That we're in something of a crisis when it comes to PC storage and memory prices isn't news. But the pricing and specifications of SanDisk's new gamer-focused SSDs for PC and console are still pretty shocking.

The dubious fun kicks off with the SanDisk Optimus GX 7100X. It's a PCIe Gen 4 M.2 drive rated up to 7,250 MB/s for reads and 6,900 MB/s for writes. And it has a list price of $800 for the 2 TB config. The only other model is a 4 TB drive for $1,580. Ouch.

The drive is at least based on TLC NAND, rather than cheapo QLC memory, and comes with a five-year warranty. But still. Currently, SanDisk is offering the drive at a "discount" on its website, with the 2 TB model slashed to $630.

That's quite a bit off the MSRP, but it's still very silly money for a 2 TB Gen 4 M.2 drive, even in the current climate. Currently on our Prime Day SSD deals page, you can snag a 2 TB WD Black SN8100, which is an uber-fast Gen 5 drive, for $386, making the SanDisk drive look hopelessly over priced.

Is there anything that justifies the incredible $800 sticker price and still-silly $600-plus sale price? Well, it's "officially licensed" for the Asus ROG Xbox Ally consoles. But to the best of my knowledge, a generic Gen 4 SSD works fine in the Xbox Ally, so I'm not really clear on the real benefit there. I don't think there are even warranty implications for the Ally.

As if this wasn't bad enough, I give you the SanDisk Optimus GX PRO 850P. This little beauty, another M2.2 SSD, kicks off at 1 TB. So, you might hope it's a bit more accessible. Yes, and yet no.

The 1 TB model has a list price of—wait for it—$475. The 2 TB model? That's $950. And this, ladies and germs, is still a Gen 4 drive, rated at 7,300 MB/s for reads and 6,600 MB/s for writes.

Again, there's a lower current "sale" price for the 1 TB model of $380. But that is still bananas for a 1 TB Gen 4 drive. Yes, that pertains even now in the AI-fuelled memory and storage crisis. And again, our Prime Day SSD deals page shows the way forward here, with the WD Black SN7100 1TB yours for $189.

The Optimus GX PRO 850P is also "officially licensed", this time for the Sony PS5 console, which still doesn't carry much more meaning given the PS5 should work with any 4-lane PCIe Gen 4 M.2 NVMe drive in capacities between 250 GB and 8 TB.

It has a chunky looking heatsink which is presumably optimised for the PS5's thermals. But, still, it's very hard to fathom where the money is going. For the record, SanDisk will do you an Optimus M.2 drive with PCIe Gen 5 support, the Optimus GX PRO 8100. That lists at a scarcely believable $525 for the 1 TB model, $350 on "sale."

The latter actually makes this Gen 5 1 TB drive cheaper than the Gen 4 1 TB Optimus GX PRO 850P in terms of current offered pricing on SanDisk's website. But, whatever. The best one can suggest in all this is that SanDisk knows where the market is headed and has decided to get out ahead of it with these hugely inflated MSRPs.

Presumably they'll look "normal" in a few months and while other drive makers are crank up their prices, SanDisk can style out some strictly true "discounts" at these remarkably high prices. Oh well!

The RAMpocalypse whooshes ever on, and while it can sometimes be hard to put into perspective exactly what that means, sometimes an insider gives a little insight. To this end, Silicon Motion VP Nelson Duann recently told Tom's Hardware that the retail SSD market is all but kaput.

"The retail SSD market has almost disappeared... The controllers we sell to module makers are now largely ending up in SSDs that are shipped to PC OEMs. The reason is that OEMs cannot obtain enough NAND directly from memory manufacturers, so they are increasingly sourcing SSDs from module makers instead."

In other words, where OEMs (think Dell, HP, and so on) would usually bulk-buy NAND from memory makers and turn it into bona fide PC storage themselves (with the help of other bulk-bought parts like microcontrollers), they are no longer doing this. Instead, they are buying SSDs from module makers (think Samsung, SanDisk) because of the increased demand for AI servers.

This means more module maker SSDs like the kind you and I get in our gaming PCs are going to OEMs, which means less in the retail SSD market. And Duann is here suggesting that this is to such an extent that the latter market has almost disappeared.

This has apparently been occurring "since late last year and into this year."

As end-users, we don't get to see all the stock and inventory gubbins that DRAM, SSD, and memory controller companies do. But we do see retailer prices and out-of-stock labels, and it probably goes without saying at this point that things aren't looking good from an end-consumer perspective.

While NAND makers are doing better than they ever have done and SSD companies are purchasing memory from them years in advance, little ol' gamers like you and I are being faced with ever-more expensive storage.

RAM, of course, hasn't been faring any better. RAM and SSD maker Team Group recently gave us all a stark recommendation: "If you need memory, we recommend purchasing it as soon as possible."

Normally, I'd consider that a simple case of 'company encourages people to buy its products', but while that is almost certainly what's going on to an extent, it also rings true—the two things can be true at the same time. The situation doesn't seem like it will improve any time soon, and even if the company was mainly referring to RAM, with Silicon Motion's revelation here, it looks like Team Group's recommendation was apt for storage, too.

Framework has posted another blog post detailing its price updates, and the bad news is that storage prices are going up. However, the modular laptop specialist says DDR5 prices have remained "stable." That immediately begs the question: Have RAM prices peaked?

Regarding SSD prices specifically, Framework says, "the biggest change for the month is on storage. We’ve consumed most of our inventory of drives we brought in earlier at lower costs across most capacities. The new costs we are sourcing drives at are substantially higher, and the weighted average inventory cost drives us to need to set higher prices."

Framework doesn't say exactly how much it is putting SSD prices up in the blog post. However, as a guide, it is currently charging $135 for a Sandisk SN7100 500 GB drive with its Framework 13 laptop, $265 for the same drive model in a 1 TB configuration and $505 for the 2 TB option.

The situation concerning storage, meanwhile, is bad enough that Framework is pausing production of its own Storage Expansion Cards.

"We also use NAND flash in our Storage Expansion Cards, and see the costs jumping massively there. The costs have increased to a level that we’ve paused production of the 250GB Storage Expansion Card for now rather than build new inventory at a price many times higher than the original. We’ll continue to sell through the remaining inventory that we have on hand, and we hope to be able to restart production as we find alternative NAND sources."

As for DDR5 memory for the same laptop, the situation is pretty grim. You're looking at $160 for a single 8 GB stick of DDR5-5600. You can double that for two 8 GB SoDIMMs, or pay $235 for a single 16 GB stick. Yuck.

Framework says it has also had to put the price up on the 128 GB version of its Desktop PC, which now comes in at $3,449, and that's before you've added any storage. Yikes.

Still, if DDR5 prices from Framework are mostly unchanged, might this signal that the memory crisis has peaked? It's probably too early to call that.

"This month, DDR5 costs have remained stable, and we’ve been able to keep pricing the same month over month," Framework says. In other words, there's no change this month. But we'd want to see that remain the case for many more months to come before assuming that the price rises are over, let alone that prices are finally coming down.

Even though many components inside our gaming PCs are exceptionally expensive, enthusiasts are still happy to buy them, partly because they know every item is backed by a warranty. However, that assumes a company is willing to honour that warranty in the first place, and in one such case concerning a Samsung SSD, the responses to the claim have been so negative that it's resulting in a lawsuit.

The SSD in question is a 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro, a somewhat pricey but otherwise pretty decent Gen4 solid state drive. But as explained by Louis Rosmann, the famous tech YouTuber, repair shop owner, and consumer rights advocate, they can fail, just as any mass-manufactured PC component can.

In his YouTube video on the matter, he describes how he bought the 990 Pro drive roughly a year ago from Best Buy, but that it stopped responding to commands in his RAID-1 array. But since it was still within warranty, he contacted Samsung to RMA it, though his internal alarm bell was already clanging over the fact that this model has practically quadrupled in price since he bought it.

Although his initial inquiry started well, the first hiccup was that Rosmann was unaware that he had contacted Samsung Canada B2B support desk, rather than the USA one (he's based in Austin, Texas, for context). He duly compiled, providing all the necessary information again, apart from one seemingly innocuous piece of data: a photo of the 990 Pro. As he was at work at the time, and the Samsung SSD was still in his computer back home, he couldn't immediately give them what they wanted.

The very next day, Rossmann received an email from Samsung saying that it had closed the support ticket because he hadn't sent over a photo within 24 hours (even though it wasn't actually 24 hours later). Do note that Rossmann openly displays all this correspondence in the video.

Eventually, this all gets sorted, and Samsung contacts Rossmann with details on how to return the drive and so on. That all goes smoothly until a repair statement is sent back to him, stating that "based on the test results, the returned drive was verified as good." The consumer rights activist then queried this, but heard nothing back. Instead, Samsung just returned the drive to him.

In the video, Rossmann then demonstrates the drive in action, showing inconsistent write speeds of 20 to 160 MB/s. That would be slow for an old SATA HDD, let alone a 6,900 MB/s PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. To even the untrained eye, that drive is goosed, and Rossmann's eyes are highly trained, as he runs a data recovery service in his repair shop.

Naturally, he fires off… how shall I put it?...a somewhat stern but clearly worded email about everything that has transpired, the issue at hand, and consumer rights that protect his warranty claim. Samsung's response to this ("we apologize for the inconvenience or any confusion you may have experienced") only riles him further.

But then the real kicker drops at the end of the response: "As you may already be aware, there is a very big shortage of memory products across the market. Due to this issue, the warranty service does not currently have your model of SSD in stock for replacement or a comparable model for upgrade."

Rossmann then points out that Samsung's store on Amazon has plenty of 4 TB 990 Pros in stock for $949, and argues that stock levels aren't a problem at all. Anyway, he eventually decides that this whole thing is so ridiculous that the only solution for him is to file a small claims lawsuit. "I look forward to costing you more money in legal fees than what you would have paid to simply replace my drive," he says to the camera.

I suspect that when it comes to DRAM and SSDs, this kind of situation isn't especially rare, and Rossmann describes the "wrong thing to do" that many PC users would actually carry out, to get a working replacement: Buy a new $949 Samsung 990 Pro, stick his broken SSD in the box, and then file a chargeback based on receiving 'faulty goods'.

As someone with a whole host of large and currently hugely expensive SSDs in my primary PC, I'm dreading the day when one or more of them decide to fail, whether it's in or out of the warranty period. Because either way, it looks like I'm going to be faced with a large bill to get the solution I want.

But if the likes of Rossmann are willing to keep fighting for our consumer rights this way, then perhaps I'll get lucky and only have to sell one of my kidneys on the black market, instead of both of them (plus my one decently working lung).

HDDs may be a little box of aluminium, copper, and sometimes ceramics, but their most human trait is apparently that they slow down when you scream at them. One engineer discovered that 17 years ago, and I'm not too sure how.

Taking to X, Ben Dicken recently shared this discovery from Brendan Gregg, who is now presumably shouting at HDDs over at OpenAI, where he works. But before getting snapped up by Sam Altman, way back in December 2008 Bryan Cantrill uploaded a video to YouTube eloquently titled "Shouting in the Datacenter".

Gregg showed that simply shouting loud enough could increase latency on a server rack, and he could even point out which area took the brunt of the shout, as their PC flags any disk that takes longer than normal to operate.

If you're wondering why this is the case, shouting loud enough and close enough to the drive causes it to vibrate, and the drive vibrating can cause latency problems. You do need to be quite close to the drive for this to happen, though. Gregg, in the video, cups his hand around it and shouts right next to it. The video itself is in a data centre, and there's a rather loud hum the entire time, which doesn't appear to be causing any latency problems.

There are many physical components in hard drives which would explain why vibration can be such a menace. SSDs, on the other hand, don't have the same weakness. They are not only faster, but also more sturdy as they rely on electrical currents rather than mechanical movements to read and write data.

Hard drives are finicky things. So finicky, in fact, that Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation was once a form of a cyberattack, because the song contained the same natural resonant frequency of many 5400 rpm laptop hard drives. One could play the song from their machine and crash nearby laptops if they were fitted with the wrong drive. This was such a problem in fact that it plagued laptops between 2005 and 2009.

So don't play Janet Jackson to your '06 laptop and don't scream at your hard drive. Luckily, I do neither of these, so I think I'm in the clear. Just imagine the destructive carnage you could cause on an '08 data centre by screaming Janet Jackson.

Gregg says, "High latency caused by vibration is a real issue. You've seen it. It does exist", to which Cantrill responds, "Just don't let Brendan shout at your discs."

Yeah, that's probably good advice.

What I've learned since setting up a NAS at home: I should've done this sooner. What started out as a plan to store a copy of my most precious data at home has evolved as I've found out what a NAS is actually capable of. I went in expecting accessible local storage, I've ended up with a personalised server with heaps of possibilities.

I've been wanting to ditch Google for a while. I've done the easy things: switching to Proton and using DuckDuckGo. But I don't want to feed the beast anymore—Google is huge, powerful, rich beyond compare, and, in my opinion, wears it horribly. If I can avoid paying a monthly subscription into its already incomprehensibly large coffers, I should try to, even if it means paying a larger sum than I'd ever pay for cloud storage on NAS drives.

So, that's what I've done. A couple of months ago, I purchased two Seagate IronWolf Pro 8 TB HDDs for a princely sum of £240 each. That's one reason I wish I'd done this project sooner. These were available for £170 just a few years ago. They're £300/$300 as I write this, however, so I guess I did alright. HDDs at 12 TB and above are even more ludicrously expensive. That's really what I'd have preferred, but I couldn't spare the cash.

There are slightly cheaper drives available—I'm just a sucker. I recently spoke to someone at Corsair who designs 3D printable cages for HDDs for the company's cases, and stood next to their ample collection of hard drives, they told me the Ironwolf Pro was serious business and I made a good choice. This compliment alone justifies my frivolous spending in my mind. And, of course, the idea that these drives will last me many years to come without failure.

I just had to be sure to buy a proper NAS drive. One designed for the demands of an always-on box. A CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) drive, to be exact. These work exactly how you might expect a HDD to work—hence the conventional bit. Data is written to tracks laid side-by-side on the platter. It's a big disc of very neatly arranged data.

Though not all drives work like this. Many consumer drives use what's called SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording), which uses overlapping tracks on the platter. That complicates things: Data is written to one track, but in doing so, necessitates rewriting the neighbouring tracks, too. SMR is not as reliable in this context and write speeds suffer. So, more expensive CMR drives it is.

Then I needed something to install these drives into. That's where the Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Pro comes in, currently on sale for $676/£586.

It's a four-bay NAS with a pretty powerful CPU in it (by NAS standards): Intel's Core i5 13 1315U. It won't beat any Cinebench records with only two P-cores, but its four E-cores help make up for that. It's rated to 15 W base power and 55 W turbo power. It's a chip with plenty of grunt for the easygoing software I'm running here. A step up over a Pentium or Arm chip, anyways.

From my power measurements for the entire NAS at the outlet, it draws around 49 W with the HDDs in motion, up to a maximum of 76 W, if only briefly, during boot. It draws around 30 W once idle.

The DX4800 Pro comes with 10 gigabit and 2.5 gigabit ethernet ports in the rear, which I've hooked up to a Ugreen 2.5 Gbps network switch via an extremely long ethernet cable routed around my office. The DXP4800 Pro also offers USB 2.0, 3.2 Gen1, and USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, alongside an HDMI out and even an SD card slot.

It's a handy box. It fits snugly on my shelf at 257 x 178 x 178 mm without imposing. Those IronWolf Pro drives are a bit loud when they're spinning up, but I don't notice the drives or NAS itself whirring (the NAS has two fans) during the day—and I sit just a couple metres away from it.

As someone that regularly builds PCs, I am aware that I'm cheating a little by grabbing a ready-made unit. But it's compact and convenient. It doesn't draw much power and the set-up took no time at all. I'm not as precious about these things since I've had time to tinker and learn about the NAS, but I was when I started this journey.

Though I did make a couple of adjustments to the DXP4800 Pro upon receiving it. I upgraded the memory, for starters. The unit comes with just 8 GB DDR5-5600 on a single stick. A Samsung DIMM. That didn't feel like enough for my soon-to-be-realised home server aspirations, so I ordered another stick on eBay, which someone was selling from their own Ugreen NAS unit after upgrading. We're in the midst of a memory crisis, so I spent more money than I'd care to admit on one single stick of slow DDR5—oh, fine, it was £50—but I felt this was an important upgrade. So I've got 16 GB of the stuff now.

But it really wasn't that important. I'm running more on the NAS than I ever thought I would and I'm yet to see the system use more than 6 GB. Though at least I know I could run a lot more if I ever want to—and I almost certainly will.

Alongside the two 8 TB drives in RAID 1—ensuring I always have a backup of my most important data—I also added two NVMe SSDs, at 1 TB each, to the DXP4800 Pro. They're older drives, nothing special or speedy, but they're a damn sight quicker than a hard drive all the same. I had planned to use these as a read/write cache, but I did some research and few in the know recommend doing so. Instead I put them into their own volume, preferable for running containers and system applications from. This way, the HDDs don't have to spin up as much. And often they're completely idle.

I also swapped out the 140 mm fan that cools the entire NAS, located behind the drive bays, with a Noctua NF-A14x25 G2. It makes little meaningful difference, as I couldn't hear nor had any complaints regarding the pre-existing fan, but I had the Noctua as a spare, so why the heck not?

Data migration is straightforward. Drag the files, drop the files. I mostly use the Ugreen NAS application via Windows, which lets me access the UGOS Pro operating system as its own easy-to-use GUI. Though it's just as easy to set-up access via Windows Explorer or even my Ubuntu system, though I haven't bothered with all that just yet.

I add all my photos, important documents, and high-quality music from my CD collection. This isn't a bit to prevent the FBI, or whoever, knocking at my door over piracy claims. I recently started buying my favourite albums as CDs and making copies, just in case streaming services implode or undersea cables implode or the internet as a whole explodes. I'm certain I'll need a copy of The XX's I See You should anything bad happen.

The built-in photos app operates much like Google Photos, with facial recognition and duplicate photo recognition, but instead uses local AI models. There's also a video player that offers something akin to Netflix. So my fear of missing out on important features for going local are put to rest, and by stuffing all my files onto the NAS, I feel more in control of my data than ever. All these applications are accessible via the home screen, which runs on my phone, iPad, PC—whatever.

With my images, videos, and documents now on the NAS and out from under Google's enormous shadow, I consider most of my work done here. This NAS box is a handy thing, alright, I think to myself. A good investment. Then I hit a snag. How do I get my videos to play on my Samsung TV? To do that, it turns out, I need an application called Jellyfin. And this is when I start to realise the potential that a NAS truly offers.

Jellyfin is volunteer-built media server software that's easy to run on a range of devices, such as my Samsung TV, and keeps track of what's been watched like Netflix. To install Jellyfin, I have to run Docker. And Docker is serious business. An open platform for running containers, said containers can contain all sorts of self-contained software. From media servers like Jellyfin to an RSS feed management service like FreshRSS, or even a version of Firefox.

When I'm setting up Jellyfin, I start to wonder if I could access my NAS while I'm out of my house—ya know, not on the local network. Ugreen has a simple solution for that called Ugreenlink. This simply lets one access their NAS over a remote connection. But the deeper I go in my research, the more I'm tempted by another solution: Tailscale. Tailscale turns out to be an excellent solution with full end-to-end encryption.

So I turn again to Docker to install and run Tailscale on the NAS. That's easily done, as there are a number of tutorials on the web for this exact job.

Tailscale is a networking service that acts like a digital tunnel between devices. It's a VPN, but rather than hiding my locality, it connects my devices over a private network, as if they were local, and even when they're not. For my purposes, it means I can access my NAS securely from anywhere—even streaming video from my home in the UK to Taiwan, as I tested just last week. It's incredibly capable, and when it works pretty much out of the box with very little fiddling, I'm super impressed.

I'm also offered some advice by PC Gamer's own Wes Fenlon, who is a dab hand with this sort of thing, running Unraid on a box himself. That's one thing I've yet to experiment with myself: trying an altogether different OS on the NAS.

Though one useful tool I've taken up on Wes' advice is FreshRSS. As someone that relies on RSS feeds for work and has used various web scraping tools in the past, FreshRSS seems like a dream. It combines the best bits of both, and makes easy work of tracking my interests across the web—and across locales and devices with Tailscale. It even works with cleaner, smarter frontend readers, but I'm yet to land on any one recommendation.

