way first, I have done some modifications to what I had. I got a clear keyboard (which wasn’t as bad as I thought it was, just a lot of screws), and a PTM7950 paste mod to try to solve one of the major pain points of this laptop.
First off, the FW13 experience. It’s a lovely laptop, I found myself using the expansion ports a lot more than I thought, the build is good, and I like it. I do see why the clear bezel was a preorder only thing, as it is fragile. Little bits of plastic are already coming off. I did have one QC issue with the input cover, regarding how the trackpad sat inside, but that was solved pretty quickly. I love the laptop overall.
Now the main issue I’ve found with the laptop. Thermals. They are… NOT good. I didn’t expect this CPU to run chilly, but I at least expect the fans to not be running at full speed 24/7 with the extremely intense workload of firefox. Under full load, it consistently hits 95-100c, sometimes sustained. Even if it isn’t under load, the CPU will get extremely hot, and throttle to the point where it runs at only 100mhz. The first thing I tried was cleaning out dust that built up, that oddly, there was a decent amount. I repasted when installing, but there wasn’t any change. The next thing I tried is PTM7950, which so far has improved things, however not too much. It’s still runs hot, and even though technically thermal limits are 100c, it still can’t be good for it, especially for longevity. It makes me believe that the thermal solution used by FW is just not quite enough.
This leads me into the fan. It is very noisy, and it seems to be running like at 100% all the time. It gets very distracting, especially in a school environment, as it’s loud. The fan curves seem to be off too. Sometimes the fan is full blast at 70c.
The best part of the framework is also a weak point for me. The USB-A ports can be unstable at some points, wiggling the cable can make it drop in and out, and a lot of the cables won’t really go in all the way, and doesn’t feel secure. The USB-C ports have been solid though, but the biggest pain point is the video expansion ports. Displayport will randomly drop to black, and will either come back immedietly, or require me to reseat the expansion card. The HDMI is also unreliable. I will get some bad artifacts, general display freaking out, and blackouts. It’s really annoying.
I still love this computer, it’s overall pretty good. I love the look of the computer, the performance is there, and overall I love it.