- Beneath this protective shroud
is the world's ultimate, the greatest Steam Deck,
(record scratches softly)
or at least it will be.
By the time we're done,
we will have replaced the inherently flawed analog sticks
with Hall effect sticks.
We will have added tempered glass protection to the screen.
We will have upgraded both the cooling and the battery,
allowing us to run faster, longer, and quieter
and we will have upgraded it to a staggering
three terabytes of storage.
That's without violating Valve's guidance
on (clears throat) aftermarket SSD upgrades.
Probably the biggest change though
(device clatters loudly)
is to the protection.
This video is brought to you by dbrand
who is showing off their Killswitch Steam Deck protector.
It's both a carrying case slash grip,
complete with kickstand, and a protective cover.
So you can huck your Steam Deck into your bag,
preferably one from (clears throat) LTTstore.com
and you're off to the races.
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(mellow synth music)
(box tinkles softly)
(soft electronic thrilling)
(upbeat synth music)
- What qualifies a Steam Deck as the ultimate Steam Deck?
Well, there's kind of two routes that you can go down.
Come over here, Brandon.
One route is the ultimate dock station.
So like here we have the JSAUX,
I don't know if that's actually how you say it,
but they're docks.
So you're able to come in, you know,
set your Steam Deck down, keyboard, mouse,
you have ethernet,
you could even plug it into a whole display with HDMI port.
I don't really like that,
'cause kind of the logical extreme of that
is this is the ultimate Steam Deck
and it's just a gaming computer.
Instead, what we want to do is work
on everything that's inside of it
and that makes it better as like a portable gaming station.
The first thing we're going to do then
is upgrade the storage.
A really easy way to upgrade it is a one terabyte SD card.
Now, one terabyte's fine, but we want to go even further,
which is why we have this right here.
It's only 30 millimeters long,
but inside of this is two terabytes of storage.
It's an engineering sample for Micron.
They're not totally sure that it's gonna work
in the Steam Deck.
They sent it over to us and were just like,
hey, guys, can you test if this works?
If it does, we'll go and sell it to people.
You can even see like a little connector here for debugging.
To make opening up our Steam Deck a little bit easier,
we have this 3D print right here.
It's from MehStrongBadMeh.
Whatever, they give you the 3D print,
you can pop it out pretty simply.
There we go.
Getting into the Steam Deck is pretty simple.
Now, there have been modifications
to put a 45 millimeter drive into the Steam Deck,
but that causes quite a few issues.
This is the charging IC,
it kind of handles all of your battery management and crap.
And even from the factory, it gets over 90 degrees Celsius.
So if you're putting, you know, an SSD over top of it,
you're gonna have a really bad time.
Now we did add a heatsink to it
and I need to upgrade that later.
But fortunately, by putting our 30 millimeter one in here,
we don't have to worry about, you know,
Vale getting super mad at us.
Once the SSD is installed,
it's very simple to get Steam OS back onto here.
So you just go to this Steam support page
and download the recovery image.
Use Rufus to check it on a USB, like this one right here.
And then, very simply plug that in.
When you boot up, you hold volume down
and power at the same time until you hear a chime.
I think it chimed.
There we go.
And you end up in the boot manager.
Okay, it's just working.
I lied earlier.
I tested this yesterday, the SSDs fine.
Dum-dum, storage.
Yup, 1.6 free of 1.8 terabytes.
We also gonna be able to add this one terabyte right here.
And then, boom, three terabytes of storage,
that's fricking sweet.
Now this is not the most storage
that's ever been on a Steam Deck.
Brett from UFD Tech was able to do 20 terabytes.
It was ridiculous, the stuff that he did.
We could try and do that but it looked like
just one of the most painful things ever.
And a bunch of Linux.
If you wanna see that, watch his video, I'm not doing it.
The next thing on our list is the upgraded joysticks.
So these are electromagnetic joysticks from GuliKit.
Fricking sweet because they replace
our potentiometer based joysticks in here,
which are, you know, they can cause joystick drifting
and stuff like that.
Oh, look at these, Brandon.
Okay, let's get the old guys out.
Now, why would you want to replace this joystick?
As you move it around, a wiper is on a resistive layer
and that's what gives you the output.
I've forgot one right here.
This right here is the resistive layer.
And as you turn it, the amount of resistance changes.