There's a lot more for me to tinker with here, but from a relatively small amount of time with a NAS, I've begun to see the vision. Digital sovereignty—controlling my own data in how it's used and processed— may be a difficult thing to fully achieve, but getting somewhere closer with a NAS feels to me like well worth the price of admission. Though I wouldn't mind if HDDs came back down in cost—I could still do with a bit more storage space.

The memory crisis has fundamentally changed how we approach memory and storage. It has made consumers adjust expectations about how much capacity they can get, and for what cost, and for companies like Biwin, it has meant having to purchase billions worth of NAND flash memory years in advance just to make sure it has a good supply.

Biwin is in a funny place, being a DRAM kit and SSD manufacturer. Even though the increased demand means it can almost guarantee selling all of its stock, it too will be hit by the supply crisis when it comes to securing precious memory chips. Biwin does not produce its own NAND flash memory, but it does need it for its products.

As reported by Tom's Hardware, it has signed a two-year deal to give $1.86 billion to an unnamed NAND supplier in exchange for an agreed volume of chips.

That supply will start flowing as of June 30, 2026. Both the pricing and quantity are fixed, which means if the price goes up over time, it's not paying a variable spot price. It's potentially a smart move from Biwin, but if the price happens to go down, then it would be overpaying for that stock.

As noted by Tom's Hardware, that $1.86 billion figure is more than half of Biwin's annual revenue. That is both a testament to how big its revenue now is, due to the memory crisis, and a sign of how big that commitment is.

Chances are, this long-term deal will be beneficial for Biwin as there's no sign of the memory crisis stopping soon. AMD's global vice president and general manager of the client channel business, David McAfee, recently told us that he hopes it ends in the next few years. He noted that the big three memory manufacturers— Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix—are all working on increasing production.

We were told, "I think we'll start to see by the end of next year and into 2028 that that ramp really starts to take hold, and then it's just a factor of the forces of supply and demand, and how that affects memory prices."

However, SK hynix and Samsung are both trying to minimise risk by not ramping up production too hard, just in case demand drops suddenly (*cough* AI bubble popping *cough*). Still, the commitment to at least two years of NAND at such a high figure is a sign that Biwin likely thinks the memory crisis isn't ending in at least the next two years, and that seems to be a common thought among manufacturers right now.

You only have to take a mere glance at the lowest prices around for gaming SSDs to realise that someone is making a small fortune during the RAMpocalypse. It is, of course, the companies that make the NAND flash memory chips, and the latest research suggests that, altogether, they accrued $46 billion in Q1 2026 revenues, more than three times what they did this time last year.

That's according to the latest report on the NAND flash industry's finances by Counterpoint Research, and given what we all know about the RAMpocalypse, the figures are entirely unsurprising, as is the reason for all that money pouring in. Yes, that's right: it's the demand for enterprise-grade SSDs to go in AI data centers.

That kind of solid state drive now accounts for 40% of the total NAND flash market, and Counterpoint says that it's forecast to pass 60% by the end of the year. Given that every single desktop and laptop PC, as well as phones, watches, and tablets, use SSDs as the primary storage device, that growth is likely to squeeze prices even higher.

Every week or so, I cast an increasingly nervous glance at the health status of the four WD Black SN850X SSDs in my main PC, hoping that I won't have to replace them any time soon. That's because any equivalent replacement will set me back well over $300 apiece, but probably not for much longer, it would seem.

Such is the demand for NAND flash that the relatively small players in the industry have significantly gained market share, with China's YMTC being the biggest winner: 8% in Q1 2025, now 13% and on par with SanDisk and Micron.

They're all making so much money that the combined revenues for Q1 2026 is actually bigger than what the industry earned across the entirety of 2023.

With no sign of AI demand slowing down, plus the fact that memory makers won't be able to ramp up production until well into next year or later, gaming SSD prices are clearly set to continue rising. Which raises a simple question: Just how far can the prices climb before the PC industry collapses under the strain?

We've all stared in shock at the likes of the Steam Deck rocketing in price (now $949 for the 1 TB model) because of the dearth of affordable memory and storage chips, and some gaming PC builders have only managed to stay relevant by using older processors, single sticks of memory, and stocks of ancient and crusty old SSDs.

Sure, the ultra-priced Steam Deck still sold out immediately upon a stock refresh, but I wonder if that was down to a lot of gamers assuming that 'it will only get worse, so buy one now while it's still vaguely affordable'. Either that, or they're just going to scalp them on eBay to fund a 1 TB SSD purchase next year. Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to look up how best to extend the lifespan of my SSDs, and no, I won't be using any AI search engine to do that.

Samsung has developed a new prototype NAND memory chip composed of an incredible 900 layers, according to a new report. The chip is actually achieved by stacking two 450-layer cell wafers.

ET News (via Sammobile) says, "Samsung Electronics recently implemented a 900-layer Class V-NAND integrated system utilizing Cell Multi-Bonding (CMB) technology, which bonds two 450-layer cell wafers into one."

The outlet says that the current highest layer count for NAND flash memory is SK Hynix's 321-layer NAND technology. Samsung is said to be prepping its own 10th Gen V-NAND with over 400 layers and this new 900-layer prototype seems to be bonding two of that class of NAND chip together.

The challenge here, as we understand it, involves the intricacies of bonding chips together, which include the incredible precision required to align the cell wafers and their interconnects accurately, along with a so-called "warping" phenomenon during manufacture. ET News says the latter was solved courtesy of an advanced Upper Chuck design, which is the tool that holds the wafers in place during bonding.

While it's easy to see how this new 900-layer memory will increase memory capacity without expanding the physical dimensions of a NAND chip, the cost implications are less obvious. Taken at face value, two 450-layer chips are required, plus the time and cost to bond them together.

Of course, this is all being driven by the insatiable demand for storage capacity of the AI industry. So, cost probably isn't much of a limiting factor, for now.

Still, we're looking at roughly three times the density of existing NAND flash memory and the possibility of cramming frankly ludicrous quantities of storage into a very small space. If the AI bubble ever does go pop, there will presumably be an awful lot of flash memory looking for customers, and a golden age of comically cheap but incredibly large SSDs could follow.

The catch is that we'd all have to suffer whatever broader negative consequences came with the AI boom coming to an abrupt end. So, there's no easy way out of the current chip crisis.

Right now, storage for PCs is expensive but not completely bananas, what with a typical 2 TB M.2 drive coming in around $250 on our SSD deals page. But it is at least good to see that the march of technology carries on. If the economics of it all ever normalise, there will be some pretty cool stuff to buy.

I remember when an early review sample of the original Intel X25-M SATA SSD landed on my desk. It was the first mainstream consumer SSD and easily the biggest development in PC storage in the last few decades. That was 2008, but it turns out SATA SSDs are still going strong, as in 100 million strong.

Kingston has just announced that it has shipped fully 100 million units of its A400 SATA SSD since launching the drive. That's a model that went on sale in 2017, but is still available today.

You can get the A400 in 240 GB, 480 GB and 960 GB capacities, with the latter clocking up claimed 500 MB/s read and 450 MB/s write speeds. OK, those numbers are positively pedestrian by modern SSD standards. The very latest PCIe Gen 5 drives are theoretically good for getting on for 25 times that performance in terms of raw bandwidth.

But the key comparison for a SATA SSD like the A400 isn't a cutting-edge M.2 drive. It's one of those antediluvian contraptions with spinning magnetic platters, namely old school hard drives.

As several commenters on this Reddit thread discussing the Kingston milestone point out, SATA drives like the A400 are a "life saver" for older PCs. Indeed, I'm not totally convinced most people would immediately know if their fancy M.2 drive was somehow secretly swapped for the likes of an A400.

The point is that even an old SATA-based mini-brick like the A400 delivers most of the benefits in terms of system response that's associated with the latest solid-state drive technology.

By way of example, take this YouTube overview of game level load times comparing an HDD with a SATA SSD and then PCIe Gen 3, 4 and 5 NVMe SSDs. Using Starfield as the metric, the HDD took 218 seconds to do the initial level load. But the SATA drive cut that to just 19 seconds.

Yes, the NVMe SSDs were faster still. But even the Gen 5 drive only reduced the load time to just under 15 seconds. Not exactly life-changing is it?

Another consideration here is PCIe lane availability. By their nature, PCIe-based SSDs consume PCIe lanes, which can be a limited and precious commodity shared with the likes of a GPU.

So, in some scenarios with lower-spec motherboards, it can be advantageous to avoid populating PCIe lanes, especially with secondary mass storage as opposed to primary OS drives. All of which means that SATA SSDs retain relevance, even here in 2026 where the attention is largely focused on the latest M.2 drives.

Of course, with all SSD pricing on the up of late, the A400 may not feel like much of a bargain right now. But if it makes you feel better, when that Intel X25-M drive came out, it cost over $500 for an 80 GB model. In that context, the thick end of $190 for over 10 times the capacity doesn't feel quite so terrible, even if it is about the same as what you'd pay for a decent Gen 4 M.2 SSD of the same capacity.

Micron, which you may know as one of the biggest players in the memory market, has just released a great big whopping 245 TB SSD specifically designed for data centers. And it feels a little sickening to look at, knowing how expensive my next storage upgrade is going to be.

Entitled the Micron 6600 ION SSD, Micron says it is "the world’s highest capacity commercially available SSD", and, as you might be able to guess, it's to support "AI, cloud, enterprise and hyperscale workloads."

Micron's new data center SSD not only promises its QLC NAND technology is a generation ahead of any of the competition's QLC, but, with a 30 watts maximum power rating, it works out to use half the juice of a comparable capacious HDD. SSDs typically consume less power than HDDs anyway, so how power efficient it really is will have to be left to further testing.

What makes this SSD interesting is its humongous storage size. Also, compared to HDD deployment, Micron notes it requires 82% fewer racks. Travis Virgil, the senior vice president of ISG product management at Dell, says, "AI workloads are pushing data center capacity to the limit, and when you can fit significantly more storage into every rack, the math changes: less power, less floor space, less operational overhead."

The 245 TB model comes with a sequential read of 13,700 MB/S and a sequential write of 3,000 MB/s, but we don't know the pricing just yet. Chances are, unless you represent a major AI company, that price won't matter to you anyway.

So good news for AI then, but not necessarily anyone else. Storage is hard to come by at reasonable prices nowadays, and that's all because of AI. The memory crisis is largely caused by AI data centers sapping up all the modules to train new models, and it's not helped by the fact that there are multiple competing AI companies. They are fighting to get their digital foot in the door at the likes of SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron to secure contracts.

But manufacturers aren't looking to give contracts easily either. Just today, it was announced that SK hynix is struggling to keep up with 'unprecedented' offers, and didn't necessarily want to agree to any of them, as long-term contracts could require selling memory at a lower rate.

I, on the other hand, found out I had 300 GB in my recycling bin yesterday, so that's kinda like installing a 245 TB SDD, right?

When's the last time you emptied the recycling bin on your PC? If the answer is right this second because you got self-conscious, then you're not alone. However, if you haven't waited nearly a decade to do so, you aren't quite as bad as one Redditor.

As user Illuminated Autocrat shared on Reddit, they just deleted 557,459 files from their recycling bin because they forgot to clear it out for almost a decade. That makes for 302 GB total, or 0.5 MB per file. They reportedly upgraded from 500 GB to 4 TB of storage over the years, "so the bin grew with it". They add, "free storage upgrade, I guess."

If you're wondering how exactly they took all that rubbish data with them, the user reportedly copied the entire SSD in a disk cloning station, so they never had to reset or wipe the storage since getting it. They also never seemed to realise how much data they couldn't account for on their rig.

I have no room to speak, unfortunately, as I checked and have almost as much data in my recycling bin. I have an 8TB hard drive that has been following me around for years, filled with game capture (so I can make videos), and, well, I now have a spare 300 GB on my PC. Mine only totalled about 7,000 files, though.

Illuminated Autocrat reports the files were mostly text/game/mod files that were kept "just in case". The biggest of the almost deleted files is a 120 GB Skyrim mod folder they made a few years prior.

Decided to empty my recycling bin after almost a decade... from r/pcmasterrace

If you are worried you are losing out on your precious storage and don't want to buy any more (with the memory crisis, who can blame you), there is a smart way of doing so on Windows.

In settings, you will find a neat tool called "Storage Sense". When turned on, it will automatically delete files that are older than 30 days if you are running low on disk space. However, you could opt to have Storage Sense go through your files every month, under the same parameters.

Searching through your deleted files yourself is the best way of avoiding losing data you want to keep, but those files getting into the recycling bin is a good sign you don't want them in the first place. Still, it's a good sign to do a little bit of digital spring cleaning. I know I needed it.

Windrose breached early access late last month. As you might expect from something a few port calls shy of a full release, it's not all been smooth sailing, with a number of Steam users saying that the pirate versus environment game has been hammering their SSDs. Thankfully, developer Kraken Express have now released a patch.

Content creator Pixel Operative brought wider attention to the issue, by running some quick tests on the game themself and sharing their findings to X and YouTube. Apparently, when compared to similar survive 'em ups Enshrouded and Valheim, Windrose exhibited "significantly [larger] read/write numbers for less than 2 minutes of game play."

Tom's Hardware also later covered the issue, calculating that 432 GB could potentially be written to your drive over the course of a four hour session.

This astronomical write volume could significantly shorten the lifespan of QLC SSDs (which are arguably more efficient at storing data, but generally have lower TBW ratings) or otherwise aged drives. That's definitely not good news in the midst of a memory supply crisis. Thankfully, patch notes for version: 0.10.0.4.268-9d2ca277 say that "disk usage during gameplay has been reduced."

Kraken Express have continued to tinker with and refine the game's save structure since. For instance, version 0.10.0.5.120-073042fb dropped yesterday, and the patch notes say, "The game now automatically backs up all data every 10 minutes of gameplay and upon exiting."

Even with all the aforementioned technical hiccups, the devs aren't currently planning on any progress wipes during early access. However, the studio did recently warn, "Of course shit happens." Arrr, just like the high seas, early access can be an unpredictable place.

As such, Windrose captains shouldn't expect much beyond bug fixes and improvements to stability for the foreseeable future, with the next big content update being at least six months away from reaching the shore. Kraken Express attempted to manage expectations, sharing, "All the new content and features we want to deliver takes time."

Because I'm based a stone's throw away from Bristol in the UK, it's definitely a pirate's life for me, oo ar. So, with Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced still a ways off from pulling into port in July and Windrose's excessive data writing curtailed, I know exactly where I'm gonna drop anchor in the meantime.

Due to the memory supply crisis, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that now is a particularly stressful time to experience hardware failure. With a bit of luck, a sensible multi-year warranty should save your bacon when an SSD stops playing ball—but it looks like the RAMpocalypse may be about to claim another victim.

Case in point, Nextorage has just unveiled a new QLC gaming SSD that comes with a mere one-year warranty policy (via HKEPC Hardware). As you may already be aware, QLC drives can store more data per NAND flash cell than TLC ones, but that comes at the potential cost of a lower write endurance. As such, a measly 12 months for a warranty period is a choice.

The just-announced G-series EEA SSDs offer capacities ranging from 1 TB to 8 TB. They use a PCIe 4.0 interface, and like most drives these days, they're also DRAM-less. Nextorage lists an advertised read/write speed of up to 7,000/6,400 MB/s, and that its design "reduces power consumption and heat generation".

As for write endurance, the 1 TB model is rated for 400 TBW, which doubles for the 2 TB model, and again for the 4 TB version. Comparatively, the new 8 TB features an impressive 4,000 TBW of advertised endurance.

However, the 1 TB drive will cost ¥44,550, or about $280. Now, PC components tend to be slightly pricier in Japan anyway, so there's a chance the actual USD cost may be a bit lower than the currency conversion suggests (though let's hope the memory supply crisis doesn't worsen to such a degree that it makes this statement seem like naive optimism in retrospect).

Still, if you ask me, that's not necessarily the best value for money as it is. Couple that with Nextorage's "One year from the date of purchase" warranty policy, and I'd really recommend looking elsewhere.

For instance, the most affordable 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD I'd suggest right now is the Kingston NV3. Yes, it's a bit slower than Nextorage's new drives, but it offers a much more approachable price point, and Kingston tends to still offer 5-year warranties—for now, at least.

Given that Toshiba is allegedly struggling to replace enterprise hard drives due to stock shortages, I can see the logic behind Nextorage's extremely short warranty period. Besides the current limitations of QLC, it may be a bit of a mission for Nextorage to secure enough stock for replacements, potentially until 2028.

Even though SSDs have been around for years, steadily improving in speed, reliability, and capacity, the good old hard disk drive is still worth considering for your gaming PC. That's because when it comes to outright storage per buck, there's nothing that beats an HDD. And in the current situation where DRAM and flash memory are both prohibitively expensive, it's even better value for money.

Seagate has been serving this market for a good while now, and it has a big range of external HDD models, covering every possible use and budget. Joining them is the newly launched FireCuda X Vault: a big HDD packed into an even bigger enclosure, replete with a touch of RGB lighting, that uses a speedy USB connection to hook up to your PC.

You have two capacities to choose from—eight or 20 TB—and using it is as simple as you could want: plug it in, wait a few seconds, and enjoy the wealth of extra storage space. Well, it should be super-simple, but there are a couple of potential bumps in the road that could stop it from being as smooth as silk. First, the USB port on the host PC must provide at least 15 W to power the X Vault.

Frustratingly, many motherboards and laptops don't actually indicate what power output they support, so you just have to test them out and hope for the best. At least the X Vault sports a little LED by its USB socket, which flashes red if you don't give it enough juice.

The other pothole in the road is the fact that you need to use a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port to get the best performance out of the drive. While such sockets are hardly rare on the latest motherboards and laptops, if you have an older gaming PC from a few years ago, you could be stuck with Gen 1 only—or worse still, ports that can't supply enough power.

None of this is Seagate's fault, but if you are eyeballing the FireCuda X Vault as a potential buy, you really need to check what your USB ports can do before handing over your cash.

You do get some handy extras with the drive, at least. Seagate's Toolkit app offers incremental backup and real-time folder mirroring, as well as RGB controls (though you can use Windows 11's system, if you prefer), plus you get access to a data recovery service through the warranty period (typically two years).

For the performance benchmarks below, I used a gaming PC with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K processor, in an ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite motherboard, with 48 GB of Corsair Dominator DDR5-8000 memory and multiple WD_Black SN850X SSDs to shift data back and forth from the external HDD.

To ensure that the X Vault had the best possible chance of reaching its full potential, I used a Thunderbolt 4 port on the motherboard, using USBTreeView to check that it was operating in the correct USB mode (i.e. USB 3.2 Gen 2, 10 Gbps).

It's been so long since we've tested an HDD that the only other model we have results for our current benchmark suite is the Adata HD710 Pro. That external drive isn't aimed at gamers, and it only uses a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connection. I've included a couple of external SSDs in the charts, so you have a visual guide to how fast spinning platters are compared to NAND flash chips.

