building a NAS got brutally expensive this year — and nothing improves until 2027

NAS drive prices climbed roughly 46% between September and January, driven by the same AI datacenter demand squeezing memory everywhere. here's the… Aliteq Ravi Malhotra · Hardware Editor

NAS drive prices rose roughly 46% between September 2025 and January 2026, with reported increases spanning 23-66% by model.

The cause is AI datacenter demand consuming the same high-capacity drives homelabbers buy — the same squeeze hitting memory everywhere.

Analysts do not expect normalization before late 2027, so waiting for a price drop is not a strategy.

Buy fewer, larger drives than you think you need, consider used enterprise units with eyes open, and keep a real backup — not just redundancy.

Read the full story

Aliteq building a NAS got brutally expensive this year — and nothing improves until 2027 Read the full story on Aliteq