Addlink S91 2 TB

[W1zzard]

Want more storage for your Steam Deck? 2 TB? Then the Addlink S91 is for you. It's an M.2 NVMe SSD using the compact M.2 2230 form factor, which ensures the drive can be used to upgrade the Steam Deck and ROG Ally game consoles. In our in-depth review we're taking a look at performance, thermals and power consumption.

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[Chaitanya]

So those who want at least TLC based 2TB drives in this FF then Corsair, WD and Kioxia(if user can source it) remain the only viable choices.

 

[vbq7qK68eyYAH4iR]

Great data. @W1zzard do you have the opportunity to test the drive that comes with the Steam Deck or ROG Ally? Curious how it stacks up, especially for power usage metrics.

 

[Kapone33]

The controller is the highlight but QLC Nand is not the future for some of us.

 

[Chrispy_]

Thanks for the review - as expected it's a nasty DRAMless QLC drive with all the performance and endurance issues you'd expect from such a product. Not that it really matters for the 15W Steam Deck.

I dumped a 1TB Kioxia BG4 in my Steam Deck, after reading that it had class-leading power management and low draw. Mine was used and I paid £50 for it but the other common option is a WD SN740.

Speed is of little relevance to the Steam deck; performance differences of Arch Linux using eMMC and NVMe storage are measurable, but not big enough to be perceptible to most people, and as always the game loading times are limited by the CPU, not the storage.

As such, the single most important specification of a Steam Deck SSD isn't the performance or the power management, it's the cost/TB and this seems on the high side for a QLC drive, even given the niche size of 2230. Hopefully MSRP and street price are unrelated and if this thing undercuts the competition in cost/TB then there's no reason why it couldn't be a great option for a Steam Deck.

Great data. @W1zzard do you have the opportunity to test the drive that comes with the Steam Deck or ROG Ally? Curious how it stacks up, especially for power usage metrics.

I have a Steam Deck 64GB eMMC card I'd happily mail @Wizzard if he doesn't already have one.
Also, your username appears to be the result of you mashing the keyboard with your face. I guess it's a unique username at least....

 

[Nordic]

From W1zzard thinking the Steam Deck was stupid to doing a review on an NVME intended for the Steam Deck and like devices. I appreciate the review.

 

[Ferrum Master]

From W1zzard thinking the Steam Deck was stupid to doing a review on an NVME intended for the Steam Deck and like devices. I appreciate the review.

It seems I missed something.

I had PM991 drives, it would be more fair to compare it with that. But they all hover around ~1.4W peak during reads imho.

 

[W1zzard]

PM991

that's 2242, not 2230, it won't fit those consoles

 

[Lianna]

@W1zzard

Addlink S91 comes with a pseudo-SLC cache that absorbs incoming writes at high speed, but uses three times the storage to do so. Our testing reveals that the SLC cache is sized at 452 GB, which means the drive will fill 2/3rd of its capacity in SLC mode first.

Four times the storage - it's QLC. It fills almost all its space. The speed after is ugly though...

Thanks for the review. The drive is meh and pricey, but otherwise seems fit for the purpose. Can't wait to see Micron's 2TB 2230 TLC drive in these tests, seems to be the one to go for.
I second the idea of testing Deck's 64 GB eMMC and Ally's 512 GB SSD for context; I'm curious about power consumption in idle.

BTW, I still don't understand why at least Ally does not offer 32 GB RAM (because it includes "VRAM") + 2TB SSD variant, even with a little markup they should sell fine.

 

[Sunlight91]

Is it correct that your energy efficieny only measures the SLC mode during writes?
At one point the drive needs to re-write the data to QLC and it uses energy to do it.

Could you calculate a new efficiency chart for all drives while writing in QLC/TLC or would it need a separate test?

 

[Ferrum Master]

that's 2242, not 2230, it won't fit those consoles

No. Those come in all flavours, including 2230. There are no 2TB version thou

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

That form factor is sweet. I think the sweet spot for me would be 4TB.

