Valve’s Steam Deck handheld game console comes in three hard drive sizes, but one gamer has figured out a way to swap out the SSD.
Released in February, the Steam Deck has been at the heart of the handheld gaming world, and the consensus is that it’s a really cool device, capable of playing Steam games on the go and open. usher in a new era for mobile game consoles. A month after launch, Valve asked for feedback on the Steam Deck and regular updates are keeping the system running at its best. In addition to flexibility, the device is also customizable in ways that the developer may not have thought of.
According to a recent report from Hot Hardware, a Twitter user named TheSmcelrea physically modified the Steam Deck. Some photos show exposed hardware, exposing the circuit board. Essentially, what this person did was upgrade the M.2 drive. Included with the system is an SSD 2230, while users have installed an SSD 2242 to replace it, helping the machine to have faster read and write speeds. Despite the new physical dimensions, this person was able to put it all together without any problems and without any problems with the cables.
Out of the box, the Steam Deck uses NVMe or eMMC storage, depending on the model purchased. The cheaper model has 64 GB of eMMC, while the medium and more expensive have 256 GB and 512 GB NVMe, respectively. The report goes on to say that the version 2242 installed by TheSmcelrea is more common than the version 2230 that came with the device. In this case, that means, if others try to make such modifications, larger hard drive memory can be installed at a cheaper cost than more expensive Deck models.
It’s not uncommon for people to tinker with a new product after it’s released. For example, one user tried to attach an AMD graphics card to the Steam Deck, just to see what would happen. Given that the device is running a desktop GPU, it has shown an increase in game performance. However, it’s certainly unwieldy, essentially making it impossible to call a handheld anymore, but it’s all just a fun experiment anyway.
The developer of the Steam Deck still insists that their device is a multi-purpose machine. With Valve now offering Windows support for the device, the Steam Deck is showing itself to be more than just a console for gaming. That’s much of its appeal, of course, but since the beginning it has always been touted as essentially a portable PC, which sets it apart from the likes of the Switch.
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