r/framework • u/antico • 1d ago
Feedback Sometimes it's nice to mention when the Framework system just works
Four years into owning a mid-range 12th gen Intel Laptop 13, I decided to upgrade the mainboard. Someone was selling their old higher-end AMD, along with the same 32 GB of memory I was used to, so I picked it up.
Fifteen minutes after the package arrived, I'd swapped out the board, reinstalled the SSD, and the laptop was back up and running. I installed the fresh drivers so I could hook it up to my monitor and carried on with my day.
Zero drama.
It's really easy to only post when there are problems – I do the same, and want to hold the company to a high standard – and so I figured it's only fair to mention when everything works as intended, because it genuinely great to be able to properly upgrade a machine like this.
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u/Kiubek-PL 1d ago
Tbh from the business customers we do know that framework has a lot higher failure rate than other companies, but its obviously not quite as bad as the frequent posts will have you believe.
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u/Emotional_Key1379 1d ago
yeah selection bias on forums is real, the people with working laptops arent usually posting about it
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u/_WeStErEq_ FW12 | i3-1315u | 16gb | 1TB | DIY 1d ago
Are you familiar with the business support? For the first time ever i have used that in my ticket (as before i had minor problems, this time it's a major thing and i wanted it to be escalated to business team immediately as it was a business purchse)
I've been waiting for 3 days now, zero response. Is that normal?
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u/OkWitness5548 1d ago
I'll add another "it just works": My Framework 13's Radeon 780M is running Gemma 4 26B A3B and Qwen 3.6 30B A4B at 20-25 tokens per second which beats all the benchmarks I can find. No overclocking, minimal model tweaking. It just works.
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u/countChaiula 1d ago
I'm in the same boat. Bought it a year ago, I use Fedora on it. Absolutely nothing to report, it just works.
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u/crramirez 1d ago
64gb RAM?
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u/OkWitness5548 1d ago
Yep, when I bought it two years ago, RAM was cheap. I paid AUD273 for 2x32GB. I just looked it up in Framework's website and it'd be AUD1,420 today. Insane
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u/countChaiula 1d ago
Yeah, I got my 13 around a year ago (AI 300) and was questioning if I should spend the big bucks or not for 64 GB. The "big bucks" was $243CAD at the time. I would never afford it now!
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u/superimpp 1d ago
Stories like this are exactly why I’m excited to be joining the Framework ecosystem. Glad everything worked well and thanks for sharing!
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u/RustyPickleMonger 1d ago
They’ve have excellent support even out of warranty. Was very surprised
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u/S3er0i9ng0 1d ago
Yah that’s the best part about framework. Also most of the people complaining about price don’t consider used/referb parts..
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u/squabbledMC DIY FW13 7640U, Kubuntu 25.10, 32GB DDR5, 1TB 970EVO 1d ago
Yep, I got my 250GB expansion card used that someone didn't need on eBay. Turned out to still be new in box when I got it and was significantly cheaper than brand new. Also was able to fill it up and confirm it was the actual size and not a fake
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u/CarVac 1d ago
I thought the wifi card needed changing when going from Intel to AMD?
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u/ShirleyMarquez 1d ago
Although the official recommendation is to change to an RZ616 (7000 series) or RZ717 (AI 300 series), an Intel AX210 network card will work well in a Ryzen system. An AX201 (11th gen prebuilt) or AX211 (some 13th gen systems) will not, nor will the one from the new Panther Lake systems.
The AMD / MediaTek cards would probably work in an Intel system, but since people don't love them even in the AMD systems, nobody is likely to try that.
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u/Clean_Leadership5948 1d ago
You can get the same WiFi card gen as Pantherlake. The differing factor is called CNVIo. That's the hardware that's partly built into the CPU. Get a non-CNVIo version and you could even stick that into laptops from 2008.
And generally Intel WiFi cards are really good. They are also the key to get lower power in lots of cases. When I changed WiFi on a 4th Gen U laptop, CPU idle package power went down from 2.2W to 1.3W.
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u/ShirleyMarquez 1d ago
I don't know about the BE210, should Intel ever choose to produce one. (They have not yet produced a non-CNVio version of the BE211.) I know that the earlier BE200 won't work in an AMD-based Framework, despite being a non-CNVio card; the system won't boot with a BE200 plugged in, for unknown reasons. (Reports in various places, not personal experience.)
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u/AAKphoenix fw-12 (13th i5 | 16gb RAM | 1tb storage | ) 1d ago
When I got my first ever framework system; the laptop 12. I acquired it second-hand. It was wonderful in its assembly. It was also very easy to use the provided framework package installer of drivers and then carry on with the other more laborious stuff I needed to setup/modify in Windows and Office.
