Hacker News Reader

Comment by flanbiscuit | Hacker News Reader

For those who own a Steam Deck. If I get the 64GB one, will I regret not getting one of the larger storage options?

Since it has a microSD card slot, I figured I could just get a 512GB microSD that would be cheaper than paying for the either of the larger storage sizes

View on HN

I have the 512 GiB version and didn't need to use microSD yet, so can't say what would bother me if I had to. Currently after about 10 months of using Steam Deck I have 70 GiB of space left on SSD. I would say if slower speed, lower reliability/endurance of microSD does not bother you when you run out of space on microSD there will be nothing to regret, and if it starts bothering you you can always replace the existing SSD with a bigger one yourself, considering how DIY friendly and open Steam Deck is.

All tests I have seen have concluded that loading times from SD are ~identical with the 512GB SSD. Furthermore, SD card endurance is typically ridiculously high with write cycles at somewhere around hundreds of thousands.

Unless you're planning to immediately replace the SSD yourself, I recommend going with the 256G version.

The 64G version uses an eMMC drive, which might as well be a microSD card itself.

That said, I use the 256G NVMe version with a few microSD cards and it's been an amazing experience. Games have slightly longer loading times when played from microSD but that's almost completely irrelevant because of how well the deck handles resume from suspend/sleep.

Thanks for the info. I think I will probably go with the 256G version.

"Games have slightly longer loading times when played from microSD"

Is this noticeable on all games? My plan would be to put smaller indie games on the microSD and keep the main internal drive for bigger AAA (or similar) games.

I think with 64GB you're going to have a rough time, even with a large microSD depending a bit what you plan to do with.

The shader cache alone will fill it up quickly depending on what games you'll play.

I'll recommend to update the internal drive if you're going with the 64GB version.

64GB reporting in, and yes, the shader cache bites.

This is what I did, 64GB device + 512GB SD card. It has worked great, but I'm also far from the heaviest Deck users.

I have the 64gb version + a 256gb sd card and I'm satisfied

The internal SSD is easily upgraded. And cheap, given the latest NVMe drive prices.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+SSD+Replacement/1489...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com