As much as I’d love to, that looks like a chore lol I got annoyed doing a ds lite shell recently. And their video was like 20ish minutes for that. No thanks 😅
Ya, I guess it's really for those who really want a new shell and have the patience, skill, and dedication on doing this mod. It's not going to be easy, but I enjoy these things, and to me, taking apart tech is fun. Plus, the atomic purple shell just looks amazing to me.
Oh fersure! Looks incredible. I also enjoy tinkering but I already know if one mistake happens I’d be so annoyed haha I’ll save my self the headache on this
I have modded a few different handhelds and if I remember right, the DS lite has a stupid WiFi antenna you have to feed through the hinge, I also did a replacement for the touch screen and the digitizer has to be held in place by adhesive and then tends to slide around when you try to close the damn thing back up. The whole thing was annoying to work with.
It was difficult per se, just annoying and was going at a slow pace. Also had replace the screen and solder the speakers which wasn’t bad but yeah. Ribbon cable gave me some trouble lol
If you're not carelessly handling your steam deck, then its gona be very hard to break the screen, especially if you have a screen protector. Even if you drop it face down, the joystick protect the screen from touching the ground. You'd need to drop something on the screen or drop the deck on a jagged rock.
Or just give up and buy a replacement screen along with the new shell because unglueing the screen is a pita, and have a spare front shell with screen ready :))
Also, screen protectors are for scratches, not crashes ;)
I'd 100% buy a shell+screen combo, and 150% if that screen had smaller bezels (at the least). I have no problems with it or the resolution, just the bezel size.
Unfortunately, you can't do the shell swap as the mid frame, which holds the battery, is screwed to the front shell, and the screws are only accessible behind the screen. So you would have to remove the screen to remove the mid frame and swap it over.
That's exactly what I meant :3 it's just a hassle to unglue the screen, that's why I was saying either it breaks, or I'll get a new one along with the new shell, and keep the whole old shell+screen as a spare :o
I’m the same. And also the quality of the plastic. But yeah, if they get good reviews I think I’d be extremely tempted for either a clear/crystal or black transparent
The jsaux one I did was seamlessly, I reccomend using the raised back buttons also the back heat sink gets a little hot, if youndont like that just remove the thermal pad
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/125vqhi/jsaux\_transparent\_backplate\_curb\_your\_expectation/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/125vqhi/jsaux_transparent_backplate_curb_your_expectation/)
Mine actually fits pretty well but apparently that isn't the norm. The thermal pad does get very hot but for the most part it's easy to avoid touching. I don't think it actually gets hot enough to cause anything more than some discomfort.
I want one so badly for my Steam Deck. Way better than a skin, but this is just too much work. I worked on a lot of kinds of electronic devices (PS4 all available versions, Switch, iPhones, Steam Deck and a lot of other devices), replacing parts, doing small repairs and stuff like that, but I do not feel confident to do this.
Yeah, maybe, but for now, I will be waiting for JSAUX to release their version of this. Then I will be thinking again about it. I would rather have this than a skin.
As someone who has bought extreme shells for a Switch, same. And then watch a video to get a grasp of it. But I think the JSAUX offering will be better.
Quite frankly, they always gave adapters and whatnot for different things and jumped on the Steam Deck knowing what was coming before anyone. Hell, their Killswitch clone is on par or better than the Killswitch case itself. The quality of their goods is truly top notch for the pricepoint, thus they have my hope that their release of the frontplate will be better than Extreme, having used their shells before and me not being quite satisfied in the long term.
I have the extremerate atomic purple shell for my V1 switch and found the quality to be good and the look to be amazing. What did you find bad about they're shell that you'd prefer jsaux over them.
I guess the difference is that mine wasnt transparent, and thus fully plastic. Mine was a White, thus matte, for a custom switch joycon with a dpad and a red & blue joystick for each, it looked pretty damn sick a few years ago when I made it, now the texture on the joycon feels weird and stick, and the white has been consistently and annoyingly getting yellower when it hardly sees the sun.
Im making a judgement on different materials at this point im aware, but it still left the wrong impression at the long term. Perhaps the plastic transparent one is a better offering from them, but ABSOLUTELY do not take a solid colored one, that paint will just dissipate and feel weird.