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Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks

3DMark Storage

Index

Bandwidth (MB/s)

Average Access Time (µs)

Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)

180

32.89

1056

Adata HD710 Pro (HDD)

63

11.74

3046

Crucial X9

875

152

208

TeamGroup PD20 Mini

934

161.5

194

01,0002,0003,0004,000

3DMark Storage Data

Product	Value
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)	180 Index, 32.89 Bandwidth (MB/s), 1056 Average Access Time (µs)
Adata HD710 Pro (HDD)	63 Index, 11.74 Bandwidth (MB/s), 3046 Average Access Time (µs)
Crucial X9	875 Index, 152 Bandwidth (MB/s), 208 Average Access Time (µs)
TeamGroup PD20 Mini	934 Index, 161.5 Bandwidth (MB/s), 194 Average Access Time (µs)

Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks

CrystalDiskMark

SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s)

SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s)

RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s)

RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)

222.05

212.53

0.65

1.92

Adata HD710 Pro (HDD)

120

117

0.54

0.57

Crucial X9

1028

970

35.56

73.92

TeamGroup PD20 Mini

1999.22

1699.45

26.1

69.94

05001,0001,5002,000

CrystalDiskMark Data

Product	Value
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)	222.05 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 212.53 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 0.65 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 1.92 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Adata HD710 Pro (HDD)	120 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 117 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 0.54 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 0.57 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Crucial X9	1028 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 970 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 35.56 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 73.92 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
TeamGroup PD20 Mini	1999.22 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 1699.45 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 26.1 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 69.94 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail

Total Loading Time (seconds)

Scene #1

Scene #2

Scene #3

Scene #4

Scene #5

Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)

17.638

0.78

3.673

4.905

4.639

3.641

Adata HD710 Pro (HDD)

28.1

1.149

7.05

7.626

7.036

5.239

Crucial X9

14.291

0.478

3.244

3.91

3.799

2.86

TeamGroup PD20 Mini

12.759

0.447

3.005

3.684

3.4

2.223

07.51522.530

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Data

Product	Value
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)	17.638 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.78 Scene #1, 3.673 Scene #2, 4.905 Scene #3, 4.639 Scene #4, 3.641 Scene #5
Adata HD710 Pro (HDD)	28.1 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.149 Scene #1, 7.05 Scene #2, 7.626 Scene #3, 7.036 Scene #4, 5.239 Scene #5
Crucial X9	14.291 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.478 Scene #1, 3.244 Scene #2, 3.91 Scene #3, 3.799 Scene #4, 2.86 Scene #5
TeamGroup PD20 Mini	12.759 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.447 Scene #1, 3.005 Scene #2, 3.684 Scene #3, 3.4 Scene #4, 2.223 Scene #5

Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks

Temperature

Peak (°C)

Idle (°C)

Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)

55

47

Crucial X9

60

25

TeamGroup PD20 Mini

83

38

0255075100

Temperature Data

Product	Value
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)	55 Peak (°C), 47 Idle (°C)
Crucial X9	60 Peak (°C), 25 Idle (°C)
TeamGroup PD20 Mini	83 Peak (°C), 38 Idle (°C)

Suffice it to say, the FireCuda X Vault performs exactly how you'd expect an HDD to, especially compared to an SSD. But while it's slower than a tortoise, Seagate's gaming drive is quite a lot snappier than Adata's rugged model, in part because it uses a faster USB interface.

In addition to the above benchmarks, I also added the drive as additional storage in Steam, and measured how long it took to move The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered from a WD_Black SN850X installed in a PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot, directly connected to the CPU, onto the X Vault's disks.

With the game tipping the scales at 116 GB, it took 11 minutes and 31 seconds to transfer all the files, so it's not something you'd want to be doing repeatedly. During the move, I recorded the write speed of the Seagate drive, and it hovered between 200 and 205 MB/s for the entire duration. So while it's not especially quick, it is very consistent (again, as expected for an HDD).

That transfer speed is about 10% as quick as you'd get with a fairly rubbish SSD, but since even those are now outrageously pricey, the X Vault's tortoise-like performance is completely forgivable. In fact, if all you care about is cold storage (i.e. you don't need to constantly access the files, you just need them close by), then the FireCuda could well be ideal.

However, there are a couple of things, other than the performance and USB fussiness, that are worth noting before deciding on the X Vault. For the sheer size and mass of the drive's enclosure, you'd be forgiven for expecting lower temperatures, but at least they don't vary much between idle and heavy loads. The meaty enclosure also does a great job of absorbing vibrations.

The provided USB cable is also somewhat on the short side. Used with a laptop, it's not that much of an issue, but I tried it on several desktop PCs, and for many of them, the cable wasn't long enough to allow the unit to rest flat on the desk next to the PC case. Worse still, the lack of slack in the cable means that the connector pulls down quite firmly on the USB port itself, which isn't great for its long-term health.

At $270 for the 8 TB model, you're not paying over the odds, though, and the 20 TB version is especially good value for money, coming in at around 2.4 cents per GB. That said, Seagate has fitted the X Vault with a similar type of HDD as it uses for its SkyHawk and Barracuda Compute product ranges, and you can buy one of those bare drives for $230 at Amazon (at the time of writing).

You won't get any more performance, but you will save a bit of money and won't tie up one of your motherboard's USB ports if you install it inside your desktop gaming PC.

Where things really make sense for Seagate's external drive is when your PC is a gaming laptop, especially so if it has a solitary M.2 slot for SSDs. Using the FireCuda X Vault to really boost the amount of storage you've got now makes a lot of sense, because you're avoiding having to pay vast amounts for a bigger SSD, nor enduring the hassle of reinstalling Windows.

The only thing you need to worry about is whether or not your laptop's USB ports can actually power the drive.

Due to the AI industry's seemingly bottomless appetite for all things memory, SSD prices have soared. You would be forgiven for thinking that relying on Hard Disk Drives instead would be more cost-effective while we all wait for SSD prices to become slightly more sensible again. However, as one Redditor found out, the grass is not always greener.

The Redditor explained their company had bought a number of high-capacity HDDs from Toshiba mere months ago for its storage array. However, when one of the 20+ TB drives died, Toshiba would only offer "a refund of the original purchase price [and] not a refund of the current (significantly higher) replacement price," nor a replacement drive either.

Tom's Hardware says the documents it examined reveal that part of this refusal was on the grounds that Toshiba did not have the stock to replace the enterprise HDD in question. Apparently, if Toshiba had committed to replacing the enterprise drive, the customer would have had at least a year-long wait for a 24 TB HDD.

Some may consider HDDs outmoded, but if you don't need the data in a hurry, HDDs make sense for many corporate archive efforts. WD also just announced new HDD tech that promises 'flash-like' performance—though, even with improvements to the tech, none of that means HDDs are the forgotten hero we need right now.

The memory supply crisis hasn't just had the knock-on effect of raising SSD prices, but HDD costs as well, so a failure after only a few months is especially disappointing. As you may already be aware, HDDs do generally have more potential points of failure than SSDs due to the former's moving internal parts.

Still, a lifespan of a few months is far from the norm, with many modern HDDs lasting upwards of five years depending on use (comparatively, SSDs can last anywhere between five to 10 years or more, according to SanDisk). Microsoft's Project Silica proffers laser-etched glass that can store data for a purported 10,000 years, though that's not exactly a consumer-ready technology just yet.

Even though this particular situation involves hardware intended for a business, I am definitely now worrying about what would happen if either my own internal SSD or my two backup HDDs were to pick this moment in time to fail. On the one hand, this is exactly why I bought multiple drives back in the day. On the other, 'back in the day' is a few years ago now—easily more than five.

Unlike the aforementioned Redditor's enterprise HDDs, none of my kit would likely even be covered by a warranty anymore, ruling out any hopes of a refund for me personally. As I update our best SSD deals guide every Friday, I know exactly how rough it is out there right now—here's hoping hardware failure isn't in my immediate future.

Heat is no friend of any kind of memory chip. That will be no surprise for PC gamers with our wealth of cooling systems and heat sink options—unfortunately, those solutions aren't suitable for every data retention situation. As such, a research team has developed a chip that will keep working throughout extreme temperature conditions.

A US team based at USC Viterbi School of Engineering in Southern California has created a graphene tungsten memristor that can reliably operate at outlandishly high temperatures. Per the team's paper in the journal Science, 'interfacial engineering' allowed for this memristor to operate "reliably up to 700 °C with an ON/OFF current ratio >103, data retention >50 hours and endurance >109 switching cycles" (via The Brighter Side).

As even the most hard-wearing silicon-based SSDs tend to fail at 200 °C, and the surface of Venus easily breaches 400 °C, you can understand the scientific demand for memory that can deal with the heat. The kicker is that the team set out to make something completely different with graphene.

“To be honest, [the discovery was made] by accident, as most discoveries are," One of the paper's authors, Joshua Yang, explained, “If you can predict it, it’s usually not surprising, and probably not significant enough.”

The USC team has built a memristor out of a tungsten-hafnium oxide-graphene stack. Both tungsten and graphene can withstand extreme heat as it is, and the hafnium oxide completes the sandwich as a switching layer between the two electrode slices.

You may remember that in 2024, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had previously created flash memory based on an aluminium scandium nitride ferroelectric diode that can withstand up to 600 °C.

Similar devices that feature platinum instead of graphene in their 'bottom layer' degrade quickly in similar tests, as tungsten atoms make a break for it at high temperatures. As tungsten atoms pool in the platinum layer, the device becomes no longer able to 'switch' between resistive states, and essentially stops functioning as viable memory.

Swap out the platinum electrode for graphene, though, and those tungsten atoms don't get anywhere near as clingy at high temperatures.

The graphene-based memristor proved exceptionally hardy over time, holding on to both ON/OFF memory states for 145 hours on average across 30 different devices at high heat. During the 700 °C tests specifically, these memristors underwent 1 billion switching cycles, pulsing around 1.5 volts every 30 nanoseconds.

With how expensive it is to get anything into space, hardy memory that can switch quickly at relatively low voltages is definitely good news.

But it's not just space missions that could benefit, with memristors especially appealing to AI workloads as they can perform matrix multiplication directly through the flow of current. “Over 92 percent of the computing in AI systems like ChatGPT is nothing but matrix multiplication,” Yang explains, “This type of device can perform that in the most efficient way, orders of magnitude faster and at lower energy.”

One of China's largest chip manufacturers has apparently made plans to build two additional new foundries to the one already under construction. Once all are operational, it's claimed that the firm's wafer output will more than double, which could potentially make it one of the world's largest makers of NAND flash memory chips.

The firm in question is Yangtze Memory Technologies, better known simply as YMTC, and its flash memory is heavily used by the likes of Acer, Adata, Lexar, and Team Group for their SSDs and other storage devices. The best budget gaming SSD around, the Biwin Black Opal NV7400, is a drive that also uses YMTC chips, though the production is also joined by offerings from Micron.

However, YMTC itself hasn't publicly announced these fab production plans, and instead the claims come from Reuters, which cites sources who "were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified", though this is normal for such new stories.

Given the current flash and DRAM market, where the AI industry is ordering so many chips that there's a global shortage of them (leading to sky-high prices), you might think that YMTC has amended its plans to include an additional two foundries to capitalise on the billions of dollars of potential AI orders.

However, Reuters suggests that the move is more to do with China distancing itself from reliance on US chip manufacturers, especially in light of the introduction of export restrictions on chip-making equipment.

While it's potentially good news for PC gamers hoping to see lower SSD prices, YMTC isn't going to be ready to flood the market with cheaper chips just yet. Its foundry that's currently still in construction isn't expected to start running until later this year, and even then, it won't reach its full potential until next year.

The two extra plants will take many more years to be in the same position, though Reuters' sources claim that all the new facilities will be able to churn out 100,000 wafers apiece, and put together, YMTC's output could potentially more than double. That's unlikely to be enough to knock Samsung off the top slot in the list of global flash memory production, but it could well make SK hynix and Micron look twice.

YMTC is apparently also considering dedicating some of the increased wafer production towards the manufacturing of LPDDR, as used in phones, tablets, and some laptops, but even if it does, the DRAM market is utterly dominated by Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron.

In other words, don't expect to see DDR5 memory kits come down in price just because YMTC is able to sell some DRAM chips cheaper than the competition.

It's fair to say that Apple's new MacBook Neo has given the Windows-based laptop market something to think about. Powered by the same chip used in the iPhone 16, the $599 computer has reportedly been selling very well. That's despite it only having 512 GB as the best storage option. But if you're as handy as one YouTuber is at electronics work, doubling that amount is a distinct possibility.

The 'tuber in question is dosdude1, and their latest video is pretty simple in premise: take the base Neo model, with 256 GB of storage, yoink out the original NAND flash chip, and stick a beefy 1 TB module in there.

Dosdude1 begins by checking that the new flash chip is completely blank, using a dedicated device and piece of software, before kitting it out with a full array of solder balls. None of what I've just described is a trivial task, even if one has all of the necessary equipment, but it's certainly a lot easier to do than the next stage.

Like many low-cost laptops, the MacBook Neo uses a single, soldered NAND flash chip to store data. Normally, removing such chips is quite easy: You simply heat the component to the point that the solder balls melt and gently prise the chip away from the circuit board. However, in this instance, the flash chip is surrounded by lots of surface-mounted devices (SMDs) and the underside is jammed with 'underfill'.

Not that this seems to deter dosdude1 in any way, but with judicious shimmying with a tool, and plenty of heat, the original flash chip comes off with nary an issue (though one SMD had to be removed first, to allow for the tool to get into the underfill).

Interestingly, the mounting area on the circuit board has more pads than the flash chip does, so it's possible Apple designed the Neo to use a physically larger flash device to have bigger storage options. Given how expensive SSDs have become, it was probably dropped due to cost reasons.

Anyway, the old chip gets swapped for the new one in a matter of moments, and then it's time for the final stage: Getting the Neo to run in DFU mode, and then use another Apple device to transfer the operating system and other files to the 1 TB drive. Dosdude1 has clearly done this many times before, because the whole process seemed to run without a hitch.

And voila! They're now the proud owner of a 1 TB MacBook Neo. The only question I have about all of this concerns the fiscal element. The 512 GB Neo costs $699—$100 more for double the storage—so if you already have the electronic gubbins and expertise required to do the flash lobotomy, it would seem to be a very sensible thing to do if you could get a 1 TB flash module for less than $200.

Alas, a quick browse of Ali Express suggests that such chips are more expensive than that, but I'm sure a savvy electronics shopper could get one for less. Apple demands around $200 more for a 1 TB 13-inch MacBook Air than the base 512 GB model, and the same price gap on the Neo could make it look like a rather poor option.

Then again, you've got little chance of picking up a 1 TB gaming laptop for $899, so perhaps not. Looks like dosdude1 knew exactly what they were doing.

One of the biggest memory manufacturers in the world, SK hynix, has just announced that its new 321-layer QLC PQC21 flash chips are now in full production, with supplies of 1 and 2 TB modules ready to go. Before you think that this could help lower SSD prices, though, it's Dell that's getting dibs on these chips.

Peel the sticker off an average gaming SSD, and you'll notice that it has quite a few chips on the circuit board: one being a flash memory controller, one possibly being a bit of DRAM, and the rest all being NAND storage itself. With the latter being expensive and in short supply, SK hynix is hoping that its new QLC flash will make a difference.

QLC, or quad-level cell, memory can store 4 bits of data per individual cell. That makes it ideal for cutting costs, as you need fewer cells in total to reach a target storage size. In the case of SK hynix's new PQC21, just one module is required for 1 TB.

Downsides? Compared to TLC (3 bits per cell) or MLC (2 bits) SSDs, QLC drives have a shorter lifespan and lower performance, though neither is much of an issue for the average PC user.

At the moment, we have no idea as to whether SK hynix has made any improvement in these areas with the new flash, but my gut feeling is that the product is simply designed to be manufactured quickly and cheaply, helping to plug the ever-increasing hole in the SSD supply chain.

Not that you're likely to be using it any time soon, as the only customer to be getting its hands on the PQC21 is Dell, though SK does have "plans to continuously expand partnerships with other major global customers."

Gaming SSDs with PQC21 chips are unlikely to set any performance records, but they could find a spot in our SSD buying guide in the budget section. Not that any solid state drive is what you'd call budget these days, but you get what I mean.

Everything changed when the fire nation attacked… Honestly, that's what it feels like writing this review. Teamgroup's MP44Q PCIe 4.0 SSD has finally landed with me for testing, and it's a curious little QLC number that, once upon a time, would have offered itself up as a nice, affordable, tantalizing opportunity for any would-be budget gamer's rig. The problem is that it's 2026, this sorta QLC feels a bit old fashioned, and SSD prices are through the roof.

It's especially tough as we've seen even superb budget drives such as the WD Blue SN5100 totally hampered by an extraordinarily high price tag. And that's a problem, a real big one, especially for Teamgroup. Side-by-side these drives, although targeted at the same audience, and with similarly high price tags (at time of writing the MP44Q is $305 and the SN5100 is $317), perform wildly differently.

The MP44Q is a sleek little budget PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. It's a single-sided M.2 2280 design giving it broad compatibility with all of your consoles, laptops, and PCs, and comes complete in 1-4 TB capacities with no heatsink variant available.

As for that core hardware, you get a Maxiotech MAP1602A controller (a slightly older model, and the same one found inside of the Lexar NM790), and die packages built out of YMTC's 232-layer 3D QLC NAND flash (you "might" find similar density YMTC TLC in Biwin's Black Opal NV7400, or Micron flash who knows…). There's no dedicated DRAM cache here, mostly to keep costs down, but you do get a healthy dose of 40 MB of system memory allocated via HMB, and a big chunk of pseudo SLC, and that's kind of it.

There's no drama, no new flagship parts or anything, just off-the-shelf OEM components—tried and tested and ready to go. What is interesting, however, is the endurance rating, as Teamgroup's got this clocked at 1000 TBW, which for a budget QLC drive is quite impressive. The default rating for most SSDs these days is 600 TBW for 1 TB, and practically all manufacturers abide by that, so it's nice to see an improvement here. Although you still get the same 5-year warranty anyway.

As for pricing, at the time of writing, it's kind of on the high side for a budget drive, especially compared to that SN5100. The reason I've been slamming that comparison so hard in this review is purely because, by the metrics that matter, the SN5100 outclasses the MP44Q in almost every way while being cheaper as it does it.

Benchmarks: SSDs

TemperatureCrystalDiskMark 7.0.0Final Fantasy XIV: ShadowbringersCrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 | RND4k Q1T1 | IOPS3DMark Storage

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

54

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

61

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

62

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

48

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

48

020406080

Peak temperature (°C)

Temperature Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	54
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	61
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	62
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	48
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	48

SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s)

SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s)

RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s)

RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

7407

6595

70

288

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

7318

6687

107

308

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

7446

6601

70

310

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

7370

6336

75

229

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

7116

6820

101

276

02,0004,0006,0008,000

CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	7407 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6595 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 70 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 288 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	7318 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6687 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 107 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 308 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	7446 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6601 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 70 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 310 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	7370 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6336 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 75 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 229 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	7116 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 6820 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 101 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 276 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Total Loading Time (seconds)

Scene #1 (seconds)

Scene #2 (seconds)

Scene #3 (seconds)

Scene #4 (seconds)

Scene #5 (seconds)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

7.97

0.961

2.166

2.535

1.513

0.795

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

7.125

0.852

1.832

2.284

1.425

0.731

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

7.869

1.127

2.072

2.465

1.461

0.745

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

7.398

1.112

1.813

2.286

1.445

0.742

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

7.841

1.831

2.411

1.498

0.755

1.347

02468

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	7.97 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.961 Scene #1 (seconds), 2.166 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.535 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.513 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.795 Scene #5 (seconds)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	7.125 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.852 Scene #1 (seconds), 1.832 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.284 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.425 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.731 Scene #5 (seconds)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	7.869 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.127 Scene #1 (seconds), 2.072 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.465 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.461 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.745 Scene #5 (seconds)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	7.398 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.112 Scene #1 (seconds), 1.813 Scene #2 (seconds), 2.286 Scene #3 (seconds), 1.445 Scene #4 (seconds), 0.742 Scene #5 (seconds)
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	7.841 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.831 Scene #1 (seconds), 2.411 Scene #2 (seconds), 1.498 Scene #3 (seconds), 0.755 Scene #4 (seconds), 1.347 Scene #5 (seconds)

RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS)

RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

17195

70309

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

26224

75158

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

17134

75727

020,00040,00060,00080,000

CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 | RND4k Q1T1 | IOPS Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	17195 RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS), 70309 RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	26224 RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS), 75158 RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	17134 RND4k Q1T1 Read (IOPS), 75727 RND4K Q1T1 Write (IOPS)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	N/A
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	N/A

Index

Bandwidth (MB/s)

Average Access Time (µs)

Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4

2874

496.38

63

Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4

3915

672.63

59

Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4

2893

495.11

62

Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4

2757

471.23

65

WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4

3238

553.1

55

01,0002,0003,0004,000

3DMark Storage Data

Product	Value
Teamgroup MP44Q 2 TB l Gen4	2874 Index, 496.38 Bandwidth (MB/s), 63 Average Access Time (µs)
Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 2 TB | Gen4	3915 Index, 672.63 Bandwidth (MB/s), 59 Average Access Time (µs)
Lexar NQ780 4 TB l Gen4	2893 Index, 495.11 Bandwidth (MB/s), 62 Average Access Time (µs)
Biwin Black Opal NV7400 2 TB | Gen4	2757 Index, 471.23 Bandwidth (MB/s), 65 Average Access Time (µs)
WD Black SN7100 1 TB | Gen4	3238 Index, 553.1 Bandwidth (MB/s), 55 Average Access Time (µs)

3DMark's storage benchmark comes back with a score that's 1000 points higher straight out of the gate, with a much broader bandwidth figure, and slightly lower access times. That result is all thanks to the random 4K performance. The MP44Q really struggles here, delivering just 70 MB/s on the read and 288 MB/s on the write, making it slower than even Lexar's latest NQ780 QLC drive as well. Compare that to the 107 and 308 MB/s from the SN5100, and there's almost no contest.

