Tuesday, February 25th 2025

Framework Announces New Gaming Mini Desktop

Today, we introduced the Framework Desktop, a tiny 4.5L Mini-ITX desktop powered by AMD's massive new Ryzen AI Max processors. Pre-orders are open now, with first shipments in early Q3 2025. When AMD shared the Ryzen AI Max with us, we immediately knew we had to use it. It has up to 16 CPU cores at 5.1 GHz boost clock, discrete-level Radeon 8060S graphics, and support for up to an insane 128 GB of unified LPDDR5x. That enables 1440p or higher gaming on the heaviest titles, big creative and workstation workloads, and true local AI use cases. This is an absolute monster of a processor, and we shifted our roadmap a year ago to make space for it. In a desktop form factor, we get to unlock every bit of its performance with 120 W sustained power and 140 W boost while staying quiet and cool.

You may still be wondering, why does Framework need to build a desktop? Aren't desktops already modular and upgradeable? They are. In fact, the desktop PC ethos is part of what inspired the Framework Laptop to begin with. The desktop world is amazing. There is a broad, long-lived, interoperable ecosystem with hundreds of brands and hundreds of millions of consumers participating. You can build, upgrade, repair, and personalize to the limits of your imagination (and budget, and desk space), and share your amazing creations with all of the other true believers. We want to make this space as accessible as we possibly can by building a desktop that is simultaneously small and simple and incredibly powerful and customizable. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the culture around PCs and PC gaming first-hand.
With that in mind, we leveraged all of the key PC standards everywhere we could. Framework Desktop's Ryzen AI Max-powered Mainboard is a standard Mini-ITX form factor with ATX headers, a PCIe x4 slot, and a broad set of rear I/O (including 2x USB4, 2x DisplayPort, HDMI, and 5Gbit Ethernet), so you can drop it into your own case if you prefer. We developed a semi-custom 400 W power supply with FSP in a standard Flex ATX form factor. We use standard 120 mm CPU fans with a thermal system co-developed with Cooler Master and Noctua, and you can choose to bring your own fan as well if you prefer. We enabled two PCIe NVMe M.2 2280 slots for up to 16 TB of storage and Wi-Fi 7 through an RZ717 Wi-Fi module.

Framework Desktop brings the PC ethos around customization as well. You can choose between black and translucent side panels, select an RGB fan, and attach an optional carrying handle to bring it with you to LAN parties (or just to your living room). We also designed the front panel of the case to be made up of 21 color-customizable tiles, and we've open sourced the design so you can 3D print your own too. We also brought over the Expansion Card system from Framework Laptops, with two slots at the front of Framework Desktop enabling front port customization.
There is one place we did have to step away from PC norms though, which is on memory. To enable the massive 256 GB/s memory bandwidth that Ryzen AI Max delivers, the LPDDR5x is soldered. We spent months working with AMD to explore ways around this but ultimately determined that it wasn't technically feasible to land modular memory at high throughput with the 256-bit memory bus. Because the memory is non-upgradeable, we're being deliberate in making memory pricing more reasonable than you might find with other brands.

The top-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 configuration with 128 GB of memory starts at just $1999 USD. This is excellent for gaming, but it is a truly wild value proposition for AI workloads. Local AI inference has been heavily restricted to date by the limited memory capacity and high prices of consumer and workstation graphics cards. With Framework Desktop, you can run giant, capable models like Llama 3.3 70B Q6 at real-time conversational speed right on your desk. With USB4 and 5Gbit Ethernet networking, you can connect multiple systems or Mainboards to run even larger models like the full DeepSeek R1 671B.

The base Framework Desktop comes in even lower, with the 8-core Ryzen AI Max 385 configuration with 32 GB of memory starting at $1099. All of the systems are DIY Editions, meaning you can choose to bring your own storage and operating system. This is the easiest PC you'll ever build, and we'll be publishing step-by-step guides and videos to get you there. Framework Desktop supports both Windows 11 and a range of popular Linux distros like Ubuntu and Fedora, along with gaming-focused OS's like Bazzite and Playtron. You can also pre-order the Mainboard on its own today, starting at $799. This is truly a game-changing processor from AMD, and we're excited for you to see what we've done with it in the Framework Desktop.

Source: Framework
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37 Comments on Framework Announces New Gaming Mini Desktop

