Framework-Laptop-13 VS log2ram

You definitely could. All the details are available on the FrameworkComputer github org and you could either use what they have as a basis for a chassis or design your own custom chassis that fits the framework parts.

https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13

You can also buy mainboards[1] and expansion cards[2] (usb-c, hdmi etc.) from the same website. Depending on how beefy of a computer you want there are mainboards from 299 USD to 700 USD. So for ~500 USD you can get a very powerful tiny-ish computer. It obviously won't have the IO capabilities of pi-like hobby boards but it'll function great as a thin client for running linux / home automation stuff.

[1]: https://frame.work/marketplace/mainboards

Framework themselves do sell older mainboards at a discount.

So if this isn't the EC firmware flash, where is that? I peeked under all the components on the top side of the board that I could (fan, etc.) but couldn't find any other flash chips. I tried looking at the schematic, and while it mentions two flash ROMs, it doesn't mention where to find them. Reluctantly, I took out the mainboard and checked the under-side.

You can also buy a framework mainboard. It’s basically the motherboard of a laptop without screen, keyboard and trackpad.

And I don't mean ideologically, though that's good too. Their top end AMD Ryzen 7 main board upgrade kit is $700 and that's what you'd pay for a mid range business laptop. Add $40 for a mainboard case which basically gets you a new computer and it's not a bad deal at all.

What I don't get about your comments is that you're opposing upgradeability and repairability, when it's really just the same concept stretched further: instead of there being one spare part for anything that can break in a given model, you have multiple tiers for parts that effectively make the laptop more of a modular series than a single model, like Framework does. And to answer your question from a further comment, you can indeed upgrade to a later gen mainboard, in fact you can even go AMD.

If you are still looking for a place to start you should check out framework's github. They have a bunch of 3d models already designed. You can modify them and framework even has a process to submit possible upgrades for their designs. https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13

Reducing logging, logging to ram and writing to the sdcard once a day helps longevity a lot, especially with quality sd cards.

99% of the time it's the verbose logging of application servers that is the culprit of sdcard failures.

https://github.com/azlux/log2ram

I always use this: https://github.com/azlux/log2ram

If you've got other issues then it's quite likely that lots of small writes from logging and similar has worn out the SD card, mounting the SD card as read only or installing log2ram could prevent it happening to another SD card.

> writing permanent its log files and swap partition

If this is the problem, the solutions are no swap and log2ram https://github.com/azlux/log2ram

I also noticed that Armbian logs to a ramdisk. I didn't investigate the implementation and if its contents survive a reboot.

The only real problems for me are that the SD card will eventually fail no matter what (I mean, much sooner than a SDD or HDD) and that there are basically no Pis at sale at a reasonable price. As a platform it is nearly dead.

For Pi-hole, I have an Rpi Zero with $10 Usb-to-Ethernet adapter, SD-card barely written (with Log2Ram) to avoid wear. Running about 3 years now almost unattended (besides security updates).

In addition to the other helpful suggestions you’ve received, look into using Log2Ram. It does what it sounds like, puts log writes in ram and then writes them to disk on a slower cadence that doesn’t work your SD card that much.

https://github.com/azlux/log2ram

Log files are a bit trickier. I want these to stick around between reboots, so just storing them on a ramdisk wouldn't really work. Thankfully, log2ram solves this problem. Written primarily for Raspberry Pi machines, it works fine on x86-64 laptops. This stores /var/log in RAM but will sync the contents to disk from time to time, ideal for our needs.