iFixit now has a dozen guides for repairing your Steam Machine
If you look at the Steam Machine as a game console, it’s remarkably open and repairable. With a little bit of knowledge and research, you can mod both the hardware and software down to the bones. But if you look at it as a PC, it’s suddenly more intimidating. Even by the standards of a small form factor device, this thing is tiny and complicated.
iFixit is here to help. The right-to-repair gurus have put together a series of more than a dozen guides on removing and replacing just about every component, from the faceplate (just pull it off, it’s magnetic!) to the RAM and storage, to the itty-bitty microSD card reader. For the truly dedicated, there’s even a guide from community contributors on how to build and set up that e-ink faceplate mod.
None of this is rocket science. (Okay, the e-ink thing might be, at least by my standards.) But as someone who prefers to keep things nice and easy with an ATX PC build, I appreciate the hell out of it. Especially since the Steam Machine’s single-DIMM RAM setup makes a memory boost one of the most obvious upgrades to make, and the device’s layers-in-a-shell setup isn’t obvious if you’re not forewarned.
As usual iFixit’s guides are concise and clear, with wonderful photos and helpful tips. According to an iFixit representative, parts for the Steam Machine are coming soon.