These joysticks from GuliKit work a little bit different.
They have a magnet, and as the magnet moves,
the electromagnetic field changes.
And then, that gives you your output.
Normally, the amount of error in a joystick
with a potentiometer is like five to 10%.
So you just need a dead zone.
That's five to 10%.
On this right here, it can be less than 1%.
One thing you might have noticed is
that this is not the most satisfying
of joystick toppers ever.
So we need to take it off of here.
Now, the problem is that this right here
senses when you're touching it
and we need to get rid of the little lead
and solder it back on.
(mellow guitar music)
Well, that was easy (chuckles).
Just chuck her in like that.
(mellow guitar music)
The factory joysticks would've had a calibration in them.
So that, you know, from the factory,
you don't have joystick drift.
In order to change that,
we first turn it on with the back off.
And then, press this tiny little button that's right there.
Once we do that, it should, we'll be fine.
We'll verify that later, though.
(joystick tapping softly)
Okay, yeah, the joysticks are absolutely dead on.
I even halved the dead zone 'cause like, why not?
Next thing we need to do is add an external fan.
Now, if you haven't watched it already,
you should definitely watch the video
where me and Linus made this Steam Deck cooler.
But the problem is, is that we thought
that it would just cool everything passively,
but after about half an hour of gameplay or so,
it ends up just getting to the same temperature.
And this thing is scolding hot.
What we did find out is that it works incredibly well
if you just at a fan who.
Would've thought?
Problem is, is that I need somewhere to attach this fan.
I don't know where though.
And it's going to involve cutting a hole in our Steam Deck.
(metal clanks loudly)
- [Man] I ask you how you are and you just have-
- After an in depth pondering
with the creator warehouse actual electrical engineers,
we decided that the best course faction
is to just say (beeps) and not make it removable.
When this is on here, if the heatsink's on there,
you can very easily put the back on, take the back off.
If you wanna remove the fan and the heatsink,
you have to remove both fans and heatsinks.
This way we can just do it in a couple minutes
and it's gonna be functionally just the same.
(mellow electronic music)
Bye.
Oh, this is gonna be terrible.
Look at how small those wires are.
Like that's my fingernail compared to it.
Well, it's the point in a return right here.
There it is.
Unsurprisingly, we don't have wire strippers
that are this small.
I don't really trust myself to just like
take a flush cutter and get that off.
So this is what we're gonna do.
Yeah, it was really done cutting this.
Nine out of 10 electrical engineers recommend
you do your very small soldering exactly like this.
- The only unfortunate thing is that Linus
is gonna open up the back of this
and immediately make fun of us.
- Oh, no, I've never been made fun
of on the internet for my solder skills.
Thank you, commenters,
for saying how great my soldering job was.
- Hey. - We did it, yay.
We'll just wait for this one to turn off.
Maybe it's not turning off.
- [Jacob] Oh, we're running DOOM.
- Oh, we're running DOOM, that would do it.
(Jacob laughing softly)
Oh and our ground wire (beeps) that, of course.
All right, got the fan working.
Total pain in the butt.
Really wish that we had a data sheet for this,
but for everyone that's going to be modifying
the fans of this and probably mostly for future Alex,
it goes ground, PWM, sense and then five volt.
It turns out that if you connect a PWM signal
for your other fan to a sense wire,
it makes them kind of invert each other.
So when the one spins up, the other one spins down.
As you can see, they are both running.
And when this one turns off, they both should turn off.
There we go.
Perfect, works great.
The final thing we need to do in here
is fix this tiny little battery management chip.
It gets super hot.
And so, the last time we put this very tiny heatsink on it.
Problem is, is that the thermal adhesive
that we used on it was not very great.
So it came loose and made a bunch of sparks
when it moved around.
We're going to use some proper thermal epoxy
to attach it this time.
And I'm also gonna confirm we'll coat
everything around it, just to be sure
(can rattles softly)
To attach it, we're just using thermal conductive adhesive
from MG Chemicals.
It's a two part mix and it kind of smells like fish sauce.
- [Brandon] You shouldn't eat that.
- Yeah, definitely, don't eat it.
Perfect, now we can leave that to dry overnight
and it should not come off again.
All right, it's the next day.
This heatsink is absolutely not coming off.
And I believe we are good
with the internals of the Steam Deck.
