Framework 13 pro oculink mod

Creators & Developers
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1

I just realize that framework 13 pro with the panther lake configuration comes with a pcie gen 5 m.2 slots.

After hours of research I have found some real world testing indicating that a pcie gen5x4 connection is sufficient for anything below a 5080 in real world uses and the experience is WAY BETTER than anything USB based (yes, even TB5). It is effectively a pcie4.0x8 bandwidth (some desktop gpu actually uses this)

I have found some very cheap but validated m.2 to oculink pcie5.0 adapter from ADT-Link. Although oculink doesn’t natively support pcie5.0, it is only a passive connection and with a good design it is stable.

My framework 13 pro is arriving soon and I’ll do some testing on getting it to work. But there’s a couple problem I know I’ll run into:

  1. Since the main board only has 1 m.2 slot, I’ll need to resort to external storage for my OS. I know Linux is going to work from external drive but booting windows is a big problem. Ideally I want to use the TB4 on the mainboard for the highest bandwidth for my OS drive, but Windows to go is already deprecated, and a simple google search tells me booting windows from USB4 / thunderbolt is a big NO NO. There are some registry edit hack that might make things work, and I will be validating those and updating this thread once I have the hardware and time to test it, but I don’t have high hopes.
  2. Ideally I can somehow run the oculink connection without disassembling the laptop (I know it’s easy and because it’s a framework it’s actually viable), and without destructively modifying the bottom chassis. I’m thinking of maybe using the left speaker cutout for a connection, but idk if that’s going to fit, second problem is the signal integrity. Pcie5.0 via oculink requires an insane level of integrity, and any connection / ports will significantly impact the integrity. Ideally I want to mount an oculink female port onto the speaker cutout, but that introduces another connection point and idk if it’s reliable enough.

This will take a lot of time to test, and I’ll share my result here when I’ve done the testing, in the mean time if anybody has questions / solutions feel free to discuss it here!

I’m planning on buying a colorful 5070 mini and a 7660n flex atx psu and a ADT LINK k43sg (this model doesn’t use a oculink connector, it’s just a m.2 to pcie by 16 adapter with soldered cable) for best signal integrity. I’m planning on designing a neat case and 3d print using PC. If anybody is interested I can also share that later.

2

Except for the lack of hotplug/unplug which is a pretty big part of the experience.

Windows 2 go works quite well these days from decent usb drives.

3

I’ll get the storage expansion part and try to boot from there, and also for my use case I really don’t need to hot plug (I’ll need to disassemble the system to unplug it anyway). I mainly need it when traveling and use it as a gaming laptop in this case.

4

Then just get a usb to nevme adabter and just swap the internal ssd into that?