We didn't have to wait long to see the first mods for Nintendo's new console.
Officially available since June 5, after months of waiting and more or less credible announcements, the Switch 2 is destined for a great future, if we are to believe its promoter, Japan's Nintendo. The first sales figures seem to confirm this ambition, with the new console selling over 3.5 million units in its first four days on the market... including pre-orders, of course. This makes the Switch 2 the fastest-selling console in Nintendo's long history.
Diagram of the adapter © NVNTLabs
It's a long story, and one that's been marked by the constraints imposed by a brand that doesn't take kindly to emulators, but doesn't take kindly to tinkerers either. With the success of Nintendo's consoles, these tinkerers are becoming more numerous with each generation, and their exploits are becoming more and more remarkable. The latest comes from a team called NVNTLabs, who didn't wait long after the Switch 2's launch to give it wings. We're talking about the console's storage system, which is based on just 256 GB of internal memory and a microSD card reader.
The beast ready for use © NVNTLabs
It's precisely this card reader that could well provide the solution for faster, higher-capacity and less expensive storage. Nintendo has chosen the SD Express version 7.1 standard for its microSD reader, a standard based on the PCI Express Gen 3 norm, and for those who know how to poke around, it's quite possible to exploit the interface in question. The NVNTLabs team has designed an adapter that redirects the pins of the microSD drive port to the M.2 NVMe standard... and that's it! With the adapter in place, it's now possible to connect an M.2 SSD in 2230 format, providing a unit capable of speeds of up to 1 GB/s (the maximum speed of the PCIe Gen 3 interface). As for price, it's up to you, but M.2 2230 NVMe SSDs can be found at 60/70 euros for 1TB, and they can go up to 2TB, but this is considerably more expensive (around 170 euros).
