If you’ve been following the ongoing chatter about SSD and RAM shortages, you might expect store shelves to look bare. At least at one Micro Center location, that’s not the case at all. The surprising part isn’t availability—it’s the pricing. Even with shelves packed full of high-end storage and memory, the market’s volatility continues to push prices into jaw-dropping territory.
Photos shared on Reddit by user u/Hell-Diver7 show a Micro Center store loaded with NVMe SSDs and DDR5 memory kits, suggesting inventory is there for buyers who need upgrades or new builds. But the tags on those shelves tell a different story: prices that feel completely disconnected from what many PC builders consider normal.
On the storage side, NVMe SSD pricing has surged dramatically in recent weeks, with some models appearing to jump by around 200% compared to earlier pricing. The images highlight premium drives from big-name brands, with the Samsung 9100 PRO reportedly starting around $679 for a 2 TB model and climbing as high as $2,719 depending on capacity. Western Digital’s gaming-focused WD_Black line is also hit hard, with the SN8100 listed at about $699 for 2 TB and roughly $1,272 for the 4 TB version.
Memory pricing looks even more extreme. Despite stacks of DDR5 kits available in the store, the numbers being asked are far from “buyer-friendly.” A single 32 GB DDR5 module from G.Skill’s Ripjaws line is shown at around $699, while a 64 GB kit sits near $859.
The most eye-catching example, though, comes from Corsair. A Corsair Vengeance RGB 128 GB DDR5-6400 kit is listed at an astonishing $4,199. That puts it in the same conversation as flagship GPU pricing, and it works out to roughly $32 per gigabyte—an unusually high cost for consumer memory, even in a tight market.
What makes this even more confusing for shoppers is that pricing can vary wildly depending on where you buy. Other retailers may list similar DDR5 kits for significantly less, making the in-store sticker shock feel even more intense for people who walk in expecting Micro Center’s usual competitive deals.
The big takeaway: the “shortage” story isn’t as simple as empty shelves. Some stores clearly have product on hand, but the unstable supply chain and rapid pricing shifts mean buyers can still end up facing inflated costs. If you’re planning a PC upgrade—especially a high-capacity SSD or DDR5 kit—it’s worth watching prices closely, comparing across sellers, and deciding whether your build truly needs that upgrade right now or if waiting might save you a substantial amount.
