Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops • Hacker News Board

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#211

Post by squigz » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

hodgehog11 wrote: post #192

squigz wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know people can simply grow their own food Small thing, but this is not simple or realistic at all. How does someone in an apartment grow enough food for their family?

Yeah it would definitely still be a problem, but history shows that life finds a way. Even if everyone has to eat nothing but planted potatoes from any patch of grass that one can lay eyes on.

What history has taught us is that life finds a way by staying together and each person having their function within society, only some of which is growing or producing food.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#212

Post by BaconVonPork » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 5:38 PM UTC

kasabali wrote: post #120

derektank wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re contemplating jailing people for buying manufactured goods at the market price now?

They didn't buy "manufactured goods", they reserved 40% of the yearly wafer output for the whole world that haven't even been made yet for themselves.

Then if AI were the only consumer of wafers they would fall short of declaring themselves an illegal monopoly.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#213

Post by rowanG077 » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 6:14 PM UTC

walterbell wrote: post #209

krasin wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple raised iPad Pro prices in 2017 by $50 to address NAND memory chips price hikes from the vendors: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/13/ipad-pro-price-increase.html

Apple also raised iPad Pro prices when OLED screens were introduced.

That's a new product, not a raise of he existing product as is discussed.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#214

Post by rowanG077 » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 6:17 PM UTC

iteria wrote: post #210

beeflet wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not convinced by this whole AI water scare. Doesn't the water just evaporate? It's not a finite resource like oil. If the problem is that these companies are creating an externality by straining the local water supply, then maybe we should simply tax water more where appropriate? I don't think any sort of shame will be effective. For the past decade water has been mismanaged in inefficient farming practices, lik…

Fresh water is a finite resource. It replenishes extremely slowly in certain forms. Like ground water. Lakes and rivers can run dry if you pull too much from them, see: Iran. AI data centers are making the problem of overuse worse. We were already pulling too much water in areas. With these data centers, some places that didn't have a problem are starting to.

Fresh water is not a finite resource. You can simply make more by taking sea water and pumping in energy. It's not cheap but it's doable.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#215

Post by downrightmike » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 8:32 PM UTC

m00x wrote: post #97

stackskipton wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes? Reports are that OpenAI is buying unfinished memory kits which they have no capacity to complete. It appears that OpenAI is just buying them to remove them from the market and damage their competitors. In United States, that used to be considered against the law if we were actually enforcing such things.

Since COVID, this has been the norm for any industry that requires chips. Operation handbook now dictates that you should have 3-4 years of all the ICs you'll need for production so you don't end up like the car manufacturers.

Massively over inflating your vehicles to the point they can't move them in the market?

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#216

Post by abenga » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 8:57 PM UTC

rowanG077 wrote: post #214

iteria wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fresh water is a finite resource. It replenishes extremely slowly in certain forms. Like ground water. Lakes and rivers can run dry if you pull too much from them, see: Iran. AI data centers are making the problem of overuse worse. We were already pulling too much water in areas. With these data centers, some places that didn't have a problem are starting to.

Fresh water is not a finite resource. You can simply make more by taking sea water and pumping in energy. It's not cheap but it's doable.

In the short term (while you build your desalinators), and in local water-stressed regions, it very much is.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#217

Post by kachapopopow » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 9:03 PM UTC

rozenmd wrote: post #161

kachapopopow wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you got scammed by a local vendor, I got ddr5 2x48gb in europe 6400mhz (non ecc) for 320ish euro.

how many months ago? the RRP on that today is like 1k+: https://www.ldlc.com/en/product/PB00622951.html

globally yah, but local stores are slow to react to changes so as long as the stock doesn't run out you can get a decent deal.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#218

Post by dijit » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:01 AM UTC

rowanG077 wrote: post #214

iteria wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fresh water is a finite resource. It replenishes extremely slowly in certain forms. Like ground water. Lakes and rivers can run dry if you pull too much from them, see: Iran. AI data centers are making the problem of overuse worse. We were already pulling too much water in areas. With these data centers, some places that didn't have a problem are starting to.

Fresh water is not a finite resource. You can simply make more by taking sea water and pumping in energy. It's not cheap but it's doable.

perhaps the most hackernews take in this thread.

desalination isn’t just expensive, it’s existentially costly in terms of energy consumption, and I don’t see any dyson spheres in production.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#219

Post by dijit » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:02 AM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #162

beeflet wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a dystopian world in which computer memory is sort of expensive, god save us

Maybe programmers will have to start making their programs efficient again. Maybe OpenAI's RAM monopoly is what kills Electron.

vibe coders are likely to use electron.

Sam is betting that vibe coders are the future.

Whoever wins, we lose.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#220

Post by rowanG077 » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:27 AM UTC

dijit wrote: post #218

rowanG077 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fresh water is not a finite resource. You can simply make more by taking sea water and pumping in energy. It's not cheap but it's doable.

perhaps the most hackernews take in this thread. desalination isn’t just expensive, it’s existentially costly in terms of energy consumption, and I don’t see any dyson spheres in production.

With modern desalination facilities it costs literally on the order of cents per liter. It's an inconvenience at worst in the modern world.

It costs approx 3kwh of energy to desalinate one cubic meter of water.