A modder recently pointed out that it’s possible to fit a larger SSD into the Steam Deck, but Valve’s designer warns against doing this.
Since the Steam Deck launched in February, the gaming community and the media have begun to better understand the device. With Valve now adding Windows support to the device, it’s starting to really serve its purpose not just as a gaming console, but as a portable PC as well. With this flexibility, some gamers have tried to modify the device to their liking. However, a recent round of tinkering with the machine caught the attention of one of the company’s designers.
Valve’s Lawrence Yang issued a warning in a recent tweet to any gamer looking to try to install a larger SSD into the Steam Deck. His message urged people not to make modifications, adding that doing so could “dramatically shorten” the life of the system. According to Yang, the reason behind this was that the charging IC got very hot and the addition of the 2242 M.2 hard drive required changing the protective heatsinks, and this should not be done. The larger hard drive also consumes more power than the standard SSD that comes with the Steam Deck and this, again, has the potential to cause the device to overheat.
This tweet came shortly after a gamer tried to swap out the Steam Deck’s SSD, replacing the pre-installed 2230 M.2 drive with the aforementioned 2242 version. Despite the larger size of the drive, this gamer can still open the Steam Deck, even making the read / write speed faster. In theory, this would allow people to buy drives with more storage capacity and modify the system with the much more common 2242 drive. However, as Yang pointed out, this modification can be effective but can be detrimental in the long run.
Modifying devices is something some people have wanted to do since the Steam Deck was released a few months ago. For example, one person tried to install a Game Boy camera into the Steam Deck, while another gamer could connect an AMD RX graphics card to improve game performance.
Since Valve’s mobile PC supports thousands of games, it is primarily used as a gaming device. However, the fact that the machine can be used in a similar way to a home computer is part of the appeal of the Steam Deck, and for that reason the modding community must have clearly seen the potential of the system. But while there are some pretty cool ideas to do with the machine, the company doesn’t seem to recommend that people physically modify the Steam Deck.
See also: Grand Theft Auto 6 is having a ‘chaotic’ development process