Yes, it does eek back a win in the sequential read front being 89 MB/s faster (or 1.21% faster), but that's such a niche use-case for most of us gamers, it's almost not worth mentioning.

That all then translates into game load times too, and although the SN5100 doesn't particularly break any records in that department, scoring 7.125 seconds, the fact that the MP44Q lands in at 7.970 seconds is just, well, less than ideal. Physically, it's cool, mind you, and efficient as a result, but that's not enough to offset those massive deficits in the metrics that matter most.

Today feels like a good day for Windows 11 fans. After the revelation that Microsoft might remove the requirement for an online MS account to set up Windows, along with reducing AI pervasiveness and even making Windows Update less of a pain, now we learn that Microsoft once aspired to reduce both the idle memory usage and installed disk size of Windows 11 by 20%. So, could this be back on the cards?

Responding to the blog post we covered earlier today outlining Microsoft's plans to improve the quality of Windows, former Windows development lead Mikhail Parakhin welcomed the new direction and recalled a project of his own that never came to fruition.

"Back in the day, Jeff Johnson and I had this 20/20 project," Parakhin says, "reducing Windows' idle memory consumption and the fresh install size on disk by 20%. We never got to finish—great to see this focus on fundamentals again."

Notably, current Windows and Devices VP at Microsoft, Pavan Davuluri, did not specifically mention an effort to hit 20% targets for memory and storage footprints of Windows 11 in the recent Windows Insider post. However, such a goal would fit pretty comfortably with many of the other measures aimed at improving Windows' "fundamentals."

More to the point, Davuluri does call out resource usage with "improved memory efficiency, lowering the baseline memory footprint for Windows, freeing up more capacity for the apps you run" among the listed ambitions.

In the current context where memory and storage pricing are thoroughly out of control, this feels like an absolutely on-point effort from Microsoft, even if you'd probably be well advised to retain a healthy scepticism regarding delivery. Believe all this when you see it, in other words.

Personally, I really like the sound of the section in Davuluri's Windows Insider post headed, "More fluid and responsive app interactions." Davuluri says the aim here is "improving the shared UI infrastructure that Windows experiences rely on, reducing interaction latency and overhead at the platform level."

My sense, or at least my hope, is that this will mean UI responsiveness and fluidity will finally be fully prioritised within the Windows kernel. At risk of being unceremoniously marched off PCG, anyone who uses both MacOS and Windows can't help but notice that the former feels much smoother in terms of how the interface moves and responds.

I've always assumed that Apple pays more attention to how UI calls are prioritised, ensuring that limited CPU cycles are given to UI processes that dictate the responsiveness and frame rate of the UI. I also think that Apple is better, though not perfect, at setting priorities in a way that minimises UI freezes while waiting for various background events to complete, like network or disk traffic.

MacOS's advantage is such that, in UI terms, it often looks smoother at 60 Hz than Windows does at 120 Hz-plus. Anywho, all this talk of a leaner, lighter, more responsive Windows 11 will be music to the ears of many PC enthusiasts. Here's hoping Microsoft delivers.

"If you’re looking to order a Framework Laptop or Desktop with a lot of storage, now is the time to do that." So says Framework CEO Nirav Patel in the latest update to the company's ongoing blog post about the memory crisis.

We've reported previously on numerous occasions on how Framework is handling spiralling RAM and SSD prices. The latest update does indeed announce further broad price increases, more on which in a moment. But it also calls time on Framework rigs configured with larger SSDs and benefitting from what you might call legacy pricing.

"We’ve started to deplete our earlier, lower-cost inventory of SSDs, and have needed to re-price some capacities to reflect the costs we are now paying for new orders. Like with memory, we’re passing through as close as we can to our actual costs from suppliers and using a Weighted Average Cost model. There are still some models and capacities like 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB SN850X for which our pricing is substantially below market while we sell through inventory. If you’re looking to order a Framework Laptop or Desktop with a lot of storage, now is the time to do that," Patel said.

Patel doesn't say exactly how much prices will rise once current stocks of 2, 4, and 8 TB drives are depleted. Framework is charging $265, $469 and $899, respectively, for those drives right now when you configure a Framework 16 system.

On Newegg, you'd be looking at $422, $669 and $1,345 respectively. So, Framework's current pricing comes at a significant discount to market rates. A fairly hefty step up once drives sell out seems pretty likely.

As for the rest of Framework's announcement, the general gist is that prices are going up again for system memory, but not by as much as previous months. That said, the company also couldn't rule out further increases.

"The cost increase is smaller this month than in previous months, but we don’t yet have the visibility to determine if this is a new stable cost level," Patel said.

Framework is also slightly increasing the pricing of some configurations of pre-built Framework Desktop and Framework Laptop 16 and says that, "in upcoming months, we will need to do this on the remaining pre-built configurations of Framework Laptop 13, Framework Laptop 16, and Framework Laptop 12."

Anywho, if you were thinking about a Framework in any case, its current pricing on larger WD SN850X drives certainly makes them that much more appealing. For now.

Overwhelming, chaotic, madcap. That's how our very own Harvey Randall describes Crimson Desert after spending 6 hours in it, and if that sounds great to you, then I have even better news. Developer Pearl Abyss has just released a full set of fleshed-out PC system requirements, and it all looks great.

It's not the first time we've heard about the PC specs for Crimson Desert because, oddly enough, Corsair of all companies got the scoop. However, its post on the matter was a bit light on details, but now we've got the full shebang.

Starting with the entry/minimum requirements, you'll need an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i5 8500 CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card, 16 GB of system memory, and a whopping 150 GB of SSD storage. That's using the minimum graphics preset, at 1080p upscaled from 900p, giving you 30 fps.

If you drop the upscaling and switch to the Low graphics preset, you get the same performance, but you'll need a GeForce GTX 1660 or Radeon RX 6500 XT card. The CPU, DRAM, and SSD requirements remain the same.

That's actually all pretty darn good, because those six core processors are pretty old now, and none of the listed GPUs is what you'd call powerful by today's standards. Yes, the storage demands are pretty steep, especially in light of just how expensive gaming SSDs are now, but given how expansive and pretty the game looks, 150 GB doesn't feel excessively huge (though time will tell once we actually get to play the game fully).

Skipping all the way to the top of things, using the game's Ultra quality preset, if you want to hit 60 fps at 4K (without upscaling, it would seem), then you won't need a super powerful CPU, just something relatively new: a Core i5 13600K or a Ryzen 7 7700X, or equivalent. That's still quite high spec compared to a lot of games, but at least you won't need an absolute top-end graphics card.

Pearl Abyss says that a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti or Radeon RX 9070 XT should be good enough for 4K 60 fps, and sure, they are very expensive graphics cards, and they're the latest models from AMD and Nvidia. But look: no mention of upscaling or frame generation, no RTX 5090 required to get a reasonable frame rate.

I'd expect 4K maxed out to require something potent in an open-world game with pretty graphics, and Crimson Desert doesn't fail to disappoint here, but it's not excessively demanding. On paper, at least.

And the developer gets some brownie points from me for creating a console-like requirements table for handheld gaming PCs. Well, two very specific handheld PCs: the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. Rather than use the same graphics presets for desktop/laptops PC, Pearl Abyss appears to be taking the same approach as it does for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

By that, I mean you'll select between Performance, Balanced, and Quality modes to get the visuals-performance balance you want. No word on how other handhelds will do this, but hopefully, it's just as simple to switch things around on a Steam Deck.

What is puzzling is just why the developer specifically namechecked the ROG Xbox Ally pair and why they're being treated as if they're consoles, because they're absolutely not: The Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X are handheld PCs running Windows, just like most other devices of that nature.

Asus has partnered with AMD to bundle Crimson Desert with certain hardware, but that's it as far as any obvious collaborations (read: give me money, I mentioned your hardware) go. Tis all a bit odd.

Anyway, assuming that none of these system requirements is 'aspirational' as many often are, it looks like the number of PCs that will be able to run Crimson Desert, and run it well, should be pretty big. It's almost as if the developers have years of experience in handling one game on lots of different rigs. Oh, wait, they do: Black Desert Online.

Being able to encrypt and protect your data can be important, even if it’s to stop your little brother from accessing your Steam library, and at CES this year Lexar revealed its Touchlock SSD, which melds 128-bit AES hardware encryption and a capacity of 512 GB or 1 TB (and a 2 TB version has been announced) with an NFC reader, so you can use your phone to unlock it. It also has one of those clever MagSafe rings on it, so you can stick it to the back of your phone, but it will work with almost anything with a USB port, be that a Windows or Linux PC, a Mac, or either kind of smartphone.

It’s not the fastest drive out there, as Lexar has chosen to fit it with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface—that’s the 5 Gbps one—which is an odd decision given that phones like the Pixel 10 Pro and recent iPhones come with Gen 2 ports that are twice as fast, and our PCs bristle with USB4 and Thunderbolt sockets. But it’s still a decent speed, and if you’re using it as a way to expand the storage in your Steam Deck you’re not going to notice the difference. It probably helps keep the price down too.

With a name like TouchLock, you might expect the drive to have a built-in fingerprint reader, but you’d be mistaken. The security here comes via your phone. It magnetically clamps itself to the back of your iPhone or Android model and talks to the Lexar mobile app via NFC. And if you’ve got it hooked up to your PC, you’ll need to unlock it in this way before Windows even knows it’s there.

Setup is straightforward. Get the Lexar app installed on your phone, then use the included USB cable to connect them together. Snap the drive onto the back of the phone, and the app will launch, and you’ll need to go through a brief pairing ceremony in which a recovery key is generated. This looks rather like the Winter Soldier’s activation phrase, and you'll have to repeat it back to the app once you’ve saved it somewhere safe—this involves tapping words in the right order on the phone screen rather than typing them in, and doesn’t take long. That done, you can unlock the drive at any time by pressing it against your phone, no matter what the USB port is connected to.

The included cable is an odd one. It’s clearly marked 10 Gbps despite this being a 5 Gbps drive, and comes with a USB-C to A adapter that will only go on one way thanks to a small plastic clip. The drive seemed quite happy being connected to a PC via a USB4 cable, though it did nothing to improve its performance.

Speaking of which, it doesn’t do badly for a Gen 1 drive. Obviously it was never going to transfer data at the same speed as a USB4 drive, or even USB 3.2 Gen 2, but it’s surprising how small the gap can be. PCG uses Final Fantasy 14’s benchmark to test external drives, and while the Crucial X9 loads the Shadowbringers test in 16.5 seconds, the Lexar TouchLock does it in 15.2s. And it’s the same in Dawntrail, with the X9’s 14.29s loading time beaten by the TouchLock’s 12.75s.

Lexar TouchLock benchmarks

3DMark Storage

Index

Bandwidth (MB/s)

Average Access Time (µs)

Lexar TouchLock

558

90.88

305

Samsung T7 Shield

857

140

212

Samsung T9

1045

181.54

174

Crucial X9

875

152

208

Crucial X10

1136

181.36

147

03757501,1251,500

3DMark Storage Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	558 Index, 90.88 Bandwidth (MB/s), 305 Average Access Time (µs)
Samsung T7 Shield	857 Index, 140 Bandwidth (MB/s), 212 Average Access Time (µs)
Samsung T9	1045 Index, 181.54 Bandwidth (MB/s), 174 Average Access Time (µs)
Crucial X9	875 Index, 152 Bandwidth (MB/s), 208 Average Access Time (µs)
Crucial X10	1136 Index, 181.36 Bandwidth (MB/s), 147 Average Access Time (µs)

CrystalDiskMark

SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s)

SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s)

RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s)

RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Lexar TouchLock

409.88

428.88

24.37

22.96

Samsung T7 Shield

1052.55

999.02

31.18

59.44

Samsung T9

2005.41

1887.7

32.69

75.79

Crucial X9

1028

970

35.56

73.92

Crucial X10

1900.81

2002.7

33.45

103.38

07501,5002,2503,000

CrystalDiskMark Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	409.88 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 428.88 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 24.37 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 22.96 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Samsung T7 Shield	1052.55 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 999.02 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 31.18 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 59.44 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Samsung T9	2005.41 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 1887.7 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 32.69 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 75.79 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Crucial X9	1028 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 970 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 35.56 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 73.92 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Crucial X10	1900.81 SEQ1M Q8T1 Read (MB/s), 2002.7 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 33.45 RND4k Q1T1 Read (MB/s), 103.38 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail

Total Loading Time (seconds)

Scene #1

Scene #2

Scene #3

Scene #4

Scene #5

Lexar TouchLock

12.75

0.401

3.044

3.436

3.17

2.699

Samsung T9

13.51

0.469

3.119

3.879

3.657

2.386

Crucial X9

14.291

0.478

3.244

3.91

3.799

2.86

Crucial X10

8.271

0.421

1.962

2.227

2.096

1.565

03.757.511.2515

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	12.75 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.401 Scene #1, 3.044 Scene #2, 3.436 Scene #3, 3.17 Scene #4, 2.699 Scene #5
Samsung T7 Shield	N/A
Samsung T9	13.51 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.469 Scene #1, 3.119 Scene #2, 3.879 Scene #3, 3.657 Scene #4, 2.386 Scene #5
Crucial X9	14.291 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.478 Scene #1, 3.244 Scene #2, 3.91 Scene #3, 3.799 Scene #4, 2.86 Scene #5
Crucial X10	8.271 Total Loading Time (seconds), 0.421 Scene #1, 1.962 Scene #2, 2.227 Scene #3, 2.096 Scene #4, 1.565 Scene #5

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Total Loading Time (seconds)

Scene #1

Scene #2

Scene #3

Scene #4

Scene #5

Lexar TouchLock

15.26

3.174

3.962

4.094

2.611

1.423

Samsung T9

13.91

1.659

3.847

4.237

2.829

1.333

Crucial X9

16.5

2.178

4.27

4.652

3.646

1.75

Crucial X10

9.55

1.794

2.405

2.682

1.74

0.926

05101520

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	15.26 Total Loading Time (seconds), 3.174 Scene #1, 3.962 Scene #2, 4.094 Scene #3, 2.611 Scene #4, 1.423 Scene #5
Samsung T7 Shield	N/A
Samsung T9	13.91 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.659 Scene #1, 3.847 Scene #2, 4.237 Scene #3, 2.829 Scene #4, 1.333 Scene #5
Crucial X9	16.5 Total Loading Time (seconds), 2.178 Scene #1, 4.27 Scene #2, 4.652 Scene #3, 3.646 Scene #4, 1.75 Scene #5
Crucial X10	9.55 Total Loading Time (seconds), 1.794 Scene #1, 2.405 Scene #2, 2.682 Scene #3, 1.74 Scene #4, 0.926 Scene #5

Temperature

Peak (°C)

Idle (°C)

Lexar TouchLock

44

37

Samsung T7 Shield

69

30

Samsung T9

62

27

Crucial X9

60

25

Crucial X10

55

40

020406080

Temperature Data

Product	Value
Lexar TouchLock	44 Peak (°C), 37 Idle (°C)
Samsung T7 Shield	69 Peak (°C), 30 Idle (°C)
Samsung T9	62 Peak (°C), 27 Idle (°C)
Crucial X9	60 Peak (°C), 25 Idle (°C)
Crucial X10	55 Peak (°C), 40 Idle (°C)

The Lexar drive can’t beat the Crucial one everywhere—in sequential data transfer tests things are exactly as you’d expect, with the X9 running about twice as fast as the TouchLock, but it goes to show that in game loading, sequential speed isn’t what matters.

Lexar’s drive goes on to beat even the Samsung T9 (USB 3.2x2, 13.51s) in the Dawntrail loading race, which takes place at 1440p to simulate the way we play our games these days. There's less than two seconds between the contenders here, so we’re not talking about huge differences, but it’s interesting to see that the fastest drive on paper isn’t always the best when it comes to game loading.

On the outside, this is a nicely proportioned and extremely light SSD, perfectly proportioned to snap to the back of a phone and act as a backup drive for movies and photos, or perhaps to hold media for playback. It’s also handy for transferring those media files to a PC for editing, and while holding an extended Steam library may not be exactly what Lexar had in mind when it designed the TouchLock, it handles this task well too.

If security is important to you, the TouchLock may not be the absolute best for encryption, as Samsung’s T7 Shield offers 256-bit scrambling, but it does win in terms of convenience, as long as you have your phone with you every time you want to use it. Being a USB 3.2 Gen 1 device also means it can more easily hook up to a broader range of devices, including phones, tablets and older PCs as well as Macs and those that run Linux, without needing to worry about which flavour of Thunderbolt you’re trying to connect to.

It worked first time on every device I tried it on, once unlocked with my phone. It’s also reasonably priced, which in a world where the cost of anything made of silicon seems to be on an upward spiral, is an important thing to consider.

The good folks over at the r/DataHoarder subreddit take storage seriously. This, I would imagine, is obvious. One user, however, took their desire for silly amounts of hard drive space to the extreme when they flew from the UK to New York City in order to purchase ten 28 TB external hard drives, all in an effort to avoid inflated prices (via Videocardz).

Redditor cgtechuk recounted their adventure to the group over the weekend, and while the lengths they went to to get their hands on such mega-sized drives seems excessive, it looks like their experience was a remarkably positive one.

Decided to fly to the US to buy some hard drives from r/DataHoarder

"Having been watching the prices of 28 TB drives go literally ridiculous in the UK, I decided to book a short trip to New York just after new year to stock up on some 28 TBs," says our intrepid storage explorer. "And given that the prices were only going up I decided to buy 10 of them."

"The 2 main issues were that they were in and out of stock in both Best Buy and B&H Photo and [I] didn't want to risk getting orders cancelled by ordering 2 x 5 drives from the same place as they both have a max purchase limit of 5. So [I] found a day when they were in stock in both places."

After arriving in the US, cgtechuk says they were worried about "being scammed", so they recorded "every part of picking up the drives", and filmed the opening and testing of the HDDs in their hotel room for good measure. This involved running several software programs and performing file copies to confirm that the drives were 28 TB units, and not smaller, swapped out drives.

However, getting the HDDs back into the UK presented some luggage-based issues:

"Turns out 10 drives was a mistake, [I] should have picked 8 as that would have been much easier logistically. It took up pretty much all of my hand luggage space, however I must admit the foam inserts from inside the retail boxes helped the drives fit better," says cgtechuk.

"I ended up packing all the cardboard and powerpacks in a full size suitcase in case I had to warranty anything but I got the actual 28s home in my hand luggage to the UK with minimal fuss."

The real question is, did our storage survivor end up saving any money? Well, according to them, the answer is a resounding yes:

"[The] drives were £244 per drive when purchased plus 20% Import VAT to the UK so after taxes its around £300 per drive. The exact same expansion drive is for sale on Amazon UK for £568 and there are recertified 28 TB drives on eBay UK for £420."

Assuming a £268 saving per brand new drive, that would leave £2,680 spare for flights, accommodation, and extras. However, cgtechuk says the trip was more cost effective for them, as "I used points to book both the hotel and the flights, so without that the saving would not be as great as the expenses would be higher."

Fair enough, and may I say, masterful work. Assuming you had a burning, ever-present desire for 280 TB of storage that simply couldn't be satiated any other way, this method would mean that not only do you get your HDD kicks, but a trip to one of the world's premier tourist destinations factored into the costs—with potentially some money left over to boot.

Although I don't relish the thought of making my way through airport security with my luggage full of hard drives, but for our redditor, it appears to have gone very smoothly: "I have TSA pre and they didn't even get secondary just straight through with no issues."

"They did get stopped and swabbed in the UK which is to be expected given its large metal objects in a suitcase. But all in all no real issues."

"Anyway it can be done," says cgtechUK. "Bit of a crazy idea tying up so much money in external drives but was worth it in the end."

You do you, my friend. You do you.

They say the wheels of industry never stop turning, and it seems that's true even when the chassis on top has fallen off, because as current-gen SSD prices continue to climb, the next generation is already being spun up. According to ZDNet Korea's sources, Samsung is "embarking on full-scale preparations" for PCIe 6.0 SSDs, with the first orders being for R&D and mass production orders only expected in the second half of the year.

