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Comment by MMS21 | Hacker News Reader

>That tool – a small screwdriver – is also sufficient to upgrade the CPU

CPU isn't up-gradable without switching out the entire mainboard, which I'm fine with, once I get an AMD version that is :)

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The CPU is not socketed/replacable because intel simply does not sell socketed laptop CPUs. If there was a socketed alternative, I'm sure it would be in the framework.

What is the distinction between 'laptop CPU' and 'desktop CPU' if not BGA (or whatever it is) vs. socketed packaging though, really? Power consumption?

Wouldn't it be nice if there just 'CPUs', and you could pick whatever was appropriate for your desktop or laptop. Sure some would maybe only make sense in one package, but there must be some considerable overlap. I use my desktop for work because it has upgradeable RAM and I needed to do that, not because it has a beefier CPU than is available in a laptop.

Yes, it's mostly power consumption and efficiency, with the puny heatsinks found in most laptops, you can't cool significant amounts of power without throttling. Having the CPU on the motherboard also allows for a thinner assembly. I don't think having a socketed CPU just for the sake of it would have been a good choice here.

Yes, power consumption, and, relatedly, heat dissipation. You'd probably get unusable battery life in a laptop with a desktop CPU, and need a lot of fans to cool it.

Alienware had a socketed CPU and it didn't pan out: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2020/5/13/21256845/a...

Sockets add measurable height, weight, & power. That part, at least, isn't just a conspiracy.

ive seen a lot of requests for an AMD version but i always see people complain about AMD's linux support. Do you plan on running windows? If you are planning on Linux is the support really as bad as people complain. I say that because intel's linux support seems to me as top notch. ive never really had driver issues that i can think of

That's weird. I always see people claiming AMD is superior for Linux due to their opensource drivers (intel and nvidia are not).

btw certain distro devs were provided with Framework laptops a while back

https://frame.work/blog/linux-on-the-framework-laptop

Intel does write open source drivers for Linux. In my experience they are more reliable than AMD's.

I could only find open source drivers for intel graphics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_graphics_...

https://01.org/linuxgraphics

All of Intel's Ethernet/WiFi adapters have open source drivers on Linux too.

Hey, AMD (Zen2 3800X) and Linux (NixOS - 5.14.6) user here; other than a weird bug once on temperature reading I haven't had a single issue between Linux and AMD.

>but i always see people complain about AMD's linux support

No, you don't. You see people complaining about NVIDIA's linux support.

Oh I’m glad I don’t. You know what I dreamt it all up. Thanks for clearing that up. But honestly just subscribing to the Linux subreddit I see tons of amd gpu issues and never hear a peep out of Intel. But yes nvidia does win the prize for worst.

I've been runnning linux with AMD cpu/gpu for years, they tend to be late with initial stuff but other than that it's been a smooth sailing. That being said, it will differ from distro to distro, as some are unreadably slow with driver/firmware updates.

> i always see people complain about AMD's linux support

I've always heard the opposite, that AMD's linux support is amazing and that it's windows drivers are lacking. Especially in the GPU department where it struggles with minecraft.

This is true, AMD's GPU Linux drivers are open source and in superb shape nowadays (with the exception of freshly released stuff as there's always lag)

I dont know about laptops but I've been running Ubuntu on a ryzen 1600 since the couch came out and haven't had any issues.

AMD CPUs and Linux have always been fine for me. The GPUs on the other hand...

Since it’s a laptop then I could see that being an issue though. Intels embedded GPU I guess are slow and clunky but work super well in Linux in my experience.

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