Grab this 1TB WD SN770M SSD for $30 off at Best Buy
A speedy SSD for less.
We're seeing a lot more in the way of small form factor SSDs pop up on the market for use with the seemingly ever-growing sector of handheld games consoles including the likes of the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally and more, as people seek to add even more internal storage. If you are one of those peeps, you'll be pleased to know that one of the best Steam Deck SSDs out there, the WD Black SN770M is marked down to $100 from Best Buy in 1TB form, giving you a handy saving on its $130 list price.
In terms of speed, the SN770M provides some of the best numbers on this list, with up to 5150MB/s reads and 4000MB/s writes. Even if the actual speeds will be limited by the PCIe 3.0 interface, the SN770M is still capable of offering speedy storage compared to what's inside the Steam Deck already, whether you're upgrading from the internal SSD in some models, and especially if you're bumping up from the base model's comparably sluggish eMMC storage. Whatever way you cut it, the SN770M represents a major upgrade in terms of speed, as well as storage with a doubling at least compared to the 512GB drive inside top-model base Steam Decks and the mid-range Steam Deck OLED.
Of course, this is a drive that can be fitted to other handheld consoles such as the Asus ROG Ally, and that's given its smaller M.2 2230 size, which means it fits perfectly into the 22mm x 30mm drive bay size allowed in these smaller consoles. You can try and use this in a more conventional sized PC if your motherboard supports an M.2 2230 drive, although at this moment, the more standard sized M.2 2280 drives in PCIe 4.0 form are much more powerful for much the same money, and arguably are easier to fit.
The tricky bit here is installing the drive into your Steam Deck. Unlike with a standard PC, it's a bit more involved than opening your PC up and slotting a drive into the M.2 slot and booting from there. It's also a bit more involved than slotting in a MicroSD card into a dedicated slot in the side of the console. You'll need to carefully take the Steam Deck apart following this handy iFixit guide, which walks you through accessing the internals, carefully removing a heatsink, disconnecting the battery and swapping the drive. From here, you can use a USB flash drive to reinstall SteamOS. It is a little more fiddly largely due to the smaller sizes, but if you've got patience (unlike me) and a few tools you should be perfectly capable of the procedure.
If you're after a speedy and capacious SSD for use in a handheld games console for less, this Best Buy deal on the 1TB WD Black SN770M is not to be missed.