I suppose that's me looking at it from a consumer perspective, though, because Samsung is hardly going to be viewing the current demand-induced supercycle as the car falling off its wheels. Rather, for Samsung—as with all memory and storage makers—current high prices and extra demand is very welcome fuel for a growing fire. AI, which is fuelling the demand, really is "making memory sexy again", as Micron told us almost two years ago. And ditto storage, it seems.

None of that seems to have affected next-gen production timelines, though, because Samsung's plan to start making these drives in 2026 isn't new. It showed off its first PCIe 6.0 drive, the PM1763, last summer at the Future of Memory and Storage summit, where it was awarded Best of Show for the Most Innovative Memory Technology.

That's an enterprise and datacentre SSD, by the way, so don't expect to be getting it in your gaming PC. It's a 256 TB drive, which is mighty alluring but probably just a little out of budget for a home PC. A 512 TB version is planned for 2027.

Not that it would be worth spending the inordinate amount of money a bleeding-edge drive would surely cost anyway, even if it was a reasonably sized one for gaming. PCIe 4.0 drives are still perfectly fine for gaming, even now Gen 5 drives are finally worth considering alongside Gen 4 ones. The random read/write performance gains between SSD generations simply don't justify spending a bunch extra on the latest and greatest tech.

This won't be the first PCIe 6.0 drive out in the wild, either. We saw Micron launch one last July, three years after the Gen 6 standard was finalised. That one is for AI servers, too. AI, eh? It comes for us all.

At least it's not come for our gaming drives just yet... oh, wait. Yeah, scratch that, it's coming for us all. Let's hope those datacentres move over to Gen 6 before too long and leave some Gen 4 and 5 scraps for the rest of us.

Long-term data storage is a tricky one. As I look at my personal hard drives, full of photos, screenshots, and ancient drafts of teenage poetry I hope never see the light of day, I can't help but wonder how long I really have until I encounter the dread spectre of disk failure.

SSDs may sound like the obvious solution, but have you seen SSD prices lately? Besides, even storage giant SanDisk says, "most SSDs will last anywhere from 5 to 10 years." That's hardly archival-quality. However, a fresh study from Microsoft has found an unlikely medium that can potentially store high-density data for up to 10,000 years—namely, laser-etched glass.

Now, obviously, the claim that etching glass with femtosecond laser pulses actually achieves data storage for 10,000 years is not really provable. Additionally, this isn't even the first time Microsoft has explored glass-based data storage. The real headline here is that the research team has made glass-based storage way less expensive—and therefore way more likely to become a widespread reality.

According to a blog post from partner research manager Richard Black, the new Project Silica technique "stores hundreds of layers of data in glass only 2 mm thin, as with previous methods, but with important improvements." Firstly, the project has shifted away from using "expensive fused silica to ordinary borosilicate glass found in kitchen cookware." That's right: the future of long-term data storage might actually be Pyrex.

That's not the only way Project Silica manages to keep costs down, though. "The reader for the glass now needs only one camera, not three or four, reducing cost and size," Black goes on to write, "In addition, the writing devices require fewer parts, making them easier to manufacture and calibrate, and enabling them to encode data more quickly."

It's a properly sci-fi development that, unlike much of real-world AI, genuinely inspires. Just picture it: museums of glass, translucent server rooms, and libraries full of gently twinkling tomes.

Anyway, I'll stop pitching my debut novel for a beat—the future of Project Silica is not a done deal, either. The research phase has concluded, but there's no guarantee you'll ever hold something like an SSD with thin glass innards in your hands. All Black says of the future is: "We are continuing to consider learnings from Project Silica as we explore the ongoing need for sustainable, long-term preservation of digital information."

Backblaze has published its latest HDD reliability report for 2025 (via Businesswire) and the good news is that old school hard drives are getting more reliable. The bad news? HDD maker WD has announced that it's basically sold out for 2026, thanks to, oh yes, AI.

Backblaze's report analyses fully 344,196 hard drives across 30 different drive models from WD, HGST, Toshiba and Seagate. The overall failure rate of the drives for 2025 was 1.36%, down from 1.55% in 2024. These are HDDs sitting in a cloud server environment, and so presumably getting a harder 24/7 hammering than you might expect for your typical PC HDD, not that all too many desktop PCs run HDDs these days.

Actually, do these results suggest that maybe we should reconsider HDDs, especially now that SSD prices are getting silly? Well, maybe. But it's tricky. More reliable HDDs would certainly help their appeal versus SSDs. Not that SSDs are perfect, but I'd wager total drive failures are now much less common in this SSD age than the HDD era. That must be especially true for laptop PCs that get more of a physical beating.

There's the performance angle, too, of course. I reported recently that WD has recently been bigging up some new HDD tech it promises to give drives "flash-like" performance. But that's probably only for fairly narrow sequential performance metrics, not random access. Even then, that tech isn't actually available today, and it's not clear when it will hit the market.

Arguably, making all that moot is another WD announcement, namely that it has essentially sold out of HDDs for the whole of 2026. "We're pretty much sold out for calendar 2026," Western Digital's CEO Irving Tan says. Oh, great.

WD says that Tan shared that most of its production for 2026 has been allocated to its "top seven customers." One assumes the Venn diagram of those seven WD customers and the so-called Magnificent Seven tech companies has a fair old bit of overlap.

In other words, WD's production for 2026 seems to have been inhaled by AI server farms. Three of the seven have also booked up a chunk of WD's production for 2027 and 2028, too. Joy.

Oh, and get this. Consumer HDDs account for just 5% of WD's revenues. Now, a lot of that is no doubt down to the fact that most PCs have shifted away from HDDs in favour of SSDs. And WD isn't big in SSDs.

But, still, the overall narrative here remains depressingly familiar. We're looking at HDDs being hoovered up by AI, too. So, if you thought snagging a cheap HDD as an interim solution if SSD prices get even worse, AI is way ahead of you and plans to spoil that idea, too. Hey ho.

In response to the rising prices of RAM and storage in 2026, the Nintendo Switch 2 may be set to become more expensive.

This is according to research firm Niko Partners (via VGC). In its 2026 prediction post, Niko Partner says, "We believe the Switch 2 is set to follow in Sony and Microsoft’s footsteps with its own price hike driven by the impact from tariffs, increased memory costs, and broader macroeconomic conditions."

The report goes on to point out that Nintendo chose to keep the $449 price point last year, despite tariffs impacting production, and it suggests that Nintendo may instead choose to remove the cheapest Switch bundle. This would make buying a Nintendo Switch 2 more expensive, but only for those looking for a console by itself. If you buy the console in a bundle, it could cost the same, according to this prediction.

Tied to potential price hikes, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa spoke to Kyoto Shimbun last week (thanks again, VGC, for the spot).

In that interview, Furukawa said (machine translated) "We procure from suppliers based on our medium- to long-term business plans, but the current memory market is very volatile." Adding to this, he says, "there is no immediate impact on earnings, but it is something we must monitor closely".

Furukawa doesn't confirm or deny those predictions either way but does say, "While it’s difficult to accurately gauge the future impact, our basic policy is to recognize tariffs as a cost and pass them on to prices as much as possible, not just in the US".

However, Furukawa also argues, "On the other hand, this is a crucial period for our game business as we promote the adoption of new hardware and maintain the momentum of our platforms. We are working on this while carefully considering the situation."

The volatility Furukawa gestures at is naturally being considered, but pricing is so important to a console, especially so early on in its life. The Nintendo Switch 2 only launched last June, and given the relatively budget price of the OG Switch and the Steam Deck, it felt like a lot of money for a console with few exclusives.

My first six months with the Switch 2 have certainly been positive, but paying even more for a device that can still get stick drift hurts the hardware nerd in me. And the Nintendo kid, too.

For anyone hoping against hope that the memory supply crisis just might start to stabilise in 2026, I've got bad news: An executive at Kioxia, a memory manufacturer based in Japan, recently admitted that the company's production volume for the year is already sold out.

The managing director of Kioxia's memory business unit, Shunsuke Nakato, made the admission during an interview with Korean news outlet Digital Daily, elaborating that the ever-hungry AI industry's demand for memory has led to a challenging supply and demand situation. Nakato went on to say that, as many companies are continuing to invest in AI out of a fear of being left behind, the situation is likely to continue into 2027 at least.

Though memory supplies are limited, Kioxia is apparently deploying something of a 'gentleman's agreement' with its clients, remaining committed to existing contracts rather than adopting a 'first-come, first-served' or 'everything to the highest bidder' approach. However, Nakato also admits that even long-term Kioxia customers are having to contend with as much as a 30% year-on-year price increase.

Also interesting to note from this interview is Nakato's scepticism about QLC tech. For context, SK Hynix unveiled a 'world first' 321-layer QLC flash memory chip last year, while Micron revealed it wasn't completely abandoning the consumer arena by announcing its PCIe 5.0 QLC drive, the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD. Nakato highlighted concerns about the tech's lifespan and performance, before arguing that eighth-generation NAND flash would still be preferable as it overcomes those issues at a structural level.

Otherwise, Nakata's comments regarding the memory supply crisis are 'so far, so familiar,'—though some industry observers have suggested there'll be no end in sight through 2028 and beyond.

Still, it may not be all doom and gloom. For one, Nakato was keen to highlight the suite of new products Kioxia intends to release throughout 2026. For another, the interview also highlighted Kioxia's high production capacity and its plans to ease the supply situation by improving the operational efficiency of its Yokkaichi and Kitakami factories.

The Yokkaichi plant is already one of the largest flash memory production facilities in the world, but a second chip fab will also enter full-scale production later this year at the Kitakami site. That said, this is unlikely to appreciably ease the supply situation in the short term—for instance, even though the second largest memory maker SK Hynix has significantly moved up a number of its chip foundry plans, we're still unlikely to see an appreciable improvement in memory supply for some time yet.

Grab any SSD from a gaming PC, and you'll find that it has one of two types of NAND flash memory chips: TLC or QLC. While the former is faster and more robust, the latter offers considerably more storage, making it ideal for housing terabyte-hungry games. And if SK Hynix's developments with PLC chips come to fruition, we could see a return to sensible SSD prices.

PLC or Penta-Level Cell flash chips aren't a new thing, as Intel, Toshiba, and SK Hynix all started working on their development a little over six years ago. Up to now, it doesn't seem like much progress has been made, but as reported by Blocks and Files, it would appear that SK Hynix has perhaps unlocked the key to making them commercially viable.

Flash memory cells work by using a large voltage to effectively ram electric charge across an insulated gap. Once there, it can remain stored for very long periods of time before requiring a top-up. Single-Level Cell (SLC) works like a switch: it either has all the charge or none, giving you two states or one bit of digital information.

That only requires the voltage sensors with the flash chips to read one voltage, which is very quick and simple to do. However, because it's only 1 bit of storage, you need a lot of SLCs to get any reasonable-sized memory capacity.

Which is where the likes of TLC, QLC, and PLC come in. With each of these, more charge states are used in the cell, giving rise to more bits of storage: three for TLC, four for QLC, and so on. However, this also increases the number of different voltages that need to be read, as well as decreasing the gap between them.

This slows down the whole process, with data reads and writes all taking longer, and makes them less reliable. Not just in terms of the accuracy of reading the voltages, but also the longevity of the cell itself. So much so with PLCs, that they're just not usable right now.

SK Hynix's solution to all of this is to chop the cells in half. Rather than requiring an enormous 31 voltage levels to get the five bits of storage, each half only requires six levels. The combination of the two halves' voltages produces 36 voltage levels; more than enough for PLC. And since each half only has six levels, each one is more reliable and quicker to use.

Essentially, it's a bit like jamming two almost-TLCs into one cell, giving you the storage benefits of PLC but without the drawbacks. Well, there is at least one drawback, namely the increased cost for the manufacturing process and the complex circuitry required to manage the split cells.

But given that SK Hynix is one of the largest NAND flash manufacturers in the world, second only to Samsung, there's a good chance that all of this can be made commercially viable. While we're unlikely to see PLC SSDs in our gaming PCs any time soon, the rampant demand for flash storage by the AI industry will probably help speed things along.

If this all comes to fruition within a reasonable time, we could see standard SSDs drop back to a sensible price. But for now, it's pretty grim out there if you want a high-capacity drive for your gaming rig.

In this age where AI threatens to do everything for us, robbing the human race of agency, is there a certain masochistic appeal in intentionally and needlessly making something much more complicated and manual than usual?

That'll a be a huge, 50-storey, fully-carpeted yep according to YouTuber DocJade. He decided that installing and running the construction and management simulation game, Factorio, on a hard drive, like a normal human, is far too straight forward. So, why not use 3.5-inch floppy disks. Like, over a thousand of 'em.

This immediately throws up almost countless problems, starting with the circa 1.5 MB capacity of a double-sided variant of such a disk and the fact that they're not made any longer.

That's before you even think about the technicalities. Factorio is a very small game by modern standards, taking up about 1 GB to 1.5 GB of storage space once installed. But that's absolutely massive if a floppy disk is your metric.

Cost is an immediate problem, with 10 old-stock floppies apparently costing about $23, you're looking at about $2,500 in floppies adding in some spares. In the end, DocJade managed to source 1,250 disks from floppydisk.com for an undisclosed price. They turned out to be old AOL dial-up internet free trial disks, which added up to 250 years of free AOL dial-up access, albeit AOL recently ended that service after 34 years. Pity.

Anyway, DocJade says the easy way to do this would be to make a series of floppy-sized files and open them one-by-one in a virtual machine. But that, as he says, would mean no using physical floppies. And that's cheating.

Another option is a huge RAID array, but you'd need a drive for each disk, which would cost over $10,000 and, as he says, "Windows does not like having a lot of USB devices plugged into it."

So, how to run the game from the disks when you can only have one disk in the drive at a time? This where things get very technical. But very long story hugely truncated, he wrote his own file system. Yep, really. It's dubbed Fluster and was written in RUST.

For most games, an approach like this would be a nightmare. Things like texture streaming would mean manually locating and retrieving endless non-physically-adjacent floppies. He says many modern games couldn't cope with this and would "simply crash". But Factorio loads almost the entire game before hitting the title screen. So it should theoretically work.

Anywho, the Fluster file system divides each disk into 512-byte blocks, with 2,880 blocks per disk. The specifics of Fluster's file system headers mean it's limited to about 65,000 disks. But that adds up to about 90 GB, more than enough for Factorio.

Other details include the last four bytes of every block allocated to a CRC checksum to enable accurate disk corruption detection, while a pair of 16-bit numbers act as disk pointers, keeping track of all the blocks. The first stores the disk number for the block, the second the block number on the disk. Simples!

From here, there's some stuff about inodes used for pointing at files in the system that's well beyond me. And then more stuff about directory blocks and file extent blocks that's even more beyond me, but essentially allows files to be split up into chunks so they can be allocated across multiple blocks.

Initially, DocJade used Windows, not Linux. But because he wanted to make Fluster a FUSE file system, but he couldn't get that to work on Windows, he switched the whole thing to Linux, or rather Windows subsystem for Linux, which had its own set of problems with things like USB passthrough.

Initial versions of Fluster seemed promising for smaller file sizes. But problems emerged as the data scaled up. Early testing showed that writing 1,000 files with random small sizes to a folder would take nearly half a million physical disk swaps, each individually promoted by disk number. Not good!

But after trying a lot of different cache strategies, DocJade managed to get the whole thing down to 1,500 disk swaps for loading the game. He then made up 2,000 custom stickers for the floppies and had to wipe all 1,250 of the disks manually, with a 10% failure rate for that process alone. As for actually loading the game from the disks, that takes over a week, working "sunrise to sunset".

The game still isn't 100% functional due to issues like Fluster's lack of support for locked files. But pre-saved games can be launched and the YouTube video shows it running apparently well enough for DocJade to "beat" Factorio in a little under nine hours play time.

Rounding this insanity out, it's worth noting that DocJade is just 21 years of age. In an ironic kind of way given the ultimate frivolity of this endeavour, that's enough to have you wondering what the heck you've done with your life.

Finally and for the record, the Fluster file system is now fully open sourced and available on DocJade's GitHub. So, if you fancy a go you won't even have to code your own file system. Bit too easy then, if you ask me.

For the last year and a bit, I've sat down every Friday morning to update our guide to the best SSD deals for gaming. Today, I sat down for the first time in 2026, only to see that the memory supply crisis is well and truly having a knock-on effect on SSD pricing.

Our Jeremy has already been keeping an eye on surging PC hardware prices, but this morning presented a more recent example. I just wrote a deal post about the 1 TB version of the Lexar NM790 NVMe SSD which, today, is going for $118. Not terrible, right? Well, that's what I thought until I remembered I had in fact written about the same SSD back in October of last year—when it was only $66.

That is a close to 50% price increase in about four months. Even worse, this same drive cost almost $150 within the last month according to Amazon price tracker Camelcamelcamel.

The Lexar is far from the most egregious increase I've seen, with higher capacity SSDs more severely affected. For one extreme example, Best Buy is currently asking for over a grand for the 4 TB version of the WD_Black SN850X SSD. It's hard to rule this out as simply a listing error when Newegg is asking for $520 for the same drive. If we look back at my Amazon price tracker of choice, you can see an almost runaway spike from between November last year to now.

As for the 8 TB model of the WD_Black SN850X, that's now $1,080 at Newegg, an almost 55% price increase compared to when I last wrote about it in May. It's also important to note that this is all arguably older stock too, as none of these drives are sporting Sandisk's recent rebrand. The 8 TB version of the drive is out of stock on Amazon, but taking a peek at the price tracker reveals another massive spike beginning November 2025 and continuing into January 2026.

These are just a few examples, but it's clear that the realm of SSD now finds itself thoroughly caught up in the memory apocalypse. Long story short, as the AI industry builds more and more data centres (often in ill-advised climes for the hardware inside), it's going to need more and more system memory like DRAM, as well as storage media like SSDs. Moving at a swift clip and throwing a great deal of money around, that means a memory shortage for us normal folk, due to the limitations in manufacturing facilities. Perhaps worst of all, these surging prices are far from wholly unexpected either.

In October, Adata's Chen Libai observed that most major memory and storage technologies were experiencing a shortage for the first time in about 30 years. In November, Phison's CEO Khein-Seng Pua shared in an earnings call that "every NAND manufacturer" has said they're "sold out" for 2026. Then in December, Kingston's Cameron Crandall also sounded the SSD pricing alarm, explaining that the company had very recently seen a 246% increase in NAND wafer prices.

But even in December, I was less keen on the advice Crandall gave at the time, saying if you were thinking about a hardware upgrade, you should "do it now and [don't] wait, because prices are going to continue to go up." On the one hand, yes, there's a chance prices have yet to peak. On the other, panic-buying is never the answer in the midst of a shortage. If you can, wait or simply use what you already have. If you can't, buying an entirely new rig may actually work out cheaper in some select circumstances.

I'm not going to lie to you, SSD pricing is pretty dire right now due to the memory apocalypse. As such, the end of 2025 was all doom and gloom about how we may not see sensibly priced storage for who knows how long—even Micron killed off its own Crucial brand, which had provided some of the best SSDs for gaming previously. And yet, a Micron-made SSD survives in 2026.

The company has just announced the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD, which it bills as "the industry’s first PCIe Gen5 QLC client SSD, powered by Micron G9 NAND." This release suggests that not only is Micron keeping at least a toe in the consumer market despite what was implied mere weeks ago, but that the company may even help pave the way back to reasonable storage pricing.

Historically, QLC isn't what you want anywhere near your SSD, due to its high bits per cell leading to sluggish performance and questionable reliability. But times are changing; last year, SK Hynix introduced 321-layer QLC flash memory chips that boasted 100% faster transfer speeds and up to 56% greater write performance than earlier QLC memory. Long story short, the greater NAND density afforded by QLC tech packing in the layers should eventually mean cheaper SSDs.

Thankfully, the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD doesn't disappoint on performance. As another DRAM-less drive, the 3610 is geared towards energy efficiency, apparently providing an "up to 43% improvement on performance per watt." It also enjoys a sequential read performance of up to 11 GB/s and a sequential write of up to 9.3 GB/s, making for a speedy game drive. However, that's not where the US-based company is aiming its spotlight.

Gaming does still get a look-in during the 3610's product trailer, but it's clearly not the main focus, with the SSD's suitability towards thrashing against large AI models instead being what's pitched as the headline act.

