If you’ve been watching the tech news lately, there’s just one story you’ve probably seen… Black Friday. But if you’ve seen two stories, you’ve probably read about RAM prices going absolutely wall-bouncing bonkers. In addition to some stores selling memory at market price like lobster, Framework has had to stop selling individual DDR5 modules altogether.
In a tweet from the company’s official account earlier this week, the maker behind the modular, super-repairable laptops says it removed standalone RAM from the official store “to head off scalpers and preserve inventory for people buying it with our DIY Edition laptops.” The only other alternative was, apparently, raising prices. The tweet was spotted by PC Mag.
Taking a quick look at the “Memory & Storage” section of the Framework store, DDR4 SO-DIMMs are still available, but that’s about it. DDR5 sticks are listed, but they’re all marked as “coming soon.” Going through the steps to configure a Framework Laptop 13, I’m offered DDR5 RAM from 8GB up to 96GB in various combinations, priced from $40 to $480 USD. Compared to the same page on Archive.org, these prices seem to have stayed in place since March 2025 at least. As usual, Framework gives you the option of buying no RAM and sourcing it elsewhere.
RAM prices are getting ridiculous as the data center buildout gobbles up industrial production capacity. That’s most visible for consumer-level memory upgrade packages meant to be installed in laptops or desktops by the end user and, to a lesser degree, in SSD storage drives. Jumps in price of 100 percent, even 300 percent, are being seen. Large companies like Lenovo can use economies of scale and stockpiling to help smooth out the wrinkles, but smaller manufacturers and end users are basically stuck footing massive bills… and hoping for a bubble to burst.
