I’ve been using my 11th-gen FW13 board quite a bit lately, so I thought I’d share a little about the configurations that I’ve used it in this year and how I got here.
After I got my FW16 back in 2023, I made some upgrades to my FW13 and lent it out to family members that needed a PC. Since I didn’t want them to run into the 11th-gen CMOS battery issue, I swapped in an AMD Ryzen 5 board, which got new RAM and wifi. I also upgraded the battery and got a fresh CNC top cover to replace my well-stickered original (which I have kept as a souvenir). The last thing I bought was a Cooler Master mainboard case, for my loose board.
As a result, I’ve had my 11th-gen board with 32GB RAM and an AX210, plus the original 55Wh battery and top cover just kicking around for 3 years… I’d installed Windows, FreeBSD, Arch Linux, Ubuntu Desktop and Server, but never did much with it except set things up, mess around a bit, and move on.
Last year, I finally got around to installing the RTC battery substitute. I sort of just did it because I felt like soldering something that day 
and didn’t really consider that it would’ve been better for standalone battery-free operation to just replace the ML1220.
This year, I sold off two desktop PCs and have been trying to replace their functionality with smaller systems. As a result, I ended up with the only eGPU that my local MicroCenter had in stock plus an RTX 5070Ti. I popped a 4TB SN850P out of my PS5 (which also got sold), cut a hole in the CM case to accommodate the heatsink (a bit sloppy). And so my new, much more portable gaming rig was born:
This setup was pretty rad. As long as it stayed plugged in (avoiding mainboard resets…) it was very reliable and actually had plenty of power to replace the PS5. Games at 4k were always GPU-bound.
A couple months later, I noticed an SFF PC case that was smaller than my eGPU and that would fit my GPU (Fractal Terra), so I ended up building a full desktop that is smaller and more portable than my FW13/Razer Core setup. So my 11th-gen board became an extra again.
I thought I would like to get a 13 Pro chassis for it (~1k USD?), but with no availability date in sight and a high price, I investigated my other options…
A full non-pro chassis from FW is 429 USD (plus tax and shipping, ~479 total), which isn’t too bad, but doesn’t offer language choices, and includes a battery, which I didn’t really need.
I found an ebay seller that had an entire top cover/screen/webcam/wifi antenna/hinges assembly on offer for $125 total, and spent $254 on the FW marketplace to get the bottom parts I needed plus PTM and a replacement heatsink and fan, bringing me to a sum of $379 to go from spare parts to a complete laptop ($100 less than the chassis!).
The ebay parts took a bit longer to ship, so I ran a headless config for a couple days:
Aside from the poor wifi reception, I really liked this setup. With some xreal glasses or a portable monitor, a version of this with a wifi antenna would make a solid portable PC.
The only thing that went a bit wrong is that the mainboard screws were not included with the bottom cover, which sent me digging through every drawer looking for the spare fasteners I bought years ago “just in case”. Surprisingly enough, I found them!
But once my ebay parts showed up, I went ahead and assembled the laptop:
My ebay top turned out to be a matte 2.2k screen and a CNC top cover, with all the factory protective film on everything. I had to dip into my stash of spare fasteners again, since the bottom hinge screws were not included. But now I have an entire 11th-gen FW13 again, but with an upgraded top cover, expansion cards that didn’t exist in 2021, and the RTC battery substitute installed.
Performance is solid, and it feels great overall. The non-Pro FW13 is still just a really nice product imo. Since I now have a new desktop for everything that needs higher performance and a NAS for backing up inordinate amounts of data, this could definitely be my daily driver.
As a result, I’m not sure there’s room in my life for the FW16 anymore… So look forward to that hitting the Community Marketplace as I continue to shrink the total weight and volume of all my computers (once I get it cleaned up and organize all my spare parts
)
