hello the community.
I’m wondering if the LPCAMM2 - LPDDR5X ram is a good option for long term?
Basically it’s unavailable everywhere in France. Not on amazon, not on LDLC, not on every big tech resellers.
Is it only caused by the current prices of the RAM and the low stocks everywhere or because it’s a new “standard” that no one will adopt and therefore by buying a FW13 pro there is chance to be stuck for ever?
Thanks for you answers
I think it is a mixture of both.
Currently, as many RAM chips as possible are going onto modules for data centers, so availability of modules that are not used there is sparse. And if available, prices are extreme.
LPCAMM2 is a relatively new standard that quite a few manufacturers adopted, so aftermarket availability is expectedly low as most manufactured modules will go to them for building pre-built laptops.
As for availability in Europe… I was originally thinking about bringing my own module, because the Crucial 32GB one was available briefly in Germany when I configured my preorder. But it was more expensive than the 16GB module from framework. As I was not sure how much RAM I’d really need, I preordered 16GB with the intention to edit the preorder or upgrade later depending on module availability.
Since then I’ve made up my mind that I’d need 32GB RAM and saw that LPCAMM2 modules with that capacity are still either not available or prohibitively expensive (e.g. the 32GB one from Lenovo with 7500 MT/s is currently listed at almost 1100 EUR). So I will take the module from framework.
Having said that, it is really hard, if not impossible, to predict how RAM availability and prices in general and LPCAMM2 in particular will evolve in the next 5 years. So, depending on your intended lifespan of the machine, the possibility to upgrade the RAM might not be feasible, because the situation didn’t get better, or even no longer relevant (e.g. if the next generation mainboard does not use LPCAMM2).
So, I’d recommend to order the amount of RAM, you think you’ll need now and worry about the upgrade when it comes to it. Good thing about framework is that they have proven that they’ll try everything to keep compatibility. Worst case, you also upgrade the mainboard in 2-3 years.
LPCAMM2 seems to be the only way forward for removable ram. SODIMM has hit its end of life, it just can’t accommodate the speeds of newer ram. So it’s either LPCAMM2, soldered ram, or slower ram using old SODIMMs, with a speed gap that will only grow worse over time.
LPCAMM2 is already rarer than SODIMM before the RAMpocalypse. If it’s not availabe in your region, configure the laptop with the RAM preinstalled and pretend it’s a soldered RAM and re-evaluate its cost-effectiveness
I noticed that Framework does not offer anymore the 64GB LPCAMM2 option for the F13 Pro. I am wondering if this is due to low general availability.
I pre-ordered the X7 with 64 GB, but now the order on the website shows 32 GB and the price has been reduced slightly. I hope this gets corrected soon.
I just receive the official communication about my 32GB order being downgraded to a 16GB 
Component costs can move, that’s understandable. But charging for a pre-order and sending a confirmation, and then changing the configuration afterwards, doesn’t sit right with me. I’d hope the original orders can still be honoured.
I am in Batch 13 and was downgraded from 64GB to 16GB… 
I feel a wave of cancellations incomming - nobody who ordered x GB RAM who actually needs x GB RAM will accept x/2 or even x/4 GB RAM. And at those prices (64 GB was a 900 Euro upgrade when I ordered) nobody ordered more than needed 
I’m in Batch 8, 32GB downgraded to 16 GB. It looks like you can edit your order to keep the higher memory, but pay more. I don’t know what to do, 16GB is not enough for my workflow. Price difference from 16GB to 32GB was already steep originally, so I didn’t just get 32GB for the fun of it. I really wanted 64GB.
I am in Batch 15 and also just got the email saying I would be downgraded from 32GB to 16GB. Restoring my order to the original spec will now cost an additional £540. Frankly, I find this a highly questionable practice on Framework’s part, and am a whisker away from cancelling my pre-order.
64 → 16, batch 12.
I just got that email too. I was able to use my company’s IT vendor to order a 32GB LPCAMM2 module for ~380 usd. Don’t love that price but it is what it is
It may vary by territory. It is available in the UK configurator at the time of writing, and will cost the hapless buyer a cool £1,600.
Please check your email - you may have been sent the 32g to 16g email, when you were supposed to receive the 64g to 32g. We have resent those emails once I alerted the team on it. No orders should have had 64g to 16g. As always, please refer to your orders page for the most up to date information.
Not a fan at all of how this was rolled out. I intentionally did not choose 32GB, and the reduction in price after I got bumped from 64GB to 32GB does not at all match my memory of what that delta was when I preordered on launch day. And of course, it’s now $1600USD extra (not total, extra beyond what 32GB costs) to bump my order back up to what I actually ordered.
When securing the original run of RAM modules, why were all preorders offered the ability to spec 64GB if you did not actually have the supply to support 64GB? I already was unable to spec an X9 processor like some earlier batches were, which means the site was clearly tracking inventory - why was RAM, the most critical resource in the machine after the CPU (especially in these times), oversold?
I get it - these times are awful to be anyone but a huge enterprise buying a computer. The industry is a mess of greed and supply chain disasters right now. But this feels like something that could have been accounted for on day one, rather than relying on speculative optimism as the email implies had been the sourcing strategy.
