If you thought RAM prices were painful, take a look at SSDs lately. As 2026 unfolds, the hardware landscape shows no signs of easing up on gamers’ wallets. Memory chips remain in short supply, largely snapped up by tech giants building out massive AI servers. That scramble has pushed DRAM prices through the roof, which trickles down to consumer products in a brutal way. It’s not just RAM getting hammered—the same memory shortages are now driving SSD costs up as well, hitting those sweet spots every gamer looks for on their build lists.
Storage prices started creeping upward last November but this past week has seen some especially brutal jumps on SSDs that high-end gaming rigs would want. Take the WD Black SN850X 1TB as a prime example. This once reasonably priced staple now goes for about £162 on Amazon UK, nearly double what it cost just two months ago when it was around £85 in early November. That’s a level of inflation that’s hard to swallow when you’re already watching price hikes all over your build.
With gaming rigs demanding fast storage and plenty of RAM, this continued escalation means either compromising on components or tightening budgets even further. The chip supply crunch isn’t showing any signs of letting up, and if you were hoping for a quick breather on upgrades or new builds, it’s starting to feel like that window is closing with both RAM and SSD prices skyrocketing.
Source: rockpapershotgun.com
