I have a Framework 13 from 2021 and it has some miles on it. I want to refresh it and looking into the best way to do so.
I purchased this laptop from Framework and have not invested in it since. So it does not have some of the original upgrades like the upgraded hinge. I know there were a few upgrades from the original design but I don’t know all of them.
Also, my dog took my laptop for a ride off my desk dented the case, and damaged the fan and the trackpad stopped working.
Here are the specs.
11th gen Intel i7-1165G7
2X16GB Crucial DDR4
WD 1tb nvme
Wi-Fi 6 Intel Chip
BOE CQ LCD monitor
I’d get a ryzen 5 mainboard for ~$450, 2x16gb ddr5 for ~$80 not from framework, just the linux keyboard and not the whole input cover for ~$50, the wifi module you have is good enough, and the newer webcam is a good buy. That totals $620 rather than $1035.
I agree, I’d get the Ryzen 5 mainboard, the minor performance difference doesn’t warrant the large price increase. You can buy similar RAM from Amazon or wherever, much cheaper. And there’s probably no need to get another Wifi module. The Intel AX200/AX210 one works fine on the AMD Laptop, probably even better as the AMD module (as long as you bought the DIY model, the prebuilds with a model number ending in 1 use a weird chip that only works on Intel mainboards).
Contrary to what @HardHat_Media wrote, I’d definitely replace the whole input cover and not only the keyboard. First of all your touchpad seems to be broken anyway, secondly, replacing the keyboard only requires replacing “hundreds” of tiny screws, this is really not fun to do and there’s a large chance to mess something up, IMO the price increase of the input cover is well worth it.
The input cover kit contains the touchpad, so no need to buy it again separately.
RZ616 is MT7922 chip based. I have not used that one personally, but there are folks that aren’t happy with the drivers for that. There are tons of other WiFi card options. Even WiFi 7-ish options such as BE200, MT7925 are like ~$25 now.
Old mainboard does not need to be e-waste. It’s a perfectly functional computer all on its own. Makes a great router, NAS device, home lab, Home Assistant runner, etc.
If you wanted to save a little more money, you could go with the i5 1340p motherboard for the same price as the 7640u board and keep using your ddr4. the final build would come out to about $545 without the new webcam or 585 with it. Keep in mind that for a laptop built this well with similar performance it probably would start at around 1.5x-2x the cost of this upgrade. You can also pick up a $40 mainboard case and use your old motherboard as a server with some e-waste ddr4 or something, it should be great for that compared to most desktop hardware based servers in terms of cost of power to run it
the old motherboard would probably also still sell for easily $80,
plus some small amounts for DDR4 Ram, old webcam etc.
That should lower the costs a bit more.