Valve Engineer Says "Please Don't" Mod Your Steam Deck SSD
thegamer.comUser Experience Designer at Valve Lawrence Yang recently warned Steam Deck owners against modding the SSD in their console because doing so could “significantly shorten” its lifespan. This comes in the wake of an ongoing debate within the community about swapping out its internal components for better hardware.
The story all started when a modder going by the name of Belly Jelly on Twitter began attracting attention for having replaced the existing SSD with a physically larger storage device. The modder pointed out that it “doesn’t collide with anything on the motherboard or put any extra strain on any cables,” but admitted that it “does make the heat spreader bow a tiny bit.”
RELATED: The Steam Deck Is Not Fit For Purpose
Yang soon took note of the situation on Twitter. “Please don’t do this,” the engineer said. “The charger integrated circuit gets very hot and nearby thermal pads should not be moved.” Yang added that most drives “draw more power and get hotter than what the Steam Deck is designed for. This mod may appear to work but will significantly shorten the life of your Steam Deck.” According to the documentation published by Valve, the internal storage is not upgradeable or otherwise “intended for end-user replacement.”
Belly Jelly came out in support of Yang after some backlash on Twitter. “Might as well respond to this. I absolutely agree with this guy,” Belly Jelly said. “Mod at your own risk! I am taking risks by opening the device and working on it and it is mostly just as a proof of concept.” The modder went on to say that “I've seen some people damage their devices significantly while attempting similar mods or planning on repeating my process themselves.”
In related news, the Steam Deck Docking Station
Read more on thegamer.com
