Straightforward Steam Deck mod tends to make area for more substantial M.2 SSDs

As a rather small, transportable gaming Pc, the Steam Deck has some fairly rigid limitations in terms of hardware. As insane “because I can” dreamers, modders are shattering all those limitations as rapidly as achievable. Situation in place: Twitter user @theSmcelrea, who rearranged the insides of their Steam Deck in order to fit a lengthier and far more capacious M.2 storage travel in there.

By default, the Steam Deck supports a 2230 M.2 generate, just 30mm very long, and the shortest normal size for the M.2 format. That instead limits the quantity of storage it can deal with — the biggest 2230 drive on the market place is 2TB, but Valve’s pre-configured Steam Decks leading out at the far more widespread 512GB. Including to that, buyer SSDs using the somewhat obscure 2230 size are tough to find, supplied the format’s rarity.

TheSmcelrea (noticed by HotHardware) determined they essential a more rapidly KingSpec push in the 2242 variety issue, 12 millimeters more time. To attain this they purchased a alternatively obscure 30-to-42mm bracket extension that moves the retention screw a skosh even more up the motherboard, and moved a thermal pad beneath the SSD slot on the Steam Deck. That was very a great deal all that was vital to fit the slightly lengthier drive into location.

The modder reviews that the new travel bows out the created-in warmth spreader a little bit, likely owing to an additional millimeter or two of peak extra by the retention screw adapter. But the for a longer time M.2 travel is not intersecting with everything else on the motherboard, and with the system reassembled and SteamOS reinstalled, it appears to be like it is a clean and productive operation. It is a reasonably effortless just one, as well, so very long as you can observe down that adapter and a suitable 42mm push. (The Steam Deck’s M.2 slot is PCIe Gen 3, so really don’t splurge on a Gen 4 generate.)

With the Steam Deck’s appeal directly to Computer system players and Valve’s laissez-faire mindset to the semi-typical components, it is type of shocking that we’re not viewing even far more mad mods. I’m waiting for a person to 3D print a new rear physique panel so they can cram in a battery that lasts for two times. Get on it, avid gamers.