Valve shows a look inside the Steam Deck through a detailed teardown



Ever since the Steam Deck was announced, eager soon-to-be owners of the portable PC device were curious as to what exactly was inside the machine, and if they might be able to replace some of the parts themselves. Valve has fortunately given some answers to those questions, through a new video they uploaded, giving us a look at what's inside the Steam Deck, through a teardown. It should be noted that while they have provided a tutorial on how to take the Steam Deck apart, and that owners absolutely have the right to do so, they advise that you don't actually open it up. That's because, according to Valve, much like a PC, it's easy to fry components with static electricity, and that interestingly, opening up the device will cause it to permanently be less drop resistant, adding that there is no way to prevent that from happening.

From there, the video details how to replace the thumbstick and SSD. They also warn users to be very careful about replacing the storage in the Steam Deck; not only can certain drives cause overheating issues or worse battery life, but the specific SSD inside the Steam Deck is also designed to not cause interference with the wireless and Bluetooth modules inside. The tightly-packed Steam Deck can have its m.2 drive swapped out, but it appears to be an intricate process, and Valve states to just use the micro SD card slot if you want more room for games. Either way, the video provides an interesting look at the build of the upcoming Steam Deck.
 

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I've been sitting on a 400GB micro SD I got as a gift last Christmas. I think I've got a use for it, now...

I'm a big fan of Valve's tone--and the fact that they're openly offering a tutorial to do this stuff because people have wanted to know. Even if it seems like a huge pain to do.
 

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I got the 256gb steam deck and will be upgrading it to a 1tb and will also buy a 1tb micro sd card to boot just so I can have 2tb on the thing and yes Iv got a lot of games.
I like how you can replace the sticks and really leaves the market opened for 3rd Party's to come out with 1to1 replacements/or better if they go bad, I like how this looks I can see the 2nd handheld if the do another and by the looks of it I'm sure they will out with have more upgradable parts like ram.
 

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ill just input that if you are considering the expensive model for the anti-glare screen and not the preinstalled built in nvme storage, that there will likely be 3rd party anti-glare tempered glass screen protectors for the device, so it specifically isn't that much of a gain.
 

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iFixit: Hey.. thats MY job !?!

The only thing I dislike about the SD, is the analogue placement.

I've grown to like the way Ninty does it (left up, right down)
I could've accepted the DS4 placement aswell...

This just kinda seems like a 'stretch' - literally.

Nice device tho.
Could imagine doing some audio stuff on it if the performance is adequat.
 

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Ever since the Steam Deck was announced, eager soon-to-be owners of the portable PC device were curious as to what exactly was inside the machine, and if they might be able to replace some of the parts themselves. Valve has fortunately given some answers to those questions, through a new video they uploaded, giving us a look at what's inside the Steam Deck, through a teardown. It should be noted that while they have provided a tutorial on how to take the Steam Deck apart, and that owners absolutely have the right to do so, they advise that you don't actually open it up. That's because, according to Valve, much like a PC, it's easy to fry components with static electricity, and that interestingly, opening up the device will cause it to permanently be less drop resistant, adding that there is no way to prevent that from happening.

From there, the video details how to replace the thumbstick and SSD. They also warn users to be very careful about replacing the storage in the Steam Deck; not only can certain drives cause overheating issues or worse battery life, but the specific SSD inside the Steam Deck is also designed to not cause interference with the wireless and Bluetooth modules inside. The tightly-packed Steam Deck can have its m.2 drive swapped out, but it appears to be an intricate process, and Valve states to just use the micro SD card slot if you want more room for games. Either way, the video provides an interesting look at the build of the upcoming Steam Deck.

Now this is how you make a handheld. Not only are they giving guides for disassembly they are even providing parts for repair.
 

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I had a feeling there was going to be a bunch of computer parts inside of it. The explanation about the screws was pretty cool because I always ruin them all the time the screws, the case the whole thing he stated.

Edit: Also forgot to add, this thing looks likes it's going to be impossible to install a modchip. I hope they can find some softmod vulnerabilities.
 

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Well, they certainly make a number of valid points as to why installing a different SSD might cause problems. The internals are packed very tightly, as expected, and each component seems to have been chosen to exacting specifications. I should've figured my hands would be too big to mess with it anyway, as I can't even deal with mATX motherboards. Happy I played it safe and went for the 256GB model.
 

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I had a feeling there was going to be a bunch of computer parts inside of it. The explanation about the screws was pretty cool because I always ruin them all the time the screws, the case the whole thing he stated.

Edit: Also forgot to add, this thing looks likes it's going to be impossible to install a modchip. I hope they can find some softmod vulnerabilities.
It's a PC, you don't need to softmod it whatsoever, just install the OS of your choice and you're good to go. Chances are there will be other Linux distros to chose from quickly after launch, and they're even working with Microsoft and AMD to get Windows 11 running on it. No hacking required, you doing your own thing is a feature of the device.
 

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Yeeeah I'm not so sure I'd call this a "detailed teardown" at all, just taking the back cover and a couple things off lol.

But hey, it's nice being able to see how easy it'll be to get to that M.2 slot, seems way easier than they were making it out to be.
 
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anhminh

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They seem to target at tech savvy with this because to casual gamer and kid don't really care about most of thing they try to advertise.
 

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Edit: Also forgot to add, this thing looks likes it's going to be impossible to install a modchip. I hope they can find some softmod vulnerabilities.
I think you misunderstood the whole steam deck thing. It is a regular PC with a OS installed. You choose if you use this OS or another one, just like a regular PC.
 

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They seem to target at tech savvy with this because to casual gamer and kid don't really care about most of thing they try to advertise.
I mean yeah, of course tear downs are targeted at a more tech savvy audience. It's not at all necessary for anyone to take it apart, and casual users never even have to see the Linux desktop environment, they can just stay within SteamOS' UX.
 

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I've been sitting on a 400GB micro SD I got as a gift last Christmas. I think I've got a use for it, now...

I'm a big fan of Valve's tone--and the fact that they're openly offering a tutorial to do this stuff because people have wanted to know. Even if it seems like a huge pain to do.
Damn I remember when 200 GB was just released and anything bigger was a scam.
 

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