Power Consumption and Noise
At idle, we saw 10-20W at the Windows 11 Pro desktop. Under load, we could get 140-170W or so, but our system often liked to sit at 140W. We ran it for a day and a half at 140W without issue.
As for noise, we were at 36-37dba in our noise floor studio using the Noctua fan option at idle and 39-41dba under load. This is certainly one of the quieter systems, and quieter than the Minisform S1-Max.
Since we had tried the Noctua fan both ways, it actually could cool the system under light load with the fan pulling air through the heatsink to the fan. The problems arose under sustained loads, and the noise went up. Again, that may seem trivial if you have put together a PC, but it is a risk with offering a system with a fan to be installed by a user instead of at the factory.
Key Lessons Learned
In the video, we went into a lot of the pricing and competitive side. As configured with all of the tiles, translucent side panel, expansion ports, 2TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro, and so forth, we had it in the $2500-2600 range for this system. We were nowhere near even the top of the configuration.
The GB10-based systems with 4TB are selling for $3999, but the 1TB systems are supposed to sell for $2999 or so, and the 2TB systems are supposed to settle into the $3499-3599 range. To us, the NVIDIA GB10 solutions, like the DGX Spark, and Dell Pro Max with GB10, make sense if your goals are to:
- Only do AI stuff
- Use the NVIDIA Development Stack
- Use NVIDIA DGX OS
- Have NVIDIA’s low-cost Arm CPU, NVIDIA GPU, and NVIDIA ConnectX RDMA networking
Still, that is a decent amount that you are paying for an NVIDIA solution over this AMD solution.
You go with AMD Strix Halo if you want to:
- Do AI + Gaming (Gaming being secondary)
- Use the AMD Development Stack
- Windows Support (or other OSes)
- Lower costs
If you are playing games, often features like anti-cheat software compatibility prefer x86 and Windows over Arm and Linux. The NVIDIA GB10 is a consumer part, so gaming might change eventually, but it is what we have today.
On the Strix Halo side, our system ranking right now is:
- Minisforum S1-Max (full review coming soon)
- Beelink GTR9 Pro
- Framework Desktop
- GMKtec Evo-X2
There are many caveats, but here is the summary:
- The S1-Max has more expansion and better networking for a similar price, while it also seems to perform better. It is, however, louder than the Framework Desktop.
- The Beelink GTR9 Pro‘s Intel E610 stability issue is rumored to be fixed in December 2025. If it is, then Beelink’s design, port features, factory assembly, and networking will make it a strong competitor to the S1-Max and put it far ahead of the Framework Desktop. If that is not fixed, then the Framework Desktop will pull ahead for some. At some point, even if it is not fixed, if we are talking Realtek adapters, putting a 5Gbps USB adapter on the Beelink closes that gap quite a bit.
- The GMKtec Evo-X2 is interesting because it is usually the lowest cost. If you do not care about networking and other features, then the GMKtec is likely the best price/ performance.
One item that really stood out was the lack of a low-profile expansion slot. It is mind-boggling that that was missed in a system designed for the DIY-focused Framework.
Final Words
I feel pretty confident in the notion that the Framework Desktop is my third-favorite AMD Strix Halo machine that we have tested. That is hard to say, given that I really enjoy Framework products. On the other hand, we have 10x 128GB mini PCs that are focused on AI sitting next to one another, so it becomes very clear which ones you prefer just based on which you reach for. The impact of having only lower-speed 5GbE networking meant that loading models from our network storage took slightly longer. That small change meant we were more likely to use one of the other machines for tasks that were time-bound. Then there was relatively limited expandability in the Framework Desktop chassis to change that perspective. One could rightly point out that an alternative might be to use a different chassis or to add a Thunderbolt networking adapter to the USB4 ports, but it should not have to be. 5GbE should not be the out-of-the-box networking on a system that will cost many $2300-2600 with a single 2TB SSD.
With all of that said, there is a lot to like on the Framework Desktop. The system performed well, both when we tried the Noctua fan in the optimal configuration, and it even worked when it was installed suboptimally. We probably trust Framework to deliver better support over time than Beelink or Minisforum at this point, but that is always something that remains to be seen after the review is published. There is the fact that it just worked, looked good, and had a customizable front panel that folks will gravitate to because they can personalize it.
 performs and compares to others we reviewed){kind=link}
One thing about the framework desktop that I really appreciated was that it came with the nvme heatsinks/mounting items even if those weren’t populated. My HP system didn’t have the heatsink for the slot that didn’t have a drive, which seemed pretty insulting for a system that was close to 3k USD.
Out of curiosity, and because it seems likely to be important for this ‘size’ of system; how good is the state of TB/USB4 ‘multiple connection’ networking?
