Framework Desktop (2025) Review: Powerful, But Perhaps Not For Everyone

The astir evident mobility is “Why?”

Framework builds modular, repairable laptops that anyone tin return isolated and put backmost together again. It’s a large woody successful an era wherever laptops are regularly sold arsenic a azygous portion that, should 1 portion break, goes successful nan trash. Since each portion of a Framework instrumentality tin beryllium swapped out, you tin support 1 going for arsenic agelong arsenic your patience, and nan proviso of spare parts, allows. Desktops, however, are already modular and repairable — institution laminitis Nirav Patel said “desktop PC ethos was 1 of nan halfway inspirations for nan Framework laptop to statesman with.” So, if desktops are already modular and repairable, why do we request 1 from Framework?

When nan Desktop was announced, Patel said nan genesis of nan merchandise came from seeing a preview of AMD’s Ryzen AI Max. It’s an APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) — AMD’s word for a spot combining a CPU, GPU and NPU successful a azygous package, overmuch for illustration Apple Silicon — pinch plentifulness of hyped-up claims astir its performance. Those claims were truthful compelling that Patel added nan Desktop to nan company’s roadmap conscionable to harness that imaginable power. The large trading constituent for this spot is nan sheer measurement of RAM you tin employment (up to 128GB) and nan monolithic representation bandwidth (up to 265GB/s) it tin return advantage of. AMD described it arsenic a “workstation-level” spot that’ll activity successful a regular ‘ol PC, pinch nan guidelines exemplary priced astatine $1,099.

But there’s a devil’s bargain successful opting for specified a powerful chip, since to get it intends Framework has had to springiness up a batch of its founding principles. As personification astir apt erstwhile wrote, for what shall it profit a machine shaper if it shall summation searing powerfulness but suffer its ain soul?

Hardware

The awesome rumor pinch nan Ryzen AI Max is its inflexibility since it’s made arsenic a azygous package. Much for illustration Apple Silicon products, you’ll request to prime your spot spec successful nan knowledge that you don’t get to alteration things later. Consequently, you’ll beryllium ordering nan Framework Desktop successful 1 of 3 unchangeable flavors:

• Ryzen AI Max 385 pinch 32GB RAM, Radeon 8050S GPU

• Ryzen AI Max+ 395 pinch 64GB RAM, Radeon 8060S GPU (the exemplary I’m testing).

• Ryzen AI Max+ 395 pinch 128GB RAM, Radeon 8060S GPU

With each different Framework machine, nan mainboard has nan CPU and instrumentality soldered successful place, but that’s it. Every different constituent tin much aliases little beryllium removed and reinstalled connected nan replacement mainboard. Here, if that APU goes aliases if your needs do evolve, past you’re losing beautiful overmuch everything (including nan heatsink) since it’s each soldered to nan mainboard. We'll get into pricing considerations later, but replacement mainboards from Framework tally betwixt $799 and $1,699. Otherwise, nan only things you tin retrieve present are nan Wi-Fi module, SSD (there’s abstraction for two), powerfulness proviso and case.

Speaking of which, nan Framework Desktop is simply a Mini-ITX desktop successful a 4.5L case, complete pinch optional carrying handle. It’s little understated than nan cases you’d person seen astatine a LAN statement circa 2006, but that’s not nan point. While nan container itself is simply a stark black, you tin adhd a large chunk of characteristic to it pinch nan beforehand panel, which has abstraction for 21 integrative tiles. These tiles travel successful a assortment of colors (including black, green, orangish and lavender) for you to mosaic to your heart’s content. You tin besides prime up azygous tiles pinch circumstantial images printed on, including nan Framework, AMD and Linux logos, positive this fetching pridefulness heart. Naturally, if you’re crafty, you tin besides make your own.

Below nan beforehand sheet and irritatingly mini powerfulness button, you’ll find 2 of Framework’s trademark description paper slots. These are USB-C ducts into which you tin slot immoderate of nan company’s description cards, letting you prime and take what I/O you person up front. But nan flexibility, truthful basal connected a laptop, is little of an rumor present since this is simply a Mini-ITX mainboard. Lean complete to nan backmost and you’ll find 2 USB-C, 2 DisplayPorts, 2 USB-A sockets arsenic good arsenic dedicated connections for HDMI, Ethernet and 3.5mm audio.

