Valve likes to warn individuals about concerning the dangers of do-it-yourself Steam Deck upkeep, and that now extends to upgrading the storage. In a response to a PC Gamer article on modding the Steam Deck, Valve {hardware} designer Lawrence Yang warned in opposition to upgrading the gadget’s NVMe SSD. Whereas it is technically attainable, the M.2 2242 drives (22mm vast by 42mm lengthy) you continuously discover in shops are hotter and extra power-hungry than the 2230 fashions (22mm x 30mm) the hand held was meant to help. You possibly can “considerably shorten” the longevity of the system, Yang stated, including that you just should not transfer thermal pads.
The PC Gamer story referenced modder Stomach Jelly’s discovery (initially reported by Sizzling {Hardware}) that it was attainable to suit an M.2 2242 SSD within the Steam Deck, albeit with some design sacrifices. There have been already considerations this may result in overheating issues. Yang simply defined why it is a dangerous thought, and outlined the possible long-term penalties.
The alert could be a letdown should you really feel restricted by Valve’s most 512GB storage and do not suppose a microSD card (sometimes a lot slower than an SSD) is an satisfactory substitute. With that stated, it isn’t stunning — cell units like this usually have dimension and thermal constraints that make it impractical to improve at the least some parts.
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