 

[W1zzard]

Four times the storage - it's QLC. It fills almost all its space

Indeed, fixed

Is it correct that your energy efficieny only measures the SLC mode during writes?
At one point the drive needs to re-write the data to QLC and it uses energy to do it.

Could you calculate a new efficiency chart for all drives while writing in QLC/TLC or would it need a separate test?

Great question. I'm just writing to the drive, and the drive will do its magic, like it does in real-life, which I think is a reasonable test scenario.

Not sure if it's possible to time or force when it writes to QLC. It certainly uses A LOT less power when writing to QLC, because that runs at 100 MB/s, whereas SLC writes happen at 4 GB/s. The controller is the main power drain, not the flash

No. Those come in all flavours, including 2230. There are no 2TB version thou

Yeah I think what a lot of people are missing here is that this is a 2 TB drive for the Steam Deck/ROG Ally, not a high-end desktop drive

 

[Ferrum Master]

Yeah I think what a lot of people are missing here is that this is a 2 TB drive for the Steam Deck/ROG Ally, not a high-end desktop drive

The original carrier for those 2230ies in much larger quantities was Microsoft Surface actually, with exception for some bizarre laptops.

Fun fact that most people should be fine using Switch grade sdcard especially those rebadged Sandisk Extreme Pro cards with mushroom or star on it. Regarding the PM991 and a bit faster PM991A, some even are cuckoo enough just sawing the SSD to the right size, they got even lucky as the PCB design had no traces in it further.

 

[Raptor_i]

I liked the idea of this Award :

 

[b1k3rdude]

So this articla was misleading, whats missing from this review is anything related to the Steam Deck, or weither this SSD would actually physically fit into the Steam Deck.

Valve has been very volcal about not fitting aftermarket SSD due to physical size limitations, so this articla was missleading.

 

[Nordic]

So this articla was misleading, whats missing from this review is anything related to the Steam Deck, or weither this SSD would actually physically fit into the Steam Deck.

Valve has been very volcal about not fitting aftermarket SSD due to physical size limitations, so this articla was missleading.

It is 2230. It WILL fit in the Steam Deck and Ally.

 

[vbq7qK68eyYAH4iR]

I have a Steam Deck 64GB eMMC card I'd happily mail @Wizzard if he doesn't already have one.

I could part with my Ally for 6 weeks too, if it would help out W1zzard out.

Also, your username appears to be the result of you mashing the keyboard with your face. I guess it's a unique username at least....

Almost. I opened my password manager and just got it to give me a random string. Figured it was easier than trying to come up with a unique name.

 

[W1zzard]

So this articla was misleading, whats missing from this review is anything related to the Steam Deck, or weither this SSD would actually physically fit into the Steam Deck.

Valve has been very volcal about not fitting aftermarket SSD due to physical size limitations, so this articla was missleading.

It will definitely fit into the Steam Deck, sorry for not making that more clear

I could part with my Ally for 6 weeks too, if it would help out W1zzard out.

Appreciate the offer, but too far away, I'm in Europe.
@Chrispy_ https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anze...deck-original-festplatte-/2492114167-225-2144 that's the one you have in your Steam Deck?

 

[Chrispy_]

@Chrispy_ https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anze...deck-original-festplatte-/2492114167-225-2144 that's the one you have in your Steam Deck?

Yep, I think so. It's at work sat in a USB caddy now but if you want it throw me a postal address and it's yours.

 

[b1k3rdude]

It will definitely fit into the Steam Deck, sorry for not making that more clear

There are a few issues related to doing this -

• First issue, does the 'Addlink ssd' pull the same power as the oem part -
  https://twitter.com/x/status/1540809830000013313
• Second issue is the "thickness" of the SSD, you need to be able to refit the ESD sheilding (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+SSD+Replacement/148989) to what ever 3rd party SSD your installing.

This is why I thought when I saw the headline of the article that we would finally have an article addressing the above 2 issues, putting Valves nannying to rest.

 

[Chrispy_]

There are a few issues related to doing this -

• First issue, does the 'Addlink ssd' pull the same power as the oem part -
  https://twitter.com/x/status/1540809830000013313
• Second issue is the "thickness" of the SSD, you need to be able to refit the ESD sheilding (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+SSD+Replacement/148989) to what ever 3rd party SSD your installing.

