Steam Deck owners looking for more storage space quickly come up against technical limitations. Framebook Computer, the manufacturer of the modular Framework Laptop, now offers a particularly small 2 TB SSD that can be used to significantly expand the storage capacity of the PC handheld.
2 TB in Steam Deck is not uncomplicated
The Steam Deck as a mobile gaming companion has one advantage over most consoles and also many notebooks: The factory-installed SSD can be changed by the user in a few simple steps, as iFixit describes in a guide, for example. However, users have to pay attention to a few things. Power consumption and heat development shouldn't vary too much, and there may also be interference with the nearby WLAN module. The biggest hurdle, however, is the form factor: the particularly short M.2 SSDs in 2230 format are installed in the Steam Deck; Valve explicitly warns of longer M.2 SSDs.
Image comparison:WD SN740 in M.2-2280 format (Image: Western Digital) ⇔ WD SN740 in M.2-2230 format (Image: Western Digital) If you are now specifically looking for suitable SSDs for the Steam Deck in the price comparison, you will find a total of eight models in the M.2-2230 format. And only the Kioxia BG5 Client SSD 1TB offers a capacity beyond 500 GB. Although Sabrent also offers a corresponding model with the Rocket 2230 1TB, the SSD is currently not available anywhere. And with the PC SN740 NVMe SSD 2TB, Western Digital even lists a model that is physically just as small, but twice as large in terms of storage space – although this is nowhere for sale either.
Framework offers an option – for the time being in North America
The reason for the poor availability is the comparatively low demand for such short M.2 SSDs, which are also more difficult to manufacture and therefore more expensive than longer counterparts. However, Framework Computer has now taken the opportunity to order not only a large quantity of the PC SN740 NVMe SSD in the M.2-2280 form factor for its own modular notebook from Western Digital, but also the variant in the M.2-2230 form factor , the company reports.
Unlike the 2280-sized M.2 SSDs that the Framework Laptop uses, the handheld Steam Deck relies on the physically smaller but less common 2230 format. As a result, it can be difficult to find legitimate sources for larger capacity drives like 2TB ones to load all of those games that you're totally going to play someday. Since we order a huge number of Western Digital drives already, it's relatively easy for us to add one more line item and stock 2TB SN740 2230 ones.
Framework Computer
A first batch of the SN740 NVMe SSD with 2 TB storage space in the M.2 2230 form factor is already being sold by Framework at a price of around US$300 in the US and Canada; Europe and Australia will follow later. As a PCIe 4.0 SSD with 5,150 MB/s and 4,850 MB/s respectively for sequential reading and writing, the Western Digital SN740 is definitely much faster than the SSDs installed by Valve in the Steam Deck ex works. However, the handheld PC only supports PCIe Gen 3 x4 and will therefore not be able to fully utilize the high transfer rates.