Known features of the expansion bay:
-PCIe x8 Lanes
-Bidirectional Power Delivery between 7V and 20V and up to 10.5A
Possible Use-Cases Provided by Framework
-Dedicated GPU
-Dual NVMe Storage
-Card Readers
-Video Capture Devices
-AI Accellerators
-SDR Radios
-I/O Expansion
Other Ideas:
-E-Port Docking
-Additional Battery
-Mounting Bracket
Other Ideas:
Internal LTE antenna and modem
Giant drawer?
2.5 hard drives. 5tb seagates exist
Tv Tuner
Fast charging ports? Type C 50W Type A 15W
First thing the community will make for it is a Snack Drawer XL. Canât wait!
I think it would be neat to see a folding carrying handle, just for aesthetics. Not very useful.
On the useful side, I think an induction charging coil with matching charging pad could make it very futuristic. I donât have the slightest idea whether wireless charging is at the point it can result in net charge for a gaming laptop running at full tilt though.
Music producers and hobbyists can always use more configurable buttons. two folding âwingsâ that slot into the Bay but rest on the left and right of the laptop at ergonomic angles to either have control surfaces (Iâm dreaming of haptic touch LED matrices that look like turntables) or more space for Input Modules?
What, no 3.5" floppy drive? 
Storage for the screwdriver, with extra space for the stylus for when thereâs a proper stylus-enabled touchscreen.
Internal power supply with storage space for the power cord to make the thing really convenient to carry, unlike all other laptops on the market.
BIG speakers.
Letâs get the guy who designed the little snack drawer to design a big one for the back
I just changed this threadâs category âExpansion Cardâ to the newly created âExpansion Bayâ. I hope you like it!
Does anyone know if Framework has or plans to have development kits for designing modules for the expansion bay? I have some ideas for industry-specific applications (Automotive/Electronics engineering)? Iâd be interested in sponsoring some senior design projects at my local university (that I also attended) but without a good dev kit not sure how far potential developers or researchers could get with the limited data shared to date.
Projector! or simpler, a laser would also be super cool.
A PCIe riser that connects to a full size GPU will be great
Certainly possible, but expensive.
A docking cleat would be nice, but I think most people are accustomed to plugging in a Thunderbolt dock at this point. What would a modular, repairable Thunderbolt dock look like anyways� Alternatively, a mechanically reinforced mounting point a la Police Laptop for rigidly attaching a 16 to a dashboard or a mobile cart
I think the bay is sealed, airflow wise, but another fan might not be a bad idea anyways just to dissipate heat that is spreading through the chassis.
If the AMD version supports ECC, a SAS controller might be fun, but an exposed PCIe x8 (16 mechanical) port that you can put a riser in might work better for this line of thinking
Someone mentioned putting a tiny subwoofer in there. lol.
With additional bandwidth and cooling available, a 10 gig (or higher?) ethernet port should be possible.
A foot-long string of GPIO headers. Or embrace the gaming weirdoâs and do an RGB strip on the top, rear, and bottom sides.
To expand on the snack drawer idea, what about a low-powered toaster?
Like you might be able to cook a pop-tart in it with some heating coils!
A VGA and DisplayPort input for device administration would be awesome!
You could connect the video output of a PC/Server to the Laptop, and it would show it on the internal display! You could even add a USB Connection to use the Keyboard and Trackpad to control the PC/Server.
Maybe with a little hardware switch to toggle between local and external mode without disconnecting any cables.
get a printer/scanner in the mix
edit: like a brother pocketjet is already about that size anyway so its probably doable with a few compromises
Yes! This is what I am hoping for as well. Thunderbolt gpus lose so much performance. If there were some sort of expansion bay that could connect to a desktop GPU and get near desktop level connectivity I would ditch my desktop in favor of the framework 16 in a heartbeat!
For the musically minded it could be cool to integrate a few XLR and TRS inputs with some high quality pre-amps. Iâm not sure how chunky that would be but it would be super handy to just plug mics and instruments straight into the computer!
Iâm already hoping for a slide-pot equalizer and some speakers, but a direct to PCIe audio interface would be latency heaven.
That paired with a capture card would be a streaming/video calling game changer. Hooking up a nice mirrorless camera AND a proper mic would be awesome! Completely overkill and I am not even sure if it is possible (my technical knowledge is pretty poor) but we can dream.
