I was actually looking at those recently.
Not something i think i’d need anytime soon, but an internal occulink card connected somewhere in the case for an external port (possibly via a front panel tile, if not just bodged in) could be a great solution to add an external GPU in the future
I wonder how this particular APU and an external GPU would integrate? And, more specifically, if that’s the sort of experimentation that AMD was avoiding with specification compliance?
@Adrian_Joachim @JJ81 @Daniel_Elliott @FW4TeePee
It seems like a pretty significant loss in value to not have an option for an opening on the back of the case… because many PCIe 4.0 cards suddenly can’t be used. Looking at the pictures of the motherboard and FW Desktop case, it doesn’t seem like it would be a huge problem to allow for an opening there. I dunno… just seems kinda strange to not even have an option.
Wish there was some way to ask the developers/engineers the rationale for not including an opening there. Or better yet, whether we can get an option for an opening there.
They responded to the question in a YouTube video. Apparently the “open ended slot” is not pcie standards compliant.
If i was them, I would probably have put a 16x slot there, even if it only have 8x lanes, just so it could accept the widest selection of cards.
That whole product is kinda strange.
Being an oversight seems perfectly reasonable. This thing was likely designeed relatively quickly and on a platform there wasn’t a lot to coppy paste from.
That honestly sounded more like a convenient excuse. Not like usb-c male to female adapters are usb-c standard compliant.
If there was an open, compliant, full PCIe slot, what would you use it for folks?
@James3 we might be referring to two different concepts, as @BigT noted earlier:
@James3 i think you (and the developers in that youtube video) might be referring to the first item above, while I’m referring to the second item above. (Though im not totally certain, lol) Basically, im thinking the case should be able to accomodate pcie 4x cards that are spec-compliant AND come with external ports that face the backside of the case
I think the first message in this thread is discussing the first item.
I might be easier to discuss the second item in a different thread, to avoid confusion.
Good idea and point! I’ll open another thread. Hopefully i can acurately articulate it to avoid any confusion, haha
@James3 Thank you again for the idea to start a different thread! I went ahead and created one here:
Request: Case Opening for PCIe Card - Framework Desktop - Framework Community
I had taken from Niriav’s comments in the video linked towards the top of this topic, that AMD was placing restrictions on OEMs extending AI Max+ 395 through the provision of ports/slots in their designs.
This manufacturer’s AI Max+ 395 implementation, though, includes an Oculink port.
https://videocardz.com/newz/fevm-unveils-2-liter-mini-pc-with-amd-ryzen-ai-9-max-strix-halo-and-128gb-ram
So, looks like I misread the situation completely
I think it might not be all bad as they don’t tell us what generation the pcie connector is and if it is gen 5 we would be seeing comparable speeds to gen 3 x16 which gamers nexus did a video on running a 5090 and it was only maxing out at 4% lower speeds than gen 5 x16
The PCIe part number in the BOM is a Gen 4 part. Additionally, the storage specs are listed as “2x NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 2280 sockets with heatspreaders”
I’d like to install an HBA in a NAS case, like the LSI SAS 9300-8i, which has a x8 connection. I think running it at x4 speeds would be fine. I’ll probably just get a x4 Riser Cable, but I’d prefer not to have to.
Well. My plan is to stick into it a graphics card to speed up AI inference. But it seems like I’ll need an extra power supply for that as well.
@MarcinS Are you planning on using the Framework Desktop case? If so, just be aware that it currently does not have an opening on the back of the case to accomodate any pcie cards that have a back panel for ports.
I figured the case will be too tight for it. I was ready to sacrifice/extend a case. But now I’ve also learned that they decided to also nerf the power supply by making it non-modular and removing any extra connections.
Honestly I’m getting more and more disappointed by the way framework seemingly went against customization and extensibility on this one.
I preordered one in Feburary I think, still not received it while other makers already released theirs, and they are better eg. X1 AI Mini offering built-in occulink.
So in short - instead of just plugging graphics card into X4 open port and potentially removing one side of the case.
I’ll need: 1. Replace the case. 2. Buy PCI riser/extender 3. Replace power supply
Kinda sucks
Some design choices are curious … I wonder if AMD placed restrictions on the design?
I’m also on team open-ended slot — but one thing to note is the slot I think might only supply 25W of power. There are many cards (including most single-slot GPUs) that will not work due to power limits. Many NICs and HBAs need a lot of power sometimes, so it’s not quite as limiting as you think.
I think if they respin the board at some point, having 75W to the slot and having it open ended would be useful, but then again… this isn’t really targeted at server use (which is I think where many of us would like to take it haha).
[Edit: That is to say… I’ll likely wind up taking the knife to my slot at some point haha]