SABRENT Rocket 2230 1TB NVMe SSD – PCIe Gen4 M.2 2230 Internal SSD for Steam Deck, Surface Pro, Ultrabook, HTPC – DRAM-Less with HMB, Up to 5GB/s [SB-2130-1TB]

I had read a lot of horror stories about upgrading the M.2 NVMe drive on the Surface Pro 8 (SP8). There were a lot of stories about overheating and BSOD when trying to re-install Windows. When I saw this Sabrent drive advertised on Amazon it specifically said Surface Pro compatible and that it ran cool, so I took a chance on it. I am very pleased with the result.I'll do the TL;DR part up front:I upgraded my 256GB M.2 Drive on my Surface Pro 8 with the 1 TB Sabrent Rocket 2230 NVMe M.2 drive, and the drive runs great at PCIe 4.0 Speeds according to CrystalMark 8. No BSOD and runs under 50 Celsius *EDIT*: Under maximum load, about 35 degrees celcius degrees idle/normal operations *END EDIT* according to CrystalDiskInfo 8. I was able to copy all of my files using Acronis partitioning software you get to use free from Sabrent when you purchase their drive.If you want to know exactly how I copied everything over without ever having to go into the BIOS, keep reading:UPFRONT DISCLAIMER: You will need to purchase three things to do this upgrade if you don't have them already. Two of them you would need anyway if you were to upgrade like Microsoft suggests: #4 Torx screwdriver/bit, thermal compound, and an external NVMe drive enclosure.1) First I did purchase an external NVMe enclosure to copy the old drive to the new one. You can find them on Amazon for under $30 US. You need to make sure the enclosure can take 2230 size drives. I got one that had USB C to USB C cable and was thunderbolt compatible. Another consideration is that after you swap the NVMe drives you can use the enclosure with your old drive and have another high speed hard drive to back stuff up on, although I found you will need an NVMe thermal pad/heatsink for the old drive or it can overheat.2) After reading about BSOD NVMe upgrade horror stories on the SP8 it lead me to articles talking about AHCI Link Power Management - HIPM/DIPM. HIPM/DIPM power management is not on by default and you actually have to do a Windows registry edit to make it available. There are some good guides on how to do this via a quick google search. I recommend you enable it and turn the feature on.3) I had to disable drive encryption before copying files over (it is on by default). You can either disable encryption or get a USB encryption key. I chose to decrypt the drive which will take hours depending on how much data you have on the drive. You can re-encrypt once everything is over to the new drive.THIS NEXT PART IS WHERE MOVING FILES OVER AND GETTING WINDOWS SETEP ON THE NEW DRIVE DIFFERS FROM WHAT MICROSOFT WANTS YOU TO DO.4) I cannot stress enough the kudos to Sabrent for having their own disk partition software. Acronis, which you can get from Sabrent's website, will copy all of your files over for you verbatim; no reinstalling necessary. Follow the disk cloning prompts, and the best part is it will automatically increase the size of your main windows drive to maximum while keeping your boot partition and recovery partition intact (just make sure you chose the correct cloning prompt). Acronis alone makes it worth it to go with Sabrent.5) The SP8 comes with a front and back metal sleave for the NVMe drive. YOU WILL NEED a #4 Torx screwdriver bit (very tiny!) to unscrew the drive and screw it back in. The metal casing snaps off (do so gently so as not to bend the casing). I cleaned off the thermal compound the old drive had, put in the Sabrent drive, re-applied some CPU thermal compound I already had, and put the casing back together, then screwed it back into the SP8. A lot of videos show using a thermal pad instead of re-using the Microsoft drive enclosure. I think the drive enclosure helps distribute heat evenly back into the SP8 chassis.I turned the SP8 on and it recognized me with all of my files intact without ever having to go into the BIOS the first time. I have been running normally for almost two weeks and not a single issue. Drive runs cool and fast. Works great and couldn't be happier.I hope this helps you out if you are on the fence!

For devices requiring M.2 2230 storage, the Sabrent Rocket 2230 1TB is unmatched in performance and efficiency. It delivers Gen4-level throughput and solid responsiveness in extremely compact spaces—ideal for Steam Deck users, Surface Pro upgrades, or ultra-thin portable machines. Even on PCIe 3.0 platforms, it performs admirably while offering efficiency advantages.However, weigh the decision based on your typical usage: if your system runs long sustained writes or you’re sensitive to price, explore alternatives or lower-capacity models. Also verify firmware revisions and community feedback before buying due to rare but noted failure cases.

It's fast. Works very well so far. Comes with a nice storage case where you can keep it if needed.

Excellent SSD. Fast and works well in the external enclosure. I ordered the 1TB size.

Connected easily into the Zitay SSD-CFE Type B converter and felt well-placed. Speed seems no issue for the purpose (shooting pictures on a Nikon Z6 III and later video). Build quality is great, was easy to remove the sticker off the top of the chip, so that the thermal grease could be spread directly on where heat gets generated. No heat issues identified yet - although I haven't tested it at peak performance levels.

Works well for ALLY WITHOUT A PROTECTIVE SKIN. Got it loaded up with one 500g SSD, one 2 tb SSD M2, and one 2 tb solid state and all running and transferring data quick. Nice but. Just wish the pocket was a tiny bit wider for thicker protective Ally sleeve. But for sure not a deal breaker.

Attention Nikon Z9 still photo guys out there! THIS IS THE BEST VALUE CFexpress type B card out there at this present moment! I little bit of back paddle here. Sabrent actually has been improving its cards for quite while. They are anoouncing now the "new" pink color not the blue one in 512GB, 1TB and 2TB versions with write speed of 1700MB/s. They are not available yet and the price is higher for assembled cards. Reading speed does not matter when you are shooting with a camera. What matters is the writing speed so that the buffer of the camera can be free as fast as possible. Nikon Z9 is a beast of speed. We need writing speeds as high as possible. This card delivers! Yes I built one and as soon as I made comparisons with the Angelbird 160GB AV PRO CFexpress 2.0 Type B SX Memory Card and the ProGrade Digital 165GB CFexpress 2.0 Type B Cobalt Memory Card I was so impressed that I purchased another one right of the bat! Yes, it does not write at the speed claimed Sabrent pink color cards claim 1700GB/s writing speed. The above cards claim 1600GB/s for Angelbird and 1500GB/s for Pro Grade. But since Sabrent's claiming speed was higher than the two other cards I expected it would be close in the real world. Said and done! When you shoot C30, C60 and C120 on Nikon Z9 the number of photos are the same from the two cards mentioned above. One caveat. When shooting RAW 20FPS it buffers less photos than the other cards. However, it's not to bad because as soon as you release the shutter button from the Z9 its buffer writes so fast to the card that after one or less seconds you are shooting back again. So here we go. The best price performance per GB out there right now. Not perfect yet. But 6.6 times more per GB memory. A winner hands down. I am looking forward to see what Sabrent will come up with next. No more expensive Nikon, Wise, Pro Grade or Angerbird for me. Happy with this card. BTW, there is also a high quality case by ZITAY CFexpress Type B Card to NVME M.2 2230 SSD Adapter Compatible with Nikon Z6 Z7 Z9 for this card out there. CNC machined really nice to assemble your own card. No, I am not being paid to say anything here. I am a photographer that always explore better options and boy after seeing the price of the CFexpress cards to star with my new Z9 I tough this is a rip off! Glad competition is really coming up and Sabrent is beating it! Go Sabrent go!