Valve’s Steam Deck is a great little handheld that you probably don’t want to change too much. However, if creative juices start to flow and you feel the need to fix it, Valve’s consumer experience designer Lawrence Young at least advises against a mod that increases the literal size of Deck’s SSD. The reason? Changing the m.2 2230 SSD will “significantly shorten” the life of the device.
PC Gamer published a blog on June 24 reporting on a Canadian moder named Belly Jelly who posted several photos of his latest project: They realized that the portable console was able to physically hold a larger internal storage card than the one currently available. So, as any moder does when making an intriguing discovery like this, Belly Jelly tried to install a larger 2242 m.2 NVMe SSD because “it doesn’t collide with anything on the motherboard and doesn’t put extra strain on cables.” Belly Jelly noted that inserting a larger card “makes the heat distributor bend a little,” which can affect the device’s charging capabilities.
Lawrence Young of Valve intervened. In response to the story of PC Gamer and Belly Jelly’s prominent Steam Deck mod, Young directly warned people, “Please don’t do this.” Young briefly explained that charging integrated circuits were becoming “very hot” and that tangentially connected thermal pads “should not be moved.” In particular, Yang seems to have denied the use of 2242 m.2 SSDs because they apparently “draw more energy and get hotter than the Deck is designed for.”
“This mod may seem to work, but it will significantly shorten the life of your Deck,” Young said.
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Kotaku turned to Belly Jelly, Valve and Yang for comment.
Young’s opposition to SSD replacement is in line with Valve’s previous statements on the issue. Valve said in an interview with IGN in July 2021 that the internal memory could not be upgraded. Valve then repeated this in an October 2021 demolition video, where it was mentioned that tinkering with the handheld device could lead to energy consumption problems or, worse, death. And even the device’s website clarifies that the 2230 m.2 SSD with a socket “is not intended for replacement by the end user.” So, be careful when playing with the internal elements of Steam Deck. Things can go wrong.
And fashion designer Belly Jelly agrees, saying people should do it at their own risk.
Anyway, if you’re still wondering where your Steam Deck is right now, Young has also confirmed on Twitter that Valve will start shipping more of them this Thursday to people in the Q3 order queue. He also explained to The Verge that Valve will start delivering twice as many units this week.
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