That's perhaps unsurprising for Micron, which goes on to elaborate, "It is capable of loading 20 billion-parameter AI models in less than three seconds, delivering real-time AI insights and high-quality experience for mainstream client devices."

The Micron 3610 NVMe SSD is available in three M.2 form factors—2280, 2242, and 2230—plus capacities up to 4 TB. It's worth noting the 1 TB model is slightly slower than the larger capacity options, only getting up to 7,200 MB/s on the sequential write. That's still fast enough for a lot of games and slim enough to fit inside even the thinnest of gaming laptops, but Micron is clearly more interested in supporting consumer demand for local AI workloads.

Much of CES 2026 has been AI-focussed, though that's despite lacklustre consumer enthusiasm, rather than being fuelled by it. Dell's presentation was a bit of a standout at this year's trade show for keeping their messaging decidedly AI-lite; Dell head of product, Kevin Terwilliger, even went as far as to say, "What we've learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is they're not buying based on AI. In fact I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome."

With memory pricing ballooning to apocalyptic amounts due to demand from the AI industry, it doesn't feel like we've had much good news in the realm of SSDs in recent weeks. Well, Phison Electronics is looking to change that with the PCIe Gen5 controller it just unveiled at CES 2026.

The E37T PCIe Gen5 controller may not sound like the sexiest hardware update, but I promise there's plenty about it that's at least eyebrow-raising. Basically, you can think of it as a great big step up from the Phison E31T, which features in our current budget favourite for the best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming, the Crucial P510 NVMe SSD.

To make that short story a little longer, I'll borrow some of Phison's own words; the company touts the new E37T memory controller's ability "to deliver competitive price-to-performance value for modern consumer workloads across notebooks and mobile devices." To cut through the marketing-speak, this memory controller should make PCIe 5.0 drives not only faster but just a little more affordable, too.

Let's get into the numbers: according to Phison, "E37T achieves up to 14.7 GB/s sequential reads and 13.0 GB/s sequential writes, with up to 2,000K 4 KB random IOPS." Being about 3,000 MB/s faster than the Crucial P510 SSD, that's obviously quick, but that's arguably not even the best part.

For one thing, this SSD controller is geared towards an "active power efficiency measurement of under 2.3 W." Phison then goes on to share, "Its DRAM-less, 4-channel design keeps power consumption and thermals low, making it an ideal choice for next-generation laptops and mobile gaming using compact form factors."

In other words, the days of bulky heat sinks being a necessity for your cutting-edge PCIe 5.0 SSD may be numbered, as this memory controller affords far better temperature regulation and power management.

The E37T PCIe Gen5 SSD memory controller will feature in the Phison E28, the company's flagship PCIe Gen5 x4 NVMe drive. As far as we PC gamers go, we'll see more of it in SSDs from the likes of Corsair or Silicon Power. For those strangely desperate for the AI industry to at least get a look in, the E37T will likely play a part in Phison’s Pascari X201 and D201 enterprise SSDs geared towards data centres, too.

Release and pricing information for all of the above is still thin on the ground, but my fingers are crossed that I'll be entertaining the thought of a PCIe 5.0 SSD upgrade for my gaming rig a long time before 2028…

Sandisk is changing the names of its popular solid state drives. 'Does Sandisk even make any popular SSDs right now?', I hear you ask. Yes, it actually makes two of our top three best SSDs for gaming, though it's not as obvious today as one might expect.

Essentially, SSDs under the WD branding are actually owned by Sandisk. The two companies used to be one and the same—with Sandisk a subsidiary of WD. However, WD decided to separate from Sandisk; WD would focus on the lucrative HDD business and Sandisk would become its own entity focused on SSDs.

The split happened in February last year. It all went off without a hitch; the only problem being the branding. Sandisk, now independent from WD, had the company's name on most of its best products.

Today, that all changes. Sandisk is rolling out the 'Optimus' brand, which includes three tiers:

• Sandisk Optimus
• Sandisk Optimus GX
• Sandisk Optimus GX Pro

Yeah, heavy use of the letter X and the word 'Pro'; nothing out of the ordinary for a tech brand here.

The most important thing is you are still able to spot existing products on the shelves under their new guise.

The popular WD_Black SN7100 will be filed under Optimus GX 7100, and the newly released WD Blue SN5100 as the Sandisk Optimus 5100.

There's also an Optimus GX Pro 850X, a match for the WD_Black SN850X. While the WD_Black SN8100 is not currently listed on the new Sandisk Optimus website, one can assume it will go by 'Optimus GX Pro 8100' from the images provided.

Sandisk has also announced a new, speedy 2230 drive, the Sandisk Optimus GX 7100M, with up to 2 TB capacity and a read speed up to 7,250 MB/s.

"Millions of people around the world know and trust our internal drives, and the new Sandisk Optimus branding perfectly matches the strength of our portfolio," Anil Moolchandani, VP at Sandisk, says in a press release. "The family of internal SSD products are engineered to meet the demands of developer workflows and gaming environments for professionals, gamers, and other prosumers alike."

Though they won't say it, a rebrand is something of a necessity, and will see Sandisk lose out on years of hard-earned reputation and brand recognition for WD drives.

Products under the new brand will begin rolling out through the first half of 2026. And it's only the name that's changing—the underlying hardware, coming largely from a joint venture between Sandisk and Kioxia, remains the same high-octane mix we've come to expect from both WD and Sandisk products over the years.

Okay, you got me: It does feel kind of weird to be celebrating our SSD hardware award nominees right as we stare down 2026, and the surging memory prices that will no doubt have an expensive, knock-on effect over storage. But 2025 isn't over just yet so, while I've got the breathing room, I'm gonna fill my lungs and shout about the SSDs that impressed us the most this year.

Unlike last year, no teeny-tiny 2230 form factor drives get a look in this year. Obviously, handheld gaming PCs are no less popular, but internal NVMe SSDs have simply had a stronger showing this year.

However, that doesn't mean this is anything like a one horse race—even our best SSD for gaming has a veritable stable full of anime horse girls. Confusing metaphors? Me? Never. Anyway, keeping things interesting, it's not just one brand dominating the nominee top spots.

In fact, each of our nominees differ in terms of capacity and even form factor—we've even got an external SSD this year in the form of the exceptional Sandisk Extreme Pro. Obviously the thing all of our nominees share is that they'd all make for an excellent, speedy game drive for your rig—though the WD Black SN8100 NVMe SSD is easily the fastest by a significant margin. Better yet, some of them are even still reasonably priced to boot; you can pick up the Crucial P510 NVMe SSD for comfortably less than $150! So, without further ado, take a gander at our three best SSD nominees below.

Best gaming SSD 2025: the nominees

So, that's our three SSD nominees this year, but which drive will race into first place? Stay tuned, because all of our hardware award winners will be announced on New Year's Eve. Got it memorised?

Users have discovered a registry tweak that can improve NVMe SSD performance on Windows 11, namely those all-important random 4k speeds.

Windows treats most drives as SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), which has been used for decades now and largely intended for hard drives. As such, NVMe drives that offer higher parallel performance than a hard drive are somewhat limited by the SCSI conversion: taking NVMe commands from an NVMe SSD and changing them to SCSI for the benefit of the OS, which introduces processing overhead and latency.

You can see this for yourself by going into your PC's device manager -> Standard NVM Express Controller -> properties -> details -> class. It will be described as 'SCSIAdapter'.

But Microsoft just announced that native NVMe support is now available in Windows Server 2025; essentially circumventing the entire conversion process and speeding things along.

"Switch onto Native NVMe as soon as possible or you are leaving performance gains on the table!" Microsoft says in the announcement blog post.

"With Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025, the storage stack is purpose-built for modern hardware—eliminating translation layers and legacy constraints."

Native NVMe support is an opt-in model, so enterprise users need to enable it via the registry. What some users have found out, however, is that it's possible to apply the same tweaks to Windows 11 and see similar improvements to those touted by Microsoft for enterprise users.

This is made possible through registry tweaks, which can only be carried out at your own risk. You can brick your PC, seriously.

As noted by Heise, the new driver is included with recent updates to Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11. There are three registry values that need to be set in order to get it operational, which, again, I really wouldn't recommend doing on your own machine right now.

• reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 735209102 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
• reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 1853569164 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
• reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 156965516 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

As noted in the above story, once enabled, an NVMe drive will show up under 'Storage Media' rather than 'Drives' in Device Manager. It also may cause some third-party software to incorrectly log the drive twice, not see it at all as some users report with Samsung Magician, or with some strange partition duplication, as noted by Tom's Hardware.

Though early results are very promising. User Jonathanwashere1 found a large increase in random 4K read and write performance as a result of the tweak; 45% and 49% respectively. This metric matters most for OS and gaming and is the metric where we've seen only smaller improvement in speeds with new products over the past few years.

Heise reports access times were reduced in synthetic benchmarks from the tweak. Users on the Guru3D forums also suggest decent improvements to random 4K performance, as did Reddit users testing handheld performance.

Microsoft also notes that enterprise users can see up to 80% higher IOPS (the best metric for random perf) and a reduction of around 45% for CPU cycles—essentially freeing up the CPU by removing the unnecessary translation layer. Users in the comments of Microsoft's post suggest mixed results but general improvements.

Altogether, a promising sign of things to come. should the update roll out to more systems. In order to do that, Microsoft will have to ensure it doesn't break multitude of system configurations. How likely this is to rollout to the wider masses then, depends on how viable that is. Though it does sound like something that should be done. The current implementation is, as this shows, a needless bottleneck for performance.

As for any effect on game load times, our pick for the best PCIe 5.0 SSD, the WD Black SN8100, offers the highest random 4K speeds around and loads FFXIV around one second faster than other comparable drives. I suspect we'll see some drives make larger gains with native NVMe support than others. Lower CPU overheads could make more of a tangible difference to performance on some PCs as a result.

As many users are keen to point out across the board, Linux has native NVMe support and has done for a very long time. So, if you're willing to give it a go, this is all the more reason to try out Linux this coming year.

G.Skill has issued a statement directly addressing the recent spike in its DRAM memory pricing. The company writes: "DRAM prices are experiencing significant industry-wide volatility, due to severe global supply constraints and shortages." I'll give you three guesses as to who G.Skill says is behind the memory shortage.

If you guessed "unprecedented high demand from the AI industry", then give yourself a shiny gold star. The memory company goes on to say, "As a result, G.Skill procurement and sourcing costs have substantially increased. G.Skill's pricing reflect industry-wide component cost increases from IC suppliers and is subject to change without notice based on market conditions."

G.Skill are just the latest memory manufacturer to speak on the subject of surging DRAM prices—add this statement to the pile. G.Skill joins modular laptop makers Framework, which has raised the price of its RAM options by 50% (though, somehow, this is still below the market rate). The market is so volatile right now that Samsung and SK Hynix are opting to "minimize the risk of oversupply" to avoid getting burned by another sea change—though that could drag out supply issues into 2028.

As the memory apocalypse rages on, you'd be forgiven for having a foreboding sense of deja vu. That's because it's not just system memory AI datacentres are so hungry for, but storage too. For instance, Kingston recently shared that it has seen a 246% increase in NAND wafer prices, with the biggest increase 'within the last 60 days.'

As a result, 2026 is shaping up to be a very expensive year for any consumer looking to upgrade their gaming rig or pick up a brand new system. Lenovo and HP have already warned customers to expect PC price hikes in January, though Dell got in on that action early.

Both Acer and Asus have confirmed they will be passing some of the burden of spiking memory costs on to consumers as well. In fact, both Acer CEO Jason Chen and Asus co-CEO Samson Hu have expressed that this is increasingly becoming an industry-wide consensus. For just the icing on a fairly rubbish-looking cake, Goldman Sachs research also suggests both DRAM and SSD pricing will continue to spike next year as demand simply outstrips the supply.

So, what can you do? Kingston's Datacentre SSD Business Manager Cameron Crandall recently said anyone looking to upgrade should "Do it now and [don't] wait, because prices are going to continue to go up."

However, I'd say panic-buying is still not the way. If you can, make the most of what you already have. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for deals on our best SSD deals for gaming page and our graphics card price watch. Or, you can pull up a chair and watch us despair at the runaway pricing of DDR5 memory.

Update 16 December, 2025: Via a statement issued to Wccftech, Samsung has denied that it will soon be winding down production of SATA SSDs. A Samsung Electronics spokesperson said, "The rumor regarding the phasing out of Samsung SATA or other SSDs is false."

So, while SATA drives from Samsung aren't going anywhere, surging prices and supply constraints for other SSDs remain different matters entirely.

Original story 15 December, 2025: Let's say you have this friend, right? And let's say they took one look at the current memory pricing apocalypse, and the knock-on effect it's having on NVMe SSDs, before scoffing, "Well, I'll just pick up some SATA drives—I'll save money, then!" Well, this friend of ours might want to get a hustle on, as these may become pricier and harder to find very soon.

Why? Samsung may announce as soon as January that it will be ceasing production of SATA SSDs—at least, according to the multiple industry sources that gaming and tech news channel Moore's Law Is Dead claims to have spoken to. This report predicts that the winding down of SATA SSD production will contribute to already rising storage prices over the next two years.

The Moore's Law Is Dead report reasons that, with so much of system and storage memory stock being eaten up by the rapidly expanding AI industry, it makes sense that Samsung would move away from more budget consumer fare like SSDs with a SATA interface. In fact, Samsung announced it was partnering with Nvidia on an 'AI Megafactory' back in October.

But besides the current AI-dominated landscape, NVMe SSDs can also be cheaper to produce while also reaching speeds unimpeded by their interface of choice. SATA interfaces enjoy a theoretical top speed of 550 MB/s or so, effectively bottlenecking any speedier NAND that may be housed within. With AI taking a bite out of the NAND apple, it's not hard to see why Samsung would rather put its supply to better, more profitable use elsewhere.

Along similar lines, SATA shells are just one more manufacturing cost for companies like Samsung to worry about. On the other hand, the 'what you see is what you get' design of NVMe drives may be more fragile, but it is also vastly more appealing to a manufacturer's bottom line.

Samsung isn't the only company that's made the headlines by bailing out of a much-loved market, either. Just a few weeks ago, Micron announced that it will shut down its Crucial consumer product line (DRAM, NVMe SSDs, and SATA SSDs) early next year.

However, the Moore's Law Is Dead report says it's not all doom and gloom, positing that the memory apocalypse won't necessarily continue past 2028 like some other predictions suggest, with prices potentially dropping towards the very end of 2026. The reasoning is that locally hosted AI apps will become much more in-demand and widespread around 2027, therefore requiring all the beefy memory hardware currently experiencing a shortage to be redirected to the production of consumer devices once more.

Either that or AI fails to make this consumer-focused pivot, and the swirling bubble of circular investments pops very dramatically. However, if this latter scenario plays out with a bubble one market analyst described as four times the size of the subprime mortgage bubble that led to the 2008 global crash, then a memory shortage may be the least of anyone's concerns.

I wish I had access to this explainer from Planetscale back when I was learning how different storage technologies work, rather than scratching my head at Wikipedia pages and Reddit 'explain like I'm five' threads that often seemed more like 'explain like I'm an engineer' ones.

I think this is probably the best explanation of different storage technologies and their respective latency problems that I've come across. And if, like me, you struggle a little with the (boring, let's face it) nitty gritty, but really get something out of visualisation and simple, big picture explanations, I think you'll agree.

The article is actually a long-form pitch for the company's latest cloud solution, but you won't see that up until right near the end, and until then, it's great for anyone looking to learn more about storage. It guides us through the three main storage types of the last few decades—tape, HDDs, and SSDs—and what causes read/write latency in each solution.

Part of what makes it such a useful explanation is its use of clear, simple, moving diagrams. Not only that, but many of them are interactive, allowing you to see what happens when you read and write data from different cells. It's actually a lot simpler, at the base of it, than you might think.

I reckon it will be particularly useful if you're interested in learning exactly why SSDs are faster than HDDs. The basic reason is that SSDs use transistors and speedy electrical currents to read and write data, rather than, say, the slower mechanical movement of an IO head on top of a spinning platter.

As the article explains: "The removal of mechanical components reduces the latency between when a request is made and when the drive can fulfill the request. There is no more waiting around for something to spin."

The part I found the most interesting and useful was the explanation of how SSDs can still have problems with latency and how these can be solved. Essentially, latency can be improved by having data written to or read from different targets simultaneously, in parallel, rather than having data coming from or going to just one target, one set of blocks of data. Reorganising data that needs to be deleted so it's next to other data that needs to be deleted can also cause slow-down.

All this is much easier to understand with the animated diagrams, though.

Apart from all this, the diagrams also help show just how ridiculously fast SSDs are compared to HDDs, and certainly compared to tape. The simple back-and-forth moving data diagrams show just how quickly pages or cells of data are read or written with each storage technology, and each new technology really is orders of magnitude quicker than the one before.

We know that, of course, but it's something else to see that visually represented so simply. All well worth a look if you're interested in understanding what makes our modern storage tick and what slows it down.

Prices for SSDs are not very stable right now. While not hit anywhere near as bad as memory, we're seeing price increases on many SSDs on a pretty regular basis. So if the prices here don't match up when you read this, that's likely why. We recommend using a price checker tool, such as CamelCamelCamel, to see if you're still getting a good deal.

It's been one year since I first reviewed the (now Sandisk) WD Blue SN5000, and boy oh boy, what a year it's been. That drive, at the time, didn't have a lot going for it. It was hot. It was slow. It was beaten by cheaper options, and thanks to using aging QLC NAND flash, it didn't quite deliver on the promises it made in a way that it needed to. Thankfully, the brand spanking new Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 I have here on review remedies practically every single one of my initial complaints.

From a newer, refined controller to far more advanced (though still QLC) NAND flash package with higher densities and better all-around performance, it makes a damn good argument for being one of the best SSDs money can buy, at least if the price is right. So much so that it enjoys a lovely 21% increase in score over the OG SSD.

Now, interestingly, Sandisk isn't pitching the SN5100 at gamers. It sees it primarily as a creator drive. An SSD designed for those looking for affordable mass storage, to house those pesky 4K video files and gigantic RAW photography archives we're all secretly hoarding somewhere, probably. In fact, it was a challenge to even get the PR team to send me a sample (Hey Toby!), as they were adamant it wasn't for gamers. Well, let me tell you, Sandisk, you couldn't be more wrong. Why am I so convinced of that? Let me explain.

The big change between this and the SN5000 comes in the form of what Sandisk has done with the NAND.

It's effectively replaced its 162-layer BiCS6 QLC NAND flash with its 218-layer BiCS8 3D QLC setup instead, dramatically reducing the bit size in the process. That's predominantly been done thanks to stacking more layers vertically, but according to Sandisk, there's also been improvements in the "lateral scaling" too, where the company's managed to shrink the cell size horizontally (the bit that holds the 1s and the 0s). This is actually the same tech and number of layers found in the now legendary Sandisk WD Black SN8100 as well (though that's utilizing TLC instead of QLC flash).

That gives us far better scaling and allows Sandisk to effectively house 4 TB of storage in a single NAND package. Which, in turn, improves power efficiency, lowers latency, and drastically helps speed up the drive. Something that the benchmarks show quite clearly, although more on that in a bit. Otherwise overall design has changed very little. It's still a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor, giving it broad compatibility with console, laptop, and PC alike; it still has that Sandisk Polaris 3 controller, and you, of course, get all the same warranties and bells and whistles we've come to expect from SSDs in the market.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

The good news is that the performance gains from that one change have been outstanding. It's a semi-budget drive that performs like no other I've tested. Sequential read and writes maxed out that PCIe 4.0 bandwidth with 7.3 GB/s on the read and 6.7 GB/s on the write. 3DMark's SSD benchmark test equally put in a seriously impressive showing, with a score of 3,915, with SSD bandwidth marked at 672.63 and a latency of just 59 ns. That's actually quite close to being on par with some of the more current PCIe 5.0 SSDs I've tested (it's only 100 MB/s off the Crucial T710, for example, and in fact it even beats a lot of those early PCIe 5.0 drives entirely).

But it's the random 4K performance that really shines a light on just how far this drive has come. Simply put, it scored 107 MB/s on the read and 308 MB/s on the write. That read score, arguably the more important for gamers, is the second-highest I've ever tested, beaten only by the SN8100. No other drive, PCIe 5.0 or 4.0, can beat it. Write performance is a little slower, admittedly, but still for the tech, it shouldn't be anywhere near this level.