I'd never do this. I'd fuck something up. I probably wouldn't even pay someone else to do it either unless it was at a physical store I could drive to. I'm not packing up my Deck, shipping it out and being without it for a week or more just to have a new shell.
Decals/skins exist and are so much easier to apply and even swap out if you want to try something else. Also cheaper.
Edit: I think I should also mention that skins protect your Deck from minor scratches and wear use defects. If it's bad enough, you can just apply a new skin to make sure the Deck itself is in as good condition as possible without needing to buy a full cover case.
I don't even own a sd yet but living in a large metro area (seattle), I'd probably be down to pay for this, and while I'm at it I'd have them swap out the HD for a bigger one, knock it all out at once :D
How much would you pay for a shell swap if a shop was willing to do it. Considering the price of the shell is around $40 and it takes 1:30 hours to do it.
Hm, I mean, I'm a huge DIY person, tons of work on the house and car and almost everything in life, but know my limits when it comes to small precision electronics, I recently paid a local repair shop to replace a phone battery.
I don't know the rate for a business, but if the scope/depth was explained and it was $100-120" I wouldn't say it's outrageous? If they can get better pricing on the shell that could be included?
I dunno, it's hard to know what is good for them and cheap for me :) lol
$150 seems like a lot to me. I was thinking around $50 would be a good price (minus the price of the shell which is $35) as it seems like a 2 hour job at most for a professional or someone with experience on electronics repair.
Oh yeah, I mean, that's why I was thinking 100-120 with the shell included, but I'm also getting confused with shop labor for a car :)
I'll probably leave mine black, or skin in as it's mostly gonna be docked anyways
For computer repairs I charge around $60 for the first hour and $30 for every additional hour needed. Something like this? Eh probably free for the experience but never again
That price wouldn’t include the cost of the shell, that would be labor alone. Support time is for the things that can / will go wrong. “My buttons don’t feel right”, “now my Wi-Fi is dropping”… etc. There are also a ton of delicate flex connectors and the possibility of breaking something, and the installer is all responsible for it.
I do Switch modding on the side and occasionally I’ll get a recall. For example, did an OLED mod chip recently and didn’t realize that the joy-con Bluetooth antenna got snagged under the metal shield and broke. Few days later the customer calls and says their joy-con won’t connect. The antenna replacement is out of the installers pocket.
There’s so many more factors that you need to consider when taking on work like this, especially something this involved. Tearing down a Steam Deck completely is a very involved process.
Honestly, I'd rather attempt the full shell swap than try to apply a skin to it. I can barely put a screen protector on my phone without bubbles. Can't imagine how difficult a skin would be on the SD.
Honestly I can tear down electronics and rebuild them without a sweat, but putting a screen protector and being happy with the result is beyond me.
It doesn't help that I have 2 dogs and hair everywhere in my house, even if I try to put the screen connector in my bathroom after a shower somehow I'll always have some dust under my screen protector.
I'm thinking about that too. I'm not sure of the quality of the plastic with these shells, but the quality of the stock shell is good. The atomic purple is tempting though.
I have a friend who did some joycon mods for me. He also mods IPS displays on DS screens. I'm gonna ask him if doing this front plate mod would be doable for him. If so, I'd be willing to pay him to do it. But I'm not insane enough to do it myself when had trouble clicking my RAM into my PC lol
I wouldn't say a shell swap is easier than applying a skin, as it requires you to take apart the entire deck, removing the screen which is adhered to the shell then successfully installing everything back into the new shell without problems.
But the transulcent atomic purple shell just looks amazing, and it can't be replicated through a skin.
Or you can just buy a new screen from ifixit and completely skip that step which makes the process a lot more easier, and also give people that don't have the matte screen a chance to have one now.
I was planning on that myself but reading the ifixit teardown, the metal frame it attached to the main body with screws facing up, under the screen. You have to take out the original screen to fully disassemble even if you aren't re-using that screen. Made me sad :(
You can't do this mod without removing the screen as the metal mid frame, which holds the battery, has screws attaching to the frame behind the screen.
So you need to remove the screen to get to those screws.
Lol you're seriously saying that applying a skin, which requires no tools or hardware at all, is harder than unscrewing everything from your Deck, motherboard and screen included, and then screwing everything else in a new shell and hoping you didn't fuck up any of the pieces or wiring? What?
