Released in February, the Steam Deck has gained popularity in the world of mobile gaming, and the consensus is that it’s a really interesting device, capable of playing Steam games on the go and ushering in a new era for handheld consoles.
A month after its release, Valve asked for opinions on Steam Deck, and frequent updates are keeping the system in top shape. As well as being versatile, it turns out the device can be customized in ways the developer might not have anticipated.
According to a recent report, a Twitter user known as TheSmcelrea has managed to physically modify his Steam Deck. Several photos show the piece of hardware split open, revealing the circuit board. Basically what they have done is upgrade the M.2 solid state drive.
The one that comes with the system is a SSD 2230, while the user has inserted a 2242 SSD instead, which has faster read and write speeds. Despite the new physical size, the modder was able to put it all together with little trouble, and without any stress on the cables.
From the factory, the Steam Deck uses NVMe or eMMC storage capacity, depending on the model purchased. The cheapest model has 64 GB of eMMC, while the medium and the most expensive have 256 GB and 512 GB of NVMe, respectively.
The 2242 version installed by TheSmcelrea is more common than the 2230 that comes from the factory with the device. In this case, it could mean that if others try to make such modifications, more storage could be installed on the HDD at a cheaper cost than Deck’s more expensive models.
Valve has said that its mobile device is a versatile machine. Now that it offers Windows support for the device, the Steam Deck is proving to be more than just a game console. Of course, that’s its appeal, but from the start it’s always been marketed as a mobile PC, which sets it apart from the Switch.