Idea: Add 4 fixed USB-C connectors in place of 2 Expansion Card bays

Creators & Developers
#1

Given the amount of folks who would like to be able to use 4 USB-C ports without having to use all 4 expansion slots [1], and the power drain problems with some cards, I’d say it would be a good idea to remove the two slots closest to the screen and replace them with 4 fixed USB-C ports. If you space them exactly the same as the mac-books this would allow for re-use of a bunch of mac accessories.

[1]
Dual USB-C Expansion Card Mockup - Creators & Developers / Expansion Card - Framework Community

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Dual USB-C Expansion Card Mockup
#2

The USB C Expansion card is a simple extension, it shouldnt add any power consumption. Also, this would be challenging, afaik, because there are no more PCIe lanes for thunderbolt.

Just curious: What do you need 4 USB C connectors for?

Edit: This is also not a great idea, since a benefit of the extension cards is, that you can replace a connector easily if it fails. If you remove the cards and add 4 ports directly, it would be a lot harder to fix those.

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#3

As @devryd said, the USB C expansion cards shouldn’t add to the power consumption at all. What you are probably really asking for is a card that converts a single thunderbolt connector to two usb-c connectors which I believe has been asked for in an expansion card and I can see making sense for a future card in the lineup.

#4

IMO, if you need more than 4 slots then get a dock because it doesn’t make sense to have cables running all around the laptop when you can have only one going to a dock.