If you desire a DIY-friendly laptop that can be serviced and maintained without requiring third-party support, you’ll want a Framework. The company has carved itself a position in the laptop market dominated by soldered components and sealed chassis. Take a look at the MacBook range. These are some exquisite designs, but good luck trying to service them yourself without help. That’s where Framework comes into play with a range of Linux and Windows laptops.

I still daily a Framework 13, running an AMD Ryzen processor and Arch Linux. It’s great outside of a few quirks, but one of the best features for me is the modular I/O. I can configure the laptop to have precisely the connections required at that given moment. Have a display to connect? Throw on the DisplayPort. Need some more peripherals? USB-C passthrough. Slow Wi-Fi? Ethernet is just a module away. It’s amazing and completely transforms how I approach different scenarios with the same device. I find it difficult to switch to other portable PCs because of this.

But it got me thinking: why don’t we have this on desktop motherboards?

What’s special about Framework?

I’m all about those ports, those ports, no trouble

It’s a brilliant way of gracefully handling modularity, thanks to the way USB-C handles power, data, video, and networking. Even when kitting out your Framework laptop directly from the manufacturer, you can pick and choose precisely which ports you’d like to have included with your PC. It’s strange since once you start using it, it’s almost a little too obvious a solution for handling I/O on laptops, but we haven’t seen other manufacturers follow suit and include such functionality with their own designs.

With most modern laptops, you’ll be lucky to receive a device with two USB-A ports, a single or two USB-C ports, and an audio jack. If it’s slightly bulkier and designed for more than just portability, you may have video and Ethernet, but even that’s a stretch these days. It’s this that makes external USB-C and Thunderbolt docks so appealing to laptop owners since they provide expandability using just one available port. The issue is that you have to remember to bring it with you should you head out of the house.

They’re also slightly cumbersome, especially when larger in size. This is something the modular USB-C adapters solve almost entirely. If you have more than a couple of devices to connect to the Framework, you will require a dock, but for quickly adding wired internet, connecting a display, or charging your phone, it’s an ideal solution. So, how does this all tie into motherboards, and why would we want to have modular USB-C adapters for desktop PCs? That’s a good question, and it’s largely driven by similar issues that Framework attempted to solve.

New frontier for motherboards

Unlock a port of possibilities

Motherboards are already fairly modular in that they have PCI slots and M.2 connections that can house expansion cards for making a more versatile system. That’s all well and good, but this is for storage, gaming, networking, and other internal uses. It’s not for changing how you connect everything to your PC. Interestingly, the rear I/O on a motherboard is one area that has barely evolved in the last decade or so, outside of coloring USB ports, fixing the shield to the board itself, and adding a few buttons here and there.

With each motherboard revision, we see a new port layout ... but it’s often not entirely now. For instance, a newer version of the motherboard you’re using may have the same configuration of ports, but some may be a generation newer. But what if there was a different way? By using a modular USB-C port system similar to what Framework does with its laptop expansion cards, we could make the upgrade path more efficient. Instead of throwing out your old board for a new one with 5Gb networking, simply swap out the USB-C expansion card.

Instead of having fixed layouts that may not cater to the needs of everyone, USB-C expansion can unlock new ways to connect your PC to everything else you rely on. It would keep things simple, too, for both the customer and manufacturer. Instead of having to support various SKUs, there could be simply one board with the ability for its I/O to be configured in a variety of ways, appealing to gamers, workstations, enthusiasts, and those who may not need much in the way of ports. It’s also great for serviceability since, while rare, these ports can fail.

How a manufacturer would go about this would depend on the desired result. PCI lanes could be routed to each module slot, or we could even utilize any available internal USB-C headers. Regardless of how each module would be powered, the same connection would be present: USB-C. We could even take this to an entirely new level if PC case makers got in on the action with support for modular I/O on the chassis. To me, this is more than bringing modularity to the motherboard; it’s almost like one of the obvious next steps in the component’s evolution.

Better for the environment, too

I’m all about reducing e-waste, which is why we’re big proponents of reusing old hardware here at XDA. If you’re able to swap out parts of your PC, especially those that were traditionally soldered and fixed to the part, you can extend the lifespan of the hardware and save money in the process.