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The Steam Deck is probably the most successful handheld gaming PC to date thanks to a combination of an affordable price tag, decent hardware, and software that puts gaming front and center. But it’s also kind of a big device to hold in your hands.
So one hardware hacker decided to shrink the Steam Deck… by taking away the screen, controllers, and just about everything else that makes the Steam Deck a mobile device. The result is a mini PC that’s amusingly dubbed the “Steam Brick.” It can do everything the Steam Deck does… but only after you plug in a display and controllers.
This is definitely one of those don’t-try-this-at-home projects for several reasons. First, crastinator-pro provides a brief description of the steps taken to turn the Steam Deck into a Steam Brick, but hasn’t provided a step-by-step tutorial. Second, it’s too early to tell if there’s any long term damage to the hardware. And third… if you want a mini PC for gaming there are plenty of existing options available that you can purchase without destroying a perfectly good handheld gaming PC.
But it’s still pretty cool to see that it’s possible to take a Steam Deck apart, remove a bunch of parts, cut into the PC’s aluminum frame to reduce the system’s overall size, and then cram the results into a compact 3D-printed body to create a compact desktop computer that looks like it’s about the size of the original Steam Deck display.
Crastinator-pro says it measures 193.5 x 126.5 x 21mm (7.6″ x 4.9″ x 0.8″) and weighs 474 grams (16.7 ounces), making it significantly more compact than a Steam Deck, which is 298 x 117 x 49mm (11.78″ x 4.6″ x 1.9″) and 640 grams (22.6 ounces).
That means it’s about 24 percent lighter and takes up less space in a bag, making the Steam Brick substantially easier to carry from place to place than a Steam Deck. And since there’s no display that needs to be protected, it’s reasonably safe to lug the Steam Brick around without using any sort of protective carrying case.
While you can think of this like a mini desktop computer that you can carry with you and plug in when you arrive at your destination, there’s one important feature that hasn’t been removed: the battery. That means you can still play games on the go using a wireless controller and a portable monitor or a wearable display like a pair of Xreal glasses.
via Hacker News