My Steam Deck Teardown Reaction

The Steam Deck will start shipping at the end of this year and Valve decided to upload a quick teardown of the handheld online. Today I wanted to take a look at a few things we learned from the disassembly.

#Steam #SteamDeck #Valve

[ryanb]

Between LTT with a pc hardware perspective, Louis Rossman with a laptop repair perspective, and now Spawn Wave with a console repair perspective, I now know more about this devices internals than I do about the internals of the phone I'm typing on

[epiphany]

Valve was also quite clear that this wasn't a "production" unit and there would be changes. Maybe the USB-C is now a separate board connected to the main board. Until the production units are out, we won't know. That Valve has even said "you buy it, you own it, whatever you do to it is on you. If you open it and don't break it the device is still covered under warranty and you'll be able to get at least "some" parts" is wonderful. You see that .M2 drive and how close it is to the wireless antenna's and you know interference must be an issue. While I wish Valve could have put in a simple screw or two plastic cover and allowed us easy access to upgrade the drive to anything that fits the form factor I appreciate that it is a hand held device. Perhaps the next iteration (that probably will have an OLED screen) they'll be able to find a way. Valve has had to make tradeoffs I'm sure allowing for component availability. If you can't get OLED screens in sufficient quantity then you use what you can get and when parts become more available you provide other models. From what I understand only the 512Gb version of the device has the laser etched screen. The other two lower end models don't. The 512Gb model apparently has a "faster" .M2 drive than the 256Gb version (or the lowest end model).

The biggest question mark of the device will ultimately be if it can run as much as possible from Steam "without" having to mess with settings or jump through hoops. The more "idiot proof" you make it from a software perspective the better it will be. If Valve can pull that off with at least the top 300 games odds are people won't complain (though they will have to make sure the top 10 to 20 in each main category plus anything feasible in the current release window (quarter, year, whatever) are covered). Having the device able to handle Discord (or whatever) plus the game and OS concurrently is a big thing. Thanks for the information provided. Great as always. Take care all.

[sadeness]

Can’t wait for this to come out so Spawn can take it apart

[SheepTacoMan]

Can’t wait for it to come out. Hope Valve can deliver

[fantom]

they should have had the steam controller be this modular. I'm happy they are doing the deck as modular as it is.

[Jromelife]

As long as the analog stick aren’t 80 bucks Im happy you can replace them easy I don’t have to ship it out for repair or buy a whole new controller

[Faze-]

As someone who is not a PC gamer, I do plan on purchasing this in 3 years when it is available

[FreddyFuKung]

Can't wait to see Spawn's Frankenstein's monster of a Steam Deck

[Billatronic]

Awesome analysis. I hope it actually releases in December and isn't delayed

[Bluestar]

Other content makers: ooh, aww. Spawn Wave: what's gonna break first.

[jdmahle]

I'm waiting for the OLED tear down your gonna do. Kinda surprised you don't have it up yet.

[brandony]

Remember that the M.2 drive, they say specifically in the video, that it's close to the wifi chip. And certain ssds will interfere and or the slight mechanical processes in certain ones will effect other components. So having the cheapest model from the beginning might end up not supporting some drives we can easily get. Until actual steam deck compatible drives come out

[erikhendrickson]

5:15 I'd just add that while you may not see significantly lower temperatures by replacing the TIM, a higher-quality paste can certainly have better efficiency resulting in reduced fan usage and noise. For me personally, that's the main reason I always upgrade the TIM. Sure, the reduced temps are a nice bonus, but I do doubt it has any notable effect on device lifespan (though if you live in a particularly warm climate it may be more beneficial)

[ThomasCassonActor]

It's nifty piece of kit but I do wonder how much the casual market will be iinterested.

[Shadowlief]

My guess is that the only board that probably won't be meant to be replaced is the motherboard. I don't see any major reason to keep all those board pieces separate, if they weren't wanting to allow people the ability to replace them as it could've also allowed them to make it cheaper. The motherboard might be replaceable, but that'd be an expensive part for sure. So I imagine they'll have replacement parts for at least all the smaller boards in the plans, though maybe not immediately if they use a lot of semiconductors.

[blizmo]

I reserved a 256GB about a hour
after they went live. Hopefully it comes
in this year 🤞 or early 2022

[vvictor]

After looking at the OLED switch tear down I'm glad they kept things modular and didn't solder the storage down like nintendo

[Plumtopia]

Reminds me a little of the ps Vita, which was also a fairly modular system

[matthewhardwick]

Can't wait to see John have a fire extinguisher on hand during his teardown video 😅

[ChrisCa]

Valve: Don't take the Steam Deck apart. It will end your life.
Spawn Wave: Challenge accepted.