Someone built a custom water loop for their Steam Deck after overclocking it to 22W
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If you put a lot of high-powered PC components in a small space, they are going to generate a fair amount of heat. Not only does this make a portable device like a gaming laptop or handheld uncomfortable to touch and hold, but it can also affect the performance. On that note, one Steam Deck user went to extremes to keep his device cool.
Reddit user u/2GGBoy7 revealed his project on the Steam Deck subreddit, where he went into detail about how he went about creating a 240mm custom water loop cooling system for his Steam Deck. Under normal circumstances, the Steam Deck can run just fine with normal air cooling, but 2GGBoy7 was interested in overclocking the Steam Deck, which required a more drastic cooling solution.
After overclocking his Steam Deck CPU from 3.5 GHz up to 3.9 GHz and the GPU from 1.9 GHz up to 2.0 GHz, with a TDP limit of 22W (up from the default 15W maximum), he decided that a more robust cooling solution was needed.
Custom water cooling to the rescue
Luckily, u/2GGBoy7 had some spare water cooling parts left over from a desktop build, so they decided to repurpose them. His initial water cooling attempt did not quite work as intended, since the position of the water reservoir allowed too much air into the system.
The final version of the setup allowed for some impressive performance and kept the Steam Deck nice and cool. Even a demanding title such as Doom Eternal only pushed temperatures up to 45°C. Long gaming sessions also didn't phase the water-cooled Steam Deck, with temperatures never going over 60°C.
Reactions on Reddit were mixed, with some users, such as u/ZantyRC, saying the build “Feels cursed,” and others wondering why u/2GGBoy7 didn't just use a PC. One of the top comments was from u/Greedy_Average_2532, who said it looked like the Steam Deck was on life support.
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