One of my goals with buying a FW13 was to be able to use it as my sole computer. I don’t know why, but having a desktop and a laptop - while probably the better option - just tends to bug me, knowing the machines might be out of sync.
For various reasons, I haven’t gotten around to committing to the idea, but it made me curious - for people who do use their Framework laptop as a desktop or in some kind of docked configuration, what’s your setup like? I’m curious how people work around some of the more annoying parts of running the laptop docked, like the power button or whether to keep the laptop open or folded in docked mode. Also, I figure some people might like a chance to show off. Would love to see pictures of your setup, if you’re comfortable sharing!
My FW13 (Intel 1280p) is connected to a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub, which is plugged into a smart socket (Eve Energy, everything on the desk is connected to it), which I can turn on/off using a Philips Hue button (or my phone or tablet or Siri).
I’ve set the FW13 to turn on when connected to power, so it turns on as soon as I turn on the socket.
When I leave the desk, I just hibernate my FW13 and turn of the socket.
The FW13 itself is closed all the time, standing upside down (I think it’s better to get the heat away) in a normal stand next to the monitors.
The 2 monitors are connected via USB-C to DP cable and I have a Surface LAN-adapter connected to USB-C for the network connection (everything is connected to the TB4 hub).
The dongles for keyboard and mouse are connected to a USB-A hub which is connected to the Surface LAN-adapter.
I can’t post a picture, I need to clean my desk first, it’s a mess.
In that case, here is a picture of my home office. I DO have both a desktop PC and the FW16 connected to these monitors. They have three inputs and usually auto search when one device gets turned off. If I have both the desktop on and the FW connected to the dock, then I need to manually switch inputs on each monitor to change over. But I rarely use both at the same time and have to do that.
As you can see, I have an L-shaped desk so I can keep the Framework 16 open as a fourth screen while connected to the dock.
I settled on this dock because it can push two of those 2k monitors at 144hz and still charge my FW16 at 100W. When I game on it, I DO usually have to connect the 180W charger as well to the laptop.
As you mentioned both laptop and desktop syncing, I use syncthing to keep a few directories in my home synced up between most of my machines and phone. I am exclusively Linux (job wise as well).
I’m also mainly using my FW13 connected to a dock. I activated in the BIOS the option to start the laptop when it is powered, as the laptop is placed behind the desk and always closed.
My workstation is connected only to the screens and the speakers (which have 2 pairs of RCA entries), with a second dongle for the Logitech mouse and keyboard.
For syncing documents, I have a NAS to which I backup stuff using rsync from the laptop (I mounted the relevant directories as NFS shares on the workstation).
I also connect my work laptop to the dock when working from home (but I have to power it independently as the dock delivers only 65W).
Custom designed Vesa mount for the Framework. Left side is a Espresso Display with touchscreen which I mostly use to mirror my smartphone when docked using scrcpy.
