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The only tiny bit of advice that I can give out of all of it is that you don't press power and vol up / down at exactly the same time, you hold whichever volume direction first and then press power hehe, it is the same with phones and pretty much everything that needs a power button combo... might save you some false boots when you want to get into bios / bootloader.
What I like about all of this is that the combination of the undervolt (3c), the fan (13c) and the heat sink (from 15 to 7c of cooling depending on temperature, even when saturated wit heat it's still cooler than without a heat-sink as there is more surface area to transfer that heat than just the back-plate alone provides basically a 20c reduction in temperatures. I don't care what either Valve or AMD say, sustained temperatures of 85-90c is going to shorten the lifespan of the device. I've been there done that, owned multiple gaming laptops and the rate of failure is much higher and sooner with them because of the higher temperatures. Desktop GPU, my 3090 was under full duress 24/7 for nearly 3 years straight as when not gaming with 100% load constant (Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo and Pimax 8KX, Pimax Vive Pro 2 can easily max out a 3090) but because the GPU was under full water block and tons of water (EK CE 420 3x140 x 45mm + EK 360 XE (3x120x61mm) and didn't see load temps higher than 45 on the core and 67 on Memory Junction as it was undervolted aggressively (as is my 4090 as is shown in the video, 2700 MHz core + 900 Memory with an undervolt of 90mv (factory clocks and voltage is 2500 MHz @ 1.065v. The only reason my sample, which did NOT win the silicon lottery, can do 2700 MHz @ .970v is because the load temps don't exceed 45C. The lower the temperature of the component the less voltage is required to sustain a given freq.
I basically applied that same logic to my Steam Deck. Lower temperatures also mean more performance because the device never has to worry about thermally throttling the APU around 85-90C. In a self-reinforcing cycle less heat means less voltage is required. I'm at -40mv on the GPU, -30 on the CPU and -20 on the SOC. I don't know if this is the limit but I have zero crashes in games or instability issues and that bringing the operating temperature of the APU down allows for less voltage being required to sustain factory clocks, lowering the temperature even further.
Cooling and undervolting the Steam Deck is really big deal. Longer device life, more performance, less battery draw while mobile = longer battery life = less charge cycles required.
At present the only drawback of trying this is bricking your Deck,
Fortunately you can recover your deck if this happens but you're going to have to pull out your technical big guns, not to mention the equipment needed can't be found anywhere. I probably should have put this in the show notes of my video (I will be adding it now):
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/123ml95/how_to_reflash_your_steam_deck_bios_chip/
What to do in the event that you brick your deck trying this (maybe you lost the silicon lottery or caused your Deck to experience silicon migration from sustained temps of 85-95C for hours on end before attempting an undervolt (My deck has been mostly unused while I was waiting for Jsaux's back-plate and fan as I wasn't personally comfortable with sustained temps of 80-85C.)
How to reflash your Steam Deck's BIOS chip:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/123ml95/how_to_reflash_your_steam_deck_bios_chip/
What to do in the event that you brick your deck trying this
STEAM Deck Comments just keep getting
Funnier Every Time, lOl...
First It's A Piece Of Junk,
2nd It's Only Good For Atari Gaming,
Then You Can Over Clock It,
Now Over Clock Bricks STEAM Deck,
& Finally It's A Log That Rolls.
Awesome, Just All Peer Goodness Of A Laughable Product.
Yes, it was just in the video you mentioned that you were trying to press them both at the exact same time and sometimes it would boot the device if you didn't get it right. I was just meaning that you can hold whichever volume button down first and then press power :)
Like I said, only a tiny bit of advice hehe.
That poor computer was still working for many years after that. My own athlon never actually burnt out, I just eventually replaced it :) That is completely different to something like the deck where the actual APU might be fine, but hmm.. will everything around it last ?.. I just doubt it is that huge of an issue for most people, it is not something that is on 24/7 under load really.
But I do agree, and it is something I will probably do at some point, even for the funsies... I have been looking into the cooling side of it with interest since jsaux released the back plate with that metal plate, thinking the same as you hehe, like it was nice of them to do it without people having to mod the back of their case. The undervolting etc I only just found out about because of your post, will need to look into it a bit more.
Something that I saw someone trying similar for cooling when I first saw the backplate and started looking was a guy sticking a peltier cooler to the back hehe, what my brain is tempted to try also, like if you search for things like "semiconductor phone cooler" on amazon / aliexpress / ebay etc etc I guess you should see what I mean. The pros being that it is active cooling and removable, the con being that it is active cooling that needs to be plugged into your deck to work :).
I just never have any spare cash these days to play around with, sigh :). I just try not torturing my deck with insanely demanding games for the most part, at least not constantly. I still have an insane amount of older titles and indie games that I love to play and have yet to finish, or look amazing and everyone raves about but I have yet to start.... I am literally spoiled for choice, part of why the deck is so amazing hehe.
Not just because I don't like the temps being that high or fan noise, but also because I kind of like it lasting at least a few hours at a time, usually it lasts more to the point that it's my arms/wrists/brain that give up before the battery :P
Yes I could be overly cautious and maybe these components can run hotter or at least that's what we are told but again, my experience with gaming laptops has that there is an inverse relationship between component temp and longevity to say nothing about how cooling a component allows for higher frequencies with less power and voltage.
I have seen people try the peltier cooler on the Jsaux, but to be honest, I'm already concerned with the external Jsaux fan that has a battery. I think the ideal situation is somehow wiring a small fan onto a heat-sink like what I have into the in-built fan's power.
I like my Deck the way it is currently but there are a few caveats:
1. Even with the Jsaux fan on the lowest setting it's still audible.
2. The battery in that fan will go eventually rendering the device useless.
3. Once the copper heat sink is saturated with heat it's only providing maybe 5C of cooling. Even fully saturated with heat it's still radiating heat into the air around it and it has way more surface area than the bare aluminum heat-sink mounting area of the Jsaux back-plate but yeah, ideally a fan should be located there but I didn't wan't a fan wire to connect to the same USB-C that I may need to run the device or deal with a splitter and a wire. My sessions average around an hour before I get up and take a break, in that time the copper heat-sink cools.
4. Added weight. You can feel the weight of the fan and heat-sink. I play mostly laying down on my back in bed with the Deck on a pillow held over my stomach so the weight isn't an issue.
5. The Deck is never going into a case again. I wish Jsaux made their travel case, which I also have (it was cheaper to buy the fan as part of the travel case kit, or it was only like a $15 difference for the travel kit with kick-stand etc) with a cutout in it so that it would work with their back-plate. Alas, their travel case covers the aluminum cooling plate of their own back-plate!