If you’ve been pricing out a custom PC or looking to upgrade your system recently, you’ve likely noticed a frustrating trend: prices are climbing. Specifically, the cost of RAM (memory) and SSDs (storage) has spiked significantly over the last few months.
We value transparency with our customers. We want you to understand exactly what is happening in the global market, how it affects the custom builds we create for you, and—most importantly—what to expect in the coming months.
1. Why Are Memory Prices Increasing?
The primary driver of this price surge is the explosive growth of Artificial Intelligence. Major global manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are currently in a race to supply High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to datacenters for AI processing. This “enterprise-grade” memory is far more profitable for them than the standard DDR5 sticks used in consumer PCs and most workstations.
Here is the problem: producing HBM is difficult. It requires roughly three times the wafer capacity of standard DRAM. To keep up with the insatiable demand from AI giants, manufacturers have physically converted their production lines away from consumer memory.
The result? The supply of standard PC memory has plummeted just as demand is stabilizing, creating a classic supply-and-demand squeeze.
2. How Does This Affect Your Custom PC Build?
This shortage impacts the “Bill of Materials” for every PC we build, but it hits two specific components hardest:
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DDR5 RAM: Prices for standard RAM kits have jumped aggressively, more than doubling in just the past two months. You can now, quite literally, buy an entire PS5 for the cost of a 64GB RAM kit.
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SSDs (Storage): The same manufacturing shift affecting RAM is hitting the NAND flash market used for SSDs. High-speed NVMe drives are becoming scarcer and more expensive as capacity is diverted to enterprise storage arrays.
This means that to build the same high-performance gaming or workstation PC today that you priced out just last month, the total cost is higher solely due to the fluctuating market value of these memory chips.
3. How Long Will This Continue?
Unfortunately, industry analysts do not see this trend reversing anytime soon. Forecasts into early 2026 predict that supply will remain tight. New fabrication plants (factories) are being built to handle the extra load, but these will not be fully operational until late 2026 or 2027.
Major manufacturers have signaled that the “memory supercycle” is just beginning, and we expect contract prices for components to continue rising through Q1 and Q2 of 2026 at least.
The Bottom Line
We are doing everything we can to secure inventory and keep our prices as competitive as possible. However, we cannot control the global spot prices for DRAM and NAND.
Our advice? If you are on the fence about a build, buy now. Waiting for prices to “normalize” is a risky strategy that will likely result in paying more for the same hardware. Locking in your build today ensures you beat the next wave of projected increases.
Browse Our Custom Builds Here
This content was written by the expert Velocity Micro staff.
