Keep up to date with the PC memory and SSD supply crisis as we track prices and the latest news

Table of Contents

Unless you’ve living under a very large rock, or maybe only just escaping the marathon session of Battlefield 6 to end all marathon sessions of Battlefield 6, you may have noticed that PC memory prices have spiked massively and SSDs are expected to follow shortly.

But just how far have we come, how bad has it got and what’s likely to happen next? To shed at least a little light on the situation, we’re going to track a number of DDR5 kits and SSDs over the coming day, weeks and quite possibly months and years.

Among the very latest developments comes news that a Japanese retailer seems to have run out of PC memory kits and is restricting purchases. The CEO of SSD controller specialist Phison has also recently warned of a shortage of NAND flash chips leading to a doubling of prices in the last six months, while predicting that demand will likely outstrip supply for several years to come. For now, then, all the signs seem to be pointing in the same direction. Upwards for prices. Youch.

standard and unadorned 32 GB DDR5 kit is currently listed at $186. But thanks to price history tracking we can see that it was priced as low as $69 in the Spring before stepping up to around the $100 mark in late July and then leaping up to current levels a few weeks ago.

Crucial DDR5 memory price history

Crucial’s basic DDR5 memory kit has over doubled in price since May. (Image credit: Future)

Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess. But we sense that, more likely than not, we haven’t quite hit peak DDR5 pricing in this particular cycle. Whether we’ll eventually see actual memory shortages to the point where DDR5 kits are difficult to buy at any price, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB kit. There aren’t any historical price tracking graphs to post for Newegg, but suffice to say this kit would have cost much less than the current $210 figure.

It’s not currently available on Amazon, but when it was back in the summer, you were looking at about $100. So it’s basically doubled. How much higher will it go? That what were to here to find out.

Kingston Fury Beast 16GB certainly seems popular, what with Amazon claiming over 100 kits have been sold so far this month. It’s also interesting in that the price hasn’t risen all that much.

Well, not compared to most DDR5 kits. Most of the year, this kit has bounced around between $60 and $80. Now it’s $95. Yup, pretty much what a premium 32 GB kit cost earlier in the year. It used to be that RAM was cheap enough that you didn’t have to entertain 16 GB kits. But as prices rise, there may come a point when 16 GB might have to do, at least in the short term.

Kingston Fury Beast 16GB price history

(Image credit: Future)

despite it being over three years since I reviewed the thing. At least, peeps do on Amazon where over 2,000 of the things have sold in the last month. Wowsers.

But how is it faring in the current memory and storage supply armageddon? Actually, not too badly. It’s been as low as about $125 in the last year. But $150 to $160 has been the more usual price. And right now, it’s only a tick higher at $170 on Amazon.

However, if the CEO of SSD controller specialist Phison is correct, I doubt that will last. He reckons flash chip prices have doubled in the last six months and supplies will be tight for years. Here’s hoping the price holds long enough to see one or two half-decent Black Friday deals. But if it was me, I’d be tempted to buy right now.

WD BLACK 2TB SN850X

(Image credit: Future)

Yours for $91 on Newegg, it’s actually cheaper on Amazon right now at $82, so we’ll keep our scanners peeled to both vendors in the coming days and weeks.

For what it’s worth, there’s no price history for this drive on either Amazon or CamelCamelCamel. But thus far, SSD prices haven’t really begun to spiral. So we suspect the same applies to the Team Group MP44L thus far. Likewise, should SSD prices begin to rocket up, it’s unlikely this drive will be immune.

Today it can be had on Amazon for $100.

Of course, it’s also true that it was going for $85 in the summer. So, there’s definitely an upward trend in the last few months. But it’s not the steep cliff that DDR5 prices have run into. At least, not yet.