Obviously not a good option if you want to throw a real switch in there; but if you only need a quite small cluster and TB networking actually works fairly well there are a variety of systems with deeply underwhelming NICs that become a lot more viable than they appear(mac minis, this and other Strix Halo units); while if TB networking is actually kind of terrible beyond ‘hey, I guess it’s nice that you can do a crossover connection between two devices; and it doesn’t cost extra’ then the NICs on the Nvidia units start to look like a much, much, more compelling feature.
Framework Desktop USB4 and mDP ports have been super flaky for me. It really hates driving 2 monitors where one is HDMI and the other mDP. Under every Linux distribution I’ve tried this combo is unusably flake.
This box also has a very nice BIOS which is all but impossible to access from a boot. USB keyboard handling to BIOS is also very flaky.
#fuzzyfuzzyfungus
TB Networking is good, but it really is just a point-to-point connection at anywhere between 18-25Gbps. You could potentially daisy-chain multiple of them or set them up in a ring topology. However, as you said, there is no proper switching. Perhaps if you had a storage server with Thunderbolt it might make sense.
A other caveat for the Framework Desktop is it’s availability – 90% of the world’s population are unable to buy a Framework, due to their draconic shipping policies (limited shipping + banning parcel forwarders + banning commercial resale). As a result, Frameworks are not an option for most folks unfortunately.
Another really solid and balanced review STH. I’m also liking the new MLPerf Client benchmarks. You didn’t cover it but 1.5 came out just about a week ago so those are recent
Kind of a silly question, but did you enable the 160W profile in windows? It’s not on by default with these. I ask because I did get slightly higher results than you do here.
The new MS-S1 looks appealing but it’s more of a 1-trick pony for the money. By the time you add 128gb of ram and a gpu – it’s way more expensive.
I went and built a custom mini its cube with dual 10gbe using the FW board and it was significantly cheaper.
Happy thanksgiving to STH. I’m dropping in just to say I liked this review. Thanks for using an industry standard MLPerf not just a roll-your-own that we can’t use to compare. I know it doesn’t really use big enough models to stress this with so much memory but it’s nice to see that being included
I think the fact that you can buy just the mainboard and supply the rest on your own makes this one an interessting choice.
The lack of top-tier networking is a bit of a shame though.
“A few weeks ago, many would consider $1999 for the base price of a 128GB memory system to be high. Now given the spike in DDR5 pricing that feels quite reasonable.”
If anything I think it may actually represent tremendous value, though perhaps only at this exact moment in time.
The pricing of future batches will almost definitely be increased at some point to account for the volatility of DDR5 cost/availability, but until that happens- given how severe the RAM shortage is portending to be (eg. with HP going on record as planning to curtail the amount of memory included with their systems, or how Nvidia is requiring some board partners to supply their own VRAM), if those supply issues start to drag from 2026 into 2027 or longer and begin impacting the release timing of the Steam Machine, or PlayStation 6 in the longer-term, etc. then one of the Framework Desktop SKUs with the Radeon 8060 could be a rather shrewd investment.
Full disclosure: I preordered one, and have laid down ~$3600 (Australian/AUD) for a full build of the Ryzen 395+ 128GB RAM model, after I worked out it would cost me ~$3100 to assemble a roughly equivalent SFF gaming PC without compromising too much on build size or the quality of the components.
[CPU] AMD Ryzen 9 9950X ($960)
[HSF] Noctua NH-L9a ($83)
[Case] Lian Li A4-H20 X4 ($199)
[PSU] Cooler Master 650W Gold SFX ($169)
[MB] * ($468)
[RAM] Corsair Vengeance 2x48GB DDR5-6000 CL36 kit ($720)
[GPU] Asus DUAL OC V2 GeForce RTX 4060 ($469)
*here I just picked the median price among the 13 in-stock results on PCPartPicker
To avoid using FSR/DLSS for gaming I would need to double my GPU budget to buy a 9700XT or 5070 Ti, and then also spend ~$220 on a better PSU, to end up with something that costs as much as the Framework anyway and is much worse for AI workloads. And all this is with Black Friday sales factored in.
With the economy the way it is, ie. how the top 10% of earners are now accounting for >50% of consumer spending, it’s likely that gaming PCs will become unaffordable to anyone other than the wealthiest of enthusiasts. And if that happens, I feel the Switch 2, PS5 (with its large install base and the PS6 delayed by the V/RAM shortage) ± the Steam Machine will become the main targets of developers for optimising performance vs. graphical fidelity – and to tie all this together, with where the Strix Halo APU’s performance is situated among those benchmarks it will benefit indirectly and remain relevant for several years.
My experience with FW Desktop is that it suffers from AMD TPM issues. The problem is that TPM becomes unavailable after some sleep&wake cycles forcing you to reboot your PC.
Hoping that guys fix that problem, because it makes this PC very annoying device.
So Patrick&Team please test this device with sleep&wake and Windows Hello / Windows Hello for Business.