Unless you've living under a very large rock, or maybe only just escaping the marathon session of Battlefield 6 to end all marathon sessions of Battlefield 6, you may have noticed that PC memory prices have spiked massively and SSDs are expected to follow shortly.
But just how far have we come, how bad has it got and what's likely to happen next? To shed at least a little light on the situation, we're going to track a number of DDR5 kits and SSDs over the coming day, weeks and quite possibly months and years.
DDR5 Memory
Crucial 32GB DDR5 RAM Kit
Let's kick things off with that most generic of memory brands, Crucial. Their standard and unadorned 32 GB DDR5 kit is currently listed at $186. But thanks to price history tracking we can see that it was priced as low as $69 in the Spring before stepping up to around the $100 mark in late July and then leaping up to current levels a few weeks ago.
Where it goes from here is anyone's guess. But we sense that, more likely than not, we haven't quite hit peak DDR5 pricing in this particular cycle. Whether we'll eventually see actual memory shortages to the point where DDR5 kits are difficult to buy at any price, well, we'll just have to wait and see.
Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB
Next up is Newegg's best seller, the Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB kit. There aren't any historical price tracking graphs to post for Newegg, but suffice to say this kit would have cost much less than the current $210 figure.
It's not currently available on Amazon, but when it was back in the summer, you were looking at about $100. So it's basically doubled. How much higher will it go? That what were to here to find out.
Kingston Fury Beast 16 GB
To round out the DDR5 section, how about a 16 GB kit? The Kingston Fury Beast 16GB certainly seems popular, what with Amazon claiming over 100 kits have been sold so far this month. It's also interesting in that the price hasn't risen all that much.
Well, not compared to most DDR5 kits. Most of the year, this kit has bounced around between $60 and $80. Now it's $95. Yup, pretty much what a premium 32 GB kit cost earlier in the year. It used to be that RAM was cheap enough that you didn't have to entertain 16 GB kits. But as prices rise, there may come a point when 16 GB might have to do, at least in the short term.
SSDs
WD BLACK SN850X 2 TB
Everybody loves the WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X 2 TB SSD, despite it being over three years since I reviewed the thing. At least, peeps do on Amazon where over 2,000 of the things have sold in the last month. Wowsers.
But how is it faring in the current memory and storage supply armageddon? Actually, not too badly. It's been as low as about $125 in the last year. But $150 to $160 has been the more usual price. And right now, it's only a tick higher at $170 on Amazon.
However, if the CEO of SSD controller specialist Phison is correct, I doubt that will last. He reckons flash chip prices have doubled in the last six months and supplies will be tight for years. Here's hoping the price holds long enough to see one or two half-decent Black Friday deals. But if it was me, I'd be tempted to buy right now.
Team Group MP44L 1 TB
Outside of the usual Samsung and WD suspects, this is the most popular 1 TB M.2 drive on Newegg right now. Yours for $91 on Newegg, it's actually cheaper on Amazon right now at $82, so we'll keep our scanners peeled to both vendors in the coming days and weeks.
For what it's worth, there's no price history for this drive on either Amazon or CamelCamelCamel. But thus far, SSD prices haven't really begun to spiral. So we suspect the same applies to the Team Group MP44L thus far. Likewise, should SSD prices begin to rocket up, it's unlikely this drive will be immune.
Samsung 870 EVO SATA III 1 TB
M.2 drives running over a fast PCIe interface are obviously the optimal storage solution. But what if you need a SATA drive? Might you be spared the price gouging?
Probably not, but the pricing of the Samsung 870 EVO SATA III in 1 TB trim has yet to really lift off. In fact, go back a year ago and it was actually more expensive at $105. Today it can be had on Amazon for $100.
Of course, it's also true that it was going for $85 in the summer. So, there's definitely an upward trend in the last few months. But it's not the steep cliff that DDR5 prices have run into. At least, not yet.
1. Best DDR5 overall:
G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200
2. Best budget DDR5:
Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-5200
3. Best high-capacity DDR5:
G.Skill Trident Z5 64 GB DDR5-6400 CL32
4. Best DDR4 overall:
TEAM XTREEM 16 GB DDR4-3600
5. Best budget DDR4:
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB DDR4-3600
6. Best high-capacity DDR4:
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB DDR4-3200
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
