// HONEST · ANSWERS
Why computer prices have gone up — the honest answer
If a laptop, desktop or SSD looks dearer than it did a year ago, you’re not imagining it. Here’s the plain-English explanation — what’s actually driving it, what it means at a UK till, and how it affects our own refurbished Dell prices. Family-run in Bournemouth since 1995, and we’d rather explain it straight than dress it up.
Rated 4.9 on GoogleFamily-run since 1995 · no fix, no fee// THE · SHORT · ANSWER
The short answer: AI data centres are soaking up the world’s memory
Almost everything a computer costs more of in 2026 comes down to two components: memory (RAM) and flash storage (the chips inside SSDs). Since mid-2025, AI data centres have been buying both at unprecedented scale.
Only three companies — Samsung, SK hynix and Micron — make the large majority of the world’s memory chips. All three have pivoted factory capacity towards the high-margin parts AI systems need: High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI accelerators, and enterprise-grade server memory and SSDs. HBM is a hungry product — it consumes several times the wafer area per gigabyte of ordinary RAM — and reports suggest 2026 HBM output is effectively sold out already. Meanwhile the big cloud providers have been signing long-term supply agreements to lock in what’s left.
One important correction to the headline you may have seen: it isn’t that “AI companies are buying all the SSDs in the shops”. The squeeze happens at the chip factories — wafer capacity being reallocated away from consumer parts — and the shortage then flows downhill to every laptop, desktop and bare SSD on a UK shelf.
The result: wholesale memory and storage prices have risen at record rates, and finished computers have followed.
// Not just a guide
Dell playing up? We’ll fix it. Time for a new one? Pick one here.
Real, tested ex-business Dells from the same Bournemouth techies who wrote this, each with a new 1TB Samsung 990 PRO, set up and supported — and help for the Dell you’ve already got.
What a refurbished Dell costs instead
- Latitude 3000 seriese.g. Latitude 3420 · 14″ · 11th-gen i5 · 16GB£510FROM
- OptiPlex 3000 seriese.g. OptiPlex 3080 · Micro / SFF / Tower · 10th-gen i5 · 16GB£545FROM
More detail: Latitude 3000 · OptiPlex 3000 · all refurbished Dell laptops · all refurbished Dell desktops
Dell playing up?
- Software problems: remote help, often the same day
- Hardware: free local collection, no fix no fee
- 12-month warranty on repairs
Guide prices; stock changes, so we confirm the exact machine before you buy. We bring it to you to see first.All our Dell help in one place →
// THE · EVIDENCE
The evidence: record wholesale price rises, quarter after quarter
Industry price-trackers such as TrendForce report the wholesale (contract) prices that computer makers pay, and the recent numbers are remarkable:
- Q4 2025: NAND flash (SSD chip) contract prices up 5–10%, as supply tightened (TrendForce, Sep 2025).
- Q1 2026: TrendForce sharply upgraded its forecast — NAND flash revised from +33–38% to +55–60% in a single quarter; conventional RAM +90–95%; PC RAM up more than 100%, described as a record quarterly surge (TrendForce, Feb 2026).
- Q2 2026: a further +58–63% forecast for RAM and +70–75% for NAND flash, with consumer production being scaled back in favour of enterprise SSDs (TrendForce, Mar 2026).
It has reached finished computers too. Dell reportedly raised PC prices 15–20% from mid-December 2025 and Lenovo followed in January 2026; analyst firm IDC expects average PC prices to rise by up to 8% across 2026. HP has reportedly said memory and storage climbed from roughly 15–18% of a typical PC’s build cost to around 35% in 2026.
In short: this is a documented, industry-wide squeeze — not retailers trying it on.
// AT · THE · TILL
What it looks like at a UK till: one SSD, tracked for nine months
Wholesale percentages feel abstract, so here’s one real product we know well — the Samsung 990 PRO 1TB, the NVMe SSD we fit in our refurbished machines:
- October 2025: reportedly around £93 in an Amazon UK deal — described at the time as the cheapest in two years (TechRadar).
- Early 2026: eTeknix reported the UK price hitting £159.99 — 84% above its roughly £87 2025 price — and OC3D reported Samsung 1TB drives passing £200, over double the year before.
