The Steam Deck is mostly a top tier bit of kit, but it does have some flaws. One limitation is that it can only support a single 2230 M.2 SSD, which means the upper limit of its storage is 2TB. While that might be enough for a lot of people, it means those of us with large Steam libraries have to pick and choose between our favorite games. Well, a new Steam Deck mod from Storage Review has blown that out of the water by equipping a 61TB SSD in a few straightforward steps.
Despite the market becoming ever more crowded, the Steam Deck remains one of the best handheld gaming PCs around. But storage is at a premium, with extra-storage models costing several hundred dollars more than the base 64GB device.
Well, Storage Review’s Jason Ranous has managed to better that by several orders of magnitude. They paired the Steam Deck with an external Solidigm P5336 61.44TB SSD, which boasts nearly one thousand times the storage of the 64GB Steam Deck, 238 times the 256GB model, and 119 times the $649 512GB version.
Ranous employed an M.2 to external U.2 adapter and Icy Dock enclosure to connect the Steam Deck to the SSD, alongside an ATX PSU to power the SSD. They then shorted the power pin on the ATX connector “to be perpetually on, ensuring a consistent and sufficient power source to the massive (now external) SSD.”
Finally, Ranous plugged a Re-Image USB drive into the Steam Deck with an adapter, and voilà! The handheld immediately recognized the SSD and could make use of its mammoth 55.7TB formatted storage. Of course, this is hardly a practical solution if you’re taking it with you on the go, but it’s a very cool mod nonetheless.
Take a look at our best Steam Deck games list if you’re on the hunt for a new game that will work well on Valve’s handheld. Or if you already have plenty to play, but don’t fancy giving this mod a go, check out our list of the best microSD cards for Steam Deck to boost your device’s storage the normal way.