A Valve developer has warned players using a mod that allows Steam Decks to expand their storage capacity with M.2 drives with higher memory.
Steam Deck only supports the smallest M.2 drives, the 2230 series, as standard. However, a Twitter user posted pictures of himself modifying the Steam Deck for the console to work in larger sizes. Then an employee warned.
Valve developer warns about Steam Deck
Lawrence Yang, a designer at Valve who is currently working on Steam Deck, responded to a GameSpot article on Twitter describing the mod that allows storage to be expanded with M.2 drives with higher memory. Yang said, “Hi, please don’t do this. The charger IC gets very hot and the nearby thermal pads should not be moved. Also, most 2242m.2 drives draw more power and get hotter than the Deck was designed for. This mode may appear to work. however, it will significantly shorten the Steam Deck lifespan.” included his sentences.
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.
— Lawrence Yang (@lawrenceyang) June 26, 2022
These warnings also included moving the thermal pads within the system. Twitter user @TheSmcelrea seems to have ignored Valve’s warnings. Although Valve is open to system modding and has partnered with iFixit to provide spares or additional parts, or even providing CAD files of the corner guards for the device that players can extract from their own 3D printers, the caveats seem worthy of heeding. In particular, Yang, one of the designers of the device, strongly opposes this process.