To protect our Steam Deck,
we're going to be using the dbrand Killswitch.
(cover rattles softly)
There's only one problem, we added a heatsink.
I just had a brilliant idea though
for how we can cut a nice hole in the back.
Watch this, Brandon.
(cover clicks softly)
Perfect, now we know just where to cut.
I'm so happy with myself that I figured that one out.
(Alex chuckles softly)
(solder gun whirs loudly)
(Alex laughs softly)
Gonna have a bunch of ducks show up outside.
(power tools whir loudly)
I was very concerned that the whole thing
would just turn into a real floppy mess
once we removed all that plastic,
'cause, you know, this back bit here is the hard plastic
that kind of holds it all together.
Seems like it's fine though.
(cover clicks softly)
Need to take off just a tiny bit more,
but this is gonna work great.
(power tools whir loudly)
Oka, our case is on.
Next thing we want to do is protect our joysticks.
And to tell you about that, here's past Alex.
To get our joystick protectors,
what we want to do is create a mold
inside of these 3D printed pieces.
Now, it's pretty simple.
We take 10 of this, one of this
combine them together in here
and then stick it into our vacuum chamber.
That takes out all of the bubbles
that we've created when we mix them together
and makes it so you don't have, you know,
well, bubbles in your finished part.
Then you just simply inject it into the mold piece here,
until it squirts out of all of the other holes.
That means that you don't have any like voids in your mold.
And then you wait 24 hours.
See you when they're done.
Well, thank you, past Alex.
Now it's been, it's actually been two days.
So these should be nice and set.
Okay.
Look at that.
Even our LTT got in there.
Also, you can see all of the lines from the 3D print.
Okay, DIY injection molding, that worked great.
Does it fit here?
Just head-crabbing my controller.
Yeah, that should prevent it
from getting too smashed around in your bag.
I can dig it.
Now, we need to protect up around this area
from scratches and so on.
Same as this one right here.
Because you're paying for this video, I even went ahead
and watched the install instructions, dbrand.
Be proud of me.
(mellow synth music)
(heat gun whirs softly)
To continue protecting this thing,
we're going to add some tempered glass.
Wiping with the cloth.
We wipe with some liquor.
(glass clicking softly)
And interestingly, I thought these were just stickers
and like they are.
But their intended use case is actually to take it,
and if you have like lint or anything on your screen,
you can just do that, comes right off.
All right, removing the backing.
Have to be real careful not to touch this.
Oh, that's pretty cool looking actually.
(mellow synth music)
Okay, that looks really good.
- Really, this is the cable we're using?
- We haven't even told the people what we're doing yet.
We want to upgrade the battery.
But you obviously can't do that inside.
So, you know, this.
(Linus laughing softly)
- Okay, it's a bit of a hack.
Hey, speaking of hacks, really,
that's the mounting mechanism for the fan still?
- Do you have a better idea?
- Yes, I do have a better idea.
We could drill through the heatsink this way,
put a bolt and then a nut on the end.
And it could be held in with like hardware.
- There's a heat pipe there though.
You need to have the fan up like a quarter inch.
- Oh, so there is.
Oh, it just doesn't feel very ultimate.
- Turn it on.
It has actual PWM.
- (gasps) It's controlled by the Steam Deck.
- Yeah.
- Linus is gonna open up the back of this
and immediately make fun of us.
- Did you just pigtail it off the, the stock con-
- Yes.
- Wow, good soldering.
- It was very difficult.
(Linus laughs softly)
- Oh, this is amazing.
So it's built into it now?
- Yeah.
- This is gonna be my Steam Deck now, right?
- Sure, if you want it.
You see these things?
- Yeah, the kickstand thing.
- Yeah, these are here
because they're prototypes are just hand assembled
which means this pin (object clicks softly)
comes out super easily.
Do you know what fits pretty well in this spot?
- A battery.
Oh, that's cool.
- Yeah.
- So our battery can be magnetic?
- Yeah, yeah.
And this thing right here is what,
36 wat hours, that almost doubles your battery life.
If that isn't enough, do you know what you can always do?
- Oh my God, are we talking about this again?
- Yes, it's so good.
Look at this.
It's just over nine pounds.
You can stash it in your backpack,
because it's a well made backpack.
You know, it's not too heavy when you have it on like this.
