We have always been straight with customers about pricing, and right now there is one thing we keep having to explain: memory and storage have become genuinely expensive. A 32GB DDR5 kit that was under 90 pounds in late 2024 has at times sat near 300 pounds, and good NVMe drives have roughly doubled. This is not retailer greed, it is something bigger, and it is worth understanding before you buy.
What is actually going on
The short answer is artificial intelligence. The huge demand for AI hardware in datacentres has pulled memory production towards high-margin server and AI memory, and away from the consumer chips that go into desktop RAM and SSDs.
- AI memory eats capacity. The specialist memory used on AI accelerators uses far more manufacturing capacity per gigabyte than normal RAM, so every wafer that goes to AI removes several wafers' worth of desktop memory from the market.
- Datacentre storage comes first. Manufacturers are prioritising enterprise SSDs, and deliberately limiting consumer supply to protect prices.
- Capacity is sold out. Major manufacturers have reported memory capacity sold out well into 2026.
- Older memory is being retired. DDR4 is being wound down, which has pushed even legacy memory to record prices.
Is it going to get better soon?
Honestly, not this year. Industry analysts expect prices to keep climbing through the second half of 2026, with no meaningful return to the old lows expected before late 2027 at the earliest. There are early signs that the very top of the market is cooling slightly, but that is a long way from prices actually falling. We would love to tell you to just wait a few months, but the evidence does not support it.
How we spec around it
This is where good advice saves you real money.
- Buy the capacity you need, not the capacity you might one day need. With memory at these prices, over-speccing 64GB when 32GB is plenty is an expensive habit. For most gamers, 32GB is the sweet spot, and 16GB is still perfectly playable.
- 2TB is the storage value pick. Right now 2TB NVMe drives offer the best price per gigabyte. 1TB feels tight for a modern game library, and 4TB carries a disproportionate premium.
- Buy memory as a matched kit up front. Adding sticks later means buying into a worse market, and mismatched kits can cause stability headaches anyway.
- Reuse what you have. If you are upgrading and your existing SSD or memory is healthy and current, carrying it over is a smart way to dodge the worst of the inflation. We are always happy to advise on what is worth keeping.
The bottom line
The price rises are real, structural, and not going away quickly. The good news is that a sensibly specced machine still represents excellent value, you just want to put your money where it counts and avoid paying a premium for headroom you will never use. That is exactly the kind of honest balancing we do on every quote.
Prices are correct at the time of writing and the GPU, memory and storage markets are moving quickly at the moment, so always check live pricing before you buy. Better still, ask us for a current quote and we will price it up against today's UK stock.
Build it with us
Have a play with our PC configurator, or just get in touch and tell us how you actually use your machine. We are a friendly bunch, every system is hand-built to order here in Stevenage, stress-tested before it ships, and backed by our 5-year warranty.