- 16 July 2026: £229.99 at Scan — a price we verified directly on that date. (The heatsink version was then £299.99; price-comparison listings start from £159.99, so Scan’s figure is the mainstream-retailer price rather than the market floor.)
- 26 September 2026: £208.99 at Scan (down from £221.99) — easing, but still more than double the October 2025 deal price.
RAM has moved the same way. UK trade sources report a 32GB DDR5 kit going from about £95 in May 2025 to £350+ by December, easing to around £279 by April 2026 — and DDR4, which most 2020–2023 business refurbs actually use, reportedly climbing from about £70 to £180+ for 32GB. Treat those as indicative rather than exact — but the direction is unmistakable.
// OUR · PRICES
What it means for our refurbished Dell prices
Here’s where we’d rather show our working than hide it. Every refurbished machine we sell is professionally set up by 365 Techies with Windows 11 Home or Pro (your choice), your data moved across, and fitted with a brand-new 1TB Samsung 990 PRO SSD — all included in the price.
That drive is the same one tracked above. At today’s verified retail price, the SSD alone is roughly £210 of what you pay us. So when our prices move, it’s largely that component moving — not the refurbished Dell underneath it, and not our margin.
It’s also exactly why refurbished business-grade Dell is the best-value response to this squeeze. The expensive squeezed components in a new PC — memory and storage — now make up around a third of its build cost. On a refurbished Latitude or OptiPlex, the chassis, screen and motherboard are already made and already paid for; you’re only really paying today’s prices for the new drive we fit.
Every machine is securely wiped and fully tested, graded A/B/C by looks only, and covered by a 12-month return-to-base guarantee as standard — or a 5-year guarantee for as long as you’re on a 365 support plan. We’ve been a Dell reseller since 2001.
// HONEST · CAVEATS
The honest caveats: what these numbers do and don’t tell you
A few things an honest explainer has to say out loud:
- The headline percentages are wholesale, not shop prices. The 90–95% and 70–75% figures are contract prices paid by manufacturers. Retail follows with a lag, and with smaller swings.
- The pace is already cooling. Trackers project conventional RAM contract rises slowing to around +13–18% for Q3 2026 as buyers hit affordability limits — still rising, but no longer at record pace.
- Memory is a cyclical market. The 2017–18 shortage ended in a glut and sharp price falls. Analysts currently expect supply to stay tight into 2027 — but that’s a forecast, not a fact, and nobody should promise you either continued rises or imminent relief.
- Some retail datapoints are “as reported”. The £93 deal price and the £159.99 figure come from published reports; the Scan prices (£229.99 on 16 July 2026, £208.99 on 26 September 2026) are ones we checked directly.
And our own position: we price transparently — the brand-new SSD is the biggest moving part in our prices, and we review them as component costs move, in both directions.
// BEAT · THE · SQUEEZE
Six practical ways to beat rising computer prices
You can’t control the memory market, but you can buy cleverly around it:
- Buy the right spec first time. Upgrading RAM or storage later now costs genuinely more than it did, so it’s cheaper to get 16GB and a 1TB drive on day one than to add them in a year. We’ll spec honestly — we stock Core i5 and above only, and we’ll tell you when the cheaper machine is the right machine.
- Upgrade before you replace. Many ex-fleet desktops arrive with a single 8GB stick; fitting a matched pair for dual-channel is a modest, honest upgrade that noticeably helps everyday speed and graphics — far cheaper than a new PC.
- Choose refurbished business-grade. You skip paying 2026 prices for a chassis, screen and board that already exist.
- A machine already fitted with plenty of RAM and a big drive is worth more now — factor that in when comparing.
- Make the machine last longer. A support plan keeps it maintained and extends its working life — and gives you the 5-year guarantee for as long as you’re on it (home £18.25/month per computer, business from £24.38/month).
- Don’t panic-buy. If your current machine does the job, a service and a RAM upgrade may be all you need.
// RELATED
Ready to see what the squeeze-beating option looks like? Browse our refurbished Dell hardware, compare the Latitude 5000 laptops and OptiPlex 3000 desktops, keep your machine going longer with a home IT support plan, or talk to us about custom PC builds priced honestly at today’s component costs.
