8. Hardware & Peripherals¶

Docking Station¶

If you plan on connecting your Steam Deck to your TV, there are a few benefits to using a docking station:

• Charging: Your standard USB-to-HDMI cable is going to be passive, ie. unpowered. A docking station, on the other hand, is powered and passes a charge through the USB connection.

  This means that without a dock, you're relying on however long the Steam Deck's battery lasts, whereas with a dock this isn't a concern.

• Ports: The official Dock has multiple USB 3.1 ports, an ethernet port, an HDMI port and a DisplayPort. JSAux has a dozen different docks with twice the number of USB ports for half the price.

  I haven't really needed external USB ports very often, but if you need them a docking station is the way to go.

• HDMI Output: One of the main reasons why I bought a dock was because using a USB-to-HDMI cable resulted in really flaky, low-quality video, with random black-outs, audio drops, problems making the initial HDMI handshake, and so on.

  The dock is designed specifically to address this and when I connect through it, both video and audio are rock-solid and stable.

Steam Deck Dock Store Link

JSAux HB0603 Amazon Link

Expandable Storage¶

As you've probably already realized, the Steam Deck's built-in storage space is limited and will run out fast, so you should consider adding a microSD card.

I recommend anything from the Lexar Play series. I've been using this one for a few years and it's been completely reliable:

Lexar Play 512GB MicroSD Amazon Link

Battery Pack¶

You might also want to consider getting a Deckmate or something similar.

I have one of these and while I don't use it that often, it's been really handy while traveling.

Deckmate Amazon Link

The Deckmate is basically a bunch of peripherals you can click into the included plastic snap-on frame: a kickstand, a VESA stand adapter, and so on. The frame also has slots for spare microSD cards.

It also includes a clip you can attach to a battery pack, which then clips right onto the back of the Deck. Note that it does NOT come with an included battery pack: you have to buy that yourself.

I'm happy I got it, but that said, I can't honestly claim that it's worth $80, on top of whatever power bank you pick up.

Random Chinese 38800mAh Power Bank Amazon Link

This is the battery pack I have. It's pretty heavy, but it lasts like 2x as long as my actual Steam Deck battery and you can charge multiple devices from it simultaneously, which is convenient. To be honest I did very little research before buying it, so there are probably better options available.

Carrying Case¶

I don't know if you got the original Steam Deck carrying case or not, but it's garbage: it doesn't have nearly enough space for anything besides the Deck itself, like charging cables or battery packs.

I just ordered this JSaux Steam Deck carrying case but you can't really go wrong with any kind of clamshell case designed with the Deck in mind.

Button\Case Replacements¶

One thing I have always hated about my Steam Deck is the physical power on/off button: the contacts got worn out almost immediately so now it takes a few tries to turn it off or on, and God forbid it hangs and I have to try and do a hard reboot. I also need to replace my d-pad, which got scratched up at some point.

Unlike typical hardware manufacturers, Valve designed the Steam Deck to be opened up, modified and customized. That means there's a cottage industry that's sprung up around custom parts like buttons, shells, touchpad stickers and so on.

For shells, buttons, and other mods, I highly, highly recommend ExtremeRate. I bought some buttons and a clicky kit from them for my PS5 DualSense Edge controller, and in addition to be exceptionally high-quality, they do a great job of walking you through the replacement process with videos and guides.

The world of gaming hardware modification gets insane really quick, so I'm not going to dwell on this topic too much longer. I will, however, mention that the OLED version of the Steam Deck in particular is known for stick drift (in which one or both joysticks will start to slowly drift or move when you aren't touching them). If you find this starts to happen, Gulikit makes a Hall-Effect joystick replacement kit for the OLED Deck which usually goes for forty or fifty bucks on Amazon, and it is apparently VERY easy to replace them once you've cracked open the Deck shell.

External Controllers¶

Finally, I wanted to recommend a few controllers that I've found to work well with the Steam Deck:

• PlayStation DualSense Edge: This is what I currently use on both my Steam Deck and my gaming rig. This is currently the Cadillac of Bluetooth controllers circa 2026 and I have never owned a more comfortable, reliable gamepad.

That said, it comes with a few drawbacks:

• It's prohibitively expensive ($270 CAD the last time I checked).
• While not exclusive to the PlayStation, a lot of its best features, like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, aren't really well-utilized or available yet in PC games.

• 8BitDo Pro 2: I love love love 8BitDo. Everything they make is top-quality and reasonably priced. I have this as my secondary controller and it's outstanding. Also, my mouse, mechanical keyboard, portable speaker and probably a few other things are from 8BitDo. I can honestly recommend any controller they release.