This is a weird thought I have and it’s by no means a dealbreaker if it’s not possible…but can you detach the top screen and have the Framework just be the bottom keyboard part?
Like it’s an old Amiga computer where you connect a display directly to it, or through an eGPU.
Yes. I even asked in the past if you can run without battery too and the answer was still yes.
I was curious about this too so I tried and indeed it does work. BIOS works too so it seems fully functional.
Holy shit this thing is awesome.
Yup! And the disassembly and reassembly was like five minutes.
Boot to the BIOS and disconnect the battery: BIOS guide
Follow the WiFi replacement guide up through Step 6: WiFi Replacement Guide - Framework Guides
Pull the wireless antenna wires from their routing guides then disconnect the display cable and the webcam/mic cable.
Undo the 4 screws holding the hinges to the chassis while supporting the LCD assembly so it doesn’t fall over.
Reassemble
Enjoy!
This is amazing!
On the battery, we’ve designed it electrically to be able to run without it, but this won’t be functional until the next firmware update.
Incredible. Curious how the WiFi signal is running like this. Are the WiFi antennas routed through the display lid?
That raises a question: What are the actual performance caveats to running this way? For instance, i’ve got just the motherboard sinking 100W on one port, sourcing 15Wx3 ports, and driving 28W into the processor, which leaves 27W left over for anything else on the board, efficiency overhead, and whatever in excess of 28W the processor actually peaks. Does the processor have to throttle to make sure the budget never gets exceeded? Can the board actually sink 100W, and is just designed with 65W in mind? And so on 
They also say, that you can just buy the Motherboard and build it into your (old) keyboard, if you car 
This will roll out later from all I know!
Greetings!
@Alex_Whittemore
Not having the battery attached will limit some of the short term power levels (which can theoretically go above 100W if you have the battery and AC attached). However in practicality I don’t think you would see much/any difference in benchmarks or real world usage.
However if you run the system without a battery on a small charger, like a 45W charger you may see significant throttling, or will not be able to support multiple power hungry type-c devices and the system will shut down.
Our power architecture has the charge controller monitor the total system power consumption including attached usb devices and will dynamically throttle the CPU based on the power envelope of the system.
If you have too many high power devices attached on a small charger, the system will protect itself by throttling the cpu to 200mhz, which is very slow.
The WiFi antennas are contained in the LCD assembly. In theory new antennas could be mounted somewhere inside, but it’d be more practical to just use an external adapter.
To Framework team:
I would like to buy DIY without the display screen item installed please; is that possible please?
@Kevin_Westmore - have you tried adding up the pieces you’d want on the marketplace? The prices seem about such that you could buy everything separately and basically pay the same as getting the laptop pre-assembled.
@jeshikat is that with display port out or hdmi? Would be interested to know if the bios is accessible via both
I tested HDMI. I do not have a DP expansion card to try.
Add a wireless HDMI transmitter, and you’ll have a wireless, portable, headless compute unit & keyboard.
I took a look and I think the marketplace parts (sans the actual display item) add up to much more than the DIY itself, so, I guess I could go DIY and pull the screen, but that seems backwards to the goal … I would like to buy a DIY without the screen installed – I do not plan to replace it, I literally want the Framework without the display. I wish that Framework would reply directly here and to my direct email to them for the same request, so far no reply at all.
I came across this thread due to my own curiosity about doing this exact thing, removing the display at minimum, potentially the entire top cover as well, since I need no display, Webcam, or Microphones.
My question about removing the top cover is this. Has anyone experimented with routing the WIFI antennas somewhere else, through the bottom cover, for instance? Based on my understanding of the posts here, the WIFI antennas are routed on the top cover. I’d consider using the Cooler Master case, but as far as I know, you can’t mount speakers or the battery in it.
My main concern with routing the WIFI antennas through the bottom cover is that there might be interference with the motherboard or other components, especially if dealing with USB3 devices. I’d remove the WIFI card all together if I didn’t need it, and a USB WIFI adapter would be inconvenient unless I used a small one, which is always an option.