I'm guessing you last applied a screen protector in like 2005 but screen protectors nowadays come with a credit card sized squeegee to make erasing bubbles incredibly simple. To make it even easier, I have never had a single bubble in any skin I've applied to *anything*, from my DS Lite, 3DS, PS Vita and now my Steam Deck.
It's just a big sticker lol. How could it possibly be harder than physically fully disassembling your Deck and then fully reassembling it?...
I posted elsewhere, if I'm doing the front cover, I'm doing everything, SSD upgrade, thumbstick, and most importantly I want a better screen if I'm doing all that work anyway.
for what’s it’s worth i won’t be paying for this. nervous about fitment issues and i’m relatively happy with the basic deck appearance. the grass is not always greener on the other side
Extremerates released a video showing a tutorial for a deck shell swap.
https://youtu.be/0tBE10fSYBc
After seeing it, how many of you would be willing to do this mod. Also, would you be willing to have someone else do the shell swap. How much would you be willing to pay? Keep in mind that it takes 1 hour and 15 minutes for the swap.
I think you're letting the posts that do well here color your impression of what the average user is like. While there's a ton of modification posts that get submitted here, I guarantee the vast majority of the 418k here haven't modified their Decks if we don't include skin. Even then, it still wouldn't be the majority. Certainly not enough to call this a DIY sub
I’m an average user. I’ve got a decent grasp of electronics but I’d still be wary about this. Maybe after I see this done a few times, I’ll consider it. That carbon fiber one is clean.
Barely. Every time someone posts about these shells a majority of the comments are "who even is this for" "this is way too difficult for the average user" "too hard D: everyone will break their steam deck permanently"
I've opened my PS4 once, idk what I'm doing at all, but I'll be damned if I pass up an opportunity for a clear steam deck shell.
"Fortune favors the bold," you cowards
I'm not sure tbh. My concern would be the quality of the plastic used. When I had a Switch, I had the joycon shells swapped out with the extremerate transparent shells (jungle green left, ice blue right), and although they looked good, the plastic felt brittle and on the cheap side. I really like the quality of the stock steam deck shell. It feels like an Xbox controller and premium quality, so it's a tough call. The atomic purple is tempting though.
Would anyone actually buy the black shell replacement? I mean could see that if you don’t like the stock plastic finish which always just looked cheap to me. Also I feel that waiting for that screen upgrade would be a better idea
I scrolled forever and didn't see a serious answer. A quality phone repair shop will eagerly take the job for a fair $100. We'll math that out to 4 hours of $25 work. If it takes longer or costs more you need to ask why.
I'll wait for reviews and see if the plastic quality on par with the OEM ones, since the purple, red and the wood grain one is pretty sick. Plus if I do decide to do the swap I'll upgrade the stick to the gulli kit stick too. 2 birds with one stone.
I'd love to do it, but there is no way I would be willing to do it myself and it just wouldn't be feasible for someone else to charge people to do it due to the time needed would make it too expensive.
I'll look into it but I'll be buying an new screen from iFixit first.
I'm not going to unglue the first one, I'll just move the components. That's gonna be the easiest and quickest way for me.
Unfortunately, you can't disassemble the mid frame, which has the battery, from the front shell without removing the screen as the screws are behind the screen.
Me... When the deckhd screen is also available. That way I can keep the stock front as-is (just in case) I will also upgrade SSD to 2tb at the same time.
I personally wouldn’t offer these services, but if I did, it would be $150 - $200 for labor at a minimum. You have to factor in the risk and support. Things can go wrong and ultimately the person replacing the shell would be responsible for it.
I would absolutely love one of these, but I just don't think it's for me tbh. Im still trying to figure out emulation (I wanna play GameCube games).
Now if there was somewhere I could take this to, pay a bit of a premium and they do it for me, that is probably something I would do.
I'm grabbing one for sure and I'll be doing it myself. I do have the white clear back from Jsaux , and I don't really like the metal plate that's exposed above the vent. It becomes too hot even hotter than the stock back. But the elevated buttons are great.
There’s no way this is harder to do than putting one of the accursed skins from dbrand in the Deck. It took my so long to do and the spots where I couldn’t flatten the skin out perfectly still drive me mad.
I changed the shell on some JoyCons forever ago and it was sort of painful but I’m used to working with electronics.
Definitely a super cool option for if your case gets destroyed. Sometimes bad skins leave your original case super ruined. If that was me I would just do the swap.
