It sounds like the mainboard of a Framework is about 230x105mm. That’s just about the footprint (maybe a bit smaller) than most GPUs. Theoretically it seems like you could probably fit them side by side, use the guts of an eGPU enclosure to connect them, and then use the remaining three ports for power and input. Would there be a way to power both the GPU and mainboard with one cord? You’d also have to create a custom case for it and think pretty carefully about cooling, but it seems like you could potentially make something much smaller than most gaming PCs today.
Is that something people might be interested in building?
Sounds pretty similar in flavor to the Intel Ghost Canyon NUCs, a pretty cool concept to try and pull off overall. You could probably find a lot of off-the-shelf parts to complete the rig if you already have the eGPU. A quick search found me this eGPU that provides USB-C PD support for laptop charging, and that was just the first link I found. I’m sure there are cheaper. Something like that enclosure measns that means that all you’d have to power is the guts of the eGPU from the wall, and the eGPU would handle powering your laptop with the same cable that you’re using to feed the data between laptop and gpu. It even has extra USB ports on the enclosure, though I’d recommend plugging any high bandwidth SSDs or such directly into the mainboard on the other side of the eGPU, so that it’s handled with a separate TB3 controller. That way you let the eGPU use as much bandwidth as it can.
Long story short: if you could somehow cram the mainboard into that eGPU I linked, keep it electrically and RF isolated, and have a way to pipe the CPU heat out of the enclosure, then yeah, one cable is all you’d theoretically need to connect the main board to eGPU and make yourself a tiny gaming rig.