FAMILY-RUN SINCE 1995 · ★ 4.9 ON GOOGLE · 200+ COMPUTERS UNDER OUR CARE · NO FIX, NO FEE · SAME-DAY REMOTE SUPPORT
// GOOD QUESTIONS
Frequently asked
Why are SSDs so expensive in 2026?
Because the flash chips inside them are in short supply. Makers have shifted factory capacity towards enterprise SSDs for AI data centres and scaled back consumer production, and industry trackers such as TrendForce report wholesale NAND flash contract prices rising 55–60% in Q1 2026 and a forecast 70–75% in Q2. At UK retail, a Samsung 990 PRO 1TB that reportedly sold for about £93 in an October 2025 deal was £229.99 at Scan when we checked on 16 July 2026, and £208.99 on 26 September 2026.
Will computer prices come down?
Honestly: nobody knows for certain. The pace of rises is already cooling — trackers project RAM contract rises slowing to around 13–18% for Q3 2026 — and memory is a cyclical market where the 2017–18 shortage ended in a glut and sharp falls. But analysts currently expect tight supply into 2027, and that’s a forecast, not a fact. What we can say about our end of it: the new SSD is the biggest moving part in our prices, and we review them as component costs move — in both directions.
Is now a bad time to buy a laptop?
It’s a bad time to overpay, not a bad time to buy. New PC prices have risen — Dell reportedly by 15–20% from December 2025 — so the value has shifted towards refurbished business-grade machines, where the chassis, screen and board are already made and you’re not paying 2026 chip prices for them. If your current machine still does the job, a RAM upgrade and a service may be the smartest buy of all.
Why do refurbished computers cost more than last year?
Mainly because the new parts fitted to them cost more. Memory and storage prices have risen at record rates since mid-2025, and we fit a brand-new 1TB Samsung 990 PRO SSD in every machine — at today’s verified retail price (£208.99 at Scan on 26 September 2026) that drive alone is roughly £210 of the price. The refurbished Dell underneath hasn’t got dearer in the same way, which is exactly why refurbs remain better value than new.
Are AI companies really buying all the SSDs?
Not quite — that headline slightly misses the mechanism. Cloud and AI firms aren’t buying retail drives off shelves. What’s actually happening is that the three big memory makers — Samsung, SK hynix and Micron — have reallocated factory capacity towards High Bandwidth Memory and enterprise parts for AI data centres, so less capacity is left for consumer RAM and SSDs. The shortage starts at the chip fabs and flows down to every product that uses those chips.
Should I upgrade my current PC instead of replacing it?
Often, yes. Many ex-fleet business desktops shipped with a single 8GB memory stick; fitting a matched pair for dual-channel operation is a modest upgrade that noticeably improves everyday speed and integrated graphics. It costs far less than a new machine, even at today’s RAM prices. Call 01202 775566 and we’ll tell you honestly whether an upgrade or a refurbished replacement is better value for your case.
What do I actually get when I buy a refurbished Dell from 365 Techies?
Every machine is securely wiped, fully tested and graded A/B/C by looks only, then professionally set up with Windows 11 Home or Pro (your choice), your data moved across, and fitted with a brand-new 1TB Samsung 990 PRO SSD — all included in the price. You get a 12-month return-to-base guarantee as standard, or a 5-year guarantee for as long as you’re on a 365 support plan. We deliver UK-wide.
What’s the £49 Setup Pack and is it worth it in 2026?
It’s an optional extra: a tailored home or business setup, 30 days of remote support, and a full service after your first 30 days. With machines costing more to replace, wringing the full working life out of the one you buy matters more than ever — the comparison table on our sales pages sets the £49 pack alongside the monthly support plans so you can see which suits you.
Want a straight answer on your next computer?
Call 01202 775566 or text 07520 615332 — we’ll tell you honestly whether to upgrade, wait, or buy refurbished. Kinson, Bournemouth. Mon–Fri 9–5. No call-out fee.
01202 775566 · help@365techies.co.uk · MON–FRI 9AM–5PM