It feels like everyone keeps telling me to build a NAS these days. After all, the benefits are significant — an always-on streaming server, a Google Photos replacement, and a local backup are a few of them. With a combination of cheap and capacious hard drives and a handful of fast SSDs, you can create a NAS that has the best of both worlds. However, if you're convinced enough to go buy an all-SSD NAS, you may want to hold off for a while. Since September last year, SSD prices have more than doubled due to the ongoing DRAM supply crunch. What's worse is that a reversal doesn't seem on the cards for two years, at least. You could consider pre-owned enterprise SSDs as a replacement while you wait for consumer SSD prices to cool down.

SSDs in your NAS are worth considering

Hear me out

Most people think of mechanical hard drives when they picture a NAS, and for good reason. Hard drives may be obsolete for primary storage in PCs, but they're still relevant in other systems, NAS being one of them. Hard drives have always been cheaper than SSDs, so the cost per GB comes out to be way more attractive for a NAS, since you need tons of storage space. Plus, you need to factor in the limited write cycles of SSDs. And the fact that you simply can't find SSDs larger than 4TB or 8TB gives hard drives yet another edge.

Still, using SSDs in your NAS makes sense for a number of reasons. First, even a Gen3 SSD is way faster than a hard drive, which comes in handy when transferring large files on a NAS. Plus, workloads like virtual machines can make use of those blazing-fast SSD speeds. You can store the boot partition of your NAS on an SSD to avoid long boot times and enjoy a snappier system. Second, SSDs consume less power and are silent, something hard drives can't compete with, especially when you have a lot of them in your NAS. Over time, a 24/7 NAS can make the extra energy consumption of HDDs a concern, especially if you want to minimize your environmental footprint.

It makes sense to combine hard drives and SSDs for your NAS to benefit from the cost and data retention capabilities of spinning drives and the performance advantages of SSDs. If you'd prefer an off-the-shelf NAS instead and don't want to sacrifice performance, you'll probably have to reconsider your plans.

But SSD prices have gone haywire

Buckle up till 2028

Ever since a steep rise in the demand for DRAM drove RAM prices through the roof, we knew things were going to get worse before they got better. Sure enough, as manufacturers diverted DRAM supply to enterprise memory and storage, SSD prices doubled over a span of months. In the last five months, 2TB Gen4 SSDs that were selling for around $100 have crossed $200, with some drives also sitting at over $300. Gen5 SSDs are naturally pricier — the fastest models are selling for $300–$400. Hard drives have also become pricier due to the shift in demand, but the hike is nowhere near as bad.

If reports are to be believed, the DRAM crisis doesn't have an end date yet. We may not see any relief until the end of 2027, with Micron itself claiming things won't get better until 2028. It seems the AI craze will get much bigger before cooling down. If this is indeed true, then all your upgrade plans need to be reconsidered and most likely shelved indefinitely. Buying an all-SSD NAS in this market seems crazy, just like upgrading your graphics card or building a DDR5 PC. Hardware manufacturers have abandoned the end user, prioritizing enterprise AI demand to make hay while the sun shines.

Consider used enterprise SSDs for now

Higher endurance at affordable prices

All may not be lost, though, since you can still benefit from used enterprise SSDs. These drives can be found for cheap on sites like eBay, where they are listed after being rotated out of server setups long before they reach end-of-life status. Since they are over-engineered to last in relentless, 24/7 enterprise environments, they still have more life left in them than new consumer SSDs. Enterprise SSDs boast endurance ratings in the 7,000 TBW range for a 4TB drive, whereas consumer SSDs top out at around 2,400 TBW for an equivalent model. Enterprise drives are built with advanced NAND flash and higher-quality controllers, power delivery components, and firmware. They can sustain far more abuse than consumer drives, and even pre-owned models on eBay likely have significantly more life left in them than a new consumer SSD.

A NAS involves constant writes 24/7, making endurance and reliability far more important than peak performance. This is where enterprise SSDs excel, and considering the price of pre-owned models, they make for excellent NAS drives. You may need adapters to use U.2 or E1.S drives in your NAS, but it's a small price to pay. Like any other used hardware, pre-owned enterprise SSDs do come with risks, but buying from reputable sellers and studying the listing carefully can save you from potential disappointment. Until the consumer hardware market corrects, you can consider used enterprise SSDs for your NAS — don't let go of SSD speeds just because the market sucks right now.

Swear off consumer hardware for two years

PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts may need to shelve any upgrade plans for the next two years. As the DRAM crisis unfolds, almost every PC component is being affected by the storm. RAM, SSDs, and GPUs have already bitten the dust. NAS users need tons of storage, and in this market, that's a luxury most people can't afford. You could opt for used enterprise SSDs to enjoy the performance benefits without spending hundreds of dollars on a consumer drive. Until things change for the better, you don't have many options.