So, working with my budget, I’m planning to build a 16, piece by piece. I looked through the “DIY” guide and quite a few important steps are already done for you; hinge installation for example; neither the top or bottom plate listings even mention needing or including hinges (I assume FW assumes people are just buying replacements and already have hinges.
Browsing deeper, the replacement guides do have all those nitty gritty steps so you can definitely work it out but its slightly tedious to jump between needed guides and skipping the removal sections
It very much is not. People have priced it out. It will cost hundreds more, iirc, to build from individual parts. Framework tries to keep individual parts inexpensive, unlike other PC companies who often have obscene prices for real OEM parts. But there are still costs in selling individual parts. Packaging, distributing to regional warehouses, inventory management.
But kindly, Framework offers the DIY laptop option where you can order a laptop without RAM or SSD, allowing you to save a good bit if you source sales for those parts. That’s the way to go.
It’s not cheaper no, not even close. I am doing the same. I buy one part each month. I’ve been adjusting my part list each time Framework releases updated versions. I like seeing it slowly come together.
Or some of us have tight monthly budgets while also putting aside some of that and spawn*whoops misspelled kids that I adore more than anything that bleed your wallet dry every weekend AND also British so we don’t live on credit over here like NA. No offence, but it is a fact that easy access to credit will make you spend in ways you wouldn’t with debit. So please, stop asking why people are doing something different when it’s honestly pretty f***ing simple: either they’re a tinkerer or they cant. afford. it. I doubt you’ll get any other answers but those two. I apologise for my … sharpness but this keeps being asked of me whenever I post a related thread or question and I just fell for an ebay scam, defrauding me out of my D-Brand Darkplated PS5 with 5 games. Even on ebay, shop careful folks
And sorry again for the friendly fire, you’re on my side
But exactly in this case it would be a bad idea to get the option with the bigger overall cost.
Arguably buying a laptop in pieces is even worse than getting one on credit as at leas on credit(not that I think either is a good idea) you get it right away and are able to use it while buying it piece by piece you get a working laptop later than if you just saved up for a more complete one and also payed more for it in the process.
Unless you bought ram (and even then, this is a bit of an anomaly) laptop parts are depreciating assets so you generally should get them relatively close to using them and not a lot earlier.
That’s kind of the curx of the question, Why are you doing the more expensive thing when you can’t afford it?!
Hell instead of buying parts just put that money into a separate account(or jar or whatever) and make a checklist or something you can check off parts on, that should give you a relatively similar dopamine hit as actually receiving it without all the downsides of actually getting a laptop in parts.
Totally agree, but also totally disagree, at the same time
For the OP’s sake, I’ll focus on the disagree,
Do we need to know? Need a detailed breakdown of their reasoning?
They know it’s more expensive. So I presume getting it piece-by-piece is simply worth it for them. For what they get out of it. That’s it.
There is enjoyment to be had building piece-by-piece. And that can be worth a significant premium. We pay for enjoyment in life, pay for entertainment. We need some to be happy, it has value.
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That’s what I would do, save the money to keep the interest on the money & avoid getting any depreciating parts.
But come on, it’s not the same! Having items come and seeing it take shape in your hands is going to be much more satisfying, for many, I think.
Let’s be honest, Frameworks are expensive. It’s a premium option. Most people can get by with a device that’s a couple years old, and you can save a lot getting a used laptop. Business-class with boring looks to keep the price down without sacrificing specs as much.
A FW could potentially save money in the long run. But the payoff can take years. And the warranty is only two years, for some in Europe, one year for US. One mainboard dying prematurely out of warranty can really kill it. It’s a risk.
I’m not sure if Frameworks are worth it just yet. The current reliability, hard numbers, are not known. It needs to have parts last long enough to pay off the higher costs.
In that case the “Can’t afford it” argument doesn’t fly though.
Nobody is stopping you from taking a bare-bones kit apart further and putting it back together, with the extra benefit of having a better understanding of how it goes together. But this one is certainly a much better argument.
If you do it for the lolz and are willing to take the cost sure, go for it.
If it is however done because one “can’t afford to buy it in once go” there are much better alternative ways to do it. Being “poor” is already expensive enough in ways that are very hard to mitigate so intentionally picking the worse and more expensive option should be avoided.
Are there though? Much better alternative ways to do it.
If you want one, but it’s too much to justify, yet you could justify it through the enjoyment of seeing it come together in-hand piece-by-piece as you “save” for it. Not sure I see an alternative. There are other laptops of course. But there is nothing else like a Framework currently.
There is this novel technology called saving up XD
If you want the incremental dopamine hits, a checklist will get you 95% of there without using up your warranty on parts you can’t test and depreciating and all that.
Hell even some forms of credit are a better option (used responsibly, which may be an issue if such measures are considered in the first place)