That then translates into game load times nicely too, and again in our Final Fantasy load time tests, it landed at a comfortable 7.125 seconds, putting it on par with some of Crucial's best offerings as well. All while achieving a cosy 61 degrees on temperature too, far beyond the realms of what I'd consider "hot" (although do bear in mind it is strapped to a passive motherboard heatsink, aka an aluminum block).

Pricing on this, though, is where things get a little nutty. When I initially tested this way back in October 2025 (before the madness that was Black Friday, and the subsequent slow creep of NAND pricing thanks to our ever-favorite AI bubble blossoming into the gargantuan nightmare it's become) it came in at a staggeringly low $130. Since then, Sandisk has slapped an additional $50 onto the price. That's quite the jump.

Although in line with most of the industry at this point, you can also pick up the TLC powered 2 TB SN7100 for the same price. That's a problem as the SN7100 is naturally better suited to larger file transfers, at least once the pseudo SLC cache has been used up, making it the far better pick of the two. Admittedly, our benchmarks don't really show that with slower random 4K read speeds and game load times for the SN7100, but you have to bear in mind that the one tested was actually the 1 TB model, rather than the 2 TB SN5100 we have here (which features a smaller pSLC setup).

For a modern-day QLC drive, then, the SN5100 is impressive. It has its limitations; it's still QLC, so invariably you're going to hit throttling at some point with those massive file transfers, but if all you're doing is loading games off this thing, or running the odd program, it's up there with some of the best TLC SSDs money can buy.

But there's the catch. Right now with such a turbulent market, with pricing the way it is, if you can find a slightly older TLC drive, for the same or less cash, you're invariably going to get better performance for the same cost. Especially when it comes to larger transfers (say, downloading and installing a game with Gb+ ethernet). Sadly, until Sandisk and the wider NAND market get a grip on flash demand (or dare I say the AI bubble "stabilizes"), it's not a situation that's likely going to resolve any time soon. Is the SN5100 good then? Worth buying? Yes, and also no. It just depends on what the price is and whether some CEO in the big seven needs another yacht or not.

SSD prices are not very stable right now. While not hit anywhere near as bad as memory, we're seeing price increases on many SSDs on a pretty regular basis. So if the prices here don't match up when you read this, that's likely why. We recommend using a price checker tool, such as CamelCamelCamel, to see if you're still getting a good deal.

I think I've tested every single combination of controller and NAND flash found in all of the top-end PCIe 5.0 SSDs at this point. At least all of them, trying to match or break parity with Sandisk's WD SN8100, that is, all pinching a little bit of the drive's tech while they do it. Yet this is the first SSD I've found that kind of does manage to do that, yet in a very weird, roundabout way.

This latest batch of Kingston Fury Renegade G5 drives, including this particularly boisterous 8 TB unit we have on display here, touts exactly the same NAND flash and controller combo as found in the SN8100. But, of course, all dressed up in a Kingston skirt. And I'll be frank, it works really, really well. Arguably unsurprisingly, given it's the same hardware combo that catapulted the SN8100 into our best SSD list.

It's been well documented at this point just how good that SSD is; nonetheless, we've not yet seen it in an 8 TB capacity, which is exactly what Kingston is bringing to the table here. Perhaps there's no market demand for it as far as Sandisk is concerned, perhaps it's tariffs getting in the way, or it got sidetracked by its weird and wonderful breakup with WD, but Kingston's taken that same tech and ramped it all the way up to 11, increasing capacity, delivering in some areas, and falling short in others.

So, unlike the Kioxia Exceria Plus G4, which had the same 218-layer BiCS8 TLC NAND but a different controller, or the Acer Predator GM9000, which had the same Silicon Motion SM2508 controller but different NAND, the G5 unabashedly has both as standard. A clone of its SN8100 father. And it's that 218-layer BiCS8 NAND that's the driving force behind this drive—particularly the density.

It was developed and designed by Kioxia and SanDisk, who have had a long-standing joint memory development and manufacturing venture. Its BiCS8 technology is impressive because of its increased vertical layered density (compared to BiCS6), allowing Sandisk and Kioxia to fit more dies into a single 3D package.

This improves efficiency, performance, latency, and maximum capacity, but it's also impressive because the technology manages to increase the efficiency of the lateral size too, making the die footprint even smaller.

What that means is that you can effectively fit 4 TB of high-performance NAND into a single chip on the stick, and stack two of those side-by-side, giving you 8 TB to play with, without having to go to a dual-sided design. That's given the Kingston Fury Renegade G5 the unique advantage of being compatible with consoles as well as PCs, as despite having such a ridiculous capacity and dedicated DRAM, it's still only single-sided.

Don't let the marketing numbers confuse you, either. Comparing that 218-layer NAND to something like Micron's 276-layer TLC or SK Hynix's 238-layer isn't a fair comparison, and that shows in the performance too, as both those technologies, when paired with the SM2508 8-channel controller, struggle to keep up, particularly when it comes to random 4K performance.

So, let's talk benchmark results then. The sequential performance on the G5 is outstanding. In fact, it beats the SN8100, delivering 14,830 MB/s on the read and 14,136 MB/s on the write. That's 100-200 MB/s higher than the SN8100. In a similar vein, the Crucial T710 (Phison and Micron's flagship SSD currently) similarly can't keep up with just 14.1 GB/s on the read and 13.2 GB/s on the write as well.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

Things get a little more interesting on the random 4K performance, however, with the G5 only managing 101 MB/s on the read and 338 MB/s on the write. That read is fairly average for this drive, and about on par with the T710, although nowhere near the SN8100's staggering 119 MB/s read speed.

The big difference, though, is temperature, as despite its dual package setup, the G5 manages to keep itself cool at a markedly chilly 63 °C. With both the T710 at 70 and SN8100 at 75, being considerably higher.

All that translates into fantastic game load times as a result, with an average Final Fantasy score of 6.626 seconds overall. That is the second fastest drive I've tested with that benchmark, although it is worth bearing in mind that FF XIV does prefer larger capacity drives to load from.

The G5 is only held back, really, in three areas. Firstly, its random 4K read performance is a little low compared to the likes of the SN8100 (likely a conscious decision made by Kingston for efficiency's sake, in the firmware to keep temperatures low and compatibility broad), and secondly, well, availability. And price.

At the time of writing, US stocks are slim to non-existent, and in the UK, you can only pick one up for £1,000 at Scan. That's not particularly cost-effective at £0.12 per GB, but you are getting more performance than other 8 TB SSDs.

On paper, the G5 is phenomenal. It obliterates benchmarks, in no small part thanks to that superb combination of controller and NAND flash, and yet, for this particular number with its gargantuan capacity and price tag that follows suit, we inevitably fall back onto that same question.

Do you really need 8 TB on a single drive? Or would something like a 4 TB or even a 2 TB still be enough? You'd still get the same hardware setup, the same stellar performance, but for far less.

SSD prices are not very stable right now. While not hit anywhere near as bad as memory, we're seeing price increases on many SSDs on a pretty regular basis. So if the prices here don't match up when you read this, that's likely why. We recommend using a price checker tool, such as CamelCamelCamel, to see if you're still getting a good deal.

Alright, I'll come out and say it, the Lexar NQ780 is a bit average. A bit dull. Usually, when it comes to reviewing hardware like this, particularly SSDs, there's always something to write about. Something that's slightly interesting, or some weird quirk that the manufacturer has tweaked a certain way that's led to some curious performance metric in one manner or another. With the NQ780, though, that's kind of not the case.

It's interesting, sort of, in its own way, because it's not really that interesting. In a world of blisteringly quick PCIe 5.0 drives like the SN8100, intuitive new controller designs, limit-breaking NAND flash technologies with a quadrillion layers up-down, left and right, the NQ780 just kind of exists.

This isn't the best SSD of 2025, not by a long shot. It performs and delivers speed in the same manner that the Samsung 990 Evo Plus did when I reviewed that back in October of 2024, or the Crucial P310 did in January of this year. And it's aimed at that market too. It's a budget solution for those more interested in cheap capacity over speed and load times. It's not particularly awful, it's just outpaced or on par with practically every other PCIe 4.0 drive that's come before it, and it's done this around eight months late to the party.

Its biggest advantage is its pricing, and, although I'm writing this review in the midst of the carnage that is November (thanks, Black Friday), Lexar's aggressive RRP gives the NQ780 one hell of an affordability score. Namely, it's $0.07 per GB in the US and £0.06 per GB in ol' Blighty. With updated pricing across my benchmark database, that is one of if not the lowest price per gig I've seen to date. If it stays that way (a lot of drives are increasing in price right now due to the ongoing memory crunch, that might be its saving grace).

So, now we've got that one interesting element out of the way, let me bore you with the remarkably mundane hardware situation we're looking at here. The NQ780's a bit of an oddity in its component setup. There's no Phison, Maxiotek, Silicon Motion, or Sandisk controllers here; instead, we're greeted with an Innogrit IG5236 eight-channel 12 nm controller, which was initially launched waaaay back in 2020. It's all based on the PCIe 4.0 platform, M.2-2280 form factor, and it's been paired with a stack of Intel's 144-layer QLC NAND flash, which taps out at 1 TB packages. That means for this 4 TB model, we've got four on a single-sided stick (keeping in line with modern trends, making it compatible with many a laptop, console, PC, etc).

That should tell you straight away, then two things. Firstly, it's slightly toastier than most modern drives, and slightly less efficient as well, and secondly, that's a lot of old hardware trundling along in its sultry snazzy stickered form, and you'd be right. This almost feels like a stock clear-out and rebrand rather than a new release, particularly given how old that controller is.

Unfortunately, then, as you may or may not be surprised to hear, performance is what you'd expect from an SSD of this caliber. Although sequentials are initially high, once that pSLC cache fills up, she slows to a crawl.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Team Group T-Create Expert DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Model 5

CrystalDiskMark measured seq read and write at 7,446 MB/s and 6,601 MB/s, respectively, which puts it on par with the likes of the WD Blue SN5100. Not a bad showing by any means, but drop down to some Random 4K testing, and the battle quickly shifts. The SN5100 dominates the NQ780, registering 107 MB/s on the write, versus the NQ780's paltry 70 MB/s. That figure is actually far worse than at first glance, too, as it makes the NQ780 joint second to last on that metric, across all of the 19 drives I've tested in the last 12 months. Out of 19 drives, it came 17th…

That's important because random 4K read performance is incredibly critical for us gamers, as it's generally comparable with how AAA titles read files on an SSD. Think of it like a CPU pulling a game asset from here, a texture file from there, a mesh from over yonder, audio lines from that place, and you're on the right lines. These assets aren't stored linearly (or sequentially) like with photos or videos, and the NQ780's poor showing here translates into our game load test times as expected.

Final Fantasy's XIV Shadowbrings benchmark chugs along at a staggeringly slow 7.869 seconds on average. Which, although again relatively quick in real-world terms, pales in comparison to its modern SSD competition. That's particularly damning as well, given FF XIV tends to favour drives with a larger capacity, and I am testing the 4 TB model here, whereas most of our results come from 2 TB models.

This thing confuses me. It almost feels like someone let an AI LLM make a business decision here. It spotted a load of cheap NAND, some budget controllers from yesteryear at a bargain price, and slapped it all together for a quick, rapid launch of a drive that just can't quite keep up with its modern 4.0 equivalents.

It's biggest advantage comes in the form of that pricing being as aggressive as it is, but I can't help but shake the feeling that you'd be far better off investing in the additional performance found in those alternatives, the SN5100, for example, has gone for only a little more (though it is now priced much higher, gah), yet delivers exemplary performance in every category by comparison, even with QLC NAND as well. You can just do so much better, and that's a problem. Releasing a drive like this today is just not enough, but industry-wide price increases might keep it in play (if it stays at this sorta price for long).

Between shortages and surging prices, the memory apocalypse is likely to get worse before it gets better. Case in point, Taiwanese memory manufacturer and distributor Transcend has apparently not received a new NAND Flash shipment since at least October, when prices first really started to spike.

According to company communication shared by @jukan05 on X, NAND Flash suppliers Samsung and Sandisk have delayed the latest planned shipment once more (via Techpowerup). As a result, Transcend's "Q4 chip allocation has been significantly reduced."

Long story short, SSD pricing will likely rise in the near future. The internal document goes on to echo many of the same reasons Jacob points to in his excellent memory price crisis explainer. In short, yes, you can blame AI at least in part.

The memo reads, "At the moment, the market is experiencing a serious shortage of both DRAM (DDR5/DDR5) and NAND Flash (for SSD, SD, and MicroSD). The situation worsened in Q4 due to increased demand from large data centers and hyperscalers, driven by major cloud service providers’ expansion plans.

"All major chip manufacturers are prioritizing supply for these customers, which has led to price increases and extremely limited availability. Just last week alone, we were notified that costs had risen by 50–100%. The price-up trend continues at a very rapid pace and at an abnormal rate. This situation is expected to persist for at least the next three to five months."

We've already heard the memory apocalypse will carry on into 2026, with some especially dour forecasts predicting it will last all the way through to 2028, as Samsung and SK Hynix attempt to 'minimize the risk of oversupply'.

And, while we're on the subject of Samsung, delayed deliveries are perhaps no surprise as the company is currently negotiating with itself over DRAM contracts. With all of that in mind, "three to five months" is a projection that sounds downright optimistic.

We're already seeing wide-ranging ripple effects, beyond RAM and SSD prices surging. For instance, the humble Raspberry Pi—the cheapest computer any tinkerer can pick up—will raise the price of some of its models by as much as 21% due to the RAM shortage.

Along similar lines, Framework, purveyors of premium modular computers, have begun straight-up delisting standalone memory in order "to head off scalpers and preserve inventory for people buying it with our DIY Edition laptops."

Speaking of more do-it-yourself PC building, some reports also suggest motherboard sales are down by as much as 50% year-on-year as PC gamers delay their upgrade plans while waiting for components to become more reasonably priced. CPU sales are likely to soon see a similar story play out. 2025 is truly the best of times for PC gaming, and truly the worst of times for PC building.

The vast majority of new games released for the humble PC are published with a list of what hardware is required to run it and another list of 'recommended' specs. However, the breadth and depth of this information vary enormously, but not so in the case of the forthcoming voxel-based sandbox Hytale. Its system requirements are so detailed that you'll probably be able to figure out the exact setting you'll be using the game, long before you get a chance to install it.

You can check them out for yourself via Hypixel Studio's news post on the matter. Let's start with the good stuff to begin with, just as Hypixel does: listing the expected performance, graphics preset, and screen resolution for the minimum, recommended, and 'streamer' requirements.

Specifically, it's 30 fps at 1080p Low for minimum, 60 fps at 1080p High for recommended, and "stable framerate with high-quality video capture and streaming at 1440p". Okay, so two out of three isn't bad, at least.

Moving on to the actual hardware requirements, you'll immediately notice that none of this is especially demanding. Even for the recommended specs, you're looking at a six-core CPU from 2019, a decade-old GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and just 20 GB of storage, albeit on an NVMe SSD. Heck, the minimum CPU is a four-core, four-thread Ryzen from 2017!

Truth be told, this is no different from Minecraft, where both Bedrock and Java versions sport system requirements so old that a degree in archaeology might be more useful for translating them than having some PC knowledge. However, as any keen Minecrafter will tell you, if you want to enjoy the game properly, your rig needs quite a bit more poke behind it.

It's the same with Hytale, but where Mojang just leaves you to figure it all out yourself, Hypixel Studios has gone into a lot of detail about client and server performance, network requirements, and how the game's visual settings will interact with your hardware.

For example, it writes that "[an] Intel HD Graphics 630 achieved ~30–34 FPS at 1080p [Low]" and that for streaming, "One internal benchmark (AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, NVIDIA RTX 5080, 2x32 GB DDR5-6000) sustained around 400 FPS at 3840×1440 resolution with view distance set to 768 blocks in singleplayer while recording the game in AV1."

I wish more studios would take the time to put this much effort into detailing their game's system requirements. Just stating that it needs a certain CPU and GPU doesn't tell me anything, to be honest: we need to know how well the game will run on that hardware and with what settings.

But even that's only half the story. What about multiplayer or streaming? What's really more important to the game's performance, CPU or GPU? Do I really need 100 GB of storage space, or can I get away with less?

None of this will make the game better, of course, but if a developer is willing to carefully explain the relationship between the game, its performance, and your hardware, it suggests to me that it's doing more than the bare minimum of just getting it run.

Hytale is expected to have an early access launch in January 2026, so it's not long to wait to see just how well Hypixel Studios understands its game and PCs in general.

Another day, another round of bad news regarding the ongoing RAM shortage and rising PC hardware prices. TrendForce reports that the NAND flash wafer supply is getting worse, which will directly impact SSD prices, and it already has.

How long will it take for those price changes to trickle down to the consumer market? And how long will it take for RAM prices to improve? Today's brought us a few interesting findings, so let's dig in.

Starting with the NAND flash prices, TrendForce reports that the demand for NAND flash used in SSDs is strong. To the surprise of no one, that demand is largely fueled by large enterprises (thank you, AI), meaning that's where the manufacturers currently have their focus.

The massive demand has led to a short supply, which then led to a price increase in November. The monthly average prices for wafers rose from 20% to 60%. Triple-level cell (TLC) memory was the most impacted. This type of NAND flash stores three bits of data per memory cell. Quad-level cell (QLC) NAND flash is also in high demand and short supply.

RAM is suffering from the same problems as SSDs, but on a larger scale. Even some of the best Cyber Monday deals aren't helping these outrageous RAM prices that we're dealing with currently. Reports show it might only get worse from here as far as that's concerned.

Our first source is SEDaily, which talks about Samsung's Semiconductor Division (DS), which is said to have rejected a request for DRAM from its own Mobile Experience (MX) division. Samsung's mobile sector managed to secure memory on a quarterly basis, meaning it'll have to re-negotiate the terms of the contract every three months instead of longer commitments.

Odd, isn't it? It all comes down to the cost of RAM and profitability, and unfortunately for us PC gamers, the profit lies in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and AI.

To that end, Micron is investing a boatload of cash into producing AI memory chips in Japan. The memory giant is said to be investing $9.6 billion into building a production facility in Japan, focused on next-gen HBM chips.

With all these different companies going all-in on enterprise memory, it's hard not to wonder what'll happen to the consumer market. RAM is already up to 300% more expensive than it was a few months ago, and those NAND flash shortages are likely to affect SSD prices, too.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is said to no longer be bundling VRAM with GPU dies when selling to its board partners, leaving them to find their own deals on memory. Keep in mind that all of that memory comes from the same source—if there isn't enough DRAM for PCs, there likely won't be enough VRAM produced for GPUs, too.

The PC gaming market is just going from one shortage to the next, and it looks like this one will last for a while yet.

In case we were in any doubt last year, there's now absolutely zero doubt that we're in a memory price crisis, and likely will be for quite some time. This, after spending the better part of this year lamenting ridiculously high GPU prices. Almost as soon as said prices finally started dropping, memory and storage prices started climbing.

We're in a memory shortage right now, and this applies to both DRAM memory used for RAM and NAND memory used for SSDs, and it will likely also affect GPUs, too. This shortage means there's more demand than supply, which causes prices to rise. We're already seeing RAM prices skyrocket, and prices for SSDs and even GPUs could follow suit before long.

• We're keeping track of the latest changes to RAM prices here.

The cause is mostly the newly booming AI industry, as AI servers require a lot of memory, both in terms of long-term storage and short-term system memory. And many of the same production facilities that make memory for these AI servers also make memory for our RAM, SSDs, and graphics cards, thus why there's an impact on PC gaming hardware.

I've broken down how and why all of this is happening below, as well as the real-world effects we're already seeing and are likely to see moving forwards.

A snapshot of the latest memory price news

January 2026:

• SK Hynix announced it's building a $12.9 billion advanced chip packaging facility in South Korea, which it expects to complete in 2027. Micron, too, announced plans for a New York 'megafab'.
• Micron claims memory prices aren't its fault, saying "this is not a Micron issue, it's an industry issue" and "there's just not enough supply to go around."
• Samsung reported record profits for the final quarter of 2025, and said seeing impact of surging memory prices on various devices is "inevitable."

