Steam Deck storage will technically be upgradeable, but be careful
Valve announced its own Switch-like console last week. Preorders for Valve’s Steam Deck officially opened last Friday. The device appears to be a big hit for Valve, as the console is sold out well into the second half of 2022. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Valve isn’t charging buyers full price for the Steam Deck they’ve registered for. You only have to pay $5 to reserve your spot in line for one of the three Steam Deck models. You can change your mind at any time and get a refund. But there’s a new surprise development concerning Steam Deck hardware. You might be able to replace the SSD yourself.
Steam Deck storage and prices
The three Steam Deck variants that Valve is pitching buyers have basically the same hardware. Storage is the only difference. The $399 model comes with just 64GB of eMMC storage. Meanwhile, the $529 and $649 versions offer 256GB or 512GB of speedy NVMe SSD storage. The faster the storage of a gaming console, the better the performance. And NVMe storage certainly beats eMMC and microSD. All three Steam Deck consoles come with microSD slots that will let users expand the storage space significantly.
Valve confirmed the SSD is replaceable
In an interview with IGN, Valve engineers confirmed that the Steam Deck supports M.2 2230 SSD storage.
“We are using a standard M.2 NVMe SSD in there,” Valve hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said. “It’s a separate module – we went against the trend of putting it directly on the motherboard.”
The good news here is that the M.2 SSD slot isn’t soldered on the motherboard. Anyone looking to replace the built-in SSD with one that offers more storage and/or better speeds can technically perform an upgrade. But Valve opted for this particular SSD to make the console easy to repair.
