Sadly, all of that doomsaying final 12 months was appropriate and SSD costs are surging on account of the reminiscence disaster
For the final 12 months and a bit, I’ve sat down each Friday morning to replace our information to the greatest SSD offers for gaming. Immediately, I sat down for the primary time in 2026, solely to see that the reminiscence provide disaster is nicely and actually having a knock-on impact on SSD pricing.
Our Jeremy has already been maintaining a tally of surging PC {hardware} costs, however this morning offered a newer instance. I simply wrote a deal put up in regards to the 1 TB model of the Lexar NM790 NVMe SSD which, as we speak, goes for $118. Not horrible, proper? Nicely, that is what I believed till I remembered I had in actual fact written about the identical SSD again in October of final 12 months—when it was solely $66.
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These are just some examples, however it’s clear that the realm of SSD now finds itself completely caught up in the reminiscence apocalypse. Lengthy story brief, because the AI business builds increasingly information centres (usually in ill-advised climes for the {hardware} inside), it will want increasingly system reminiscence like DRAM, in addition to storage media like SSDs. Shifting at a swift clip and throwing an excessive amount of cash round, which means a reminiscence scarcity for us regular people, as a result of limitations in manufacturing services. Maybe worst of all, these surging costs are removed from wholly surprising both.
In October, Adata’s Chen Libai noticed that most main reminiscence and storage applied sciences have been experiencing a scarcity for the primary time in about 30 years. In November, Phison’s CEO Khein-Seng Pua shared in an earnings name that “each NAND producer” has mentioned they’re “offered out” for 2026. Then in December, Kingston’s Cameron Crandall additionally sounded the SSD pricing alarm, explaining that the corporate had very not too long ago seen a 246% improve in NAND wafer costs.
However even in December, I used to be much less eager on the recommendation Crandall gave on the time, saying for those who have been occupied with a {hardware} improve, you need to “do it now and [don’t] wait, as a result of costs are going to proceed to go up.” On the one hand, sure, there’s an opportunity costs have but to peak. On the opposite, panic-buying isn’t the reply within the midst of a scarcity. In the event you can, wait or just use what you have already got. If you cannot, shopping for a wholly new rig may very well work out cheaper in some choose circumstances.
Greatest PC gaming equipment 2026