5 mods and upgrades you can make to your Steam Deck (2025)

Right out of the box, any Steam Deck you buy, whether it's a certified refurbished model or brand new, is an excellent piece of kit. In many ways, Valve outdid itself with the Steam Deck, and realistically, you'd never need to change anything about it if you didn't want to.

But just because you might not need to doesn't mean you shouldn't explore what you can do to make your Steam Deck even better than it already is. Part of what makes the Steam Deck great is how modular it is, anyway. In fact, I'd argue some upgrades and mods are essential to the experience of having a Steam Deck and in the spirit of the device. Not all of them, but at least a couple.

5 Install Windows

You might as well

See Also

What devices can you play Steam on? - GB Times Gamepedia

One of the most obvious modifications you can make to your Steam Deck is actually on the software side. It might not be classified as an 'upgrade' to some, but just like everything else in tech, your use case and the uniqueness of your own situation determine if any change you make to your devices is an upgrade or not.

In the case of installing Windows on your Steam Deck, if there are applications or games you'd want to use that require Windows, then it's definitely an upgrade. Even if you don't, it's almost worth doing it just because of the potential for what your Steam Deck will be able to do once you've got Windows and SteamOS on there.

Besides, while the process of completing the installation might not make it an 'easy' upgrade, at least you don't have to take your Steam Deck apart in any way.

4 Replace the LCD screen with an OLED

Make your own Steam Deck OLED at home

If you were someone who bought a Steam Deck as soon as it was out, or if you recently picked up a certified refurbished model but still crave those sweet, deep blacks only an OLED can provide, then fret not. You can upgrade the LCD screen in your Steam Deck to an OLED, but also maybe fret a little bit because it's quite an involved modification.

The popular option for a replacement screen comes from DeckHD, which provides everything you'll need to complete the upgrade when you buy the screen for just $100. That's definitely cheaper than just buying a whole new Steam Deck for the OLED model.

3 Button, D-Pad, and Joystick Replacements

Fix your dead zones and add some flair to your Steam Deck.

A small but significant way of adding a little more personalization to your Steam Deck is to change out the buttons, D-pad, and joysticks. You can swap them for different colors, for a different feel when you're playing games, or when swapping out joysticks to prematurely fix an issue you might've had with the factory-installed sticks.

Stick drift and dead zone issues will come for everyone who isn't using Hall effect joysticks. Make sure that's not you on your Steam Deck and put in a pair of electromagnetic joysticks as soon as possible. The popular option for many players is a pair of sticks from GuliKit, though if you don't have the Steam Deck OLED, just make sure you're getting the right ones.

For some reason, GuliKit's websiteshows that the joysticks for the Steam Deck OLED can be installed without soldering, but the ones for the LCD Steam Deck require soldering. What makes that weird is the fact that GuliKit did release joystick replacements for the LCD Steam Deck that doesn't require soldering, but they're not on the website. However, they are on Amazon. So just be sure that what you're buying is what you need when collecting all the parts you need for this mod.

2 Replace your Steam Deck's shell

We all just want every handheld device to look like an old GameBoy.

Source:overkill.wtf

Definitely the loudest way you can give your Steam Deck some flair is to replace the whole shell of the device with something else. Or something transparent, I should say, since that's clearly the best reason to make this modification in the first place.

Transparent purple is definitely the choice I'd make every day of the week, save for Monday when I might prefer blue. Whatever your preference, replacing the shell of your Steam Deck can really make it feel like a new device. Like other upgrades on this list, it's not easy and will require a lot of patience on your part, but I'd argue this is worth it. More worth it than a new screen or joysticks.

There are transparent backplates and full shells that you can grab, though, as is usually the case, there is a popular choice. This time, it's JSAUX, who makes both back and front replacements for the Steam Deck and the Steam Deck OLED.

1 Upgrade your SSD storage

Slap a new 2230 in there.

Lastly, this is probably the only upgrade on this list that I could seriously argue is essential. The rest can come down to preference, but increasing the storage in a handheld device is absolutely key, and (again) essential, to increasing the quality of your experience with said handheld.

Take it from someone who loves handheld gaming: you'll never be upset about having more storage. Sure, you may have splurged and got the Steam Deck with a 1TB drive in there from the start. That's great. I'd still say to slap a 2TB drive in there instead. Never having to think about running out of space is always worth it.

Whatever SSD you go with, just make sure you grab an M.2 drive that is the 2230 form factor. The device becomes significantly less portable if you plug in a 2280 M.2 drive. Namely, because you won't be able to put the backplate back on afterward.

The modding doesn't have to end here.

Each of these modifications and upgrades can go a long way toward improving the quality of your experience with your Steam Deck. But, of course, that's not where the modding ends. One upgrade that didn't make the list, namely because it stops the Steam Deck from really being portable, is hooking up an eGPU to it.

But even that speaks back to one of the Steam Deck's best features, which is how modular it is. Valve designed it so that you could take out the screws, open it up and play around a little. Valve invited you to try whatever you could think of; it's up to you now to accept the invitation.