There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to upgrade my PC's storage in 2026. First, I was beginning to run out of space on both of my 1TB SSDs. Second, one of them was a PCIe 3.0 drive that I finally wanted to replace. I planned to buy a 2TB drive and swap it with the Gen3 drive, adding a total of 1TB of space to the system. The ongoing DRAM crisis, however, had other plans. The prices of consumer memory skyrocketed around four months ago, and SSDs followed suit. Paying three times for the same SSD seemed insane, so I decided to delay the upgrade and invest in HDD storage in the meantime. Combining reliable and cheaper (despite price hikes) secondary storage with my existing NVMe storage feels like the right way to weather the PC hardware storm.

NVMe prices have tripled where I live

It's frankly infuriating

You must have noticed that the PC hardware market has gone off the rails in the last few months. What started with rising RAM prices quickly spilled over to SSDs and hard drives, and finally to consumer graphics cards. Everything seems to be selling for a hefty premium, leaving all PC upgrade plans in the dust. Manufacturers have shifted most of their production capacity toward data center memory, reducing the supply of not only consumer RAM but also indirectly affecting SSDs. They are prioritizing High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) instead of NAND, making SSDs an unwitting victim of the AI takeover. Data center demand is also depleting hard drive supply for consumers, resulting in a significant rise in HDD prices, too.

In India, I was used to seeing most 2TB Gen4 drives retailing for around $100. The same models are now sitting at upward of $300, making it impossible for me to justify a storage upgrade right now. I might need more space on my PC, but I'm not about to spend $200 extra for the privilege. I'm more than willing to delete a few games to give my SSDs some breathing room. Moreover, I've decided to use the money I earmarked for a new SSD for a hard drive instead.

I'm expanding my secondary storage instead

Something is better than nothing

You might be wondering why I'm swapping one storage medium for another, especially since the other is also inflated in price. The reason is that although hard drive prices have also increased substantially compared to last year, they're still more digestible compared to SSD prices. The NVMe situation is so bad that a near-100% hike in HDD prices seems relatively reasonable right now. I was tracking 2TB Seagate and WD hard drives for a year, when toying with the idea of building a NAS. The models that were selling for around $70 now sit close to $120, a whopping 74% increase. However, I can still get 2TB of storage for that price, compared to the $300 I'll have to spend to get an equivalent SSD. It's crazy to think that I kept waiting for slight price corrections instead of snagging a drive at a great price. Well, hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

My Gen4 and Gen3 SSDs will last me a few more years

And the wait begins

While I initially wanted to expand my fast NVMe storage pool, I'll be content with adding some secondary storage to my PC in this market. It won't be nearly as fast as a Gen4 SSD, but I don't need it to be. I'll happily offload everything that I can from my SSDs to the hard drive, keeping only the essentials on the faster drives. Things like old photos and videos, movies and TV shows, work files, and disk images can easily live on the hard drive, since I don't need to access them regularly.

This compromise will allow me to save a hefty sum while I wait for SSD prices to come down eventually. The Gen4 and Gen3 SSDs are still good enough for gaming and regular use, and will sustain my usage till then. The extra hard drive space will allow some breathing room for the SSDs, so I won't have to be as brutal with my game library as I am right now. Two years later, I might move to AM5, at which point I'll probably get a Gen5 SSD, at least. If a 2TB Gen5 drive proves too costly, I'll have to combine a 1TB model with a 2TB Gen4 drive for enough storage space. I can still retain my current Gen4 SSD and finally get rid of the Gen3 drive.

We're in for another rough patch of PC hardware prices

PC builders are an unlucky bunch. The moment we think we've escaped a hardware crisis, another one is waiting in store for us. The latest PC hardware hell has arrived thanks to the unprecedented AI demand, which doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon. So, be prepared to wait for two years (or more) for prices to normalize. Maybe we'll have to get used to a new normal of RAM, storage, and GPU prices, but I'm hoping it won't be anywhere as ridiculous as the one we're living through now.