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I don't get how this is a framework product. It's less upgradable than their laptops, and there is essentially no difference to the cheap chinese MiniPCs that also have an M.2 slot.
You can stick 3D printed thingies on the front. I bet your Chinese mini PC can't do that!
For me, its the significantly higher power delivery, superior cooling configuration, expanded interface options (second m.2 slot + PCI gen 4 slot), and most importantly, a ton of well-made documentation/guides made by framework and the community.
The chinese mini PCs don't have a large amount of fast DDR5 RAM. This hardware is worth the price and won't be for everyone.
https://www.gmktec.com/products/amd-ryzen%E2%84%A2-ai-max-395-evo-x2-ai-mini-pc
This uses the same APU, so it uses the same RAM.
This one might not be cheap, but there's still nothing new about the Framework Desktop. I am an apple sheep but at least I am aware.
Yup, those are the same devices for roughly the same cost. Being the same devices, they fit the same niche regardless of vendor. I think Framework is selling this to step into the "home/smb ai enthusiast" market.
Id say their advantage over gmktech is the fact that you can buy just the mobo/cpu/ram combo. You dont have to buy the full desktop from framework, but you can. Thats "modular" in the scope of the platform. It lets you do wacky things like this video, where Jeff has already set up a half width rack mini cluster of 4 of them in an adhoc ai home lab data center experiment.
Mine arrives next week, I'm pretty stoked
It is surprising that you don't get any of those front tiles when they must be the cheapest part of the whole thing. Perhaps they're assuming that all their customers already have a 3D printer.