That’s right friends, with the announcement last week of Valve’s handheld PC gaming unit, the Steam Deck, I’m sure people have wondered about it’s customization ability. It being PC based, I definitely have. Sounds like IGN has the answer, and the Steam Deck will feature a SDD that will be user-upgradable.
But don’t get too excited, sounds like it won’t be easy.
According to Valve’s hardware engineer, Yazan Aldehayyat, the hard drive won’t be soldered into the motherboard.
We are using a standard M.2 NVMe SSD in there…
…It’s a separate module – we went against the trend of putting it directly on the motherboard.
Yazan Aldehayyat
Right off the bat, I think that’s awesome, especially with so much talk of “right to repair” these days. Additionally with the hard drive NOT being soldered into motherboard? I can’t help but think about Apple’s computers, you hear that Apple? Stop soldering SDD and RAM into the motherboard! Let us upgrade ourselves!
But again, this doesn’t sound like it’ll be an easy endeavour, definitely not for the casual modder.
The repairability is something we did actually focus on and try to make it as repairable as possible. But, it’s really meant for people who know what they’re doing, and have experience doing it.
Yazan Aldehayyat
Something Valve seems to reiterate on the Steam Deck’s product page…
So yes, technically the unit will be upgradable by the owner, but definitely not for the faint of heart, and for those who have a knowledge base to do so, as well as not afraid to take apart the unit and void the warranty.
But what do you think about all this? Drop your thoughts on the Fuzzybug Facebook Page today!
Valve’s Steam Deck is set to hit stores in 2022.
Source: IGN