Valve’s Steam Deck has been a phenomenon for PC gamers, but there’s just one problem: You can’t pick the parts and assemble it yourself. That’s half the fun of PC gaming! (The other half is eating ramen noodles and pawning all your belongings to afford those PC parts.)
But one modder combined the flexible hardware of the Framework Laptop and a 3D printer to create her own handheld system.
The “Beth Deck” is available on 3D printing enthusiast site Printables (spotted by Liliputing), and it’s an impressive work of DIY engineering. Beth Le calls it “the future-proofed completely upgradeable handheld.”
Her system uses a semi-standard 13-inch Framework motherboard (any of them should do, whether you prefer Intel or AMD), the battery from the same 13-inch Framework laptop, an 8-inch 1280×800 LCD touchscreen, various components from an Android mobile controller, and a 3D-printed plastic frame with supplementary screws, cable adapters, and standoffs.
Toss in your choice of RAM, SSD, and operating system, and you’ve got a Windows-powered portable game machine that (at least by my reckoning) should have more oomph than the Steam Deck and last longer on a charge. Remarkably, the Beth Deck design can be assembled “in about 15 minutes” and requires no soldering.
Beth includes a list of necessary components on her Printables writeup, with links to buy them all. The parts to assemble everything cost about $200 before shipping, but of course that doesn’t include the 3D-printed shell or the very expensive Framework Laptop components to be repurposed. Even in the initial design, the shell uses an impressively spare 10 printed pieces to create the final product.
While this is an extremely cool design — and it’s even cooler that the creator is making the plan and instructions available for free — she’s under no illusions that it doesn’t quite measure up to a fully commercial mobile gaming handheld. “Small issues” for the fully assembled Beth Deck include a slightly sticky left joystick, a battery that’s prone to overheating, and the fact that the “power button flies off and out the window when you’re trying to disassemble the case.”
The Printables community loves the design, which was created as part of an ongoing competition to make cool cases for Framework’s mainboards. But Beth isn’t resting on her laurels. “I also plan to make a custom PCB for rev 2 to make it thinner and lighter, but that’s gonna take some time,” she says in the comments of her post.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.