Hello friends,
I had recently purchased two 32gb intel optane ssds and i want double magnitude swap file performance improvements to the Steam Deck swap file tweak i saw on cryobyte 33’s youtube channel. If we’re on the same page, this shouldn’t be able to work.
Problem 1: There are no intel optane ssds in the 30mm form factor. Right? Well, according to pcworld article 794419 someone was able to fit a 42mm ssd into the steam deck but the heat spreader bowed from it. Option 2 is getting a usb-c to m.2 adapter at the cost of questionable bandwidth and performance.
Problem 2: As far as I know, it’s going to be hard to get the steam deck to support intel optane.
So I took a look at a Steam Deck disassembly video you mentioned. The space you’re going to be working in is definitely tight. I can’t say anything about the effects of snapping an M.2 SSD in half, but looking at actual Optane shots, most have chips along the whole length. There is a 16GB 2280 M.2 with seemingly no chips along the last 20mm of its length, but that would only bring you down to 60mm which would still definitely not fit.
The physically smallest Optane ever sold was a 16GB from the M10 series (model MEMPEI1J016GAL) and it was 42mm long. But it’s been discontinued in favor of a longer but otherwise identically performing SKU.
EDIT: Found it for $9.99 on eBay: Intel Optane Memory M10 SSD M.2 2242 16GB MEMPEI1J016GAL PCI-e Nvme Xpoint | eBay
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You found one?!? The article said they added a retention screw to secure a 42mm ssd like that one, but not optane. I am going to order one and see if i can secure it with just kapton tape. JSAUX released transparent back plates so i am not afraid of stripping the old one.
This is AMAZING! Problem 1 seems POSSIBLE to overcome.
Now i need to do a deep dive on optane support through linux arch/steamos
(Problem 2)
Expect an update around February 
I had known about these tiny 16GB Optanes, but I never thought anyone would ever find a use for them. And yet here we are.
GL on your project.
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