In a RAM-pocalypse world, even external HDDs aren't safe

News
By published

If you want an HDD, the time is now

WD Black P50
(Image credit: WD)

While gaming SSDs have been getting steadily more extortionate as the months go on, I've been blathering on about the best external hard drives and internal HDDs as a cheaper alternative to grab more storage. Yet, it appears that even those won't be safe from inflated prices for long.

Western Digital has revealed it's already allocated its HDD supply for 2026, during the company's latest earnings call. The storage brand has even been receiving orders for 2027 and 2028, even though we're only at the tail-end of February 2026. These orders aren't being swallowed up by everyday consumers like you or me, and instead are being made by large-scale AI companies that have already been snapping up the best gaming SSDs allocation and leaving very little for the rest of us. If you were planning to buy any digital storage in the not-too-distant future, I'd maybe recommend doing it sooner rather than later.

WD Black P50

(Image credit: WD)

Originally reported by TweakTown, WD CEO Irving Tan stated during the company's Q2 earnings call that, " we're pretty much sold out for calendar 2026," and my fear for storage prices has only escalated. It was only a matter of time before those behind the RAM-pocalypse would be after any other storage devices to fuel their AI data centers, but it's still a disappointing blow to consider that even HDD pricing could get beyond ridiculous in the coming months.

I've been trying to keep track of the best SSD prices since the beginning of this year, and external hard drives have been my go-to cheaper recommendation. Most recently, I've been testing the Seagate Astro Bot Limited Edition Game Drive, which remains at $169.99 at PS Direct US, but provides 5TB of space for PS5 and PS4 owners. That's a pretty good deal, and it feels better when you take into account that a similar capacity internal SSD can be upwards of $600 right now.

WD Black SN850P close up in the hand

(Image credit: Future / Duncan Robertson)

The 4TB WD Black SN850P is sitting at $639.99 at Amazon, which is even more than the brand new PS5 Slim it's designed to slot into. According to my CamelCamelCamel price checker, it was just above the $250 price mark during November 2025, so that's a pretty massive $389.99 increase in just a few months.

While it and other SSD prices continue to make my eyes water, a quick scour of US and UK retailers has shown me that, luckily, this Western Digital news hasn't taken its toll on HDDs quite yet, which is why I'd recommend grabbing a few terabytes now before those prices even smell like they're going to increase.

Examples like the Crucial X10 are still sitting at just $117.02 (Amazon US) for its 1TB model, which remains good value for an external SSD for gaming and content creation. If you were hoping to grab it or one of the best external PS5 hard drives, it's one of the many options that still has a justifiable price point. Whether it'll stay that way for much longer, I have my doubts.

If storage is your game, we've also rounded up the best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express cards and the best Xbox Series X hard drives for your space needs.

Rosalie Newcombe
Rosalie Newcombe
Hardware Editor

Ever since I first held a NES controller in my hand I've been obsessed with gaming, and the hardware it runs on. I could hook up a NES and SNES to a telly, without instructions, before I could walk. Even now, nothing is more exciting then taking a console, or handheld, out the box for the first time and setting it up. This obsession transformed into a love of games and game music, which lead to my music degree and dream of becoming the Scottish Nobuo Uematsu. After sharing my love of games through music, I began to share my love through words on sites like TechRadar and iMore. This lead to becoming a Hardware staff writer for PCGamesN, and later the Senior Tech Writer for Dexerto, covering all things Steam Deck, PlayStation and Nintendo. With that experience, I was able to level up as Hardware Editor for GamesRadar+, where I'm still just as Nintendo, PlayStation and gaming tech obsessed as ever.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.