If say I bought the cheapest variant, could the same type of SSD upgrades fit in it, just as they would the mid and higher tier steamdecks?
Yes.
Awesome. Thank you.
There are some minor hardware differences depending on when you bought your deck and random chance. If you buy a brand new deck for example you may find you have a different heat shield than in most of the older tutorial videos for the deck.
Another example of differences is that two different styles of thumbstick were used, and until recently you were limited in what replacement thumbstick upgrades would work depending on which type you had (now they have universal upgrades that work with both kinds).
I’m wanting to buy a steam deck, but I wonder how close they are to releasing an updated version. Is there any indication that they will be doing regular hardware updates on it?
They’ve been making steady revisions and improvements to the hardware since it was released. Better buttons, better acoustics on the fan, new heat shield, etc.
There’s no way to know when the next hardware revision will be, but if you buy it now you’ll be getting a pretty great piece of hardware that has had all the major kinks worked out.
Thanks for the info. I think I’m mostly be playing emulators on it. But I can spend more money on joycons a that break so easily.
The only thing you’d be missing is the anti-glare screen that comes with the top model.
And you can always get an anti-glare screen protector
I bought the lowest level Steam Deck, cracked it open before I even turned it on. Replaced it with a 1TB Sabrent drive. Couldn’t be happier.
i did the same but mine was from a windows surface from someone off ebay. threw it in an external housing and ran software, cant remember the name but the one everyone recommends for this, and it was legit. if youre handy with a screwdriver and can follow basic instructions on flashing the software its fairly easy. just make sure you have the right size bit as the screws are easy to strip. i saw a post on reddit about a guy taking a hammer to his. dont be that guy.
theres a screen replacement that can be done. but personally id rather have an oled 720p screen at 7" than a higher resolution one. the deck is pushing its limits as it is and adding more resolution will hurt that more than anything. or maybe im wrong idk.
This is the way to go. Personally I prefer the glossy screen over the matte anyway.
I believe valve suggests not changing the ssd, voids the warranty and all that as well. For me I just got a proper sd card with good stats (A2, class 10, etc.)
That said, I feel like they should be swappable if you were to get your hands on one of the bigger ssds
3.0 Exclusions
The Limited Warranty does not apply if the Hardware:
has been modified or repaired by anyone except a Valve-designated service center and the cause of the issue for which you seek service is the modification or repair, or damage caused by either;Quote from Valve Hardware Warranty.
In other words, simply changing SSD doesn’t void warranty, but damaging the Steam Deck in the process of doing so does.
I did this for a while until recently I put in a 2TB SSD and the performance difference is night and day.
Some YouTube benchmarks say there there is no too little difference in game loading time. What sd card did you have before?
SanDisk 1TB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I. I play a lot of Diablo IV and Forza Horizon 5 and the loading screens are much faster.
My observation is that the SD card tops out around 30mb/s.
That’s a 1TB.
Was the 2TB in your earlier comment a typo?
No typo. I had my games on a 1TB microSD card and now they are on a 2TB SSD.
Thanks for the heads up 🙏
Thanks for the tip!
