According to a developer working on the Steam Deck, if we do so, the lifespan of Valve’s portable PC will be significantly reduced.

Yesterday, we reported how a Canadian modder replaced the original 2230 format M.2 NVMe SSD in Valve’s Steam Deck with a slightly larger 2242 format drive. It didn’t go entirely smoothly, as the heat spreader was warped somewhat due to the more extensive storage than the original. Although the news spread quickly in the press, Gabe Newell’s company hasn’t responded to the matter until now.

Lawrence Yang, one of Valve’s designers, responded to GameSpot’s post on Twitter: “Hi, please don’t do this. The charger IC [integrated circuit] gets very hot, and nearby thermal pads should not be moved. In addition, most 2242 [NVMe] M.2 [SSD] 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 Deck.”

Currently, the Steam Deck is indeed only officially supporting the smallest NVMe M.2 SSD-s on the market, the 2230 format, so if you do have one of those, don’t worry: it will fit perfectly in the machine, won’t warp any internals, and won’t be a problem if you use that format for storage expansion. (And let’s not deny that the largest factory SSD can fill up to 512 GB in no time, although if you can afford such an expensive device, you should be able to get a microSD card with a massive storage capacity…)

So what is the moral of this story? Let’s have a cool drink now (whether alcoholic or not), as it’s hot outside… and then let’s say that sometimes it’s better to admit that the factory solution is the safest…

Source: VGC