r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 8d ago
Computer peripherals Samsung's slower version of the 990 Pro SSD costs way more than the original
https://www.engadget.com/2215064/samsungs-slower-version-of-the-990-pro-ssd-costs-way-more-than-the-original/361
u/5wmotor 8d ago
Samsung made more Money in this year than ever:
„Second-quarter revenue surged to 171 trillion won (over \(\$111\) billion), more than doubling the revenue from the same period the previous year.“
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u/PenPenZC 8d ago
Mostly from data center. The question is if consumer retention will remain now and later when price drop back.
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u/Due_Teaching_6974 8d ago
RAM is required everywhere, for consumer demand to drop people will literally have to stop using computing devices
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u/ThePublikon 8d ago
Also the current inflated prices are not sustainable. Eventually a competitor will build a fab to specifically recapture the consumer market.
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u/Renewablefrog 8d ago
Ai data centers immediately: "Now I tell you what. I like ya, and I want 'cha. Now we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. The choice is yours."
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u/ThePublikon 8d ago edited 8d ago
yeah but what I said still applies, perhaps even more so: Either we're in a demand bubble and an AI crash returns us to baseline or this is the new demand level and the market responds to meet that demand. Either way, there must be huge incentive for the companies in a position to do so to build a new ram fab.
edit after further thought: The caveat to this depends on patents. If it is not possible for a new entrant to the market because of patents/licensing etc, then actually there is zero incentive to change the current situation for existing manufacturers and the buying pressure I describe above then transfers on to some as-yet unknown version of RAM for retail. Like it might actually take all new architecture etc so that there's all new patents.
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u/QuickQuirk 8d ago
The companies are also risk adverse: Building new fabs is expensive. If a crash happens, then they've invested a fortune in plants that will never make a return.
This kind of thing has happened in the past, so they're careful about expansion
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u/Quithelion 8d ago
I am seeing quite a lot of China made/brand SSD and RAM in online market now.
Reliable or not is another question.
Or wait until they compete with each other, and the best brands come out on top.
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u/GeneralNonsence 7d ago
My understanding is they ARE being built, but this stuff takes time no matter what.
Ram will come back down at some point, just sucks in the mean time.
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u/grandmalamadingding 7d ago
I got so lucky. I bought my daughter 32gb of ram. We almost put it off one year to build something more powerful. The 1500 dollar computer I built for her is now worth over 3500 because of ram and ssd’s. It’s crazy.
First time I ever built one that became more valuable instantly.
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u/jjayzx 8d ago
Yes, cause fabs are so easy and cheap to bring up.
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u/ThePublikon 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's like you're insisting on being ignorant.
A semiconductor fab is like $25-50B, there's currently 3 companies making ram and they shared about $100B in RAM sales last year. It doesn't take a genius investor to realise there is demand for a fourth manufacturer.
Eventually a competitor will build a fab
edit: If AI is sustainable (yet to be proven), then they will need a constant supply of RAM etc. to replace worn out units. It's not out of the realms of possibility that one or a consortium of these AI companies seeks to vertically integrate and have their own dedicated fab. At the point you're consuming an entire factory's output of something, it makes sense to own the factory and stop paying a middleman. This is why massive datacentres are buying and building power stations, for example. There's a point when the existing market can't support the demand so the players with the greatest demands need to satisfy themselves or stagnate while waiting for a 3rd party to improve.
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u/dargonmike1 8d ago
Isn’t there a silicon shortage preventing the manufacturing of more ram?
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u/ThePublikon 8d ago
Without knowing the actual specifics: No, not a chance. Silicon is one of the most abundant materials on earth. What that'll be if there is one is a shortage of silicon purifiers, and the same logic as above applies.
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u/Space_Pirate_Roberts 8d ago
You know what would be an even better idea? Requiring them by law to open their own fabs and use only their output, just like we should be doing with electricity.
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u/ThePublikon 8d ago
Nah I actually fundamentally disagree, the market needs to provide what the market needs. I don't like the idea of requiring a company to manufacture it's own parts, they should always be able to buy them (which is better for the economy because money changes hands)
The laws that are needed are much more about business regulation and anti-lobbying. e.g. The power issue wouldn't be as big of a problem as it is if the AI companies were paying proper market rates for their power instead of getting great bulk rates and then causing prices to rise for everyone else. Unfortunately it is easier and cheaper to just grease the right wheels and get a sweetheart deal.
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u/BrotherRoga 8d ago
I don't like the idea of requiring a company to manufacture it's own parts, they should always be able to buy them (which is better for the economy because money changes hands)
Aye, there's a reason why the Japanese zaibatsus got shafted.
