Valve Designer Warns Modding Steam Deck With A Bigger SSD Might Trigger Critical Points

As it seems, you should not mod your Steam Deck console with a bodily greater strong state drive (SSD) as a result of it “will significantly shorten the life” of the system, in accordance with one of many system’s precise designers at Valve. The warning comes after a mod started making the rounds displaying a bigger type issue SSD put in within the Steam Deck.

We wrote about this final week after recognizing a Twitter publish by Belly Jelly (@TheSmcelrea) displaying a Steam Deck with an M.2 2242 type issue SSD shoved inside. According to the tweet, the larger SSD makes the warmth spreader bow a tiny quantity however in any other case “appears to work fairly well.” First appears will be deceiving, although.

As information of the mod unfold, Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang concern a warning on Twitter to anybody who be fascinated by swapping the put in M.2 2230 SSD with an extended drive.

“Hi, please don’t do this. The charger IC gets very hot and nearby thermal pads should not be moved. In addition, most 2242 M.2 drives draw more power and get hotter than what Deck is designed for. This mod may appear to work but will significantly shorten the life of your Deck,” Yang wrote.

What’s particularly fascinating is he says “will” as a substitute of “could,” suggesting {that a} shortened lifespan is a foregone conclusion if modding the Steam Deck in such a trend. As one of many console’s precise designers, Yang is intimately conversant in its thresholds, so it is a good suggestion to heed his warning. It’s not like Valve is having a troublesome time promoting the Steam Deck, so it would not have to make false claims to push pricier SKUs with extra storage. Plus it is simple sufficient to slap in an SDXC card for extra storage.

Even so, some have known as into query if the chance is as dire because it sounds. It would take some testing to seek out out. To that finish, Belly Jelly responded to Yang’s tweet saying, “I absolutely agree with this guy. Mod at your own risk!” He added that that is “mostly just a proof of concept.” Then in a collection of follow-up tweets, Belly Jelly says the thermal pad nonetheless makes contact with the longer SSD and has not noticed any adjustments in temps by the Steam Deck’s accessible sensors.

“I am not too worried about the charging IC itself as the thermal pad there is still making contact just fine, nothing about that area was directly affected by the mod. The SSD itself is also pretty low power model so again I am not too concerned about that,” Belly Jelly famous.

Belly Jelly additionally warned in opposition to utilizing a double sided SSD, saying it will not work. They additional warned that some folks have broken their consoles whereas trying related mods, in order all the time, proceed at your individual threat.

The cause this particular mod appeared so interesting to start with is as a result of bigger type issue SSDs are typically simpler to seek out, and generally with a greater bang-for-buck propositions. Pus the Steam Deck is mainly a handheld PC that is comparatively simple to get into.

We’d wish to see some intensive temperature testing with this mod in place, and maybe somebody will try this sooner or later. As it stands although, we recommend following Yang’s recommendation.