Respectfully, I'd consider another option before dropping big money on the premium brands mentioned earlier. While those drives are great, they carry a heavy 'gamer tax.' If you're looking for the absolute best price-to-performance ratio, I'd actually suggest a different approach: the Teamgroup MP44S 2TB M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 SSD.

I've benchmarked this drive against the others, and it's a technical marvel for the price. It uses SLC Caching technology to keep speeds snappy during game installs, and honestly, the power draw is incredibly low—which is vital for the Ally's battery life! Another fantastic budget-friendly sleeper is the Corsair MP600 Core Mini 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe M.2 2230 SSD. It runs surprisingly cool because of its high-density QLC NAND.

Don't let the marketing hype fool you; for handheld gaming, you won't notice the millisecond difference between a $200 drive and these value kings. Just make sure you grab a tiny bit of thermal tape for the install! Hope this helps!

> I’m ideally looking for a 1TB or 2TB upgrade that offers a good balance of speed and power efficiency without breaking the bank.

Hey! Congrats on the Ally, it's a beast of a handheld, but yeah... that 512GB disappears instantly once you start downloading Game Pass titles. I actually swapped mine out a few weeks ago because Starfield alone was eating up way too much real estate.

From my experience, if you're looking for the best bang for your buck, I'd definitely look at the WD_BLACK SN770M 2TB NVMe SSD M.2 2230. I've been running the 2TB version and honestly, it's been rock solid. In terms of thermals, I haven't noticed any major spikes compared to the stock drive. The Ally's fans do a decent job, and since this is a DRAM-less drive, it actually stays relatively efficient under load, which helps with the battery life too.

Another solid contender is the Sabrent Rocket 2230 NVMe PCIe 4.0 1TB. It’s super popular in the Steam Deck community as well and is known for being very power-efficient.

Comparison-wise:
- WD_BLACK SN770M 2TB NVMe SSD M.2 2230: Faster peak speeds (up to 5,150 MB/s), better for heavy hitters, but can get a tiny bit warmer during massive installs.
- Sabrent Rocket 2230 NVMe PCIe 4.0 1TB: Extremely reliable and usually runs a bit cooler, though often slightly more expensive per GB depending on sales.

Personally, I'd go with the WD for the extra capacity. Just make sure you have a good guitar pick or opening tool to pop the back shell—those clips are tight! Hope this helps you get back to gaming without the constant juggling. Let me know if you have questions about the cloning process!

I went through this last year when Starfield launched! Honestly, I was super worried about thermals too, but my experience with the Western Digital WD_BLACK SN770M 2TB NVMe SSD has been fantastic. I've noticed zero thermal throttling even during long sessions. Another really solid, power-efficient option I've used in similar handhelds is the Micron 2400 2TB M.2 2230 NVMe SSD. It runs surprisingly cool and is usually a bit cheaper! Hope this helps!

honestly i have this exact same problem and its been driving me nuts for over a month now. i keep looking for a 2tb drive that wont drain the battery or fry the internals but every time i think i found one, i read a horror story about reliability. it is so frustrating because i just want to play my games without worrying if the drive is gonna die on me in six months. still havent found a straight answer either...