I am a Gentoo Linux user and I am wondering if buying a Framework 16 would be the right choice for me. I love the laptop’s philosophy of repairability, modularity, and upgradability, but since I also use Gentoo Linux - a Linux distro where (almost) all packages must be compiled from source code, I also need a laptop that:
- Has a decent CPU (but not necessarily state-of-the-art).
- Can handle a pretty high CPU load for hours without overheating (ie. going above 95 degrees Celsius).
I know that a water-cooled desktop would be a better choice, but I also plan on carrying the device around and using it for work. Furthermore, the only desktop I have has a pretty bad cooling system that definitely could use some upgrades/cleaning. Also, I am a university Computer Science student.
I am currently running Gentoo on a 10 year old macbook pro mid 2013 15" that my dad gave me. It has a pretty bad cooling system (that probably needs some cleaning and new thermal paste) and therefore I have to compile using only 3 threads out of 8 so that the system does not overheat. My CPU is an Intel i7-4750HQ.
Ryzen CPU’s can absolutely sustain high CPU load for a long time without overheating. I do it all the time.
Zen 4 is designed to be able to sustain very high clockspeeds, limited only by thermals (i.e. it will clock itself as high as it can without going over 95C). But it doesn’t have to do this. It turns out that Zen 4 can sustain high performance at a fraction of this power budget – you’ll get something like 80% of full performance at 40% of the power, for instance.
If it turns out that 45W runs too hot, you can limit the CPU to less power and still get excellent performance.