[Discussion] Have you upgraded the internal storage in your deck?

Steam Deck@sopuli.xyz – 38 points – 1 years ago

Have you upgraded your internal storage? How did it go? Did you reinstall steamOS from scratch or clone the original M.2/eMMC?

Before even using the deck I updated it, pre-downloaded the steamos onto a usb drive.

The install was very straightforward, highly recommended the upgrade. My only regret is is didn’t get the 1Tb drive

Exactly what I did. I went for the 1tb though. The storage prices for the deck are pretty outrageous and upgrading is pretty easy. So a 64gb deck + 1tb card comes out to be about the same as a 256gb deck.

Outrageous is a bit strong... There are companies charging way more than that for the same increase in storage...

Yeah, a certain fruit company comes to mind.

I decided it wasn't worth it.

I bought the 256 GB deck. That filled up fairly quickly obviously and I looked at the alternatives. It turns out that if you buy the right SD Cards they're basically the same speed as the SSD, so I just bought a 1TB Samsung EVO and it's been great. Also, I didn't have to lose the existing 256 Gb of space that I had and it was zero effort.

Maybe one day I'll upgrade to a 2TB internal, or maybe I won't.

While game loading times are about the same, I definitely notice a big speed difference when installing games on the SSD vs microSD.

No i didn't bother. 512gb plus my 1tb micro sd has been enough really. Besides, i have a full PC with shit loads of storage.

I have a 512. I've heard it's still worth it to upgrade, but I can load dozens of games with no issue and it's less effort. If I have a large game I want to play (100gb+) I'll probably upgrade.

Same. I have many installed games and play a couple of them at most at a time. I travel a lot and connection isn't always guaranteed so I bought a large SD card to offload games I may want to keep with me, I ended up barely using it.

Same. I installed a bunch of games from my backlog, including a few big ones, but I still have more than 100GB left, both on internal and SD card. You're fine as long as you uninstall the ones you're done with for the time being. Just uh, check if Steam Cloud works for the saves, Dark Souls games for instance say it works but it doesn't. Then again, maybe OP has a 64GB, in which case, he probably should.

Definitely buy an SD card though, it's a quick upgrade.

Thought about it but it was honestly pretty easy to throw a 512gb sd card in and cheaper. Plus most if not all of the stuff on the deck is saved in the cloud not a big deal if it fails.

Yeah most games that work on the deck will be fine coming from a modern microsd card. Even Skyrim really would be fine. I've read reports that upgrading to some drives is causing too much heat, and tbh as much as I love tinkering - deck is perfectly made IMO. I'll just swap out cards, even then I haven't really needed to.

I did upgraded mine from 64gb to 1TB. Apart from almost stripping a screw, the whole process was pretty easy. I reinstalled SteamOS because I didn't have much on my deck anyway

I've been considering it, but tbh the 256+400GB SD card has been more than enough so far.

I haven’t upgraded the internal storage. I’ve added an SD card, and I put all my games on it. So far I’ve been very happy with it.

I replaced my 64 gig with a 1tb sabrent rocket. The speeds alone are worth it no matter what. Going to desktop and back is like magic. I always install from scratch though, more steps for less hiccups is the way I always look at it

I'm on the verge of updating my 256GB to the 1TB Corsair MP600 Mini. I've done a lot of tweaking over the year I've had my deck, so I'm planning to try cloning the drive instead of doing a fresh install.

Just wanted to hear everyone else's experiences with it.

Yes, I upgraded from 64 GB to 512 GB. I also replaced the fan. I reinstalled SteamOS from USB I flashed with the steamOS recovery image. I used a USB C thumb drive, but I think a regular thumb drive would work if you have a dock with a USB port. It was very simple, I thought.

I upgraded my 512 to a 2tb sn740 by using an external nvme enclosure and rescuezilla to clone the original drive. Had zero issues.

No need, 256GB is plenty when you've got fast enough internet to download things when you need them. Plus I don't usually tinker with my devices until they're old and actually need it!

I got the 64gb because I want to upgrade the storage myself. I just need to get it.