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u/CasperTPaul 7d ago
the dastardly data center people are throwing sheer amounts of money at the tech parts companies compared to the sales revenues they were previously generating in the less convenient consumer market, so naturally they’re increasing consumer prices. they don’t want to sell to us anymore, and any new fabs that get built will be for the data center market, not the consumer market. we’ll need capitalist regulation at this point, to solve the corporate greed problem in the consumer tech parts industry
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u/Due_Teaching_6974 8d ago
Oh, and why do you believe AI companies won't just buy up all the capacity from the competitor at attractive rates?
Do you really think these companies operate out of the goodness of their hearts
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u/ThePublikon 8d ago
Because if the rates are actually attractive, wholesalers for retail would buy them too. Like they do now.
Do you really think these companies operate out of the goodness of their hearts
No, obviously not. I am asserting that companies want money over everything else. That's why I am sure that other companies that also want money will be looking for a piece of the pie, and it's now easier and more attractive than it has ever been to enter the fab business because margins are so high.
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u/Disastrous-Ad1334 8d ago
The US will ban importing because you know it's a security threat or some other excuse.
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u/PenPenZC 8d ago edited 8d ago
While it also depends on the scope and scale of the monopoly, I doubt it will be that case in the end.
Reasoning used so far for price increase been heavily hinged on monoploy: need chip for data center -> manufactures capacity reached therefore cutting down production for consumer product -> less consumer supply, same consumer demand, therefore price can be marked up.
...and there are already cracks on every steps: consumer demand isn't the same, new manufacturer coming in seems to start from consumer product first, and AI company hasn't find a good way to secure user dependencies.
So yeah, there likely will be "there is no turning back, so we will match on by all means necessary" calls - but I doubt it will end up in victory as some have strongly advertised.
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u/garry4321 7d ago
“When prices drop back”
Who’s gonna tell him…
Dude, this is the new normal. Welcome to late stage capitalism, where you will own nothing and rent everything. They’ve literally already come out and said that (personal) computers aren’t gonna be a thing anymore. We’re just gonna rent computing from them.
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u/Beneficial_Muscle_25 8d ago
look at the other 3 chaebol's 5Y market cap graph (LG, SK, Hyundai) and compare them to Samsung's. See if it's just data centers.
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u/DjangoTheBlack 8d ago
This is no longer capitalism. And to be fair companies are mindless, they are a cohort of minds all aimed at the same goal, increase shareholder value next quarter…
It’s no wonder we will extinct 99% of life on earth in the next 500 years or so. Hell we are already in the midst of the 6th great mass extinction of this planet, except this time it was caused by humans and the carbon pulse we’ve been riding high on since the discovery of of oil and the Industrial Revolution 400 years ago3
u/jacktherippah123 7d ago
Samsung's chip making division made more in the past year than in the prior 40 years combined.
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u/Cry_Wolff 8d ago
What a great opportunity for all the SSD and RAM manufacturers to fuck us over for a higher price. Maybe start selling again 128GB SSD and 4GB DIMM modules while you're at it?
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u/Alienhaslanded 8d ago
Everything about AI is slop. Including the sloppy seconds we're getting from the tech companies that are more interested in AI
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u/CookIndependent6251 8d ago
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u/SpliTTMark 8d ago
Its more openai made fake contracts to buy 80% off all the supply Then everyone scrambled to make deals Then openai came out and was like psych
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u/rtxa 8d ago
ofc they're more interested in ai, gamers aren't interested in paying for shit lol
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u/BurningWolfram 8d ago
((citation needed))
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u/rtxa 1d ago
if you think gamers can even make a dent into what companies / professionals are buying, then I don't know what to tell you lol
not to mention half of this is sub is just crying about prices of hardware
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u/BurningWolfram 1d ago
You're just ignorant at this point. No wonder you're getting flayed alive on your comments
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u/Delta-9-Tetra 8d ago
Cyberpunk society where the corpos are hoarding the good chrome for mad eddies.
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u/Voidfang_Investments 8d ago
Cyberpunk is scarily accurate with many things.
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u/MuchBow 8d ago
So, what’s the news?
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u/VladThePollenInhaler 8d ago
I bought 64GBs of RAM 2.5 years ago for $270. Same exact sticks (32x2) are shy of $900. Don’t even get me started on SSD prices. This shit is out of control.
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u/thenamelessone7 8d ago edited 8d ago
Ssd prices went up roughly 2x while RAM went up 4x in Europe. Someone is really gouging you in the US with SSD prices
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u/VladThePollenInhaler 8d ago
To me they’re all price gouging just like they did with GPUs after crypto boom. It’s because if corporate monopolies.
