MNT follows up its open hardware portables with a desktop case

MNT is launching the Station, a miniature desktop case for motherboards that come from its Reform open-source laptop. If you upgraded the laptop, you can now give your old motherboard a new life. The MNT Station is very pricey for a case at $299. That's not a complete computer - it is just the case for an existing motherboard from its Reform laptop line, which itself goes for $429. Then again, MNT's Reform laptops are very much not ordinary laptops. The company describes the original MNT Reform as the ultimate open hardware laptop". It's a modular, repairable, replaceable and upgradable machine, complete with extensive documentation. The first model was launched in 2019 and The Register mentioned it when discussing the optional OLKB ortholinear keyboard in 2021. Today, MNT offers several Arm processor options across the Reform family, including a Quasar module based on Qualcomm's QCS6490 via a Thundercomm C6490P, with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash, and an RCORE module based on Rockchip's RK3588, with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of flash. In 2023, the full-size laptop was joined by the much smaller MNT Pocket Reform with a seven-inch screen. The company is currently working on the Reform Next, a slimmer, lighter, faster model that it successfully crowdfunded early last year and which should ship very soon. The Reform starts at $1,299, the Pocket Reform costs from $1,200 depending on spec, and the Reform Next is currently planned to be $1,249. These are not bargain-basement laptops. If you want fully open, documented, and maintainable Arm-based hardware, it's going to cost you. That may help explain the appeal of MNT's new desktop case: if you upgrade your Reform laptop with a newer, faster motherboard, you can install the old board in the MNT Station and continue using it. This seems to be very much in the model of the Framework Desktop Case, whose announcement The Reg covered early last year. The new Station case is CNC-milled from solid aluminum. It accepts Reform motherboards version 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. You can add various optional extras, including a daughterboard to provide two more USB-C ports, a Wi-Fi module with external antennas, battery packs, and more. It's not just a simple plastic enclosure, but even so, it's quite a lot for just a case. You could buy a used or surplus mini PC for that kind of money, and sites such as LowCostMiniPCs will help you find them - complete with options to look in the US, UK, or Germany (for the Eurozone). At the time of writing, the site has units from $65, so you could build a redundant cluster of the things. Sadly, fully open development costs. (R)