Even an idiot like me can upgrade the Steam Deck SSD, and this deep Black Friday deal on a 1 TB Crucial drive is a great chance to do it yourself

An image of the Crucial P310 1TB drive on a blue background, the tag 'Black Friday deals' is in the top right. — (Image credit: Crucial)

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Update November 30: The Crucial P310 remains at its eyewatering Black Friday deal price of 70 clams, so if you've ever considered cracking open your Deck, I say take the plunge. Swapping a Steam Deck screen, sticks, front face plate—really anything pointing toward the user on the device—is going to be next-level hard, but popping off the backplate is a cinch. When I was upgrading my friend's Deck last year, I actually found using the recovery software to install SteamOS on the new boot drive to be way more aggravating than the physical side of the process, but we got it done regardless. While you're cracking the bad boy open, why not also take advantage of JSAUX's sale on its transparent Steam Deck backplates? I have the atomic purple one and love the way it looks.

Hey, look, I get it: even though people say it's simple, cracking open your Steam Deck and upgrading its SSD can seem pretty foreboding. You've gotta wedge a guitar pick in there to pry off the plastic case, tuck ribbon cables out the way, disconnect the battery, and so on and so forth. What if something happens? What if that delicate ribbon cable breaks? What if you dislodge something? What if you spill tea in there? What if a flock of seagulls comes and carries your Deck away, never to return?

Terrifying thoughts all, but let me reassure you: I'm a bona fide idiot and I had zero trouble replacing the puny 512 GB default SSD in my Steam Deck a couple of months ago (and if you need a helping hand, you can check out our handy Steam Deck SSD replacement guide). It couldn't have taken me more than 15 minutes before the whole thing was fully up and running again on a swish new storage stick, and here's the kicker: the Crucial P310 1TB model is currently on a deep Black Friday discount on Amazon—down to $70 from $172.

👉 We're curating the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here 👈

We reviewed this one's bigger brother recently, scoring the 2 TB version 79% and noting its "impressive sequential performance" and "decent 4K performance," though dinging it for relatively sluggish load times and running hot if you go for a long session.

Still, at this price it's a more-than-solid upgrade choice if you're coming from dinkier default Steam Deck storage, and let me promise you that having room to stretch out with your handheld games is a major blessing. You could install Stalker 2 six times. And then not be able to play it. But still!

Anyway, I promise you're absolutely more than capable of upgrading the Steam Deck's SSD on your lonesome, and that this is a pretty great option to do it. Certainly better than some rinky-dink microSD card, where you'll start really feeling those increased load times in newer games.

👉Check out all the Amazon Black Friday PC gaming deals right here👈

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.