December 2025:

• G.Skill blamed "unprecedented high demand from the AI industry" for increased memory prices and said, "G.Skill's pricing reflect industry-wide component cost increases from IC suppliers and is subject to change without notice based on market conditions."
• Industry analyst Jukan summarised some Goldman Sachs research as saying that "some suppliers see potential for conventional DRAM prices to rise by double-digit percentages (%) quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) throughout every quarter of 2026."

Visible effects on memory pricing so far

You might have noticed this worrying trend if you've been looking for a RAM upgrade lately. Charts on pcpartpicker.com are telling: since mid-2025, DDR4 and DDR5 consumer memory kit prices have been climbing, with particularly notable spikes for DDR5 memory since September. That's true all the way from DDR4-3200 kits up to DDR5-6000 ones.

To take one concrete example, this 32 GB Crucial Pro DDR5-6000 kit on Amazon was stable at about $80-$100 for most of 2024 and 2025, but since October it started to climb up and up. Now, it's sitting at $364, an increase of over 250%. This, after a good few months of sustained DDR5 price drops through the tail end of 2024 and first half of 2025. And now it's sold out entirely.

DDR4 isn't safe, either, as this 32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3200 kit on Amazon shows. It dropped slowly from about $80 to about $50 over the course of 2024, where it remained stable throughout 2025 until the middle of the year. Then, it shot up in price over the second half of 2025 to $200, for a 300% increase to 4x the cost it was at previously.

This trend fits all the market analysis we're seeing lately, which by now seems little more than pointing out the obvious: memory is becoming incredibly expensive. The "premium" you have traditionally had to pay for DDR5 compared to DDR4, according to a recent chart spotlighted by a Futurum analyst, no longer exists.

Things can change quickly during shortages., but we're keeping track of the latest effects on real-world RAM kit prices here.

Why the memory shortage affects RAM

The most obvious kind of PC hardware the memory shortage affects is RAM. The DRAM memory that is being gobbled up by AI customers comes from the same production facilities and lines that make the memory that goes into the best RAM for gaming. That's true not just for the latest RAM, too, but also for DDR4.

DDR4 memory is winding down production, which means less supply on the market. But we wouldn't necessarily expect this factor to cause such dramatically rising prices on its own. The fact that DDR4 prices are rising by such an extreme amount indicates that there simply isn't enough supply compared to demand across the memory industry in general, and that companies are looking for whatever memory they can get their hands on.

This tracks with what's been going on in the DRAM and memory industry behind the scenes. Samsung and SK Hynix, for instance, are reportedly charging customers up to 30% more for DRAM and NAND in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Why the memory shortage affects SSDs

These price hikes are also coming for NAND flash memory, too, which is what goes into non-volatile SSD storage. Even if the SSDs in AI servers aren't the same as the ones we put in our gaming PCs, NAND production for these AI server SSDs can detract from NAND production for consumer SSDs once supply is limited.

Usually, AI servers use higher-quality SSDs than consumer ones, with different NAND, but when storage gets tight, AI server customers can start ordering more consumer-oriented NAND.

We've not seen as much of a reflection of rising flash storage prices at the consumer level as we have with RAM just yet, but it is likely coming. Adata has said that supplies of DRAM, NAND, and even HDD storage are now in shortage, for the first time in 30 years.

Many of the best SSDs for gaming are still pretty cheap, but I'd bet it won't be long before these shortages start showing effects in the consumer market, just like has started to happen with memory. It might not be long before both RAM and SSDs are prohibitively expensive.

In fact, we've seen hints of this already, as Trendforce's investigations showed that cloud providers are increasingly being pushed towards QLC ('quad-level cell') SSDs like the ones found in many consumer desktops and laptops. This is driven in part because nearline HDDs (ones for infrequently accessed storage) are in short supply. Yep, that's right, even traditional hard drives are facing shortages and, surprise surprise, price hikes. Western Digital, for instance, recently raised prices for all its HDD products.

I also received comment from SSD and memory maker Team Group confirming all this:

"We have indeed observed noticeable upward pressure on prices across the NAND and DRAM markets. The current situation is not merely a matter of price fluctuation but a result of an unprecedented supply shortage, primarily driven by surging demand for AI and DDR5 server platforms. In addition, as data storage demand in data centers continues to grow while hard drive manufacturers have yet to expand production, cold data storage has gradually shifted toward SSDs, further tightening NAND Flash supply."

Why the memory shortage will affect GPUs

GPUs might seem a little further away from the memory price hikes than RAM and SSDs, but we're already hearing chatter that graphics cards might be affected, too.

The memory that goes into AI datacenters is different to the memory that goes into our graphics cards, but memory makers are likely to divert production lines to the former as demand continues to increase, which means less GPU memory supply and higher GPU memory prices. And higher GPU memory prices of course means higher GPU prices.

We recently saw rumour that AMD is planning to raise graphics card prices due to the memory shortage, and that it has already raised prices for its industry customers.

We've also had comment from UK retailer Overclockers UK, saying:

"Due to the unprecedented explosive price increase in DDR4 and DDR5 desktop memory due to AI Server demand going into 2026, these price increases are now starting to impact graphics card [prices] with up to $15 price increases on 8G cards and upto $30 price increased on 16G cards.

"Once stock has sold out, expect some hefty price increases when Overclockers UK has to replenish stock at the higher cost due to the impact of memory price increases. In short NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY your GPU, as 2026 will see price increases."

Why the memory shortage will affect gaming PCs

Pre-built gaming PCs, of course, use memory, so the gaming PC market is not too far downstream from the memory market and will see a knock-on impact. As system builders and OEMs start to run out of memory stocks they purchased before prices started skyrocketing, they'll have to order more, and will more than likely pass that extra cost onto customers.

In December 2025, CyberpowerPC released a statement saying that come December 7, 2025, it is going to be adjusting upwards the pricing on all its systems. And it almost certainly won't be alone in doing so. The company states that "global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500% and SSD prices have risen by 100%."

We've already seen gaming PCs start to creep up in price this year, with great deals being few and far between, and deals that were previously great now shooting up in price.

The cause is AI

The main cause of these rising memory and storage prices is the unprecedented scale of investment in AI.

AI servers tend to require an astronomical amount of storage and memory, and the processors have to be able to access data in said storage and memory pretty quickly. Training AI requires great volumes of data, as does running inference once the AI is trained—and often re-training is continually ongoing. Usually this data is unstructured, as AI will pull from lots of different areas as it learns and forms its neural network or probabilistic models.

SSDs are ideal for this when it comes to storage, and for memory, high bandwidth memory (HBM) is what most AI server companies are looking for. This isn't the same as the DDR memory we get in our gaming PCs, but the memory chips are DRAM just like we use in our familiar DIMMs. AI servers buying up HBM means less DRAM in the market for our RAM kits, which causes prices to rise.

Over the last few months, we've seen the AI industry receive and shuffle around some seriously mind-boggling amounts of cash and capital.

OpenAI's Stargate project was announced at the start of the year and plans to spend $500 billion on AI infrastructure in the US over four years. That project is now thoroughly underway, and has even spread beyond the borders of the US into the UK. We've seen Nvidia recently invest $100 billion into the Sam Altman-headed company, and OpenAI invest tens of millions into AMD and agree to purchase $300 billion of computing power from Oracle over the next five years. Plus many more deals and investments, such as with Broadcom—and these are just considering OpenAI, the poster child for this AI era alongside Nvidia.

With all this money being flung around and data centers springing up so quickly that they're having to be housed in tents, it's little wonder that the memory and storage industries are experiencing a drain in supply. Which is great for them, of course, as they can rake in the money from raised product prices and booming share prices, as well as sell out their entire HBM supply. SK Hynix, for instance, just announced it has "achieved its highest-ever quarterly performance, driven by the full-scale rise in prices of DRAM and NAND, as well as the increasing shipments of high-performance products for AI servers", but it's not so great for us.

Memory shortages and rising prices have been predicted for a while now—over a year ago, for instance, Micron said that the AI would "impact the supply demand balance" as it's "made memory sexy again". Storage shortages, not so much. Last year, Trendforce analysis predicted that storage prices would decline by as much as 15% over the final quarter of 2024, and there was no prediction of the shortages we're seeing now. Peaks and troughs are normal in the memory industry, due to the ebbs and flows of supply and demand, but the recent shortages and price hikes don't fit that mould. They're simply too extreme.

What's to come?

There's little chance that these memory and storage manufacturers will create much more supply than is currently needed, either. For one, this can sting these companies if demand unexpectedly drops, as they discovered in 2023. Second, whirring up new or increased semiconductor production is no simple matter and can take years, and the demand from the AI sector doesn't seem to be slowing down.

There is, of course, the chance that the entire AI industry gives a loud and audible pop as what many are calling the AI bubble bursts. To simplify, the reason some think the AI industry is a bubble is because there's tons more investment than revenue in the industry right now, which arguably means more and more money must be pumped into it to keep it going under the hopes that some day the revenue will appear.

To this end, a lot of the money involved seems to be flowing back and forth between the same companies. For instance, Nvidia invests in OpenAI, and OpenAI buys hardware from Nvidia. This creates what some see as a circular system where money is continually injected with little actual return, inflating the metaphorical bubble until eventually it pops like the housing market did in 2008 and the dot-com market did in 2000.

We must remember, however, that although the dot-com bubble burst and swept away much of the internet as we knew it, it did leave behind the seeds for the internet as we now know it. In a similar way, the AI bubble bursting could leave behind the seeds for a less inflated world of AI rather than the current AI industry that we know.

That could still sort out the memory and storage market, though. As it stands, vast swathes of memory and storage capacity is spoken for by big AI companies well before it's packaged and ready to be installed into servers, most of it in advance. And these production commitments are based on the current rate of arguably inflated AI market expansion. If that inflation comes to a sudden end and reversal, we might be dealing with oversupply again and lower prices.

Team Group told me that "the [memory] supply-demand imbalance is expected to persist through at least the first half of next year." And market analysis sees the current memory shortage lasting for another three or four years. This tracks with at least what some, such as ex-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, think about the so-called AI bubble: that sure, it might burst, but that won't be for "several years." In which case, we might have to settle in for a long haul of high memory, storage, and even GPU prices.

A pre-built gaming PC is probably the most exciting purchase you can make. We're talking about an entirely new system—perhaps even your very first one. But it can be a little daunting, too, seeing component after component, spec after spec, and trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. We've all been there.

In fact, I've been there enough to know that actually, it doesn't have to be as daunting as it might at first seem. And I've helped others who have been there enough to know what the most common pitfalls are and what to focus on to get cracking and make a good gaming PC purchasing decision.

Once you approach it systematically by narrowing down your choices bit by bit, buying a prebuilt gaming PC becomes a rather straightforward process. Which is great, because unfortunately gone are the days where we could realistically recommend you build your own gaming PC from scratch. It used to be a great way of nailing the best price/performance ratio possible, but sadly your buying power does not match those of established PC builders, and at a time where the prices of core components have been spiking horribly DIY builds are more expensive than prebuilt.

Thankfully there are plenty of systems at pretty reasonable prices right now, and we've updated this page today hoping that over Amazon Prime Day this year there might be a chance of discounts on full PCs. We're going to keep curating the best Amazon Prime Day gaming PC deals throughout the event, so save that page to check back for the best discounts on Amazon as well as all the other retailers getting in on the act, such as Newegg, Best Buy and Walmart. If you keep the following tips in mind I think you'll have a much easier time figuring out which PC to go for.

1. Start by choosing a graphics card
2. Ideally get 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, but 16 GB is fine on a tight budget
3. Make sure it has an NVMe SSD with 1 TB capacity, preferably 2 TB
4. Consider your CPU's general performance and socket upgradeability
5. Remember you can always upgrade later, but it might cost more

1. GPU first

Start by choosing a graphics card

A gaming PC isn't so much a single product as it is a collection of components, each with its own merits to consider. While this can initially make it a little overwhelming to decide on a PC, all it really means is that you have to narrow down what you want step by step. And the best way to do that is to start with the GPU.

After you've figured out your budget and eliminated options outside of it, start thinking about what graphics card you want in your gaming PC. Provided all the other components are at least passable, a good graphics card will have the most impact on your gaming performance.

The Nvidia RTX 50-series is with us, now, as is the AMD RX 9000-series, and these are what most of you should be looking for in a new gaming PC. That's whether it's a budget RTX 5060 build, a mid-range RX 9070 XT build, or a high-end RTX 5080 build.

You can check out our GPU hierarchy chart to get a quick feel for how all the different graphics cards stack up against each other, and of course, you can check out the full run-down of the best graphics cards, but here's a super basic breakdown.

The RTX 5090 is the absolute fastest graphics card, but it's super expensive. The RTX 5080 is what you'll want if you don't have an unlimited budget but want something very high-end, as this should still net you high frame rates at 1440p and be able to play any game at 4K.

At the mid-range, you have the RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, and RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. The RTX 5070 Ti and RX 9070 XT offer close to high-end territory and are great value for 1440p and even some 4K gaming, but the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 can be worth it if they drop down into close-to-budget prices.

At the budget end, the RTX 5060 Ti and RX 9060 XT are great choices and should get you by at 1080p and even 1440p on medium or medium-high settings in most games. There are 16 GB versions of these cards that you should try to go for if you can, but the 8 GB versions are fine if you're on a budget—just don't expect to be able to use the highest-resolution textures or play at high resolutions in all games with that amount of VRAM.

Below this, you have RTX 5060 builds, along with some Intel ones, RTX 5050 builds, previous-gen RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti builds, and even integrated APU gaming PCs. These are fine if you're on a strict budget and can be a stepping-off point to upgrade your GPU down the line. As such, with these builds, unless you're opting for something incredibly cheap, try to at least get one with a motherboard and CPU platform that has a little longevity.

If you figure out what kind of performance you'll be happy with, you can pick the graphics card that'll net you that level of performance, filter out all PCs that have graphics cards you don't want, and go from there. Starting by doing this is a great way to narrow down your options.

2. RAM

Ideally get 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, but 16 GB is fine on a tight budget

It seems like only yesterday that 16 GB of RAM was the gold standard for gaming PCs, but that's no longer true. Today, 32 GB is the gold standard. This, however, has led some to assume that gaming PCs with 16 GB of RAM should be avoided entirely. But this isn't true, either—at least if you're on a very strict budget. And especially at a time when RAM has become one of the most valuable components of your PC.

16 GB of RAM will bottleneck you in some games, especially if you have a lot going on in the background, but if you close most of your background apps, 16 GB should get you by in most games. And for some games it'll be fine even with background apps open, too. It won't be the best RAM in the world, but it'll get you by if you're on a strict budget.

The main reason to opt for 32 GB of RAM, though, is for the peace of mind to know that you could play pretty much anything, at any settings, without memory capacity being a bottleneck. That, and knowing you won't have to fork out a lot of money for new RAM down the line.

While RAM is super easy to upgrade, I can no longer say that it's cheap to to do so. There's a memory shortage right now, and it doesn't look like it'll be letting up any time soon. The price of RAM is going to continue increasing, so don't rely on being able to upgrade your memory for cheap anymore. It's best to get memory that will last, right now.

We're already seeing an increased push for single-DIMM systems, too, where retailers are saving costs by only providing single sticks of memory for gaming PCs. This immediately halves the memory bandwidth compared with using two sticks in a dual-channel setup, but perhaps surprisingly doesn't have a great impact on pure gaming performance. It's not pretty, I would recommend trying to find systems with dual-channel memory ideally, but at a push for budget pure gaming PCs it's not a complete deal-breaker. Which is a damning indictement of the PC industry right now.

You should pay attention to your memory's generation, too, and try to go with DDR5. If you get a gaming PC with DDR4 memory, your motherboard won't support DDR5 so you won't be able to upgrade to it. DDR4 should really be avoided these days, unless you're going for a very budget-oriented build.

3. NVMe SSDs

Make sure it has an NVMe SSD with 1 TB capacity, preferably 2 TB

Most PCs these days come with an NVMe SSD for their storage, but occasionally you'll come across one with an old-school hard drive or SATA SSD, and these you should avoid. They're great for extra mass storage, but not as main system drives.

A few years ago, NVMe drives were nice-to-haves but far from ubiquitous. Plenty of people still rocked SATA SSDs as a primary storage device, and this was fine, even when PCIe NVMe drives started hitting the market. That's primarily because, at the time, NVMe drives were so much more expensive.

Sadly SSDs are back up in price again, all thanks to AI and the RAMpocalypse, which means it might be harder than ever to find affordable gaming PCs with 1 TB drives in them, let alone affordable 2 TB options. It will also likely mean that you're going to only see bargain basement drives, with slow transfer rates, in budget machines with 1 TB capacities.

So yes, capacity is very much king these days, and it's not even worth getting bogged down in the 'should I get a PCIe 5.0 drive?' debate. Such are the prices that you really shouldn't worry about that.

The other point is that yes, you can upgrade it down the line, but you risk running out of space well before you'd like if you only have 512 GB of storage, for instance. Unless you're on a super-strict budget, given game and application install sizes these days, 1 TB capacity is a minimum, and 2 TB or more is ideal.

4. CPUs and sockets

Consider your CPU's general performance and socket upgradeability

When you're buying a gaming PC, of course, you're going to care about its gaming performance. But it can be easy to forget all the other things you might use your PC for, things that might require a more powerful CPU.

Budget CPUs such as the Intel Core i5 13400 and the six-core AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, although not the best CPUs on the market, are perfectly fine for gaming. However, you might be kicking yourself for not getting better if, for example, you end up doing CPU-intensive work such as encoding further down the line.

Similarly, if budget's no concern and you want something ultra-high-end, you might go for an X3D chip such as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D or 9800X3D, because these will offer the best gaming performance without a doubt. But if you want the absolute best productivity performance, you might be best sacrificing a little gaming performance and going for a high-end Core i9 or Ryzen 9. There are no hard rules, just don't forget to consider performance in areas other than gaming.

Don't forget to think about the CPU and motherboard socket, either. When you're building your own gaming PC you have to consider the motherboard socket to ensure it's compatible with your CPU, but when you're buying a pre-built gaming PC, you don't have to consider compatibility at all. In fact, sockets often aren't even listed in a PC's specifications. Here's a chart showing which sockets go with which CPUs:

So, if you don't have to worry about compatibility with a pre-built, why care about the socket? The answer is upgradeability. While a gaming PC's socket obviously supports the CPU sitting in it right now, it might not support the CPU you choose to upgrade to down the line.

Right now, what this mostly means is that you should take care when considering a gaming PC with an Intel 13th or 14th Gen CPU, because these are the last generations that fit the LGA 1700 socket, meaning you'll need a new motherboard to upgrade to a new CPU whenever you decide to upgrade, and Intel motherboards can be expensive. AMD 7000-series CPUs, on the other hand, fit the AM5 socket, and this is compatible with a 9000-series upgrade and will be compatible with the generation after that, too.

Upgradability

Remember you can always upgrade later, but it might cost more

There's a lot to think about when it comes to gaming PCs because they're essentially a collection of modular parts. But while this might make things seem a little overwhelming at first—something this guide has hopefully helped with—it's also a massive boon. That's because it means pretty much everything is upgradeable.

What this means practically, if you're buying your first PC, is that you shouldn't worry too much about getting something wrong and being stuck with it forever. There's so much you can upgrade in your computer, from its graphics card to its CPU, memory, motherboard, storage, and plenty more.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind to ensure it'll be easily upgradeable, but I think we've covered those, here.

You want to ensure you get a PC that supports DDR5 memory if you want to be able to upgrade that without switching motherboards. And ditto the socket: AM5's the way to go if you want upgradeability, which means an AMD 7000-series or 9000-series chip.

Intel's 13th and 14th Gen chips use LGA 1700 and so are incompatible with the latest Intel generation, and it's unlikely that the next Intel generation will use the same socket as the current Core Ultra 200S generation.

Apart from those caveats, though, have at it. You're not committing yourself to a never-changing rig. Most people who buy a gaming PC will probably end up upgrading some component or other before long. If you do so and you catch the PC building bug, you might even be in for a ship of Theseus scenario, perpetually rebuilding your gaming PC into eternity. There'll always be a "later", so don't stress it too much.

Equally, though, don't assume prices will remain the same or get cheaper, especially when it comes to RAM and possibly even graphics cards as they become increasingly affected by the memory shortage. As we've mentioned about the buying power of PC builders, they will always be able to get components cheaper than you, so it's worth considering spending that little bit more on increased SSD storage or RAM capacity from the outset if you can, as it will likely be cheaper than upgrading either in six months or even a year yourself.