If you bought a Framework Laptop 13 at its original launch in 2021 (or even later), it required a lot of blind faith. The idea of a laptop you could upgrade yourself was spectacular in theory, but whether Framework could deliver on that promise wouldn’t be known for many years.

But here we are, more than four years later, seeing Framework’s grand ambitions come to fruition. Framework has launched new Mainboards—the core component of the laptop with the motherboard, CPU, GPU, and other crucial components—with the latest AMD Ryzen AI 300 series chips. That means you can upgrade your old Framework Laptop 13 to bring it into the modern computing era. While the Mainboard upgrade lacks the battery life improvements of some other laptops in 2025, the Framework Laptop 13 remains a wholly unique PC thanks to its incredible repairability.

As always, there are several ways to buy the Framework Laptop 13. The DIY Edition, my review unit, is the cheapest approach. However, many components arrive separated, meaning you have to piece them together. More on that later. If you own a Framework Laptop 13, you can spend even less by purchasing only the Mainboard, with prices between $449 and $999.

This DIY Edition starts at $899 for the base Ryzen AI 5 340, without RAM or storage, though that does include a display, keyboard, and trackpad. That’s a bit expensive if you don’t already own the storage and memory. Framework charges $80 to add 16 GB of RAM and $69 for 500 GB of storage. Those are solid prices, though you can always save extra cash by shopping around. That’s one of the many benefits of the Framework Laptop 13. Compare that to Microsoft, which charges $200 to double your storage on the Surface Laptop 7.