Planning on taking apart your Steam Deck when it arrives? That’s a bad idea, according to Valve, which is why they’ve done it for you.
The company has posted a video, “Take a look inside Steam Deck”, which fulfils the dual purpose of revealing the portable PC’s guts and explaining what could happen if you decide to disembowel your Steam Deck yourself. Providing you manage to get your hands on the much sought-after console when it launches this December, that is.
Over the course of the five minute video, the presenter (who we’re reasonably sure isn’t just a pair of disembodied arms) opens up the Steam Deck revealing precise what’s inside. Though, unlike some other companies, he doesn’t claim you’ll invalidate your warranty by opening it, he notes that if you do mess things up while opening it, you’re not covered.
The video reveals how non user-serviceable the unit is; this isn’t a right to repair issue, the components are packed in so tightly that it’d be largely impractical for all but the most skilled electricians to mess about with.
We don’t count ourselves amongst their number but we can confirm that their point about the unit’s screws is a significant one. The Steam Deck uses self-tapping screws which means that there’s no pre-drilled hole, make a hole in the plastic as they go in. The upside of this is that you get a tight join; the downside is that if you remove the screw and put it back in the fit won’t be anywhere near as tight. We’ve discovered that, to our cost, on a few occasions, wondering why one of our DIY projects is a bit wobblier than it once was.
You should still watch the video, by all means, and we’re sure there’ll be plenty of similar teardown videos appearing after the Steam Deck arrives. But, going by what we’ve seen so far, it’s best to leave such shenanigans to the professionals.
