Steam Deck SSD mod may ‘appear to work’, but don’t do it, Valve warns

techradar.com:

Steam Deck owners thinking of modding their handheld to run a physically larger-sized SSD shouldn’t do so, with Valve officially warning against such a course of action.

Valve’s Lawrence Yang, a designer who worked on the Steam Deck, took to Twitter to caution Deck owners that they shouldn’t perform a recent mod aired online showing that you can replace the factory installed 2230 M.2 drive with a bigger form-factor 2242 SSD.

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. https://t.co/Kmup7Zov13June 25, 2022

While this may be possible, as the modder who did this successfully demonstrated, most folks regarded the idea with caution anyway, as it’s effectively experimenting with your handheld. Any detrimental effects may not be obvious immediately or in the shorter-term, but they could well rear their heads in an unpleasant manner at a later date.

In case you were in any doubt, Yang’s tweet makes it clear that there are various issues with the thermals around this DIY upgrade, and most of the larger 2242 M.2 SSDs draw more power, meaning the Steam Deck will get hotter than its design parameters allow for.

The bottom line is that this mod could “significantly shorten the life of your Deck” no less.

Remember, this isn’t about swapping out the Steam Deck’s SSD for another alternative drive, but specifically, a solid-state drive which is physically bigger than the default model.

Why would you want to use such a larger SSD? Well, opening up your upgrade possibilities to include 2242 M.2 models obviously gives