[stego-tech]

I had just drafted a report to leadership that we should buy what we needed for everyone through August ASAP.

My advice didn’t make it a week before the price increases.

Look, this is going to suck for several more years. The western memory cartel was never truly dismantled or punished after their price fixing in the early 2000s, and now this is the result. With Chinese DRAM and NAND makers on the entity list, western countries don’t really have an alternative but to suck it up and ride out whatever this market is, be it bubble or blessing.

That said, China isn’t stupid and is gladly steering their domestic firms to produce more kit not just for data centers and AI customers, but to shore up domestic electronics manufacturing in general. If China can make a device that appeals to Americans en masse, western companies are arguably at their most vulnerable in the face of sky-high part costs and supply chain issues. Combined with rising public sentiment against data centers and a general “fed-up” attitude towards tech in general, and this could be quite the explosively expensive powder keg depending on how things end up shaking out.

[rescbr]

> With Chinese DRAM and NAND makers on the entity list, western countries don’t really have an alternative

American companies, you mean.

Thankfully there's Taobao and AliExpress for the rest of us.

[stego-tech]

That’s a fair critique of my limited, Ameri-centric perspective in my comment, but also a stinging rebuke of the decline of American hegemony abroad. As recently as last year having those Chinese DRAM and NAND makers on the entity list meant that those memory modules were unsellable outside of China and a handful of other countries that rebuked American power; the fact even American companies are now openly courting them for parts shows how weak the Empire’s power really is just two years later.

So yeah, you’re more right than you may realize.

[fmajid]

You mean the 2TB SSDs for $2 that flourish on AliExpress? I actually like AliExpress and trust them more than Amazon, but their failure to police these obvious scams is a blot on their record.

[rescbr]

Of course not, those are clearly scams. On marketplaces, no matter the country, caveat emptor, as always.

My problem with buying SSDs on AliE is with reasonably priced products that use NAND chips with no consideration for their quality grade. Vendors are not transparent.

NVMe SSDs are usually better in this regard, but SATA SSDs became a nightmare to purchase.