@Framework , I want to thank you, and congratulate you.
I received my i7-1165G7 DIY unit earlier this week as part of Batch 6. Thanks to your videos, and also the considerable amount of attention the device has gotten in the YouTube tech sphere, I knew exactly what to expect putting it together: RAM and SSD went in smooth; WiFi was tricky (I have no idea how to make this less tricky off the top of my head, but if you could solve that problem for a future iteration, it would be brilliant) but ultimately successful. I went with a Windows 10 Pro install for now (with a possible Linux dual boot in my future), and once the driver support package was run, the machine has been speedy and smooth, handling everything I’ve thrown at it so far.
The keyboard is comfortable to use. The trackpad is, for my purposes, as good as anything I’ve used on any Windows machine (Apple still has a corner on this for some reason, but this one’s pretty good), the screen is bright and clear, and everything is fast.
More to the point, this machine just looks and feels good. The choice of an aluminum body, while probably more expensive both to make and to sell, was the right one. The temptation to let this be something a little clunky and maybe plastic was probably strong, to keep costs down, but I’m very glad you resisted it.
Yeah, I think even for the DIY, unless a customer explicitly says, “No Wifi”, that’s the way to go, honestly. It’s just too error-prone as is.
I wonder if there’s some way to make it easier to attach those wires, though. That’s the only tricky part. The rest is just M.2 stuff, and that’s easy.
The wording of their blog post is ambiguous, saying that they would be preinstalling the card on DIY units. They did not explicitly say, “when ordered”, but given that they already offer two different variants, that seems implied to me.
This is correct, apparently. There is no option to select (or de-select) the WiFi card on the DIY page if you select UK as your locale/region (just tried).
@Framework, how are you planning on handling the vPRO selection? And what if someone wants to bring their own WiFi card? I understand you want to simplify the installation since yeah, it’s clearly a pain-point for a lot of users, but it would be nice to still have the same options you give currently to users in US and Canada.
