I use mine exclusively for emulation and ROMs, entire libraries of every single game released for older systems. The SD card I have for that runs them fine without issue. Potentially with newer/bigger games you might come across issues, that I haven’t really done at all.
Not really super feasible for the average user to crack apart the plastic casing and reformat the new m.2 slot (since there is only one) with a new SteamOS partition.
I think you’ll find 95% of all steam deck users will prefer popping in a microsd than ripping apart their deck and formatting/transferring in a new internal drive.
It’s not too hard. Make a direct copy of the old drive to an external drive. Install the new drive. Do a direct copy back onto the new drive from the external. Expand the partition to the new size.
Or you can install the new drive and reinstall steam os.
For you and me no it’s not too hard at all. But you and I aren’t the average consumer. The average consumer buys it and uses it like a console. To the average consumer, this is impossible. Very few people are going to open it up and conduct what they would consider computer surgery.
As someone who did swap theor steam deck’s M.2, I really wish it were a 2280 instead since those drives can hold much more. The largest 2230 I could find was only 2 TB.
Steamdeck game library
Deck gang rise up
That’s a lot of games/applications then, is the card reader fast enough though?
I use mine exclusively for emulation and ROMs, entire libraries of every single game released for older systems. The SD card I have for that runs them fine without issue. Potentially with newer/bigger games you might come across issues, that I haven’t really done at all.
I’ve been using a 1tb sd card with mine and my steam library. Not any noticeable difference in speed between the internal ssd and micro sd.
How many different game are you trying to play at a time?
Luckily there is a m.2 slot in the deck 😉
And in general as well, does it make more sense to use m.2 Type-2230 SSD instead of SD cards, these days. Way faster and way more robust.
Not really super feasible for the average user to crack apart the plastic casing and reformat the new m.2 slot (since there is only one) with a new SteamOS partition.
I think you’ll find 95% of all steam deck users will prefer popping in a microsd than ripping apart their deck and formatting/transferring in a new internal drive.
It’s not too hard. Make a direct copy of the old drive to an external drive. Install the new drive. Do a direct copy back onto the new drive from the external. Expand the partition to the new size.
Or you can install the new drive and reinstall steam os.
For you and me no it’s not too hard at all. But you and I aren’t the average consumer. The average consumer buys it and uses it like a console. To the average consumer, this is impossible. Very few people are going to open it up and conduct what they would consider computer surgery.
As someone who did swap theor steam deck’s M.2, I really wish it were a 2280 instead since those drives can hold much more. The largest 2230 I could find was only 2 TB.