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Key Takeaways
- The latest M.2 2230 SSDs offer no significant improvements in performance or value compared to earlier options, making the market somewhat stale.
- Better hardware, such as upgrading to 232-layer NAND, better controllers, or PCIe 5.0, could potentially bring performance improvements to 2230 SSDs in the future.
- Software, like DirectStorage, has the potential to enhance the value of M.2 2230 SSDs by utilizing their bandwidth to boost gaming performance in handheld gaming PCs.
When the Steam Deck launched in 2022, there were hardly any aftermarket M.2 2230 SSDs worth buying. They had low capacities, meager performance, and unimpressive price tags. But the Deck and all subsequent handheld gaming PCs it has inspired are very popular, and their collective use of the 2230 form factor has naturally led to demand for better options. Sabrent was first with its Rocket 2230, and other great SSDs followed, like Western Digital’s super fast SN770M and Teamgroup’s high-value MP44S.
Unfortunately, the excitement has worn off. The newest M.2 2230 SSDs offer neither new levels of performance nor unprecedented value. Though this has made things pretty boring for the 2230 SSD market, it’s also a sign that high-performance drives in this form factor are here to stay. We’ll also likely see a competitive field in the long term, especially with new moves on the horizon that look to spice things up.
Why the latest M.2 2230 SSDs aren’t much better than the earlier options
The hardware might seem familiar
Ordinarily, we’d expect there to be at least a modest difference between a product launched today and one launched a year ago. That, unfortunately, hasn’t really happened with 2230 SSDs. For example, the FireCuda 520N and MP600 Core Mini, both of which launched just last month, have more or less identical performance to the Sabrent Rocket 2230, which launched in May.
The reason why is pretty simple: they all use similar hardware. All but one of the gaming-focused 2230 SSDs that launched in the past year use Phison’s E21T controller, which is a major factor in SSD performance. The one SSD to exhibit notably better performance than the others is the WD SN770M, which uses an in-house controller.
The other factor is NAND flash storage, although there is some variance in the selection. It does seem that the Rocket 2230 and MP600 Mini used the same Micron TLC chips, while the SN770M used TLC Toshiba flash, which may be a factor in its superior performance across a variety of reading and writing workloads. In the future, I suspect reading performance in particular will be crucial for gaming (more on that later). Notably, the MP44S uses QLC Micron flash, which would imply bottom-of-the-barrel performance, though it actually performs a little better than the 520N and MP600 Core Mini.
Better hardware is on the horizon (hopefully)
PCIe 5.0, NAND, controllers, and more
Fortunately, we can expect performance improvements thanks to better hardware at some point in the future. Between upgrading to 232-layer NAND, better controllers, or PCIe 5.0, there’s a lot of room for 2230 SSDs to grow. It’s unclear when these kinds of next-generation drives will come out, but they’ll arrive eventually.
Plus, a lot of these technologies already exist. A 232-layer NAND is already used in high-speed PCIe 5.0 SSDs, so it’s an obvious choice to make future 2230 SSDs faster. Although these NAND chips boast higher performance, their higher power consumption could be an issue, as current-generation PCIe 5.0 drives get super hot. However, PCIe 5.0 SSDs are primarily hot due to the controller and not the NAND chips. Even if 232-layer NAND is notably hotter than current 176-layer chips, 2230 SSDs can always be cooled alongside an APU, at least in handheld gaming PCs.
Between upgrading to 232-layer NAND, better controllers, or PCIe 5.0, there’s a lot of room for 2230 SSDs to grow.
Of course, these SSDs would be very expensive, and perhaps there are better options. Solidigm makes 192-layer NAND, which might be a good middle ground for 2230 SSDs. Or if we’re concerned about value, QLC 232-layer flash could be the golden ticket, but as of the time of writing, it doesn’t exist in any available SSDs.
The controller is the other obvious candidate for an upgrade. Phison’s E21T controller is by no means the fastest on the market, but it’s the most popular choice for 2230 SSDs, thanks to its power consumption and efficiency. Manufacturers want these SSDs to run with as little power as possible to both keep them cool and also because they’re going in mobile devices, and less power usage means more battery life. Western Digital has already beaten the E21T with its custom controller on the SN770M, but I’m hoping Phison comes out with an improved controller for 2230 SSDs, as Phison is the go-to choice for SSD controllers.
There’s also the possibility of 2230 SSDs with PCIe 5.0, but that’s really only useful if the underlying NAND chips and controller are all capable of 8GB/s or more. The SN770M is currently the fastest 2230 SSD and even it can only reach just over 5GB/s, so there’s quite a ways to go before we see PCIe 5.0 SSDs in devices like the Steam Deck. The controller would be a particularly big problem since that’s where most of the heat on PCIe 5.0 SSDs comes from, and there’s no super-efficient PCIe 5.0 SSD controller even in sight so far.
Software could be another way to get more value out of M.2 2230 SSDs
DirectStorage is very exciting
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While I look forward to future SSDs with cutting-edge hardware and more raw horsepower, software is perhaps even more important. Aftermarket 2230 SSDs are primarily geared towards gaming, and the most exciting gaming technology for SSDs right now is DirectStorage, which can add an SSD’s bandwidth to the GPU and theoretically boost performance. This would all hinge on an SSD’s reading capability, which thankfully is far easier to sustain than writing performance, something that most 2230 SSDs struggle with.
DirectStorage will almost certainly be a game-changer for handheld gaming PCs once it finally sees real utilization in a real game.
DirectStorage will almost certainly be a game-changer for handheld gaming PCs once it finally sees real utilization in a real game. The reason why has to do with the GPUs inside devices like the Deck and the Ally. They all use integrated graphics, which don’t have dedicated memory but instead rely on regular old RAM. The thing is, the DDR5 RAM configurations inside these PCs can only offer around 100GB/s of bandwidth, which is pretty small for what are fairly powerful GPUs.
With DirectStorage’s expected compression factor of around five times or so, even a current generation 2230 SSD could add up to 25GB/s of extra bandwidth. That would increase bandwidth by 25% in the Ally and by 28% in the Deck, which is nothing to sneeze at. Of course, it’s not clear if DirectStorage would work on a PC running Linux, as the Steam Deck does, but it would definitely be a killer (and much-needed) feature for the Windows-based handhelds. An SSD that actually boosts your framerate can truly be called a gaming SSD, especially when it’s a boost of 25% or more.
We might be waiting a while for the next generation, though
The sad part is that since 2230 SSDs are so niche, we may have to wait some time for a next generation upgrade. It largely depends on Phison and how quickly it launches a new controller suitable for 2230 SSDs. Not just any controller will do either; it needs to be power efficient and also offer fairly high performance, something that isn’t exactly easy to combine into one package.
Upgrading the NAND is then the only other realistic option, but I strongly suspect the controller is the main bottleneck, which would limit the usefulness of a NAND chip upgrade. Nor would upgrading to PCIe 5.0 realistically do anything, since that boosts the speed between the SSD and the device, and current PCIe 4.0 2230 SSDs aren’t even close to saturating the standard four lane link at PCIe 4.0 speeds.
However, Western Digital and Samsung are two SSD manufacturers that make their own controllers, and that clearly makes a difference in the case of the SN770M. Samsung hasn’t entered the 2230 market yet, and it’s not clear if it ever will, but if it does, then we can probably expect some great performance. It’s unfortunate that the market rests on just three controller manufacturers, but it is a niche slice of the SSD industry. It just comes with the turf.
** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
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