UPGRADING YOUR STEAM DECK STORAGE

2TB and 1TB M.2 2230 SSDs are readily available, and Jarred Walton shows you how to do it

We’ve seen numerous attempts at a handheld gaming PC over the years, but Valve’s Steam Deck has suddenly taken the whole concept mainstream. It’s not necessarily a Nintendo Switch replacement, but for PC gaming on the go, it offers a ton of potential. It might not be able to run every PC game under the sun, but it’s definitely encouraging a lot of games to come out with “low spec” settings that are suitable for the Steam Deck’s hardware.

The only serious issue with the Steam Deck is that it’s lacking in storage. The base model comes with just 64GB of eMMC storage, with a $399 price tag. Bumping up to the top model gets you an anti-glare screen and 512GB of PCIe SSD storage for an additional $250. With plenty of games now surpassing the 100GB mark, we want more, and we’re more than happy to save some pennies in the process.

Whether you’re thinking of buying a Steam Deck or you already own one, or perhaps you’re running an alternative like the Asus Ally, moving to a higher-capacity and higher-performance SSD might be the easiest upgrade decision you’ve ever had to make. Let’s walk through the process and check what sort of performance improvements you can expect.

VALVE'S EXPENSIVE STORAGE OPTIONS

Why all the fuss about upgrading your Steam Deck storage? There are two primary reasons. First, Valve overcharges for storage upgrades. Second, even the highest capacity Steam Deck lacks storage capacity.