I bought a Steam Deck a few weeks ago, and I went with the 64GB model. I knew I needed more than 512GB of storage that Valve was offering at the time, and considering how easy it is to install an M.2 drive in the Steam Deck, I decided to pick up the base variant and slot in a 2TB SSD. Most M.2 SSDs available today are based on the 2280 standard, but the Steam Deck uses the M.2 2230 interface; the last two numbers refer to the length of the card, so in this instance, you're looking at SSDs that are 30mm long (instead of the usual 80mm).
Thankfully, there are a decent number of M.2 2230 SSDs around, and Team Group's MP44S has emerged as a frontrunner thanks to its affordability. On that note, the 2TB drive is now available for just $152, down from its usual retail price of $189 — you're paying just $76 per TB, and that's a terrific value.
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Give your Steam Deck the upgrade it deserves
If you're unaware, Team Group is a Taiwanese manufacturer that's known for its memory and storage modules, and the MP44S is available in 1TB and 2TB options. This is a PCIe Gen 4 SSD that uses Micron's 176-layer 3D QLC, and that bodes well for the drive. While I didn't use the MP44S just yet, it has the same controller and uses the same QLC storage as Corsair's MP600 Pro LPX, so it should deliver similar performance.
Team Group touts reads of 5,500MB/s and writes of 3,000MB/s, and while the drive isn't likely to come close to those figures for sustained reads and writes, it should be more than adequate for use within the Steam Deck. And as for installation, it takes just 20 minutes to slot in an M.2 SSD inside the Steam Deck, and the folks at iFixit have detailed instructions on how to do so.
So if you're looking to boost the storage of your Steam Deck, you need to get your hands on this 2TB drive while it's still available for $152.
