Laptop thread.

[fishbowlhead]

Amazing this idea isn’t standardised already, the waste alone from laptops being chucked is ruinous to the planet, if you can upgrade the cpu, gpu and storage would save probably all of it.

[MartyG]

The CPU and GPU isn't upgradable without swapping out the mobo, but they've designed it so that you can swap out the whole mobo without having to chuck away the chassis too.

[fishbowlhead]

Better then but still not great.

[MartyG]

Trouble with socketting things like CPU on laptops is they get lobbed about, so it's better to have those soldered to the board rather than have them socketted like a desktop. Not an impossible engineering issue to solve, of course, but it'd add cost and size and still have the potential of a bigger failure point.

[wakka]

Really like the idea of something modular like that. The disposability of technology products irritates me. I like to use Macs which are the most hostile to repair or upgrades of all products nowadays, which is effing annoying.

[Brad]

Really like the idea of something modular like that. The disposability of technology products irritates me. I like to use Macs which are the most hostile to repair or upgrades of all products nowadays, which is effing annoying.

Agreed, despite just buying a new one. They're less upgradable / fixable with every iteration. Thinkpads are quite fixable

[MartyG]

The right to repair directive might start to reverse that a little, we'll see, but I will definitely be keeping an eye on the Framework for UK availability because I'm definitely well over in the repair over replace camp.

It's a move in the right direction at least.

[wakka]

Yeah, the right to repair directive is great. I’m all for that. When you look at something like the AirPods, it’s insane how they’re literally a disposable product. Nothing you can do after a couple of years of use except chuck them in the bin.

@Brad don’t blame you for buying one at all. I’ll be buying one of the new M1X or M2 models soon because my machine is just way too slow. But, as it sounds like you also feel, it’s annoying when you consider how easily accessible the battery, RAM and storage was in the original MacBook Pro. It even had friggin ExpressCard.

[nonny]

A bump from 2015 - this popped up on LTT and it looks quite interesting. The modular Laptop from Framework. With an 11th Gen Core i5 they start at $749, it's not completely unreasonable. I suppose it depends on whether being able to easily replace/repair components on a Laptop is important to you.

https://frame.work/

Unfortunately they're not available in the UK currently, but it's definitely an interesting idea - one I'd consider next time I need to upgrade my laptop.

Honestly I think this is where they're going to go with the right to repair stuff. It only needs big manufacturers to give their input and standardise some things and we will get to a point where most laptop models can have end user replaceable components for most integral parts.

[nonny]

https://youtu.be/QdrV4wZ9pL4