Your PC build could be about to get more expensive thanks to a new hardware shortage - this time for solid-state drives. Thanks to a lack of key components - and a power outage at a Samsung Austin production plant due to extreme weather conditions - you could expect to see SSD prices rise by about 3-8%.
The news comes via TrendForce - an industry analysis firm - who originally believed the price of SSDs could drop later this year but now expect a slight increase in the second quarter of 2021 (April to June). The price hike would most likely affect PC manufacturers, but they could choose to pass those increased costs to consumers until SSD prices drop.
As high demand for notebooks and computing components still lingers thanks to working from home orders due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this will be another blow to anyone looking to upgrade their hardware. Thankfully this situation shouldn’t be on par with the ongoing GPU availability issues, but it may rub salt in the wounds of PC tech fans.
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What are SSDs?
Solid-state drives are a storage alternative to typical hard drives. SSDs offer faster speeds - how quickly data can be read from the storage - with some being five times faster than what an HDD can achieve.
SSDs are able to pull this off using NAND memory chips rather than a spinning disc - which is used by HDDs. The RPM of the spinning disk is a limiting factor on the read speeds of the hard drive, whereas NAND chips have no such limitations. This lets them achieve faster speeds more easily.
On the flip side, SSD storage space is often less than an HDD of the same price. As such, the expected price hike of SSDs won’t be welcome. Let's just hope the SSD problems don't persist like the GPU shortages, or PC gamers could be in trouble.
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