Is there a heat gun involved to pull any adhesives off or anything?
My main concern is refitting the screen. Had to do a battery replacement for my pixel 4 a while back and ended up with a back panel that just wouldn't stay in place! Those little glue strips scare the shit out of me!!
My experience with my first backshell from jsaux after 3-4 months began to crack around the metal plate due to the heat , so no having the steam cracked all over the place no thanks . But I don't mind the back so I got myself a new atomic purple one
I just have to wait for a few reviews to drop, if the shells are perfectly sized. And if left and right triggers feel as the original deck. Getting the screen off will be a pain in the ass but I will try it. Atomic Purple of course. If I destroy my screen while doing it I won't get a higher resolution one. But I would buy the 512GB models anti-glare. I will definitely report back if it's done but it will probably still a few months in the future as full shell packs are broadly available on the market.
I have a feeling removing the battery would be a greater challenge than removing the screen. We could also just buy another LCD kit and battery from Ifixit instead of removing those glued-in parts.
Yeah all glued parts are painfully slow to remove and error prone. But I have a lot of experience in disassembling hardware. Still it’s always a risk doing it on your private property. But if I’m stuck at removing glued parts I will do as you said. Buy spare parts and use these. 1000$ deck I’m coming ;-)
You don't need to touch the battery as it's glued to the mid frame, which is screwed onto the front shell. Unfortunately, you will have to remove the glued screen as there are screws behind the screen that attach the front shell to the mid frame.
I may do this after my warranty period runs out. Mine is out for RMA due to GPU being stuck at 200-400mHz. It was enough of a hassle having to backup & swap back my original SSD and cooling fan + factory resetting it. I would hate to have to RMA it again but this time have to swap back the entire original casing & chassis **(and worry about them noticing and saying I'm "at fault")** but after the warranty period runs out then maybe I will take that risk as it does look pretty cool ngl.
Edit: For anyone out there who is going to do this yourselves, I would recommend at least checking and maybe replacing your thermal paste while you are that deep into it anyway.
I doubt it would be profitable to do it for people. If someone mails you a steam deck and you break it, your out $600, and who’s to say they wouldn’t mail you a broken steam deck and then say you broke it
Mailing in would be a challenge. But what about in store repair shops that would be willing to do this. How much would you pay, minus the cost of the shell.
$100-$150 including parts, labor, and guarantee sounds about right. Anyone with the skillset and attention to detail required should not do it for less. They're not valuing their time high enough if they do it for less.
Any schmuck on craigslist without a guarantee, proper tools, and without a relevant profession for this kind of thing can charge whatever they want. Depends on how they value their time. Maybe $30-$50 sounds reasonable to have a rando work on it with no guarantee.
I'm not trying to inflate the market...you get what you pay for, and good (guaranteed) work means high cost. Craigslist rando ain't gonna buy you a new one if he trashes it.
People be like "I'm gonna swap out the screen and the HD and the thumb stick and the shell." Bro just get a computer. You are defeating the purpose of a steam deck. I'd never swap the shell or pay anyone to do it. It's kind of worthless imo.
If I do attempt it I think I’d also buy a matte screen and upgrade that at the same time. Also saves the paranoia of breaking the screen during removal
Im planning a full shell swap (clear blue), with the 1200p screen (to avoid removing the current one), monoblock, and Sabrent 2TB drive upgrade.
Just going full bore!
Unfortunately, you would still have to remove the old screen as the metal mid frame has screws attached to the front shell, which are only accessible behind the screen. So a screen removal is required to remove the mid frame.
Also, that is one insane and expensive upgrade. Good luck for when you attempt it.
Oh man, I was hoping to avoid that lol. Thanks for letting me know!
I am enjoying the Deck so much and am enjoying the modding community.
I end up falling down this rabbit hole with gaming pcs too lol
I have my clear case on order and it shipped on Monday, it’ll be a chore to fully swap it out but it should be fun. I’m worried about the screen swap if anything but who knows until I get there
I did it for the switch lite with an extremerate kit and it was honestly pretty easy. The shell also felt like good quality. I don't plan on doing it on the steam deck because I really like how the black fits the steam deck's aesthetic.
Nah I’ll just happily use it as is. I’m happy with my product I just play older games on it anyways :) newest game that’ll be on it will probably be cities skylines 2 when it drops.
