What is going on
Every computer needs two kinds of chips that are suddenly hard to buy at a fair, stable price.
Memory (RAM) is the short-term workspace. The programs you have open live here.
Storage (SSD) is the long-term filing cabinet — the drive your files and operating system sit on.
Those chips are made in a small number of factories, mostly by three companies: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. The same factories also make the memory that goes into giant AI computers in data centers.
Since 2025, AI companies have been buying that memory as fast as it can be made. Industry reporting has called this a global memory supply shortage. It is sometimes nicknamed “RAMmageddon.” It is still in force in 2026.
Why the factories are not just “making more”
This is different from the 2020–2023 chip shortage, when pandemic shutdowns and shipping snarls left factories idle. The lines are running. They are pointed at a different customer.
AI servers use a special, stacked kind of memory called high-bandwidth memory (HBM). It sits next to the AI processor and feeds it data very quickly. Making one of those chips takes far more factory space than making the ordinary RAM in a home or office PC — on the order of three times the wafer area per bit.
HBM also sells for more. So the factories have shifted capacity toward AI data-center parts. What is left for regular PCs — DDR4 and DDR5 RAM, and the flash chips inside SSDs — is smaller, more expensive, and slower to arrive.
What that does to a custom PC
A workstation is only as real as the parts list. Right now that list will not sit still.
RAM and SSD prices have jumped several times over in the past year. Some memory contracts have been reported with lead times beyond 40 weeks. At Computex 2026, an SSD-controller executive said the retail SSD market — the boxed drives on a shelf — had “almost disappeared,” because flash is going into data-center drives and into the big PC brands instead.
Graphics cards use related memory, so their prices and stock have followed. Even CPUs have started to tighten as server chips take priority.
If we quoted you a machine today, the same spec could cost far more by the time the last part showed up — or a key part might not show up at all. That is not a fair way to take your money, and it is not a build we can schedule with a straight face.
What we are still doing
This pause is only for new custom workstation builds — picking parts and assembling a new tower or desktop from scratch.
We are still on for everything else:
- Repairing, upgrading, and getting more life out of the computer you already own
- Home and business networks, cameras, and audiovisual
- Hosted business phone
- Home Watch (Huntress) on Windows and Mac
- Tutoring, planning, and on-site or remote support
If a pre-built machine from a vendor who already holds parts inventory is the right move, we can help you choose and set it up. We just will not promise a from-scratch parts build while the bill of materials is this unstable.
When this might change
New factories take years. Micron broke ground in 2026 on a large memory plant that is expected to start production in late 2028. Chipmaker executives have said the squeeze lasts through 2027, with some expecting tightness into 2028 or 2030.
We will reopen custom builds when we can quote a price and a delivery date we can actually keep. Until then, call if you have a machine that needs work.
Request a consultation Call 727-339-0409
Written September 2026 for Tone40Tech clients. Based on public reporting of the 2025–present global memory supply shortage, including Reuters, IDC (PC shipments down in Q2 2026 as the memory crunch bit), TechInsights, TechRadar / Silicon Motion on retail SSDs, and the public summary of the shortage. Figures move; the pause stays until we can keep a quote.