Just about to shop again. Is there a recommendation for a WiFi card? I had thought an Intel AX210 but there mya be a better alternative? I don’t need WiFi 7.
Thanks
I guess I’m going to find out if all this comes together very soon
Just got an automated email from Framework “We’re preparing to ship pre-orders in your batch!”
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I was also considering installing the Framework motherboard in a COOJ Sparrow-MQ4 case, but since I had doubts about the height, I opted for a Jonsbo T6 case and a much larger ATX power supply that I already owned.
I’d like to know how your build went, and I might order this small case myself.
I believe it can be ordered with or without a power supply. I read that you prefer an external power supply, which also interests me.
On the motherboard, I installed an MT7925 WiFi+Antennas 5400Mbps M.2 Triple Band 2.4G/5G/6G BT5.3 card for Win10/11 Linux, purchased from Amazon.
It works perfectly under both Windows 11 and Linux.
I hope you receive your motherboard and have a successful build!
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That was a good choice. The MQ4 doesn’t quite have enough space for the standard heatsink and fan duct so my build will have to include some mods somewhere (and I haven’t decided on where just yet).
Where has all the space gone?
There is 80mm from the top of the standoff to the grill cover. The standoffs are 5mm. There is a frame that holds the magnets below the frame that holds the standoffs. Its 7mm from the top of the magnet frame to the top of the standoff frame. So, 12mm from the top of the standoff to the top of the magnet frame.
I need another 4.8mm for the FM board, heatsink, and duct to fit. ‘Where to find that?’ is a open question.
I am not sure I got it right. Do you need an additional 4.8 mm for a regular 120mm fan with 20 mm thickness or already for a fan with 15 mm?
For the stock, standard 20mm (thick) 120mm fan with the fan duct
In that case I would try it without fan duct. Depending on how tight it is, that may cause noisy turbulances. Something to test for.
Alternatively get a 15 mm tall Noctua or other 120 mm fan and see how it performs. It should be good enough for 100W sustained operation, maybe even 120W sustained (but then probably less silent than the 20 mm fan). Potentially you may want to create a custom fan duct either with foam tape or 3d printed.
They are all good options. Cooj do an optional steel grill, too, which i have. I’ll be testing of air movement before making a decision. I could also borrow a panel design from Nuctua. All grist for the mill and other ideas welcomed.
I also thought about removing the standoff frame and replace it with 3D mounts. I’ll wait until the mainboard arrives. In the meantime I have some design work to do to mount the DC-ATX
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Does the HD-Plex 500w DC/DC converter fit into PSU mounting space? I mean in terms of dimensions.
Yes, easily
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Nicely coming along, this and especially the PSU posts before it. I’ll be following closely. Though definitely not adventurous enough to follow that PSU path.
Me, I’m kind of stuck and deadlocked in my indecisiveness of whether …
1. I just want a small SFF build without utilizing the PCIe and my extra HighPoint 710L 8-port SASA/SATA card sitting around.
2. Or one where I use the card. I’ll be mad after a while if I don’t use it, I think. So then if I do use the card:
2.a. a build that has provisions for 2x 3.5" drives?
2.b. or build that has provisions for 8x?
3. And if I go the 8x 3.5" SATA route, I may as well refactor the ATX cube case I have now that I love from close to a decade ago that contains my original “daily driver” system (assuming it supports ITX; TBD)… But that system is so stable and rock solid even with an OC of the i7-7700K to 4.9GHz I really REALLY don’t want to screw with it.
Decisions, decisions…
I can at lease say, I’m leaning towards #2.a. with this Silverstone CS01 in Silver: CS01
The knock against that is I won’t go back to using the 2x 2.5’ for SATA SSDs as the 710L card I’ll be using doesn’t support TRIM sent to the SSD in Windows, only supported in Linux. And I’ve already had one SSD fail due to that. And I have a few reasons I need to run Windows on my AI Max+ 395.
Ugh, can’t decide!
Why do you need to run windows?
Would a windows VM suffice?
Want to also use the system to run Fidelity and E-Trade’s desktop app trading platforms, plus Adobe Lightroom; none have a Linux binary. [*]
Can a Windows VM under a Linux as the primary OS install suffice? That is a TBD I hadn’t thought about very seriously. May have to, to see if it can & will. The graphing/graphics needs and performance impact of these apps thru a VM layer is the big concern. I’ll have to start some conversations with OpenAI, Perplexity and Gemini. -hehe
I was instead considering the opposite, running Linux under a VM on this. But know I’d be loosing one of the biggest benefits to Linux that way: the ability to assign over 96Gigs to the GPU, let alone the slimer OS et al.
[*] Tho I do run a fairly snappy i7-12700K + 128Gig DDR4 + 4060LP “always on” server, so “could” could keep using that serving Windows-only duties and run Linux on the AI Max+ 395 128Gig… Counterpoint: wanted to get the benefit of the faster multi-threaded performance [single-threaded perf is nearly equal] of the 395 over the i7-1200K for Lightroom. Applying numerous Developer mode edits to RAWs in Lightroom then comparing several photos back and forth at 1:1 zoom to determine which I’ll keep is such a drag that quickly become frustrating on all but the fastest hardware.
EDIT: p.s. I know the convo has moved on. But I’m anal about being complete…
I forgot my biggest most compelling reason. I’m invested in using the Logitech MX Master Series Mouse and Keyboard to flow use between a Win 10 and Win 11 and Macbook Pro; where the latter will be replaced with my Framework build eventually . There aren’t any Linux drivers or software for that hardware unfortunately. And I don’t have room for a 2nd set of keyboard and mouse on my office desk. OTOH the MX Series can operate in Bluetooth mode… so maybe it COULD work…
I know this is probably more than most people care to dive into… but several of us in a different thread are trying to get dgpus to work (or if they do work, get official support)
I run linux as my primary OS, I hate using windows at home now, windows 11 is pretty awful and buggy. But I too have a few applications that I can’t get away from, namely really old adobe CS3 and Autodesk fusion. Both of those (similar to lightroom) require gpu acceleration to run smoothly, so over on that other thread I’ve documented my adventure with adding intel’s new Arc b50 pro gpu to the framework mainboard. And it works and easily gives me a solution for passing through a gpu to VMs. The b50 pro has professional drivers and will officially have sr-iov support (a few people already have it working) so you could technically split it up and use it to accelerate multiple VMs. Just a thought but it’s out there: Request: verify dGPU support - #187 by Arkratos
So just food for thought, but you wont be the only one on this adventure 
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I think the tough part of making a decision is marked out well by the quote “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too”
Good luck with whatever you decide 
Does it have to be dGPUs? Would an eGPU approach achieve the same outcome?
Isn’t a dgpu that is outside of your system an egpu?
dgpu just meaning a graphics card
Go easy bushfire, I’m just an old ludite 
I get totally confused by all the ‘i’, ‘e’ and ‘d’ prefixes
More seriously, thanks for the clarification. I guess I was considering the point in relation to cases and having a GPU inside vs outside the case
My full desktop with the Noctua is almost always dead silent. You can only tell it is on by the power LED. The fan spun up a bit once during some heavy rendering, but it was not a jet engine. Some of you folks must really be sensitive to any noise at all. Recording studio?