I had not seen the expansion bay with dual nvme. I wonder if that’s the default bay, or if they will have the option for a completely empty one as a lower-cost option. Either way, I think that probably ansers the nvme question - looks like a 3 x nvme drive option will be pretty easy but you won’t be able to use it at the same times as the dedicated graphics card. I can live with that!
seems pretty limiting to me to use that space just for this. really hope they find a space on the motherboard!
Do any laptops have over two dimm slots? I personally haven’t seen one but also haven’t looked for that feature specifically.
Maybe that could be an add on mini screen down by the keyboard like how Apple has one.
Some of the Dell Precision range do so you can do 4 x 32gb. they also have 4 nvme drives. i had one, and hated it - moved to the framework 13 instead despite the sacrifices on some of these things; the frame.work 16" might be best of both worlds.
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Yes, at least since 2010 with the first gen core i laptops such as the ThinkPad W510. Basically the mobile workstation and mobile server catagory: ThinkPad P series (not the P1 nor the ‘s’ slim variants), Precision, Zbook.
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Ah, yeah that makes sense. Thanks
The keyboard is rgb (or at least the option). The one Linus is holding in that video is cycling through the colors.
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So that means the current CPU (Ryzen/Intel) don’t have any free PCIe lanes for the extra SSD slot? Not because of the size of the FW 13?
Ryzen 5 7640u has 20 lanes (from their spec),
If the Framework Laptop 16 had all of the following features, it would be the perfect laptop for me:
- Intel CPU - Mainly becuase I like Thunderbolt and want each external port to be equally capable; none of this only the back ports are Thunderbolt and left side video nonsense with the AMD boards.
- No built-in dedicated GPU - This is very important; to get the best power usage, there must at least be an option to NOT have a deidcated GPU on the mainboard. The Dedicated GPU can be on the expansion card, just don’t have one directly on the mainboard.
-
Must be USB-C powered - Like the current Framework 13, even down to low powered chargers such as 30 or 45 watts.
- If the dedicated GPU board makes it necessary to have a barrel jack, then at least make sure this is on a separate easily replaceable board that plugs into the mainboard or the expansion card, but still allow USB-C power at a reduced power/performance level. Though, an even better solution would be to use the new USB-PD standard that allows up to 240 watts of power via USB-C.
- 2 (preferrably 4) SODIMM slots for DDR5, supporting the most recent non-binary RAM for support of up to 192GB of RAM.
- Screen with resolution larger than 1920x1200 (confirmed, and the proposed 1600p is perfect)
- Two NVME drives at PCIe 4 or 5 speed
- Must have clearance for double-sided nvme drives in both slots.
- At least one M.2 “wifi” slot – a second slot would be useful for something like the coral.ai accelerator
- Rear expansion card capable with two more NVME slots at PCIe 4 or 5 speed
- As with the primary slots, must have clearance for double-sided nvme drives in both slots. Also make sure drives with a fully populated bottom fit (Sabrent Rocket, Inland Performance Plus, etc., i.e. most things with a Phison controller that are double-sided) vs. drives with only half of the bottom side populated (i.e. WD Black, Kioxia, etc.). Just use the same slot as in the 13 inch and ensure absolutely nothing is on the PCB underneath it and you’ll be fine.
- (optional) M.2 “cellular” slot – I’ll typically use this for another small NVME to install Windows in the (rare) event I need it for something.
- (preferred but not required) Make battery externally replaceable, and split it up into two separate batteries. This way you can carry extra batteries and change them out without turning off the laptop or plugging it in.
If Framework could manage to squeeze all of the above into the 16 inch laptop, I’d be a Framework customer for life and would never even bat an eye at another brand.
P.S. Some more ranting about double-sided NVMEs. Lots of manufacturers get this wrong. Some will have a slot that would otherwise be capable of housing a double sided NVME, but have junk on the PCB underneath it and therefore don’t actually have the clearance for it (I’m looking at you HP and ASUS). A particularly egregious example is the ASUS Space Edition laptop which has a single solitary capacitor (or potentially resistor) near the slot which interferes with most double sided drives, and the only ones that will fit are ones where only the screw end is populated on the bottom, such as WD Black and Kioxia drives. Then there’s companies like Lenovo that use a super slim m.2 slot so that you can’t use a double sided drive at all, just to save a whole mm, even when there’s room to have a regular height slot for a double sided nvme.
I think it’s bad to have this preorder speculation thing…
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It certainly feels like users are trying to create a monstrosity sometimes. With everything they want to bolt on.
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I hope it won’t be everything at once. They have to have a line somewhere.
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Would be cool if the FW15 can also have tires and an engine, so it can drive me to work autonomously while I can already start working on the way. Expecting tire-expansion cards in the marketplace tomorrow. 
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second this
I don’t know if the cooling/heat dissipation budget of the PCIe 4/5 nvme devices can be handled by the provided cooling system.
To be honest, having to add a “huge” cooling systems to the NVMe drives kind of makes me think the technology is not ready for general use. If it gets too hot, it burns too much power. And remember, this is for storage. If the cooling fails, we may loose all the data on it.
So no. I’d rather have a decent PCIe3 board capable of doing Raid0 with 2xNVme drives. In the end it will probably also use less power overall.
My guess is we are just going to see a single nvme on the mainboard because it looks like there will be an expansion bay that gives you 2 more. This feels like a good compromise to me.
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That would be extremely poor design. Drives have temperature sensors, if the onboard controller sees the temperature is getting high enough to risk damage, I would think it will throttle the speed.
And yet that as happened already (Failing A PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD In Less Than 3 Minutes Without Extra Cooling - Phoronix) due to faulty firmware.
I see the main issue (my personal opinion) in the power requirement. If it heats up that much, it requires power to do so. And power that goes up in heat indicates that the used technology is not adequate - as it needs to dissipate the heat. It means that it is totally inefficient and should not be used in a laptop. As simple as that :}
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I pray to God fw will add option for touch screen with pressure sensitive pen.
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