Valve quietly downgraded the Steam Deck’s SSD

Valve has been ramping up production of the Steam Deck, with plans to double the amount of systems shipped in the weeks to come. As it turns out, the Deck has gone through a production revision already, swapping out the SSD for a cheaper model. 

During the initial wave, all 256GB and 512GB Steam Decks shipped with a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD, but as reported by Hardware Luxx, as of May 2022, this SSD has been replaced by a PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD.

Valve updated the Steam Deck website to reflect this change and says that it should not impact gaming performance. However, it could potentially impact loading times, which is something that Valve does not mention. We'll have to wait for tests between pre-May models and the newest revision to know for sure, but I think it is likely that this change would have gone unnoticed for many.

Valve did not confirm why it swapped out the SSD, but it likely has everything to do with increasing production. Over a product's lifespan, manufacturers occasionally need to swap suppliers or make other tweaks to better maximise production capabilities.

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KitGuru Says: Are any of you currently waiting on a Steam Deck pre-order, or have you got hold of yours already? How do you feel about the SSD change for newer models? 

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