I currently have a gaming desktop built in a huge case (an NZXT H7 Flow).
A few weeks ago, I heard about Framework and their 12" laptop.
As a musician, the laptop really caught my interest. I often need to move between rooms to play guitar or piano, and it’s really inconvenient to read sheet music, tabs, or lyrics on a smartphone. Of course, I can’t move my whole desktop setup around either.
I already have all the necessary peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.), and I know the FW12 can handle a variety of connections thanks to its flexible port options.
I was thinking of the following setup:
i5-1334U
One USB-C port for power
One USB-A port for a USB-A hub (for keyboard, mouse, and headphones)
One Ethernet port
One DisplayPort module for connecting my 27" 165Hz 1440p monitor
A linux distro
Then I’d use a GeForce Now subscription to turn the FW12 into an affordable, repairable “sleeper” machine. I see this as a big win in terms of space, silence, and power consumption. And then i can move everywhere with my sheets, tabs, etc, when i’m not docked.
Do you think this setup is viable — or is it just a dream?
The FW12 doesn’t support Thunderbolt. So if a dock requires Thunderbolt 3/4, there’s a good chance it won’t work. However, there are docks (even some Thunderbolt ones) that support and work with USB 3.1/3.2, and will simply support lower data transfer speeds.
I tested an Anker 556 USB-C dock and it worked fine.
Unfortunately, I have no experience with GeForce Now. So I can’t really chime in on that.
If you are asking if a dock will help the computer run cooler, I doubt it. A dock can be nice if you need more ports, or if you want to be able to hook up to a desktop/stationary setup with a single USB-C cable. But I don’t know that it would affect heat.
My only concern is temps and noise while using GeForce NOW with all my peripherals connected to the FW12. I don’t really mind if it’s through a dock or using the built-in ports.
GeForce Now should run fine, it’s basically just a video stream. As long as it has the games you want to play on it, it doesn’t run every Steam game just a selection
Wait, you mention a huge gaming station that you already got, then turning the FW12 into a cloud gaming station by cloud streaming.
Have you considered running Sunshine as a streaming server on the gaming PC, and locally streaming to a Moonlight client on your laptop? This is very similar to geforce now, just using your own existing hardware.
(Or over the internet with tailscale I guess, but you only mentioned local in your post, and you don’t get the latency benefit above geforce now if the internet is involved.)
Wow, thanks for this hint… I did not have GeforceNow on in mind and just tested it with my Lenovo t480s with Arch Linux.
That’s a real good way playing games on a weak machine (and the FW12 has better performance than my t480s).
I tested Doom2016 (which would not be possible to run ob that machine), but with an exremely poor wifi-connection, so I had terrible input-lag. But it ran on 60FPS (GeforceNow Free) and my machine was about 25% CPU and 50% GPU.
Thanks for your feedback. Yeah, I created this topic because I couldn’t find any article or discussion about this specific use case on the FW12. It actually makes me feel pretty optimistic about my initial idea. <3
But the 50% GPU afraid me considering the FW12 don’t have any.
The T480S has Intel UHD Graphics 620 integrated graphics, and your FW12 will have Intel UHD Graphics for 13th Gen Intel integrated graphics with 80 Execution Units.
The FW12 integrated GPU is like 3 times as powerful as the one in the T480S.
Yeah, that could be a slight issue when it comes to continuing to use the old space heater.
Anyways, I stand with the other users that cloud streaming barely needs resources. It’ll work well on the FW12, provided you have a great internet connection. If not, well, that’s why I asked if you considered local streaming. Game streaming needs low latency and a stable connection, not just a high average bandwith like video streaming does.
