I’ve been using System76 for several years. I still like System76, but Clevo keeps delivering crappy hardware, and there’s only so much that System76 can do to make it better. After the display bezel on my lemp9 decided to de-laminate itself back in June I made up my mind to try something different and ordered a Batch 4 DIY AMD machine, and it showed up on Wednesday. I have a few complaints, but overall I like it.

  • Build quality is great, repairability is great, the assembly was no problem, and it looks and feels nice.
  • The battery life is a bit less than my previous machine. I think it’s good enough for most uses, but if I’m on a long flight without an outlet I’ll want to bring a ludicrous powerbank to be safe.
  • I was afraid a “13 inch” screen would be too small, but it actually feels bigger because of the aspect ratio. Some games don’t really like the 3:2 (especiallly since it’s not an exact ratio) but the screen looks and feels good to me.
  • The speakers are really nice! Or rather, the lemp9’s were awful. I frequently had to set that thing to 90-100% volume, or even 120%, while watching youtube videos. I’m using the FW13 at around 30%. And there’s bass.
  • AMDGPU is fairly decent these days.
  • The modular I/O is great. I wish they’d found room for one or two more slots, or had a 2x USB-C module, but really no complaints.
  • Who thought it was a good idea to put insert and delete on the same key‽ I wonder if some day we could have a keyboard option with the touchpad a half-inch smaller and the keyboard a little closer to a full 87-key.
  • Something seems to be out of whack with the charge state reporting, sometimes my battery icon says “plugged in but still discharging” when I haven’t actually been plugged in for half an hour.
  • The MediaTek WiFi is bad bad bad bad bad. I took it out and put an AX210 in. In a part of my house with good signal the Intel WiFi can get 500 Mbit/s throughput while the MediaTek tops out at 200. In a part of my house with worse signal the Intel gets between 150 and 250 Mbit/s, while the MediaTek gets between 20 and 25. That’s… really not okay.
  • bufandatlBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    the assembly was no problem

    I wish. Keyboard had a short. I didn’t notice it a first maybe it killed the mainboard too because despite it powering on and going through selftest without issue (except keyboard of course) no output on screen (only some flickering) and no external screen.

    But must say support is great and fast and after some diagnosis got my replacement unit and keyboard. FedEx is s**t in germany though whis they would use some other parcel service.