(Credit: Framework Computer)
As the memory shortage continues, upgradable laptop maker Framework Computer says it needs to raise RAM prices for a third time. It's also warning about cost increases for SSD storage and possibly even CPUs.
"If you're looking to order a Framework Laptop or Desktop with a lot of storage, now is the time to do that,” says CEO Nirav Patel.
It comes a month after the San Francisco company announced its second price hike. At the time, Framework was charging about $12 to $16 per GB for DDR5 RAM. But customers can now expect to pay $13 to $18 per GB, Patel writes in a blog post.
This means that DDR5-5600 - 16GB (1x 16GB) now costs $235, up from $200, while DDR5-5600 - 32GB (2 x 16GB) now goes for $470, an increase from $400. The change is shocking, considering back in November, the company was charging $72 and $144, respectively, for the same memory capacities.
Framework blames the third price hike on “increased costs from our suppliers and because we’ve sold through the older, lower cost inventory.” The good news is that the latest cost increase “is smaller this month than in previous months,” Framework’s CEO says. “But we don’t yet have the visibility to determine if this is a new stable cost level."
Meanwhile, PCPartPicker.com shows that pricing for DDR4 and DDR5 RAM has been stable in recent weeks, though the price tags remain sky-high.
In more bad news, the memory shortage is also affecting PC storage. Framework says it needs to raise prices for SSD storage after depleting its “earlier, lower-cost inventory of SSDs.” The price hike is especially bad for 500GB and 1TB SSDs, which can now go for $115 and $180, respectively, up from $69 and $99 in November.
Still, Patel noted: “There are still some models and capacities like 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB SN850X for which our pricing is substantially below market while we sell through inventory,” although the pricing is still up from before.
The rising costs are also leading to price hikes for the company’s Framework Desktop and “on some pre-built configurations of Framework Laptop 16,” the company’s CEO says. The Framework Desktop base model, with 32GB of RAM, now starts at $1,269, up from $1,139 in January, when the product once had an original $1,099 starting price. The 64GB model also now costs $1,959, up from $1,639 in January.
(Credit: Framework)The memory situation is so bad that some analysts expect affordable PC laptops to disappear and that smaller vendors will need to exit the market. Framework's CEO is also warning about another threat: constrained supplies of Intel CPUs. So far, the company has been able to absorb the added costs. This comes as Intel has been struggling to meet consumer CPU demand amid its focus on server chips.
“Supply of the i5-1334U processors we use in Framework Laptop 12 is limited due to production capacity constraints on that process node at Intel, and we are now out of stock on some configurations with it as we work on ways to bring in more supply,” Patel says.