#26
Tigerfox
FouquinIn the presentation Nirav alludes to the engineering team attempting LPCAMM2 and didn't find it could work for this layout. Since the APU needs 256-bit memory pathing, the board area required to fit the pads for LPCAMM2 would be massive in the context of an ITX layout.
So it would be possible with enough space around the APU, theoretically? Before it always sounded like the APU was incompatible with LPCAMM2
FouquinBut other than a quad-SSD card or GPU, what needs x8 lanes in this context?
Every NIC above 2x25GbE/1x50GbE. Since Strix Halo seems to be of interest for labs, I can imagine fast ethernet would be useful.
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#27
PrettyKitten800
Databasedgod
Caring1Linus has a video on it already.
Thank you for warning me, so I can avoid it.
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#28
HairyLobsters
Caring1Linus has a video on it already.
He's an investor in the company.
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#29
igormp
TigerfoxSo it would be possible with enough space around the APU, theoretically? Before it always sounded like the APU was incompatible with LPCAMM2
No, apparently there were some signal integrity issues, I've read somewhere that it caused a 50% perf penalty, which totally defeats the purpose of such a high-bandwidth unified memory design.
TigerfoxEvery NIC above 2x25GbE/1x50GbE. Since Strix Halo seems to be of interest for labs, I can imagine fast ethernet would be useful.
Networking through USB4 might be more interesting for this specific device.
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#30
Lionheart
I want one, but it's like double the price where I live, what a bummer.
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#31
PrettyKitten800
Databasedgod
hsewHow the heck is Framework selling a 385 Max desktop, WITH 32GB of RAM, for $400 CHEAPER than their HX 370 laptop barebone??
Does the desktop also come with a 2.8k LCD screen?
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#32
hsew
PrettyKitten800Does the desktop also come with a 2.8k LCD screen?
It does come with 32GB LPDDR5X-8000 RAM. Not that you could even buy that on its own as an LPCAMM2 module, but if you could it’d probably run you ~$179 (before Framework’s huge markup) given that the closest comparable option (and current best on the market as far as I’m aware) is Crucial’s 32GB LPDDR5X-7500 LPCAMM2 module for $139. Heck, with the FW markup it’d probably be $349. They currently charge $160 for $80 worth of 32GB DDR5 5600 SODIMM RAM in their FW 13 configurator as it is, so a 2x markup isn’t out of the question

Even in their own store, the 385 board is cheaper than the 370. So either Framework’s pricing is whack or AMD is charging significantly more for their non-Max chips.
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#33
PrettyKitten800
Databasedgod
hsewIt does come with 32GB LPDDR5X-8000 RAM. Not that you could even buy that on its own as an LPCAMM2 module, but if you could it’d probably run you ~$179 (before Framework’s huge markup) given that the closest comparable option (and current best on the market as far as I’m aware) is Crucial’s 32GB LPDDR5X-7500 LPCAMM2 module for $139. Heck, with the FW markup it’d probably be $349. They currently charge $160 for $80 worth of 32GB DDR5 5600 SODIMM RAM in their FW 13 configurator as it is, so a 2x markup isn’t out of the question

Even in their own store, the 385 board is cheaper than the 370. So either Framework’s pricing is whack or AMD is charging significantly more for their non-Max chips.
None of this has anything to do with why a laptop would be more expensive than a desktop.
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#34
hsew
PrettyKitten800None of this has anything to do with why a laptop would be more expensive than a desktop.
I literally just explained it. It’s their markup. And debunked the engineering/BOM excuses (it isn’t a new chassis, and that FW would definitely charge more for the 32GB of 8000Mhz RAM than for the already nearly 2x marked-up $270 screen if they could).

It’s just odd that FW choose to (not) currently run the MAX chips in their laptop despite the fact that those chips are clearly capable of running in a tablet form factor (see: ASUS).

Maybe they’re planning it for the 16, but at that point those skus will approach $3000 with their pricing philosophy :kookoo:

Personally, I think it’s all a shame. I really wanted to like Framework, but at this point they’re marking up their platform like they’re Apple. I really want the serviceable laptop and significantly reduced e-waste model to be more mainstream than just a cool niche. And it could be if they were more serious about competing. That’s what’s frustrating.
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#35
trsttte
Mr. PerfectI wonder if this is what the next gen of consoles will look like, spec wise?
I mean, the current gen already looks like this, APU with massive integrated graphics cluster and unified memory. It will depend on what pricing looks like, Strix Halo was designed around LPDDR probably because for it's more power efficient for laptops, for a console they can deal with the power penalty of GDDR. The other major difference is it being a modular soc with separate tiles - while current gen consoles use a monolithic chip - but that's overall the direction the industry is going for because a massive monolithic chips is way too expensive.
TigerfoxSo it would be possible with enough space around the APU, theoretically? Before it always sounded like the APU was incompatible with LPCAMM2
What I took from the LTT video is that AMD kind of fucked up with the design of the chip in some way that makes LPCAMM not possible, maybe the way the memory bus is routed doesn't allow for it - like imagine it's all going roughly towards the same side of the chip making it impossible to split the 256bits bus far enough to fit 2 LPCAMM modules while keeping signal integrity.

Just guessing of course
hsewIt’s just odd that FW choose to (not) currently run the MAX chips in their laptop despite the fact that those chips are clearly capable of running in a tablet form factor (see: ASUS).
According to the CEO, strix halo requires a completely new board redesign which is also why so few laptops were shown using it - just one from HP and the tablet from ASUS. According to him the exchange was literally: "Screw it, we're a small company and can't afford all of that. But what if we made it into a desktop?
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#36
Caring1
HairyLobstersHe's an investor in the company.
He makes that quite clear from the title, he has nothing to hide.
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#37
Kohl Baas
TumbleGeorgeWith my budget
Well, we can still hope Minisforum will get some of it eventually...
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