Installation

Framework is only trading its desktop successful a “DIY Edition,” but that’s little of a large woody than you mightiness initially expect. Whereas nan company’s DIY laptops require you to put each constituent successful nan chassis, connected nan Desktop there’s very small to do astatine all. Everything barroom nan SSD is already successful place, and each you request to do to adhd that is region nan heatsink and slot your thrust into nan M.2 slot. After that, you conscionable request to connect nan beefy 120mm instrumentality to nan arsenic beefy heatsink, popular nan cowl connected apical and screw successful nan 4 screws. Framework’s awesome iFixit-style guides claimed getting nan hardware together would return betwixt 30 and 45 minutes. I deed extremity connected nan watch aft 15 minutes and 15 seconds, and can’t ideate galore folks will return overmuch much clip than that to put everything together. From there, you conscionable request to instal your operating strategy of prime and you’re fresh to go.

In use

With nan Desktop, Framework is targeting 2 groups: gamers, and developers eager to usage AMD’s Ryzen AI Max. The transportation to nan erstwhile group could easy beryllium boiled down to ‘this is simply a accelerated PC you don’t request to do overmuch to build.’ That’s an easy capable metric to judge it by, since we tin conscionable tally immoderate games connected it and spot really good it performs. I’ll admit that I americium not an AI developer, and truthful can’t speak arsenic authoritatively connected nan second aliases really effective it would beryllium astatine moving ample models if you — arsenic nan institution expects — bargain respective mainboards to tally successful a cluster.

I fundamentally ran each title successful my admittedly constricted crippled room pinch nan settings dialed up to max, and it didn’t break a sweat. AMD claims nan Radeon 8060S GPU wrong my instrumentality goes toe-to-toe pinch an RTX 4070 laptop GPU. This is simply a 10 lb hammer for nan 1 ounce nail that is Fortnite, but moreover demanding titles for illustration Hardspace: Shipbreaker breezed through. My gut tells me, however, that group wouldn’t beryllium eyeing this up arsenic a superior gaming machine. That’s not wherever this unit’s powerfulness lies, really, but successful nan much work-y tasks that amended suit nan APU.

As I said, I’m not an AI developer but I did messiness astir pinch LM Studio, which I tested pinch a chatbot moving Google’s Gemma 3 27B model. Performance was a small slower than you whitethorn spot connected a web-based AI client, but not capable for it to beryllium an issue. LM Studio, too, suggested that moving this was only taking astir a 3rd of nan Desktop’s CPU power, truthful there’s astir apt plentifulness much headroom location to tally bigger and much demanding models.

I am, however, connected surer footing pinch large workstation tasks, for illustration video editing and exporting, and I was impressed pinch nan results here. For this, I took a 39GB HD video record pinch a runtime of 2 hours, made a fewer insignificant trims, and past compressed and exported it arsenic an MP4 file. Crunching nan record down to 6GB took conscionable 1 hr and 12 minutes, a staggering velocity boost for a occupation that could return half a time to export connected lesser hardware. It’s worthy remembering, too, that I’m testing nan middle-tier type of nan Desktop pinch 64GB RAM.

When announcing nan Desktop, Patel said nan instrumentality would tally softly moreover astatine highest power. He described it arsenic “silent while sitting connected your desktop nether normal loads, and moreover nether gaming, it’s impressively quiet.” If you’re acquainted pinch Framework’s way grounds and products truthful far, that quote will person instantly provoked scoffing. The institution does galore things well, but it wildly overpromises connected really quiet and cool its machines run.

Framework trumpeted really overmuch amended its cooling was connected its recently-released Ryzen AI 300 mainboard for nan Laptop 13, which was noisy and thigh roasting. Here, you’ve sewage a beefy APU expected to tally for sustained periods of clip astatine 120W and up to 140W successful boost. I half expected to beryllium capable to usage this point arsenic a abstraction heater but, mercifully, nan institution does look to person made bully connected its promises. The 120mm instrumentality hardly sewage noisy astatine all, and I tin only callback it becoming noticeable erstwhile moving heavier AI models successful LM Studio and erstwhile I started exporting nan video file.

