A much better GPU than the one they’re offering. Make it big and chonky, I don’t care.
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I want a battery pack with an Oculink connection.
Edit: Or high performance cooling + Oculink
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ARM compatibility module.
Back in the pre-Intel Mac days, there were a variety of Nubus and later PCI cards that basically included a full PC motherboard and CPU that you could add in to give your Mac the ability to run DOS/Windows natively. Some cleverness was required on the software side (drivers) to either allow you to run within a window in MacOS, or at least to share the keyboard/mouse/graphics of the main machine.
Today a lot of us are splitting our work between x86 and ARM development/testing. Having native ARM support within the same box would be very handy. The simplest version of this is probably a Raspberry Pi in an Expansion Bay form factor, with a serial console that connects directly to the main host over PCIe. But there are lots of cleverer approaches too…
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A second battery would be perfect. I would buy this immediately.
But let me add, it would be perfect if a 2nd battery would not add extra length to the laptop, it is already quite long with 270 mm. The GPU expansion bay adds another 20 mm, making it 290 mm (!). It would be very helpful if we keep it at 270 mm.
See the dimensions of the FW 16 on this new support page:
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- Twin USB A
- Twin USB C
- Recessed USB A single (e.g. takes a Logitech headphone dongle)
- Recessed USB C single (e.g. takes a Logitech headphone dongle)
- LTE 5G with SIM slot
- fully recessed Full Size SD
- HDMI In (to use as second screen/tv display e.g. Firestick)
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@Johnny_B Agreed, I was hoping to replace my desktop with this, but the 7700s seems kind of weak, a 6800m from last generation is quite stronger. Doesn’t help that all these new GPU’s also have gimped specs.
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Maybe a bay devoted solely to specific workflows? Best example I can think of right now is a combination full-size SD card reader, HDMI in/out “capture card” capability, maybe a few other video/camera-centric ports all rolled into one expansion bay.
the other side of that coin would be a robust AMP/DAC for hardcore audio work (throw buttons and dials on it. so what if its behind the screen?).
throw in idea for another bay to be a lab tech/DIY enthusiast’s dream with something akin to an oscilloscope or variable voltage power supply for testing equipment.
the last idea I have would be a questionable use case, but if it was a thin low-power screen that functioned as something akin to a phone’s always-on display showing notifications while the laptop is closed (I believe the new thermal solution is pretty good at keeping a closed laptop cooled better) it might carve out a spot where other devices have remained less common.
My ideas are generally leaning towards utilizing the size of the expansion bay for set purposes rather than keeping it within the normal footprint and more generalized tasks since I feel like that fits Framework’s MO of establishing a set, generalized framework device that can be easily specialized going forward.
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Going with the idea of @Christopher_Doman I would like to see a kind of “devKit” expansion bay a barebones expansion bay which just includes some internal common interfaces (e.g. like USB C or PCI-E and some power) for developers to fill with gadgets / getting them started quickly and easily for prototyping reasons. I could see myself filling this with trimmed down SDRs and power amplifiers or different kind of equipment, e.g. for my rocket payloads - so that I could basically include the complete interface simulator equipment within the expansion bay and directly branch out to the experiment / interface with it. And for that reason, a basic “dev board expansion bay” would be awesome. I would also request to have this in at least two sizes, one as a small, flush expansion bay and one bigger, extrudding part to have more home for other components. Could also be a multi part system, e.g. having one “interface board” and then different shells which you could order for the size of your project needed… and slap some 3D models on top like the good old holder for the 13 inch motherboard (which I still use an love!) so you could (alongside having some quality produced shells) add your own changes and print your own one.
Would be awesome for small series specialized equipment and as incubator for creating “after market” accessories for the Framework. Especially in the Lab environment area there is always a lot of dongles and stuff used which probably could be just added to an expansion bay and making the Framework a more specializied system, just by swapping out the expansion bay 
(I think I would really love to develop some stuff with this… but sadly I don’t own a new Framework Laptop 
)
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That is all. I am coming from a T460 with internal and external battery. Somebody make a 2 day battery to fit in the slot at the back, and I WILL buy it.
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I know it has been said a lot, but I would love a battery expansion. I will be using this laptop mainly for college and light gaming, and the curse with “gaming” laptops I have had in the past is that even the cpu doing light work often eats up the battery rapidly. I just want to have a solid insurance that the laptop will survive a full day of lectures and notes.
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A huge battery that adds size to the laptop. As large as the GPU module.
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It would be great if the expansion bay battery could support CPU that would work on 100% for one day… this would be amazing.
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45W * 8h = 360Wh, that’s a bit unreasonable and you would not be allowed to take it on airplanes.
If by day you meant actual day and not workday, it gets even more crazy, that would take a bit over 1kWh and would not be very portable.
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Full SD card. My 3d printers run off SD cards and its a pain. Easier to add a full SD slot then mess around with unreliable Raspberry Pi and extra power cables ect.
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An expansion to plug in a second Framework 16. Like Battleship, but with laptops.
Does this have practical value? Probably not. Would it be hilarious? Absolutely.
For practical purposes, a flush ethernet port, a serial port, and maybe an expansion port or two. I run into enough situations where I would like both of those ports and fiddling with adapters gets real annoying real fast.
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40Gbit p2p thunderbolt link may be practical to exchange data or something.
how about 85Wh+ ×3 (= 255Wh+) with possibly with something like this with tweaks Multipurpose Expansion Bay Module
That is ever so slightly less unreasonable though it would still be significantly heavy and bulky, not to mention that the electronics needed to make the rest of that expansion bay even somewhat work would add quite a bit of power draw (and cost) themselves and you would have to somewhat make the batteries individually removable to still be able to take it on planes.
At that point it is probably a lot better to just stick with the base laptop and just carry a big usb-pd power bank when you need it.
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@Adrian_Joachim i still want both a removable battery (preferably in addition to the internal 1) and a dgpu in the same laptop at the same time and yes this is not for everyone
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