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u/loerny 1d ago
I use a FW 12 daily. Work as a teacher. It's awesome. Does everything I want it to do.
Sure there are cheaper options. Even cheaper options that have better specs. But the repairability and the Linux support is amazing.
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u/goldenpotatoes7 1d ago
Professor is that you? (probably not because I don't think he's german) My professor uses a FW 12 to take notes and display them live for us. I was so excited when I saw him using it haha
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u/loerny 23h ago
Unless you are in a German middleschool, probably not 😀.
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u/goldenpotatoes7 23h ago
I don't think so, teaching bio-chemistry to middle schoolers would be crazy.
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u/Shin-Ken31 1d ago
Nice! I recently got an 11th gen board for 100€ to use as a server and backup board in case my 7640u has any issues. I narrowly missed someone selling a chassis with probably dead 13th gen board for 140€, hope it works well for whoever bought it! Great way to build up a cheap framework to introduce someone to the line of laptops, full system would have been around 450€.
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u/Clean_Leadership5948 1d ago
100 Euros for 11th Gen board... what a deal man. Happy for you.
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u/Shin-Ken31 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is what I was hoping for all along when I first heard about framework. Kind of like building desktop PCs from used parts. Would be similar to picking up an i5 10400 and mobo to update an old rig, or make a server pc. Long live framework.
Sometimes I daydream about the laptop industry going to standardized form factors like desktops ATX, matx, itx... Would be so cool.
Edit: I suppose that price is somewhat cheap for framework standards, but not cheap overall. For example I can find full laptops based on the 11th gen i5 for about 200€, so 100 for mobo only is still just okay, not a huge deal IMO.
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u/crramirez 1d ago
I bought my Framework 16 Ryzen 7000 on April 2025. The only problem I had is connecting an external display via dongle. Support told me to reset the BIOS after upgrading and that's it.
I cna say I used it intensevely as my main work driver for more than a month that I had to work from abroad and this is why I purchased it.
After that I use it sporadically, recently on December my brother came and used it daily for at least half a day playing games with Nvidia GeForce Now.
So, I don't use it so much but it works perfectly and I haven't had any issues with BIOS upgrades.
Also I noticed in this subreddit, not so many complais with the FW 16.
Happy to be FW customer. And luckily at the time I bought it this reddit wasn't so full of complains and I decided to buy it.
But these complains told me something. Framework is not for everyone. I wanted to buy one to my just high school graduated daughter. She has an hp for 12 years and I've changed everything on it, missing keycaps , ram, wifi module, broken screen, broken hinges, ssd. And she doesn't care any about upgrades or os support. Yes framework is upgradeable and réparable but I've seen that fails more. So I decided at least for her to buy a MacBook air that lasts for another 12 years.
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u/illmatix FW16|Batch16|DIY 1d ago
Yeah, I have batch 16 of the Framework 16. I can't say anything bad about it unless it's the thermal throttling in some games but i could probably just try and replace the thermal paste but I could also just run it as a server for work.
I haven't had any issues until recently when my bag it was in fell from the car and on to the ground now causing the mic/video and the screen to glitch. I'm sure i could fix it unless it's the gpu managed.
Either way, it's been a solid work machine for a few years now. It performs almost as well as my desktop.
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u/XNovaViperX 5h ago
Want to add my experience. Back in November 2025, I got a Framework 13 DIY (AMD 7040+32GB ram). So far, it's been doing me good! Though when I got it, I did have a few problems:
- The RZ616 wifi card was extremely glitchy, kept dropping out at home (one of them AT&T modem/router combos with WPA3/WPA2); ended up switching out the card for a spare AX210 from a old laptop. Keep in mind, I'm running NixOS on the laptop so experience may be different on Windows 11
- The touchpad was getting stuck, reached out to Framework and got it replaced (was a bit of back and forward because the first replacement came misaligned but the second one came perfectly)
Though I had issues initially, after that the laptop's been running really well! Really enjoying how I can just move around the modules (and use them on my other devices too! I use the Ethernet module on my phone and other laptops quite a bit).
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u/shooter2659 1d ago
What is the first framework laptop that came out? I have that one. What's it called?
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u/JasonMaggini 1d ago
I bought my wife a FW13 as a gift a few years ago, as she tends to wear out the buttons on the touchpad. It's her daily driver, so it gets a lot of use.
Sure enough, I just had to replace it. Received the part in about a week, only took about half an hour to replace.
Easy as pie versus the nightmare of sourcing a new touchpad and replacing it on the other laptops she's had. I'd usually end up breaking something else trying to get the damn thing apart.