Enlarge / Framework's blog post shares this Steam Deck image to illustrate its commitment to housing gigantic Steam backlogs. (credit: Framework)

Steam Deck and Microsoft Surface owners looking to get more SSD storage than is typically offered (and for less money) have a new, unexpected source: Framework, the repairable laptop company.

Seeing the need for reputable vendors of smaller-size M.2 drives, the company decided to "add one more line item" to its typical Western Digital drive order. As such, the company has started offering a 2TB M.2 2230 drive for $300 in its US and Canada stores. As of this writing, the drives are sold out, but you can sign up to be notified when they're back in stock.

Enlarge / Puget Systems won't be using the 1TB or 2TB Samsung 990 Pro anymore. (credit: Samsung)

Samsung has earned a strong reputation among PC enthusiasts when it comes to solid-state storage. Its Pro series of SSDs are often among reviewers' top recommendations for users seeking high-speed storage for large work files, apps, and boot drives. Over the past year, though, reliability concerns around Samsung's 980 Pro and most recent 990 Pro have marred this reputation. It has become so notable that custom PC-maker Puget Systems, a top proponent of Samsung SSDs since the SATA days, has pulled 1TB and 2TB Samsung drives from its lineup.

For Puget, problems with Samsung SSDs, which the 22-year-old boutique PC shop sells in its custom-built systems, started with the 980 Pro that came out in September 2020. On January 31, Puget wrote a blog noting it "received a surprising number of reports of failing Samsung drives, specifically with the 2TB version of the 980 Pro.

"The most common failure mode that we have found is that the drives are suddenly locked into read-only mode, rendering the drive unusable. If the failed drive is the primary drive, then the system becomes unbootable until the drive is replaced and the OS is reinstalled," Chris Newhart, a Tier 2 repair technician at Puget, wrote.

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get more life out of your existing laptop or desktop is by upgrading your system’s memory and storage. If your PC is sluggish, adding more RAM and additional or faster internal storage can speed things up. These simple upgrades are often easy to perform and won’t break the bank, especially if you’re not ready to upgrade to an entirely new computer.

For performance users, the best deal we’ve spotted for upgrading your storage is Western Digital’s WD Black SN850X. This NVMe solid-state drive was originally listed for $180 but is now discounted by $70, taking the price down to just $110 for 1TB of reliable storage. If you need more storage, Seagate’s FireCuda’s 4TB capacity NVMe drive is now discounted to $530. There are also smaller deals on 1TB drives if you don’t need that much capacity.

On the memory front, Corsair’s Vengeance LPX desktop RAM kit currently has a 25 percent discount. There are also other smaller discounts on DDR4 and DDR5 memory for both laptops and desktops. You can check out our complete list of RAM and SSD deals below.