We've been following SSD prices closely over the past few weeks, months, years even… during which there have been some really bad times, some good times, and some middling times. We're in the middling times now—some NVMe SSDs can be found for decent prices today, though you'll need to spend more than you would have last year to get the same thing. The 4th of July sales haven't really done much to change that, either.
I've been looking around to see if there's anything around worth shouting about for PC gamers, and the frank answer is, no, not massively.
SSDs have been floating a little above where they were this time last year—a likely symptom of lower production levels to mediate slow demand. This WD Black SN850X is a good example. It's one of our favorite SSDs today for PCIe 4.0 storage needs.
Over on Amazon, the SN850X is down from $190 to $150—a 21% saving. Except that's not much of a discount at all. This drive has been sitting at $150 or thereabouts since… 2023. It was July last year when this drive dropped down to $90—right around Prime Day.
Another from WD, the SN770, is down to $78 for 1TB of decently quick PCIe 4.0 storage. That seems pretty great, though looking through previous pricing we've covered for this drive, it's not worth shouting about. You could've grabbed this drive for the superb price of $43 last July.
You may be noticing a trend here: besides November, when Black Friday rolls around, one of the better months to buy PC hardware is July.
I won't chalk that entirely up to Amazon's incoming Prime Day event, which lands this year on July 16–17, though it helps. That event may be limited to Prime, and Prime members, though extends to other retailers by way of competition and jealousy. That's generally good news for us customers, as we don't necessarily have to pay Prime to score decent prices on tech. We tend to see discounts appearing across Best Buy, Newegg, and Amazon during July as they all try to fend off a summer sales slump.
If you were hoping to get ahead of the Prime Day sales with a quick deal on July 4th, I don't think that's happening. Instead, I'd wait a bit longer until Prime Day hits us proper. I still have reservations about whether we'll see any deals quite as good as 2023, namely because the SSD market has generally stifled further price reductions and lower production has kept prices more buoyant than before. Though we should at least see a bit more competition for competitive prices than retailers.
Right now, one of the better deals I can find is this Nextorage 1 TB drive with a heatsink included. It's a regular star for us, as it's frequently discounted, but its $80 sticker price is nothing special. That's pretty much par for the course. Otherwise, Newegg's independence day sale hasn't hugely inspired me for storage, as I'm usually looking for 2 TB or more. Best Buy's current sale stock also doesn't appeal.
Another reason to stave off your worst capitalist desires for at least another week or two is because we're seeing some prices increase, before likely decreasing again during the major sales event. That's one of the oldest tricks in the book, and a sucky one at that. It's done to make deals look better than they are, and while technically you're paying no more for that product in the sale than you would have a few weeks prior, you might think it's a better deal than it actually is.
This Lexar NM790 is currently discounted by 22% from $190 to $148. That seems like a pretty good deal, except this drive had been selling at $148 or lower for a while.
We've had this same drive on cheap SSD deals page for a while from a different seller, down to $135.
Prices fluctuate, that's a given. Retailers are within their rights to increase and decrease prices at will. Though increasing a price only to make deals appear better than they are later on is a frustrating practice we do see from time to time. That's why we always recommend checking out products on price comparison sites, such as CamelCamelCamel.
Or PC Gamer, of course, as we're doing all that work for ya. Stay tuned to our Prime Day SSD deals page for the best of the event when it rolls around.
