Also in Steam Deck newsValve’s Lawrence Yang — the designer who worked on the laptop — has focused on a widely shared modification that replaces a pre-installed SSD with a larger, faster model. His advice: Don’t do that.
Edit, by Twitter user belly jelly, replaces the default M.2 2230 SSD with a slightly longer M.2 2242 drive. It seems to work mostly fine except for making the “heat spreader bend a little bit”. Later shared by computer gamesAnd the Game Spot and others prior to Yang’s tweet warning that such a change would “significantly shorten the life of your deck” by moving biothermal pads to cool the charger (integrated circuit).
While Yang did not ask anyone to refrain from swap steam surface SSD in general, he added that “most M.2 2242 drives take up more power and get hotter than the Deck was designed for,” echoing a warning previously voiced by Valve on its own. Steam Deck disassembly video. He explained that “ready” SSDs can cause problems ranging from overheating to low battery life to poor wireless network performance.
I’ve always found this video very strange, the voiceover highly advises against any internal tweaks while showing – step by step – exactly how to do it. Other members of the Valve design team too He told me in an interview It’s best to leave repairs and parts replacement to the professionals, but official Steam Deck components are available from iFixit Anyone can buy and prove himself.
Hey, please don’t do this. The charger IC becomes very hot and the nearby thermal pads should not be moved. Additionally, most 2242m2 drives consume more power and get hotter than the Deck was designed for. This mode may seem to work but it will drastically shorten the life of your deck. https://t.co/Kmup7Zov13
– Lawrence Yang (@lawrenceyang) 25 June 2022
I think you could sum up Valve’s general stance on mods for Steam Deck as “whether it’s over your head”, but in this case, the obvious risk of overheating and poor power management was too much for a completely hands-off approach. Yang’s tweets on his personal account don’t necessarily mean Valve’s official statements, of course, but they’re arguably worth listening to, even if you eventually decide to grab a screwdriver and a chance.
Personally, I think Steam Deck’s openness and self-repairability are positive traits, even if Valve hasn’t always been keen on which users take advantage of it, and there might be some worthwhile tweaks in terms of thumb swaps and shoulder buttons, or perhaps alternative chassis designs. With storage specifically, I would still argue that most people are better off Get a microSD card. These are only slower than an SSD for game load times, much easier to install and swap, and cost no more than an M.2 SSD even if you opt for a roomy 1TB model.
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