Ever since the launch of the Steam Deck there has been a healthy modding community. But the Steam Brick is arguably the wildest one yet.
The product of GitHub user crastinator-pro, the Steam Brick is the result of a desire to make Valve's portable games console even smaller.
"The Steam Deck has been a game changer for travel, but I found myself leaving it behind more often than not, as it wouldn’t fit in my backpack, took up a huge amount of carry-on space, and was a hassle to bring down from the overhead compartment when I wanted to use it. When I did use the Deck, it was either plugged in to AR Glasses (XReal Air 2 Pro) or plugged in to a TV. So, I got to thinking: it could be so much smaller and lighter without the build in controller and screen, but that would be ridiculous, right? …right?"
And so began the project to remove the built-in controllers and the display, and refashion the Steam Deck into something even more portable.
The short version is that the internals of the Steam Deck were removed, first establishing that the motherboard and battery alone would allow the machine to boot and display an output. With that a success, the metal frame from within the Steam Deck was modified to be reused in the Steam Brick, and a custom case 3D printed.
The end result is what you see in the photos, a device a third of the size of the Steam Deck and 24% lighter. Steam Machines don't exist anymore, but if they did, this would show up every single one of them.
This is very much one of those "because I can" type projects, but it's still very impressive. With a pair of smart glasses and a small controller (which many of us use when travelling with the Steam Deck anyway) this is now a truly go-anywhere games console. Definitely an A for effort, even if you probably shouldn't do this to your own Steam Deck.
