You may be thinking “what?” but we spotted an interesting opportunity to enable upgrades on another popular consumer electronics product: the Steam Deck. We have the first batch of these available in the Marketplace today in the US and Canada, and are exploring stocking them for Europe and Australia as well. Unlike the 2280-sized M.2 SSDs that the Framework Laptop uses, the handheld Steam Deck relies on the physically smaller but less common 2230 format. As a result, it can be difficult to find legitimate sources for larger capacity drives like 2TB ones to load all of those games that you’re totally going to play someday. Since we order a huge number of Western Digital drives already, it’s relatively easy for us to add one more line item and stock 2TB SN740 2230 ones. You can follow the guide from our friends at iFixit to perform the upgrade. You can also use these drives in many Surface laptops and tablets. We’re continuing to search for ways to help you with hard-to-find upgrades for other products, so let us know if there is anything we should focus on!
Matt from DIY Perks released a super interesting video showcasing his most recent creation: the DIY Triple Screen Laptop. In this build, he combines a 4k 120hz display, two iPad displays, a Framework Mainboard and a Battery to create a secure and portable triple-screen setup. This isn’t a clunky setup either; it’s thin, self-standing, and ergonomic (if you choose to make it that way). To get started on the project, you can download the design files and join the discussion on the DIY Perks forum.
Looking to create your own fun module reuse project? Our open source reference designs and documentation are available on GitHub.
Let me say thank you for not only checking what’s good for your company & products but also which needs and wishes your customers have that are not even related to your products (yet)!
This is not only uncommon but very rarely in the current tech industry, so well done and godspeed ahead!
Will the 2tb drives fit physically on the Surface Pro 8? The reason I ask is because all of the listings for 2tb m.2 2230 drives on eBay say that Surface Pro 7+ and 9 are supported but Pro 8 isn’t
@Zerg_Grinch If the Surface Pro 8 uses the 2230 formfactor then yeah, it’ll fit. It’s all standardized so I don’t understand how one will but another won’t, unless there is no room for double-sided modules (I think the WD is single-sided tho). Does the Surface implement whitelisting of components to restrict user choice?
I promise I’m not trying to just hype sales, but if you were on the fence, you might want to pull the trigger. We’re selling through available stock extremely quickly (much faster than expected), and while we’ve ordered more, there’s a lead time to receipt of the new stock. I anticipate we could sell out soon unless things slow down significantly. As I said, we have ordered more, so if you miss this batch, there will be additional stock coming.
Correcting an error: in the original version of the blog post and our newsletter email, we had an editing error where we incorrectly stated the DIY Perks three-screen laptop was using a Framework Laptop Display. It is not; it uses three non-Framework displays.
Microsoft does not mention any whitelisted components. I don’t think it even advertises that the SSD is swappable (maybe so it can sell higher capacity Surfaces at a higher price?) With that said, it IS swappable since I managed to replace the 256GB SSD in my SP8 with a 1TB 2230 SSD bought from eBay.
AAAAAAAAAAND we’re sold out of the 2TB SN740 2230 SSDs. We’ve ordered more but there’s unfortunately a lead time. If you are interested in picking one up, please sign-up for the waitlist on the product page to be notified when they are back in stock.
@Zerg_Grinch I don’t think FW will be capable of testing that for you. Best I can offer is to order one when it becomes available again and to return it if it doesn’t fit. I don’t understand how it could’t fit if it accepts that size SSD.
Would it be a possibility, for some future Framework mainboard upgrade, to propose a SSD M2 slot that optionally can be used as two 2230 slots? Like with M2 connectors on both sides of the emplacement, and empty optional screw threads.
I actually inquired about this exact thing in the past since, in theory, you should be able to pretty easily fit two 2230 m.2 SSDs in the same space as a single 2280 m.2 SSD.
Also, no need for two screw threads - just put a single screw thread right in the middle that can hold in both 2230 m.2 SSDs whereby the second SSD is rotated 180 degrees—that should additionally save some space.
Lastly, in theory, one might even be able to make a sort of 2280 m.2 “riser” that simply contains two 2230 m.2 slots, albeit with both slots only using two PCIe lanes (though, reminder, 2x PCIe 4.0 lanes are equal to 4x PCIe 3.0 lanes)
But you still need the other screw thread, not near the middle but rather near the other connector, for the case when you use one full-size SSD insead of two half-size.
The problem there is that a single 2280 m.2 SSD is longer than two 2230 m.2 SSDs, so you wouldn’t be able to have a second m.2 slot unless the aforementioned second slot is past where the 2280 m.2 SSD would normally lay.
…alternatively, maybe the second m.2 slot could actually be rotated only 90 degrees and is actually located below the second half of where a 2280 m.2 SSD would lay? This would still require a second screw for running two 2230 m.2 SSDs, but it’s still a possibility for minimizing board space.
Another idea is to actually have one of the m.2 slots be a little bit higher than the other while having the second slot be in the middle of where a 2280 m.2 SSD would lay. This, once again, would still require using two screws to hold in two 2230 m.2 SSDs, but it would in theory allow you to repurpose the same screw hole for a 2280 m.2 SSD as well as a second 2230 m.2 SSD (the idea being that a 2280 m.2. SSD would actually lay on top of the more recessed second m.2 slot, kind of like how two sticks of RAM is done in some laptops)
@NM64 No but the problem is only if you really need to hold both 2230 with one screw. What harm can it do to hold them with two? If you give up your requirement, it becomes very simple.
Then in total that would be three screw threads, two for the 2230’s and one for the 2280.
@Mapleleaf D’oh, you posted before my major edits were submitted.
My concern about screw holes is more just about trying to fit two 2230 m.2 slots within the same space currently occupied by the single 2280 m.2 slots so that there’s no excuse for not considering such an option under the guise of “it’d take up too much space”, especially if one can manage to make it optionally still work with a single 2280 m.2 SSD as well.
@NM64 Ok, although I still don’t see the need to play with the heights. Should be simple enough with two connectors facing each other, two screw threads near the middle and a third screw thread near the second connector.
Ok I see your point now, my solution would actually take a little bit more length than the current single M.2 2280. Still very feasible, in my opinion.
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