Help Me Make Buy A Refurbished 13 Pro

Framework Laptop 13
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Hello Hello,

I just learned about Framework. I’m sold on the concept and ready to buy a refurbished unit but want to make the most effective choice for my needs. I am currently using an M1 Air with 8 GB of RAM.

My use case:

  • PhD-level research and investigative journalism (heavy multitasking: 20+ browser tabs, PDFs, reference managers running simultaneously.

  • Local LLM usage via AnythingLLM (aiming to get 32GB+ RAM)

  • Occasional coding and video editing

  • Want this laptop to last as long as possible with future RAM upgrades

Chipset comparison—deciding between two options: Ryzen AI 5 340 (bang for buck) and Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (future-proof). Not considering the Ryzen AI 7 350 because it apparently performs similarly to the 350 in real-life usage. Please correct me if I am wrong.

My specific questions:

  1. Is the Ryzen AI 5 340 too limited to run a 13B-parameter local LLM smoothly?

  2. Refurbished experience: Has anyone bought a refurbished Framework laptop? Thoughts?

  3. Why doesn’t Framework offer an extended warranty on refurbished units? If a company charges like Apple, their customer service should be similar. I don’t expect a dedicated telephone line but a warranty extension on an in-house refurbished product is must.

  4. Ports: How many Expansion Card slots does the 13" DIY Edition include by default?

  5. RAM/SSD compatibility: I plan to buy RAM and SSD separately from Amazon or Best Buy. What specific RAM speed/type (DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM) and SSD form factor (M.2 2280) should I look for? Any tips and tricks to get these a more affordable prices?

  6. Future RAM upgrades: If I install 32GB now and want to add more later, do both sticks need to be of identical capacity, or does 16GB + 32GB work? I want to confirm whether mismatched sticks cause instability or just reduced performance.

Thanks for any help!

AJ

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  1. I would go for the 7 for your use case, just for piece of mind (I obviously am not aware of AMD’s real-life usage… if it’s true, then why not go for the 5). Though given that you’ve been managing with 8GB of RAM, going for the 5 with 32GB of RAM would be a huge upgrade. I do heavy multlitasking with 20+ browser tabs open as well and do a lot of academic in silico work on my FW13 (and have done so for almost 5 years now). At the time, I went for the i7-1165G7 11th gen Intel and though I’m limited by battery life, I haven’t regretted going for the mid-tier option in terms of performance (I would’ve probably upgraded my motherboard by now had I gotten the i5). So there’s longevity to consider.
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  4. 4 slots for the FW13 but you’ll have to order the expansion cards separately if not already prompted to choose them from FW’s bundle.
  5. I haven’t tested this out so I may not be the most experienced to answer this but I would stick with the default types to not risk compatibility issues. It’s a tough market right now though, good luck.
  6. Mixed RAM does technically work but I personally went with one 32GB stick and eventually purchased a second one a few months later since running in single channel mode didn’t bode well for my computational workload.
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For LLM local inference you need very high memory bandwidth and DDR5 SODIMM is just not going to provide enough for 13B class model. So 340 350 or 370 doesn’t matter and most likely all 3 will have extremely low token speed.

Putting some memory bandwidth comparisons here:

Apple M1: 68.25GB/s

DDR5 SODIMM 5600mhz: 89.6GB/s

Apple M2,M3: 100GB/s

LPDDR5X 7467MT/s (13 Pro panther lake mainboard): 119.5GB/s

Apple M4: 120GB/s

Apple M4 Pro: 273GB/s

RTX 5070 Mobile: 387GB/s

On my previous 7640u board (same bandwidth as newer 340/350/370) I get around 7 tok/s running 9B models.

Why not get a refurbished macbook pro if that’s your requirement? Or a gaming laptop with 5080/5090 mobile with 16GB/24GB VRAM. Otherwise since I don’t think you can get 13B-class LLM to usable token speed, maybe drop to MoE models of active 3B parameters.

Also on the chipset comparison: I don’t think 370 would be much more future proof than the 340. The 370’s GPU is already aging and throttled by memory bandwidth, and the battery life is abysmal. In next few years semiconductor industry will see many tech advancements. I would suggest buy only what you need right now and prepare to swap the mainboard when needed.

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Thanks, Zack, for this post. I should have grabbed an M5 before the prices shot up.

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