Hacker News Reader

Comment by ekholm_e | Hacker News Reader

This. I bought Framework Desktop in November 2025 with almost these exact specs for ~$2.5k

I got the EVO-X2 for $1,599! In 44+ years of buying computers, I've seen some appreciation, but nothing like this. Going from $1,599 to ~$3,500 in a year is just insane.

And GMKtec just released an EVO-X3 [0] based on the same board but with Oculink. When AMD launched this I thought it was the new chipset that was going to have 192GB of unified memory, but they look to be capitalizing on the inflated premium these "dev" focused desktop solutions.

Regretting not buying the Framework back when it was around $2k.

[0] https://www.gmktec.com/products/gmktec-evo-x3-ai-mini-pc-amd...

I've never seen appreciation in buying PCs. They were always like cars, once you drive them off the lot...

Well, GPUs sorta went up in the past 5 years.. but nothing like now.

Right. But they shouldn't have :) These are wild times. In the past memory and GPU prices always went down heavily.

128GB of the most in demand chip on the planet will do that to you.

128GB of the most in demand consumer chip when all the manufacturers are switching to HBM manufacturing because the margins are far better there will do that to you. It sucks.

I was looking at buying hardware for me and as testing ground to learn. With those prices I just nipped out and will just rent in demand at runpod or so.

Absolute insanity

I had a pre-order in for the 128GB DIY motherboard only model last Oct 2025, but cancelled it and just upgraded my current 5900x rig to 64GB instead and replaced the x370 board with a used x470. Really with I had pulled the trigger, but I honestly am just fine with the performance as is on my current system for now. The Framework should have lasted me just as long, but who knows. Hoping my current rig lasts at last another 4 years..

Same spec Framework costs $4k+ today, this is actually cheaper (albeit not as upgradable as framework).

Framework, weirdly, overcharges considerably for their SSDs. You can currently get a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB on Amazon for $390; Framework charges $625 for the Sandisk 850x 2TB, which has similar performance (and is being sold on Amazon for $530).

If you DIY your own SSD, you can spec a Framework Desktop for below $4k; but not much below. Roughly the same price.

If you can supply your own SSD, case, and 120mm fan the mainboard is "only" $3,149

And it was "only" $1700 last year!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com