Framework, manufacturer of the modular Framework Laptop, is now selling a 2TB SSD for the Steam Deck (opens in new tab). The company is committed to offering upgradeability for its products, so when the opportunity arose to sell a small-footprint SSD suitable for portable PCs in its store, it chose this one.

Framework sells Western Digital's 2TB SN740 2230 for $299 in its US store (opens in new tab) and $399 CAD in Canada (opens in new tab). The company says it is also considering selling it in Europe and Australia. [In general, drives of this compact form factor and capacity are not at all easy to obtain from elsewhere, so having a legitimate place to purchase this particular drive is quite convenient.

This 2TB drive would also be a tasty upgrade to the larger 512GB Steam Deck. In my case, it would provide more space for the large amount of indie games I load on the device, but if you want to play triple-A games, these real powerful storage hogs (opens in new tab) would be a good idea to do this kind of upgrade.

"Since we already have a large order of Western Digital drives, it's relatively easy to add one more item and stock up on 2TB SN740 2230s," says Framework (opens in new tab).

This last code, 2230, is very important to Steam Deck, as Valve's handhelds do not accept the long 2280 format SSDs we are used to seeing on full-sized gaming PCs.

For NVMe SSDs, the system is fairly simple: 22 is the width (in millimeters) of an M.2 SSD and 30 is its length. So a 2230 NVMe SSD is a chunky little drive that fits in the same socket as a 2280 (80mm long) SSD, albeit taking up less space.

2230-format high-capacity drives are less common than 2280 drives and still require more NAND chips, so not as many are available. But there are a few, including this WD drive and a miniature version of Sabrent's Rocket drive (opens in new tab). Very cute!

If you decide to get a compact drive from Framework or other sources, you can take a closer look at iFixit (opens in new tab) for proper installation instructions. With the proper tools (a Phillips screwdriver and a pry tool), the whole process should take about 20 minutes to an hour, but you want to do it correctly to make sure the OS is working properly at the end of the job. It is important to note that the existing SSD has a small foil cover, which should be replaced with a new SSD. Also, Valve has been a bit cold toward users modding their Deck SSDs (opens in new tab).

Framework's main deal is with Framework Laptop (opens in new tab). We had the opportunity to check out this modular product last year. It is a laptop whose parts are easily interchangeable, including critical components like the CPU. Dave replaced the Framework's 11th generation CPU with a 12th generation chip with a single screwdriver.