Comment by craftkiller
19 hours ago
The ports on the motherboard are soldered, but you don't use them directly. You attach "expansion cards" which slide into a slot on the laptop case which locks them in place. So those ports seldom see any forces applied to them. All your day-to-day wear (plugging/unplugging, twisting, yanking) is going to be on the port on the expansion card which you can replace for $10. It's basically like a daughter board that is trivially user-replaceable rather than a daughter board that you have to open up your laptop to replace.
It’s a €20 / 5 minute fix on the MacBook to swap out the USB daughterboard. The solution framework uses takes up a lot of space and doesn’t really help you if you short out the port or drop the laptop on its side.
As far as I can tell, Apple doesn't sell the daughterboards so you have to go spelunking for salvaged parts with your macbook. I can get all my first-party brand-new replacement parts at https://frame.work/marketplace .
It is available as a first party repair part for €16.20 via https://selfservicerepair.eu/
Apple part number is 923-03553
Also available third party via various retailers.
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Everyone is familiar with Framework modules, Framework is a sacred cow on HN.
It is a non-feature that results in a net loss of physical space for ports owing to their gargantuan size.