'Price increase of at least 10%' rumored for SSDs — but fresh CPU price hikes could be much worse

• Samsung and Kingston are increasing SSD prices according to a report from China
• We're told there will be a 'price increase of at least 10% for solid-state drives'
• On top of that, AMD Ryzen CPUs have seemingly leapt in price in Japan

SSD prices are reportedly set for another increase, and we're hearing news about CPUs getting hiked, too.

Wccftech spotted a report from Chinese tech site IT Home claiming that Samsung and Kingston have "both notified their distribution channels of a price increase of at least 10% for solid-state drives".

This comes from a source in the supply chain, we're told, and seemingly Samsung has notified three major domestic distributors of this price increase which comes into effect now.

As Wccftech makes clear, we've already seen price hikes on high-end SSDs from Samsung and Western Digital earlier this month, applied as stealth increases that amount to a doubling in cost for some models (the really big drives).

Wccftech also flagged up major price rises for AMD Ryzen processors in the Japanese market, as claimed in a report from PC Watch.

The current-gen Zen 5 lineup has been hit with around 40%-50% price hikes in some cases, with the biggest increases hitting the Ryzen 7 9700X (which is up 57%) and Ryzen 9 9900X (up 37%).

A bunch of Ryzen 9000 models have had around 20% increases applied in Japan, including the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which is a popular choice for PC gamers (and is up 22%).

These price rises extend to older AMD processors as well, with some Ryzen 7000 models going up in a major way, led by the 7800X3D — the predecessor of the 9800X3D — being subject to a 41% hike.

Analysis: a broader sign of things to come

Those are really nasty CPU price increases, make no mistake, but it's not surprising that processors are getting more expensive. This has been happening for a little while now, although the increases have been relatively timid compared to RAM and storage.

However, this is the first time truly worrying rises have been seen with CPUs, and although it's limited to the Japanese market, there's a chance we'll see a similar trajectory with pricing elsewhere. Put it this way: I wouldn't bet against this being a broader sign of bad things to come, although it could still prove to be a more localized problem for Japanese retailers.

As for SSDs, assuming the source from the supply chain is correct — and we should appropriately season all these reports, of course — it's likely that SSDs will continue to get more expensive across the globe, not just in Asia. This is backed up by a recent forecast from analyst firm TrendForce, which believes that NAND flash storage could see a price surge of around 75% quarter-on-quarter.

The outlook for SSD pricing is suitably bleak, there's no getting around that, and the same goes for RAM, with TrendForce predicting around 60% rises there.

The best SSDs for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best SSD
1. Best overall:
WD_Black SN8100
2. Best budget:
Orico O7000
3. Best gaming:
SK Hynix Platinum P51
4. Best professional:
Samsung 9100 Pro
5. Best for PS5
Samsung 990 Pro

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