Why it issues: The Steam Deck is much more upgradeable/repairable than many fashionable gadgets, and that is a superb factor. However, Valve nonetheless would not need you to crack open yours except you are nicely conscious of the dangers. The SSD, specifically, could also be a tempting improve for a lot of, however a superb high quality microSD card is simply nearly as good and far much less of a problem as compared.
Back in July 2021, we discovered that Valve’s Steam Deck has a user-replaceable inner SSD, and this was nicely acquired by the gamer group. Modern gadgets are more and more onerous to restore (or improve) and firms have been making an attempt every thing of their energy to stop customers from trying to do repairs themselves, and that also holds true to today.
After ready a number of months for orders to ship, Steam Deck consumers began receiving their handheld consoles and rapidly discovered some tough edges on an in any other case spectacular first-generation product. Some customers began experiencing stick drift, in order that they tried repairs on their very own regardless of Valve’s insistence on leaving any required servicing to restore professionals.
Another ache level of the Steam Deck is that it comes with an M.2 SSD in a single-sided 2230 type issue, which is extra compact than options and in addition extra vitality environment friendly. However, such SSDs are notoriously onerous to seek out and sometimes pricier in comparison with, say, M.2 2280 and M.2 2242 fashions. Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop 4 homeowners who want to restore or improve the storage capability of their gadgets are conversant in this conundrum.
Recently, one Canadian Steam Deck proprietor determined to assume outdoors the field and tried to cram an M.2 2242 SSD into the hand held. The process was profitable, and the 512-gigabyte KingSpec PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD quickly began cruising by way of the set up of SteamOS at velocity of round 400 megabytes per second.
However, this isn’t with out some caveats — the process requires transferring some cables and thermal pads out of the way in which to make room for the longer SSD module. Furthermore, one in all Steam Deck’s designers, Lawrence Yang, warned in opposition to doing this mod as you run the chance of shortening the lifespan of your handheld. Supposedly, the Steam Deck’s energy administration circuitry may overheat because it was by no means designed to deal with the upper load of an M.2 2230 SSD.
Upgrading the SSD in your Steam Deck is likely to be tempting, however you may already improve the storage by way of a microSD card slot with minimal threat and respectable outcomes. In reality, reviewers discovered no discernible distinction between working video games from the SSD versus a superb microSD card. The solely enchancment shall be in loading occasions, however even there chances are you’ll solely see a distinction of some seconds, at greatest.
