Valve partnered with teardown specialist iFixit earlier this year to offer a variety of replacement parts for its Steam Deck handheld game console. Inventory on high-demand components like the replacement fan kit was very limited early on but it looks like the issue has finally smoothed out. iFixit got in just 100 Steam Deck fan fix kits last month and according to The Verge, those sold out in the blink of an eye. The $29.99 kit, which includes a new Steam Deck fan and all of the necessary tools to complete the swap, is now back in stock and ready to ship as of this writing.
Another hot item back in stock is the Steam Deck battery replacement kit. It’d be a bit concerning if you were already having to replace the battery in your new Steam Deck, but we’re still glad the option exists. It’ll set you back $94.99. Last month, Valve said it was more than doubling Steam Deck shipments moving forward. A quick check of expected order availability for new reservation holders is still listed at October 2022 or later, which is unchanged from before the announcement. We also learned that Valve is now shipping some models with slower SSDs than originally promised. According to the company, there is no difference in OS performance, load times, game performance and in-game responsiveness between x2 and x4 SSDs.