Can you copy the content of the mail?
If you’ve already received this exact email, please disregard it. Earlier today, we sent an email to customers whose pre-orders with 64GB LPCAMM2 were affected, and have since confirmed that some of you received an incorrect version. Below is the correct version, as we want to be sure you have the most accurate and up-to-date information. Please note that the error was only in the email content; your orders page should correctly reflect the change to your pre-order.
We have an unfortunate update around LPCAMM2 that impacts your Framework Laptop 13 Pro pre-order:
- We’ve had to update your memory configuration from 64GB to 32GB, and have lowered the price on your pre-order as a result.
We know this change may be disappointing, and we apologize for not being able to meet your desired order configuration. We understand if this updated configuration doesn’t meet your requirements, and you have the ability to cancel for a full refund of your deposit.
We’ve consistently held and communicated a philosophy of absorbing price increases wherever we can, making pricing predictable and ensuring that when you place a pre-order, you’ll be able to get the product you ordered at the price you ordered it at. We’ve been able to do that to date with Framework Laptop 13 Pro, and have absorbed increases in a number of areas. However, we recently received a cost update from our LPCAMM2 supplier that goes far beyond anything we had predicted and anything we’re able to absorb without placing our ability to operate at real financial risk. Rather than the low-to-mid double digit percentage increase we had forecast from Q2 to Q3 on LPCAMM2 costs, we received prices that are more than double that of the prior inventory we had brought in. We have enough LPCAMM2 memory modules on hand to cover all existing pre-orders, but unfortunately not in the mix of 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB that matches those pre-orders.
After evaluating a number of possible paths forward, we’re proceeding on the one that we believe minimizes the impact of this challenge. We have enough 64GB modules in inventory to cover pre-order batches through Batch 4 of laptops and Batch 7 of Mainboards. For orders beyond that configured with 64GB, we’ve updated the order configuration to use a 32GB module at the original 32GB module price. After that, we allocated the remaining 32GB modules to DIY Edition and Mainboard pre-orders configured with 32GB through Batch 4 of laptops and Batch 7 of Mainboards. For DIY Edition and Mainboard orders beyond that configured with 32GB, we’ve updated the order configuration to use a 16GB module at the original 16GB price. Note that because we don’t currently have a Core X7 Ultra pre-built configuration with 16GB of memory, we have not adjusted pre-built orders that originally contained 32GB. That is a configuration we plan to introduce later.
Alongside these changes to existing pre-order configurations, we’ve updated the pricing on our website for newly placed pre-orders. Our new LPCAMM2 pricing is below the substantially higher cost we’re now sourcing it at to try to mitigate some of the impact to new customers. While we have kept our original 16GB LPCAMM2 pricing for now, we anticipate we will consume the remaining inventory of modules we brought in at lower cost soon, and will then need to increase pricing for new orders. The system and Mainboard pricing for new orders also reflects an upcoming increase in Core Ultra Series 3 processor pricing that impacts X7 and X9 configurations, an increase in Windows license costs, and increases in memory, storage, and other silicon costs for some of our Ryzen AI 300 Series configurations. We have one small bit of good news, which is that we were able to lower the cost of some DDR5 and storage modules, and have lowered the price of all existing pre-orders configured with those. If your order contains one of these modules, we will send you a separate email with that update.
Note that you have the option to edit your pre-order to change your memory configuration, but that doing so will update the price of the memory to the new, higher prices. If you have a DIY Edition pre-order, you can make that edit directly through the Orders section of your Framework account. For Mainboard pre-orders, you can reach out to our support team for assistance. Note that with pre-orders currently shipping, responses may be delayed. You also have the ability to remove memory from your order and source it on the open market if you are able to find the capacity you are looking for at a more favorable price.
We apologize again for modifying your pre-order, and we hope that this updated configuration of Framework Laptop 13 Pro can still meet your needs.
Thanks!
Wow, those are really bad news in crazy times…
Having pre-ordered a pre-built, I am waiting what will come
Three weeks and that didn’t age well…
After the shipping delay due to the hardware issues, I went back and fourth on how much RAM I’d really need and ultimately settled on 16. Which might be low considering it is shared with the GPU, but I have other machines for GPU heavy tasks, like my FW16 w/dGPU. Also, since then I did upgrade some of my home lab such that I don’t require 32 GB on my mobile dev/experimentation machine anymore, but can offload the workloads that would require that much there (thanks Win10 discontinuation 
).
I guess, because I edited my config to 16 GB voluntarily, I did miss these downgrade emails, but I’m batch 8, so I would have been downgraded by FW anyways. So it is difficult to say how I’d feel, if it hadn’t downgraded. Their promise was to honor pre-order pricing, but I can understand that this is infeasible when procurement prices doubled.
I’ll keep the preorder for now. However, if I’ll also be affected by the anticipated price hike for 16GB, I’ll probably cancel because the funds are allocated and paying more is just not possible for me.
NB: I could create a new pre-order right now with x7 and the 64 GB module would cost almost the same as the machine while the 64 GB SO-DIMM Kit in the FW16 were around 1/10 of that two years ago… wtf rampocalypse indeed