A Steam Deck Can Be Turned Into a Proper Mini PC With Only a Motherboard

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One of the best things about the Steam Deck is its portable nature, and it's what I love most about it. Being able to take it wherever I go and play games in the palm of my hands without needing to plug into anything is just fantastic, but I still like having a desktop experience to take around with me. That brings me to Mini PCs. These smaller boxes are portable computers that have everything packed into them, and all you have to do is plug it into a monitor and keyboard/mouse combo, and bam, you are good to go! My current work computer is AYANEO's AM02, which I love, but if you want a SteamOS desktop, this may be the closest thing to it!

It's actually possible to turn your Steam Deck into a Mini PC without needing to lug around the entire console! In a YouTube video from ETA Prime, we can see that the only thing we really need is the Steam Deck's motherboard and a way to deliver power to the board. It isn't perfect, as you do need a battery to update the BIOS, but there are ways around this. You also need some device that can deliver power while giving HDMI and USB slots to use. ETA shows us a charger that he used, but there are USB-C hubs that should work as well.

To get a motherboard, you can either tear apart a Steam Deck yourself or buy a broken one that includes the part. The video does link to broken Steam Deck listings on eBay, so you can find one yourself, and it looks like this may be the best way to get one.

I can't say I will ever do this, but I think it's a really cool proof of concept. I could totally see people repurposing broken Decks into something like this, with a decent, custom-made casing and better cooling. I love handheld PCs and it's my main way of gaming now, but there's definitely still a market for Mini PCs, and one with SteamOS on it sounds like a dream come true.

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