Bare Motherboard purchases

Framework Desktop
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I thought it would be useful to start a topic for those who purchased just the motherboard, as there are some considerations when putting together a system.

First, as stated in the order page, the bare board doesn’t ship with a fan, but it does have a fan shroud. Not quite sure what the use is (it mounts on top of the fan), unless it is to direct airflow when the board is in a case (i.e., the shroud forms a seal with the case). Also, the low profile fans available mostly don’t have the CFM or static pressure that Framework recommends, the fans they ship with the full desktop have been customized for them by the manufactures (according to a Framework blog post).

So I ended up ordering a thicker (30 mm) fan that does have the correct CFM and static pressure (Corsair RS120 max). But the screws it shipped with are 1mm thread pitch, whereas the heat sink takes .5mm thread pitch screws. The screws shipped with the fan shroud will hold the fan on, but not if you include the shroud. So I ordered a package of M3x30 .5mm screws off Amazon. Will have to 3d print a shroud for the screws as the ones shipped by Framework (and the ones that come with the fan) have a long shank that is 4mm thick, with a few mm of threads exposed at the tip of the screw. For right now I have the fan mounted without the shroud, as I’m using the MB outside of a case while setting it up. (Is the fan shroud only needed with the low profile fans?)

I have a leftover 500 watt full size ATX power supply that I’m using, seems to be working ok so far.

I’m using a Samsung 990 EVO SSD, installed Fedora 42, installed LM Studio, downloaded the gpt-oss 120G model, and have had really good success (19.8 tokens/sec on my initial tests). Will need to set up my other models, and start playing around more.

Next, I need to 3d print the case I want (the main reason I went bare board, is I want to put in a SATA adapter, either via PCI slot or on one of the nvme slots, and add in my 20 TB drives if I need too). The case I’m designing will have the full sized ATX power supply on the bottom, the MB mounted vertically with components to the left, and there will be room on the right side for 3.5 inch drive cage(s).

So summary of what is needed with a bare MB:

  1. Fan that hits the required CFM and static pressure
  2. m3x30 .5mm pitch screws, with a 4mm thick shaft for the bulk of the screw, or a sleeve that can be 3d printed
  3. appropriately fast SSD (nothing like slow model loading to make for a bad experience)
  4. Whatever case solution.
  5. Adapter cable for the front two USB ports, to pull them to either USB C or USB A sockets (I haven’t touched on this yet, but will research that after and update this post as needed).
  6. Bare board doesn’t ship with WIFI, so if you want that purchase that separately.
  7. Oh, one more thing – a t5 torx screw driver for the SSD screw – the bare board of course doesn’t ship with the Framework tool.

Anyone have anything else to add?

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I know it’s been covered, but I went with the Be Quiet! Silent Wings 4 Pro 2500rpm that was recommended in the other thread:

  1. It has more CFM than the Noctua 2400rpm they sell (69.25 vs 76.7)
  2. More Air Pressure than the recommended on the Motherboard page (3.81 vs 3.96)
  3. It’s a standard 25mm thickness so I shouldn’t have to resort to the above

The 20pin is generally used for Front Panel Type C ports, but you can also get all kinds of adapters from Amazon for a few bucks to convert to USB3.0 header like this one:

USB 3.1 Type-E Male to USB 19/20 Pin

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I have a Be Quiet! Silent Wings 4 Pro, it’s 3000 rpm. It took me 15 min to be able to plug the antenna wire to the wifi card, I was sure it was not fitting and it ended fitting at some point, I do not really understand why it was so hard. If you want wifi 7, make sure to have a compatible antenna, I have gone with wifi 6E personally.

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Oh, one more thing – a t5 torx screw driver for the SSD screw – the bare board of course doesn’t ship with the Framework tool.

This is the most important thing, honestly. It’s reasonable to assume that anyone building with the mainboard will need everything else. The T5 screws were a surprise, though, and not called out on the order page, just on the guide.

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Oh, one other thing I’m having issues with. I am designing a 3d printed case, so I will have to provide the power/reset buttons, LEDs, and HD Audio jacks. I’m having a difficult time figuring out the keywords to use to source these. I found on Amazon the power/reset/led cable kit, with bare button switches and LEDs at the other end, so I will need to design and 3d print the appropriate bracket to hold them (not an issue).

But I can’t find anything regarding the audio jacks. I’d expect to be able to find a bracket with all the HD audio jacks on it, and the 9-pin cable on it to run to the mother board. But I’m having difficulty even finding the pin outs in case I needed to order the bare jacks and solder up something (or the type of jack to use, etc).

Edit: I guess what I’m looking for is can I use the 9-pin connector to provide 5.1 or 7.1 audio output – everything I’m looking at that says 9-pin HD Audio looks like it only does headphone and microphone.

So if I want to hook up my 5.1 speaker system, would I need a usb audio adapter?

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You can find “F_AUDIO” pins next to PCI-E and 24pin ATX Power.

There is a PDF fine in their github showing the mainboard layout.