Over 10 hours of battery life.
This is the best.
- I love it, but it's stupid.
(Alex laughs softly)
What's your plan for attaching this to that?
- Belt sander off these and double sided tape it on.
(sander whirs loudly)
- And this will never come off.
I do have to wonder about our total weight.
Now that we've added all of this extra cooling and battery.
(Linus exclaims loudly) (object clatters loudly)
I mean, given the magnet was designed
to hold on a little piece of plastic, not a battery bank,
I guess that makes sense.
Does this just feel deluxe or what?
Like, oh man.
It's like gold controller vibes.
(Alex laughs softly)
I definitely- (cover clicks softly)
(Alex guffaws loudly)
- [Alex] It is a prototype
- Made a second error.
(Linus laughs softly)
It'll be fine, it just needs to,
I just need to put it in the right way.
Wow, that was really not designed to come apart, cool.
Hey, there we go.
Nice, aw, man, that looks so clean.
I love it.
- All right, what you said before though,
I really wanna see what the weight difference is.
- Oh, yeah, that's-
- So this is a normal one.
- 677.
Whoa. (Alex laughs softly)
1.1 kilos.
- So we added about, what, like half a kilogram?
- Yeah. - Or a pound.
- Over 400 grams.
- How much is it without this?
- Only 874.
- Another point.
- No, that is not an argument
in favor of the backpack battery.
I mean, yeah, but you're wearing a backpack all the time.
- You have a heatsink at the back of your Steam Deck
and this is what you're concerned about?
- [Brandon] Touche.
- Oh, oh sick. - Oh, damn.
- Oh sick.
Who needs a kickstand anymore?
Hey, dbrand, hey, if you guys are watching this,
which I know you are, you should do a battery kickstand.
This is the deluxest Steam Deck that does exist.
We are hitting over two gigahertz on nearly,
on every CPU core right now,
while gaming with our CPU at 46% usage.
This is butter smooth.
I'm running DOOM Eternal at medium at native resolution.
And we're getting 60 FPS fricking locked.
Oh my gosh.
It's gonna get a little hotter, we know this already.
But our CPU and GPU are both 50 to 55 degrees right now.
That is like nothing.
- [Alex] Oh yeah.
If this fan is not turning, that fan's not turning.
- Wait, have we been gaming
all this time completely fanlessly.
- [Alex] Yeah.
- Wow.
- Have you noticed any difference in the joysticks at all?
- No.
- Yeah, I halved to the dead zone
and you can probably make it even smaller.
- Wow.
The dead zone is something
that's configurable on the Steam Deck, right?
Yeah. - Yeah, so you can make it
probably even smaller than it is right now.
- And the reason these Hall effect joysticks
allow you to shrink the dead zone
is because they're so precise.
So you don't have to have that slop in the middle
to account for them wearing out.
- Where are the temps at though?
Still 59 degrees?
- [Linus] Yeah and our external fan
hasn't even kicked in yet.
- [Alex] Damn.
- This is wild.
Like our sponsor.
dbrand, oh, those guys.
Yup, they drove a big truck full of money
into our office to push their latest plastic thing.
Project Killswitch on pretty much
every Steam Deck video we have.
What's Project Killswitch, you might ask.
What do you some, kind of dbrand shill?
All right, it's kind of cool though.
It's like they're grip cases for phones and other devices
but it's for your Steam Deck.
It's got a rugged rubberized finish,
plus a kickstand for when you're out on the go
and you wanna pull out your controller and game.
They've also got their tempered glass screen protectors
for the Steam Deck, which we tested out for them.
As it turns out regular tempered glass screen protectors
inhibit touch sensitivity.
While dbrand screen protectors are super precise
and guaranteed to work on your display.
So you can think of them kind of like the super thin condom,
except they probably won't break.
You can reserve your project Killswitch now
at dbrand.com/Killswitch or at the link down below.
It is a pre-order.
But to my knowledge, they're the only game in town.
So what are you gonna do, take your business elsewhere?
- Also dbrand give the people the scorpion.
- If you guys enjoyed this, check out the full video
on adding extra cooling to the Steam Deck.
The results, although not as impressive as we got today-
- Yeah.
- Obviously, were absolutely mind blowing.
- Well, the fan turned on.
- Oh, there it goes.
- Shut down.
Thank you.