SSDs going up in price has been a strong thread via the rumor mill for some time now, and we now have another suggestion that price tags could shoot up for higher capacity consumer drives.
Tom’s Hardware reports that according to an industry source, 3D NAND packages that consist of four and eight NAND modules are now in short supply. It’s 2TB and 4TB SSDs that typically use those packages, and manufacturers are now struggling to secure supply.
The upshot will theoretically be that drives in this capacity range in particular are likely to ‘skyrocket’ (the exact word used by the source) in price, which sounds ominous indeed.
Therefore, if you’re looking at buying an SSD in the 2TB to 4TB area, it might be better to move quickly on that purchase.
Price hikes are already evident, in fact, but much more significant increases could happen later this quarter, in just a couple of months (maybe three months at the outside, we’re told).
Analysis: A weight of rumors
This is just a rumor, of course, so we must regard it with caution as with all speculation, but it’s perfectly believable given the current climate around these PC components, and the rumors already out there about SSD price hikes in recent times.
Analyst firm TrendForce has been the source of some of that theorizing, and the company has just chipped in with a new report for January 2024 which foresees demand for PCIe 4.0 SSDs gaining traction, and a possible 15% to 20% jump in consumer SSD prices in the near future.
Ironically, part of the issue is NAND makers cutting production of memory modules in response to an oversupply last year – when SSD prices were still falling – so that’s now having an effect in the opposite direction, with supply becoming too lean, certainly for higher capacity SSDs anyway as noted.
Given the total weight of the rumors spinning about SSD price hikes in one way or another, we really would encourage purchasing now rather than leaving it, if you’re planning a drive upgrade (or need one of the best SSDs for a new PC build).
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