Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

WD’s new SSD is the Steam Deck upgrade you’ve been waiting for

By
The WD Black SN770M hard drive on a Steam Deck.
Western Digital

The SSD upgrade you’ve been waiting on for the Steam Deck and ROG Ally is here. Western Digital revealed its WD_Black SN770M, which is an M.2 2230 SSD that’s built specifically for handheld gaming devices.

The new drive is available in three capacities: 500GB, 1TB, and the coveted 2TB size. It’s tough to find M.2 2230 SSDs for the Steam Deck, and even tougher to find them at 2TB. Up to this point, popular options have included the Sabrent Rocket and Corsair MP600. Otherwise, you’d have to stalk retailers like Newegg and Amazon to find a good deal on a Micron drive repurposed from another device.

Recommended Videos

Western Digital is undercutting the competition, as well. The 2TB model comes in at $220, while Sabrent’s 2TB Rocket — the only readily available drive in this capacity — comes in at $250. Here’s how the rest of the range shakes out:

  • 500GB — $75, available from Western Digital
  • 1TB — $110, available from Western Digital and Best Buy
  • 2TB — $220, available from Best Buy
Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

Those are the prices Western Digital set, but it’s worth pointing out that the SN770M is currently available at Best Buy for pre-order for $130 and $240 for the 1TB and 2TB models, respectively.

A hand holding the SN770M hard drive.
Western Digital

The SN770M is a PCIe Gen 4 drive with four lanes, and it’s bolstered by Western Digital’s TLC 3D NAND. The company also says the drive supports Microsoft’s DirectStorage, which is an important feature to have in games like Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. 

Related

Western Digital says the drive has a sequential read performance of 5,150MB/s and a sequential write performance of 4,900MB/s. That’s even faster than the base SN770, as well as faster than WD_Black’s SN750 (among the best SSDs you can buy).

In addition, all versions of the drive come with Western Digital’s limited 5-year warranty. The company also points to its Western Digital Dashboard software for management, allowing you to tune the drive if it’s installed on a Windows device. Some thin laptops and 2-in-1s, like the Microsoft Surface Pro 9, use a 2230 SSD, as well.

The 500GB and 1TB models are available for purchase from Western Digital now, while the 2TB model should arrive in short order. It’s available for preorder at Best Buy now, and you can sign up for a notification to be alerted when the drive is in stock on Western Digital’s website.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Jacob Roach
Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
I would give up my Steam Deck if the ROG Ally 2 had these features
Lies of P running on the Asus ROG Ally.

Last year, I wrote about how I went back to my Steam Deck after using the ROG Ally for several months. Asus' device is a real competitor (read our Asus ROG Ally review to learn why), but there are a handful of aspects of the Steam Deck that make it the right handheld for me. That could change with the ROG Ally 2, however.

Rumor has it that Asus is gearing up to release an updated version of the ROG Ally for 2024. Even if this isn't an entirely new handheld, it's hard to imagine Asus will exit the world of handheld gaming PCs any time soon. And if it makes a few key changes to the next iteration of the ROG Ally, I might finally retire my Steam Deck for good.
No Windows lock screen

Read more
A Redditor ‘didn’t know’ about the Steam Deck, so they built their own
The homemade Ryzen Deck sitting on a desk.

It's hard to imagine that anyone interested in portable gaming hasn't heard of the Steam Deck, but one Redditor says they "didn't know" it existed. And because of that, they decided to build their own.

The 3D-printed contraption comes from Raven0606, who shared images of the completed handheld on the r/SBCGaming subreddit, which is dedicated to handheld emulators. The build took nine months to complete, and Raven0606 dubbed it the Ryzen Deck in honor of the Steam Deck (they found out about Valve's handheld halfway through the build process).

Read more
Buying a Steam Deck has never been cheaper
Steam Deck over a pink background.

Valve is serving up huge price cuts on the Steam Deck, but there's a catch -- the consoles are refurbished. Part of the Certified Refurbished Steam Deck program, these handhelds have been fixed up by Valve to reportedly run like new -- and they're significantly cheaper. You can save up to $90, but is this too good to be true? It doesn't have to be.

Buying refurbished devices and hardware can be scary, but when the goodies come directly from the manufacturer, it becomes less risky. This is the case with Valve, which is now selling all three models of the LCD Steam Deck, refurbished and at a price cut. If this sounds good, you can now grab the base model for $279 instead of $349 ($70 savings), while the 256GB NVMe model costs $319 instead of $399 when purchased new. Lastly, the top handheld in the lineup with 512GB of storage costs just $359 instead of $449, which is $90 in savings.

Read more