I bought a 64gb and upgraded it to 512gb. I did the full re-image from a micro sd card. The whole process of swapping and reinstalling was about 20 minutes in total.

I got the 64gb veraion and upgraded it within a week of owning it, would've done it sooner if the SSD had arrived quicker

I upgraded my 64gb version is a cheap 256gb drive. The process was pretty straightforward and I just reinstalled the OS since I only had it for a few days.

Bought the 64GB version, ordered a certified to work with the Steam Deck M.2 512GB SSD and had absolutely no problem installing the thing. Plenty of HowTo's on YouTube. Also re-installing SteamOS is easy. If I ever were to expand to 1TB or 2TB I would use CloneZilla to clone the contents instead of clean installing SteamOS again. My network traffic is not metered but it takes for ever to redownload the games.

No I just opted for a 1tb sd card. It does the job. I have a 256gb model so I install a good few things and lots of Roms and uninstall when I've finished a game

All I waited for was a decent deal on a 1TB ssd and it went smooth, aside from not plugging the battery back in fully the first time. I cloned as I didn't want to bother with setup again.

Upgraded because shaders were taking too much room for 64. Felt like a great investiment!

Too many games to choose from :/

I just got the 64GB version and I plan to replace the SSD soon. I'll reinstall steamOS, and before that I need to figure out what's the best way to have encrypted data on it (e.g. credentials for communities etc) or even have Full Disk Encryption. Haven't settled my mind on this but generally it'd be good to have the whole deck secure so in case it gets stolen nobody can empty my wallet on the steam store.

It looks like there is a bios lock option if you want to go that route

Although since it is required before startup it would require some form of keyboard to enter your password

I didn't think about the password entering problem, thanks for bringing that up!

I swapped my 64GB for a 1TB Samsung PM991a. I reinstalled SteamOS from scratch and it has been working perfectly for a couple of months now.

I upgraded from 64 to a 512 drive and it was smooth as butter. Flashed a new install, since I was 64gb before all my games were on an SD so didn't seem worth cloning.

Yep. From 64 to 256 on launch and about half a year later to 1TB

Not yet, but I plan on doing it. Currently running a 512GB SD card which has served me surprisingly well.

Not yet but I'm moving towards it. Maybe black Friday if I can get a 512 gig drive or higher for cheap.

YES! I bought a 64GB model thinking that I could just use the MicroSD card for everything as my gaming needs aren't very demanding, however between EmuDeck, ProtonUp-QT and Shader Caching, I essentially had no storage left to do anything, and it was becoming a bit of a problem. I upgraded my Steamdeck with a Solidigm 1TB P41 Plus: Photograph of the Solidgm P41 Plus SSD At the same time, I did a backplate swap with the JSauX Transparent Back Plate PC0106: Photograph of the JSaux Transparent Back Plate PC0106 installed on a steam deck And I reinstalled SteamOS from scratch using a USB Stick following the Steam Deck Recovery Instructions article by Valve: A photograph of a steam deck performing the re-imaging, re-installing the Operating System from a USB stick. The whole process went great as a whole. No real performance difference to report but I am experiencing a weird bug where SteamOS reports that it is "offline" when I am in fact, connected to the Internet. The bug resolves itself after a few minutes and I have noticed no other networking related issues to speak of... 🤔

I've started having the same network bug lately, I think it's just software update related and not anything to do with physical changes you made.

😅 This makes me very relieved to hear! I figured that if it was a hardware issue that I would notice it in other applications such as streaming games.

I got the 64gb version in batch one, and immediately upgraded it with a 256gb ssd I had laying around from another system. It was pretty easy, and flashing the OS was trivial even in those early days, but I did find it difficult to get the EM shield to go onto the drive that I chose... It was a tight fit and took 10 minutes of tinkering to get it on there.

It's turned out to be nice to have the extra internal space for doing things in the desktop mode (especially tinkering with emulation) just because, while the sd card is seamless for steam libraries, it adds some complexity and headaches for other software.

No, I got the 512 and it's been enough for me just rotating as needs. I have played around with the SD card but don't usually play anything off of it.