Introduction

PNY Technologies was founded in 1985, in New Jersey, USA. The company manufactures a variety of computer peripherals, including flash memory cards, USB drives and solid-state drives. PNY is also a major manufacturer of NVIDIA graphics cards.

Today we are taking a look at the PNY CS2142, which is highly compact M.2 NVMe drive designed in the 2230 form factor, measuring just 30 mm in length. Its tiny dimensions make it a perfect storage enhancement for the Valve Steam Deck. Additionally, the SSD can serve as a storage expansion solution for the ASUS ROG Ally game console and various Microsoft Surface Pro devices. It is worth noting that the drive is compatible with scenarios requiring the use of an M.2 2242 PCIe drive, too.

While M.2 2230 drives have been present in the market for some time, their availability has typically been restricted to smaller capacities. The PNY CS2142 is available in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB, too, a feature that was previously uncommon in this form factor. Notably, there has been a recent influx of similar drives with increased storage options in the M.2 2230 category.

Internally, the CS2142 uses a Phison E21 controller, which we’ve seen on many other drives before. The NAND flash is 176-layer QLC from Micron. A DRAM cache chip is not installed, due to the limited space available. To connect with the rest of the system, the PCI-Express 4.0 interface is used.

I couldn’t find any U.S. price listings online for the CS2142, but it’s expected to retail for around $80 (1 TB) and $165 (2 TB). Endurance for these models is set to 250 TBW and 450 TBW, respectively. PNY includes a five-year warranty with the CS2142.