This is why I thought when I saw the headline of the article that we would finally have an article addressing the above 2 issues, putting Valves nannying to rest.

That comment from Lawrence Yang is specific to shohorning a 2242 into the Steam Deck by moving thermal pads designed to cool the charging IC out of the way
This Addlink is a 2230, the exact same dimensions of the OEM drives, so it fits as intended into the space, into the EMI sleeve, and requires no tampering.

At launch, there was a lot of FUD about "oh you have to use this specific drive because Valve's tested it for power draw and EMI". FYI, Valve themselves use at least half a dozen different models depending on availability. It's a generic M.2 NMVe slot and the only requirement is that it's single-sided and doesn't run too hot, because there's near zero cooling for it. Don't go putting something crazy-hot in there, but most 2230 SSDs are designed to run in ultrabooks and extremely compact laptops with limited airflow, so you do need to go out of your way to find one that's not compatible with the Steam Deck's enclosure.

Ebay, Amazon, and Aliexpress are loaded with used/refurbed 2230 SSDs designed for the Microsoft Surface from Samsung, Kioxia, WD, and others. All of them fit, all of them work, none of them draw too much power, and all of them are specifically manufactured to be as efficient and cool as possible by design. These aren't PCIe 5.0 monsters chasing performance and needing additional cooling, the 2230 form factor is for low-power, compact designs with no space for cooling.

So this articla was misleading, whats missing from this review is anything related to the Steam Deck, or weither this SSD would actually physically fit into the Steam Deck.

Valve has been very volcal about not fitting aftermarket SSD due to physical size limitations, so this articla was missleading.

Are we looking at the same article?

Intro text: "Want more storage for your Steam Deck? 2 TB? Then the Addlink S91 is for you."​

First image: A Steam Deck and this SSD.​

First paragraph: "...it will fit as a storage upgrade for the Valve Steam Deck."​

Misleading? Oh yes....

 

[Nordic]

There are a few issues related to doing this -

• First issue, does the 'Addlink ssd' pull the same power as the oem part -
  https://twitter.com/x/status/1540809830000013313
• Second issue is the "thickness" of the SSD, you need to be able to refit the ESD sheilding (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+SSD+Replacement/148989) to what ever 3rd party SSD your installing.

This is why I thought when I saw the headline of the article that we would finally have an article addressing the above 2 issues, putting Valves nannying to rest.

Valve isn't too worried about another 2230 drive being put into the deck. Your twitter screenshot is talking about a 2242 drive.

 

[W1zzard]

Yep, I think so. It's at work sat in a USB caddy now but if you want it throw me a postal address and it's yours.

I'll just buy that one for 20 euros .. cheaper and easier, but appreciate the offer

 

[b1k3rdude]

That comment from Lawrence Yang is specific to shohorning a 2242 into the Steam Deck by moving thermal pads designed to cool the charging IC out of the way
This Addlink is a 2230, the exact same dimensions of the OEM drives, so it fits as intended into the space, into the EMI sleeve, and requires no tampering.

At launch, there was a lot of FUD about "oh you have to use this specific drive because Valve's tested it for power draw and EMI". FYI, Valve themselves use at least half a dozen different models depending on availability. It's a generic M.2 NMVe slot and the only requirement is that it's single-sided and doesn't run too hot, because there's near zero cooling for it. Don't go putting something crazy-hot in there, but most 2230 SSDs are designed to run in ultrabooks and extremely compact laptops with limited airflow, so you do need to go out of your way to find one that's not compatible with the Steam Deck's enclosure.

Ebay, Amazon, and Aliexpress are loaded with used/refurbed 2230 SSDs designed for the Microsoft Surface from Samsung, Kioxia, WD, and others. All of them fit, all of them work, none of them draw too much power, and all of them are specifically manufactured to be as efficient and cool as possible by design. These aren't PCIe 5.0 monsters chasing performance and needing additional cooling, the 2230 form factor is for low-power, compact designs with no space for cooling.

Nice thanks for that