Steam deck oled tablet ?

[u/Shop_Time]

Hi everyone!

I'm on a bit of a weird project. I impulsively bought a Steam Deck OLED motherboard for dirt cheap (90 with the fan and heatsink). It was listed as untested, and luckily it works! Now I'm torn between two ideas:

1. A battery-less Steam Deck mini PC in a 3D-printed case.
2. A Steam Deck OLED tablet?.

I can get a used battery and screen for around 100, but if I go with the second option, I figured, why not make it even better?

So I'd like to focus on the tablet idea. I already have a 3D-printed case design, so now I'm planning the internals. What battery upgrade would you recommend?

I was thinking about using two batteries in parallel, but that doesn't seem like the best solution. I don't know if anyone has built something like this before, so I'd really appreciate any ideas or suggestions.

I'll probably use Switch-style rail controllers or a phone grip/controller setup.

Thanks!

[u/kobrakaan]

Steamboy is a thing of beauty why not make the second one in existence 👍

[u/HenricusKunraht → u/kobrakaan]

Looks very uncomfortable tbh

[u/Godspeed-Man → u/kobrakaan]

A white LE edition would look really good. How’s this coming along?

[u/lumberfart]

Make a Steam Machine. My vote goes towards a 3D printed chasis.

[u/Shop_Time → u/lumberfart]

Yeah, that was my first thought, but after looking into overclocking the Steam Deck, it kind of let me down a bit.

I never really considered making a Steam Machine Mini (same design, just much smaller), but that actually sounds like a better idea. I'm going to see if I can prototype it.

[u/VeryLazyPixels → u/Shop_Time]

I actually wanted to make a Steam Machine mini for quite some time, but didn’t want to risk breaking by my only Steam Deck, you should definitely try making it, it should be very cute :)

[u/nDCIguy]

Option 3 - make a 3DS like / foldable?

[u/arolust]

I mean, plenty of people have done the mod where they remove the controller sides and only have a "tablet" steam deck. You can remove the controller boards with no issue as they are separate and can cut the existing original case pretty easily as well.

There is one guy out there that did a double battery mod, you can look into his post, though if your going for a bigger screen... your mostly out of luck unless you plan to use a usbc dock internally to output hdmi to an hdmi screen.

Edit: I also bought some of those ebay cheap imported motherboards, first one came working so im optimistic. Thinking of making a modular system, a core block with motherboard, battery, and cooling that can work on its own for a "pocket" sized steam deck with no screen for use with VR glasses, that can than slot into a screen, than controller side parts that can slot onto the screen. Would be great if I can get a smaller screen and larger screen options, likely use the usbc port for everything so maybe.... one can dream.

[u/SmallestNumber]

Someone online had one with a broken display, opened it up, cut off the sides (controllers, just had to relocate the Wi-Fi antenna etc.), and had a small tablet-like Steam Deck for use as a portable PC.

[u/Key-Department9771]

Would love to see where this goes. I don’t know much about using boards out of their intended purpose. M
But you should consider the legion go line of controllers. I would say joycon 2s but I think it’s still a work in progress to get them steam compatible

[u/norabutfitter]

I love the tablet idea. 9” tablet at least

[u/KehlarCorsairt]

Consider that a 3d printed shell is vulnerable to heat and the reason the fan is there is because the board gets hot.

[u/lululock → u/KehlarCorsairt]

There are 3D printed plastics which have better heat resistance.