INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Like the other Ryzen Framework Laptops (both 13 and 16), not all of the Ryzen AI board's four USB-C ports support all the same capabilities,
so you'll want to arrange your ports carefully.
Framework's recommendations for how to configure the Ryzen AI laptop's expansion
modules.
Credit:
Framework
Framework publishes a graphic to show you
which ports do what; if you're looking at the laptop from the front, ports 1 and 3 are on the back, and ports 2 and 4 are toward the front
Generally, ports 1 and 3 are the "better" ones, supporting full USB4 speeds instead of USB 3.2 and DisplayPort 2.0 instead of 1.4
But USB-A modules should go in ports 2 or 4 because they'll consume extra power in bays 1 and 3
All four do support display output, though, which isn't the case for the Ryzen 7040 Framework board, and all four continue to support USB-C
But it still somewhat complicates the laptop's customizability story relative to the Intel versions, where any expansion card can go into
any port.
The Ryzen AI board uses a modified heatsink design with one large heatpipe instead of two smaller ones and a heatsink that
extends to cover more motherboard components.
Andrew Cunningham
The Ryzen AI board
uses a modified heatsink design with one large heatpipe instead of two smaller ones and a heatsink that extends to cover more motherboard
components.
Andrew Cunningham
The old heatsink design in the Ryzen 7040 version of the
laptop, for reference.
Andrew Cunningham
The old heatsink design in the Ryzen 7040
version of the laptop, for reference.
Andrew Cunningham
The Ryzen AI board uses a modified heatsink
design with one large heatpipe instead of two smaller ones and a heatsink that extends to cover more motherboard components.
Andrew Cunningham
The old heatsink design in the Ryzen 7040 version of the laptop, for reference.
Andrew Cunningham
I will also say that this iteration of the Framework laptop hasn't been perfectly stable for me
The problems are intermittent but persistent, despite using the latest BIOS version (3.03 as of this writing) and driver package available
I had a couple of total-system freezes/crashes, occasional problems waking from sleep, and sporadic rendering glitches in Microsoft Edge
These weren't problems I've had with the other Ryzen AI laptops I've used so far or with the Ryzen 7040 version of the Framework 13
They also persisted across two separate clean installs of Windows.It's possible/probable that some combination of firmware and driver
was worth mentioning since my experience with new Framework boards has usually been a bit better than this.