Pricing

The starting value for nan guidelines exemplary Desktop pinch nan Max 385 and 32GB of RAM is $1,099. For that, you’ll get nan case, powerfulness proviso and mainboard, which includes its ain Wi-Fi module. What nan institution is listing arsenic optional extras, however, includes nan SSD, CPU fan, OS and moreover nan powerfulness lead. So, if you were looking to bargain nan guidelines exemplary arsenic an fundamentally disconnected nan support purchase, including ornamental tiles and 2 front-facing description cards, nan value rises to $1,386. If you want to opt for nan mid-tier action (the 395 pinch 64GB RAM) adhd $500 to nan guidelines exemplary price. If you want to spell for nan precocious extremity 395 pinch 128GB RAM, past you’ll beryllium adding $900 to nan guidelines price, bringing nan full for an off-the-shelf exemplary to astir $2,286.

Because of nan chopped quality of nan Ryzen AI Max, an apples-to-apples comparison isn’t going to beryllium perfect. But, if you were looking to walk astir 2 expansive connected a high-performance PC, you could snag thing for illustration Lenovo’s Legion Tower 5 pinch AMD. $2,200 buys you a Ryzen 7 pinch 16GB DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 Ti pinch 12GB RAM. Alternatively, that fig could get you an ASUS ROG G700 pinch a Ryzen 7, Radeon RX 9070 XT Prime (with 16GB VRAM), 16GB RAM and a 2TB SSD. The existent differentiator is really overmuch you would worth nan faster representation bandwidth and velocity nan AI Max offers complete its discrete rivals.

Framework will besides waste users nan Desktop’s mainboard connected its own, pinch nan guidelines exemplary priced astatine $799. Certainly, if you’ve sewage boxes afloat of spare parts and nan basal Mini-ITX case, you could prevention a chunk of alteration that way. This will besides beryllium nan astir costs effective measurement for powerfulness users to tally clusters of boards for bigger projects. Pre-orders are open, but nan institution won’t commencement shipping boards connected their ain until it’s fulfilled each of its strategy orders.

Wrap-up

In my clip pinch nan Framework Desktop, I’ve flip-flopped a fewer times connected if this merchandise is simply a deed aliases a miss. Framework was unfastened astir nan truth this was thing akin to a broadside project, extracurricular its regular remit to build modular laptops, based connected a peculiarly breathtaking chip. So while I deliberation nan all-in-one attack is simply a backward measurement compared to regular PCs, I get nan rationale for doing truthful here.

Where I deliberation Framework whiffed was to transportation this arsenic a instrumentality to make “PC gaming much accessible” by reducing “the intelligence and beingness load” associated pinch building your own. Nightmares astir thermal paste aside, I don’t deliberation that’s a existent rumor for would-be gamers arsenic they could easy prime up a pre-built strategy for akin cash. And I fishy astir gamers would overmuch alternatively usage a PC pinch a standalone graphics paper alternatively than slum it pinch an integrated GPU.

Because moreover mentioning gaming, really, does nan instrumentality a monolithic disservice, pulling nan attraction from its existent strength. Which is nan easiness astatine which this instrumentality handled productivity tasks, for illustration moving AI models and crunching video. The effortlessness astatine which it handled that brought to mind products for illustration nan Mac Studio, a imaginative powerhouse successful its ain mini package. It’s this that Framework should person led with, particularly since it’ll do each of those tasks and play games connected nan side.

I’m not judge I’d urge this merchandise to group who are conscionable looking to bargain a powerful PC aliases a gaming PC. It’s a instrumentality for a circumstantial group of users tin of taking advantage of nan AI Max’s benefits that you’d different request a workstation for. So while its reappraisal people is justifiably precocious erstwhile nan Framework Desktop is judged connected its ain merits, that doesn’t mean you need to ain one.