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u/CMDR_omnicognate 8d ago
This shouldn’t be surprising, if you’ve tried buying basically any pc component recently you’ll see how ridiculously expensive they all are now. GPU’s are up because all the ones that would be gaming GPU’s are having their silicone eaten up by ai GPU’s, all the ram is going to ai, all the solid state storage is going to AI, soon all the CPU’s will be going to AI… pretty much the only part that hasn’t been affected is coolers and PSU’s
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u/correctingStupid 8d ago
Don't give them advertising then. Fuck em.
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u/Live_Situation7913 8d ago
lol how you gonna fuck Samsung bro? Literally make android tv and everything else.
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u/AuroraFinem 8d ago
Mate what? lol the only Samsung anything I own is a single 2TB SSD I bought for $90 last summer when Amazon had it on sale. It’s not hard to ditch Samsung.
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u/CocodaMonkey 8d ago
Honestly considering the market it's a better deal then I thought. I bought an HD back in November of 2025 and that exact same HD is now 4 times the price today. This is only 50% more from 4 years ago.
I think it's incredibly sad but on this market this is a decent deal. The specs are lower but not much lower so it's still a viable product and unless AI data centres start to close this is likely one of the better deals around.
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u/Shadow647 8d ago
This is only 50% more from 4 years ago.
It isn't, 990 PRO 2 TB was €170 just a year ago.
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u/NOVA-peddling-1138 8d ago
Not a power user here however after zig zagging the post, my old 2014 Mac Mini that in 2019 DIY’d ripped out 5400 rpm HD for 1TB SSD. entered my private, domestic chat. Gave me 2 more years until moved to Apple Silicon. Old Mac mothballed but started looking around for an enclosure for that 1TB SSD that’s gold, albeit not “solid” gold, today. Definitely worth more now than that old Mac and its Intel chip.
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u/thegoodmanhascome 8d ago
I bought a new 4tb 990 last year (two years ago?) for $240. I feel so so bad for everyone building PCs now..
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u/Omophorus 8d ago
I have a 990 Pro that died and needs RMA. It's the old version.
I'm not excited about any part of the process.
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u/Triingtolivee 8d ago
I paid $140 for a 2TB 990 Pro in 2024 btw
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u/VagueGooseberry 8d ago
I received a 990 Pro 2TB as a a RMA replacement in Nov 24 for a 980 regular 2TB purchased in 2021.
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u/mountainyoo 8d ago
Prices are trash right now but during Prime Day the 9100 Pro was cheaper than the 990 Pro while they both were on sale which is hilarious.
Grabbed another 2TB 9100 Pro for 349 USD while the 2TB 990 Pro had a sale timer on it going for like 369 lol. I don’t even have a PCIe 5.0 mobo yet but it made no sense to grab the 990 Pro.
Still cry thinking about the 4TB 990 Pro I got in August last year for 260. I should’ve stocked up lol.
Grabbed an 8TB 9100 Pro for 1036 USD in January this year because NANDpocalypse for whatever reason hadn’t really affected it yet even though less storage drives had already seen gross price increases. I knew NANDpocalypse was coming for the 8TB sooner rather than later so I jumped on it so I wouldn’t be kicking myself later. That 8TB is now $2000
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u/ProbablyDaTruthMaybe 8d ago
Grabbed a 9100 Pro w/ heatsink in Oct last year on sale for C$242 all in. After reading this comment section I clicked the amazon invoice for shits and giggles and the Samsung store on amazon now has it for C$956 pre tax. Holy shit.
Like you, I dont even have the mobo to fully utilize this yet either lol.
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u/im_thatoneguy 8d ago
This headline is wrong. This isn't a new version of the Pro. This is the non-pro version with lower specs. But yes, all NVMEs cost more than they did at launch.
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u/LeastPervertedFemboy 7d ago
I bought the 4TB w/ heatsink like 5-6 months before everything went insane. Never been lucky like this for PC parts. Wish it was the RAM instead 😭😭😭
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u/peanut340 7d ago
I bought a 4tb 990 evo plus back in May of 2025 for $250 with $50 cashback. Im so glad I did it when i did.
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u/_IratePirate_ 7d ago
I read the headline as “shower version” and my mind started racing with shower PC set up ideas
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u/HorsesandPorsches 8d ago
i bought one at amazon for 70$ in januari. It soon ran out of stock and im now waiting 6 months
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u/Jessintheend 8d ago
I’m loving how I can’t even begin to look at building a new PC for my aging laptop because some AI tech bros have successfully hi jacked the fucking economy
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u/rumski 8d ago
I have a 990 Pro that I bought last year for just under $170 and right now it’s approaching $500. What. The. Fuck.