A tinkerer on YouTube has busted open his Steam Deck to fit it with a custom water cooling system. The project is featured in a 15-minute video, as YouTuber Diy Papi takes you through the workings of his water-cooled gaming handheld contraption.
Valve’s OLED portable is currently our best gaming handheld PC of choice, and you can read all about why in our Steam Deck OLED review. However, this YouTuber clearly has bigger ideas than Valve. Water cooling the Steam Deck doesn’t just involve attaching the apparatus to the device, but completely overhauling it in a rough-and-ready fashion.
The mod required the backplate to be “mutilated,” with it cut open for assembly. The modder then attaches waterblocks to the key components, and hooks them up to tubes and a pump unit to circulate water through them. At first, the contraption is all held in place with electrical tape, but it’s later strapped to the deck using cable ties and screws.
“Will it be worth it? I already know the answer to that, it’s a big fat no,” says the maker. Papi is upfront and honest about the project, with it being more about whether he can do it, not if he should.
The results definitely didn’t seem worth it, as the water-cooled Steam Deck only managed to hit 70°C, which wasn’t too far off the peak temperature of the OLED model he was running concurrently.
One YouTube commenter pointed out that Papi’s setup might be inefficient, as he currently has it cooling the heat shield, rather than the AMD APU die itself. If he were to strap the water block to the Steam Deck’s innards properly, there may be some genuine results.
Last year TikToker Vurathayho showed off a similar project, except with desktop water-cooling hardware. The ridiculous setup managed to get the temperature down to 58°C, even when running Cyberpunk 2077.
The Steam Deck wasn’t meant for water cooling, but it can make a big difference to a desktop PC, not just in terms of temperature reduction, but also quietness. If you follow our guide on how to water cool your PC guide, you’ll be up and running with the knowledge to hit peak performance.
