SSD shortage happening soon with Samsung fab shutdown
The global shortage on GPUs and CPUs have yet to have an end in sight, but it appears that a SSD shortage will be happening soon as well. Samsung’s foundries in Texas which churn out the controllers for their SSDs have been idle since February, and production is not expected to resume until April.
Samsung’s Texan factories are allegedly responsible for up to 75% of its global PCIe SSD controller production, which means that Samsung won’t be able to produce their renowned SSDs. While the NAND chips for SSDs are not made by the same factories, each SSD requires a controller to work.
OEMs are already opting to switch over to other vendors for their storage needs. However Samsung SSDs are usually featured in premium devices due to their speedy performance, so it will be interesting to see how will OEMs go about the Samsung SSD shortage, especially in current-gen products that are equipped with Samsung SSDs.
Switching to pretty much any other SSD will result in reduced performance. The difference might not be noticeable in everyday use, but some users might still complain about the difference, especially since they will be in higher-end models which cost a fair sum.
Aside from OEMs, enthusiasts will also probably be affected. With one vendor out of the picture until the next quarter, other SSD manufacturers might increase their prices to take advantage of the Samsung SSD shortage situation.
Pokdepinion: I really love my Samsung SSDs, such nippy performance, and I got them for a steal.
