Sure thing, let’s dive into this curious tale about Switch 2 storage upgrades. I mean, who knew these little MicroSD Express cards would cost an arm and a leg right now? It’s like they’re the new gold or something. Naturally, all the DIY folks out there started hunting for other ways to juice up the Switch 2’s storage capacity. Enter Better Gaming from YouTube, this guy decides to try out an open-source MicroSD Express adapter. Surprise! It’s built just for Switch 2 and can handle those M.2 NVMe 2230 SSDs! Sounds cool, right? Except… yeah, didn’t quite pan out on the first go.
So, I heard about this whole adapter thing before. It’s called the SDEX2M2 project. Neat name, huh? Basically, it’s tapping into the MicroSD Express’s PCIe and NVMe magic to let NVMe M.2 SSDs play nice. The core of it, if you’re into techy stuff, is SD Express 7.1 — and it uses something called a PCIe Gen 3×1 interface. I’m not gonna pretend I know all the ins and outs, but it’s supposed to make everything gel.
Anyway, Better Gaming, undeterred by the initial hiccup, snagged the blueprints for this SDEX2M2 thing and had a bunch of duplicate PCBs whipped up via some third-party deal. Sounds like a scene from a spy movie! After getting his hands on those boards, he went all solder-mad—attached the M.2 connector and an R1 resistor. Quite the Frankenstein moment, right?
Four tries — count ‘em, four! — and bam, he finally cobbles together a working adapter. Tosses in a Corsair MP600 Mini NVMe SSD for good measure. Physically, the adapter fits snug as a bug in the Switch 2. No drama there. The console even sees it. Success? Not quite. Cue the dreaded error code “2016-0641” — mysterious, right? Turns out the Switch 2 can’t reach the microSD card. Major buzzkill.
A bit of digging revealed why: these passive adapters aren’t savvy enough to speak the language the Switch 2 uses to chat with M.2 SSDs. You see, MicroSD Express cards have their own controller magic happening, and the Switch 2 is all geared up to deal with that. But NVMe SSDs? Yeah, they’re singing a different tune altogether. Not a match made in heaven, it seems.
The brains behind SDEX2M2 already sniffed out this glitch, though. Word is, they’re cooking up a fresh design with an FPGA on board, aiming to mimic a MicroSD Express controller. If it works, DIY enthusiasts might finally have a real way to dodge those pricey MicroSD Express cards when they need more room than the measly 256GB internal storage allows. Though, let’s be real, carrying around a bulky adapter isn’t exactly the sleek gaming vibe we’re all going for, but hey — savings are savings! MicroSD Express cards cost like 20 to 25 cents per GB. That’s, what, over 50 bucks for a 256GB card? Meanwhile, you could snag a 1TB NVMe SSD for about $90.
Life’s funny like that sometimes. Almost makes you want to keep an eye on Tom’s Hardware for all the juicy updates. Go ahead, hit that follow button.
