A keen-eyed Reddit user caught a brainwave while browsing for high-capacity SSDs and was struck with the following thought: with the AI-infused silicon shortages, we've reached the point where NVMe gumstick-style SSDs are more expensive than gold by weight. The thread generated discussion aplenty, so we figured we'd dig into this and look up pricing and weight across a range of models. Spoiler alert: It's very much true for 8 TB drives and quickly heading there for 4 TB models.
We compiled multiple searches from Newegg, Microcenter, Best Buy, and Walmart, collecting over a hundred sample points. The requirements were: NVMe SSDs on a PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 interface, with four terabytes of capacity, sold by the store itself, and in stock. The selection excluded enterprise drives, as those would quickly throw off the math, plus everyone knows they are priced like antimatter anyway.
