Uh oh, it's happening: ADATA chairman says the perfect storm of simultaneous DRAM, SSD and HDD shortages is already upon us and it looks like prices are only going in one direction

Adata XPG Lancer RGB DDR5-6000 — (Image credit: Adata)

A couple of weeks ago I reported on the idea that the AI was going to cause a run on all kinds of memory and storage hardware. Well, it's already happening according to no less an authority than the chairman of memory specialist ADATA.

ADATA's Chen Libai has said that supplies of all the major memory and storage technologies—DRAM, NAND, and HDD—are now in shortage. Chen says it's the first time that has happened in 30 years.

And so it begins: DDR5 prices are already ticking upwards... (Image credit: Future)

As for what this means for we poor PC gamers, well, it looks like there's a good chance that RAM and SSD prices are set to join GPUs as significant pain points. Indeed, it's already happening.

By way of example, this popular Crucial 32GB DDR5 kit was ticking along at $84.99 for much of 2025 on Amazon. Now it's $119.99. How high it will go in the coming months is hard to say.

The good news is that, for now, SSD prices seem to be holding steady. But the implication of Chen's comments is that SSDs are likely to follow suit. Indeed, we've touched on the impact of AI companies sucking up all the HDDs and turning their attention to SSDs recently, too.

All of which means PCs will probably be more expensive in the short term and stay that way for the medium term, which is a bummer. Oh, and if you're considering a new SSD, now seems like a good time to pull the trigger. It looks very likely that prices are only going one way.

Best SSD for gaming 2025

1. Best overall:
WD_Black SN7100

2. Best budget:
Biwin Black Opal NV7400

3. Best PCIe 5.0:
WD_Black SN8100

4. Best budget PCIe 5.0:
Crucial P510

5. Best 4 TB:
TeamGroup MP44

6. Best 8 TB:
WD_Black SN850X

7. Best M.2 2230:
Lexar Play 2230

8. Best for PS5:
Silicon Power XS70

9. Best SATA:
Crucial MX500

👉Check out our full guide👈

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Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.

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