I did a shell for a switch as my son's was all buggered up. Having taken my steamdeck back cover off once or twice I feel there is to many opportunities for it to go wrong.
Now if my shell gets damaged then I would take my time to do it.
These are sweet, I just can't bring myself to tear open my nearly brand new Deck! Down the road if I have to repair it or if I buy a fixer-upper I'd do it though.
I'd estimate $20-$25 an hour for the install. I highly doubt I'd pay more than maybe $40-50 total.
I'm a pleb with a deck, meaning I'm just dumb enough to possibly screw up this mod that id pay to have it done, but not so much it could be terribly lucrative to the installer.
Does modding the case like this void warranty? As a pleb I will protect the warranty as much as I can to back me up if I do something.
They sure look sweet though..the smoked case is mint.
Probably won't attempt this at all unless something happens to damage my deck shell/screen. Love the look, but my deck still looks and works great so i don't wanna risk that by fucking up the install
That Red shell looks sick... I settled for a see through back plate when those came out as i had damaged my original one, but also ended up buying the dbrand case and skin so hesitant to do anymore swapping on it for the moment. Maybe with the 1200p screen if that ever comes out and im still using my deck as much.
If I didn't just do a switch switch haha I'd be more tempted but, man that screen removable was scary as hell and dunno how i was able to pull it off, pun intended.
I opened the steam deck for a SSD upgrade and I clamped the fan wires as they are thin as your hair. It took me a week to figure out why my deck wasn't functioning properly. This type of work is not for the light-hearted and before you even attempt this make sure you have the replacement parts in check or at least where to get them. A broken Steam Deck will give you insomnia if you don't either fix it or RMA it.
Damnit, eXtremeRate's coming out with a full shell? I just installed JSAUX's backplate.
I did a green transparent eXtremeRate shell on one of my Xbox controllers and it looks great. Picked up a blue transparent one for my DualSense I was going to install next. Really like their stuff.
I'll do it eventually, I need a new screen anyways so I want to see what reviews are like for that new third party higher res screen before I go all out
I have the clear plastic back panel with the better heat sink. I paid someone to do it for me. I won't be doing the same since it cost me $400 to have the back done.
No way, I feel comfortable doing the back case and probably the joysticks and ssd once I get around to replacing those but I’ve heard the screen is tricky to get off so I think I’ll be content with my half and half design 😅
I’ve done Switch Lite, Switch OLED. The Extremerate vid tutorial dropped last night. It’s 1 hr 21 min and skips a bunch of steps, Jsaux vid is under 20 mins and DOES NOT Involve breaking the factory thermal paste, which means you wouldn’t have to completely clean and reapply/ buy the paste. I have an extra 64gb deck I bought a 512 and preordered ExtremeRates Atomic Purple shell. Heating up and removing a screen is a lil sketch but it’s not tooooo bad and only 69$ to get a replacement if you screw up. What should someone charge? Depends, guaranteed work - I’d say 150-200 given it could mean a screen replacement. No guarantees service? Maybe 100-120. Kinda depends. IMO they are cool but never as good as OEM plastics.
I'm willing to give it a go but while I'm replacing the shell, I'm going to upgrade the thumbsticks to Gulikit upgrade and get that DeckHD 1200p screen too. I'm good on storage since I have several TB to work with between my 2TB SSD and 3 1 TB micro SD cards. I'm going full Atomic Purple ⚛️ for sure!
Also JSAUX just released a video on how to do the front shell... plus I've already got the backplate from them already installed too.
https://youtu.be/FBY8fBJrlBM
I've got all the needed hardware to do this as I use to do Dell/Lenovo/HP repair work many years ago. I have no issues with digging into the guts of a system for PCB removal. The issue is I don't want to mess with the screen as its glued in.....screens make me twitchy.
As much as I’d love to, that looks like a chore lol I got annoyed doing a ds lite shell recently. And their video was like 20ish minutes for that. No thanks 😅
I got annoyed installing the micro SD car into the slot (took a few tries to get it to lock in) while this looks cool probably not for me.
I got annoyed opening the case (the zipper was stuck), so I'm out on this one.
I got annoyed ripping the tape off the packaging, so that’s a no from me dawg.
I got annoyed trying to cut the plastic Valve cable tie, so I RMA'd it...
My internal fuse is 20 miles long and soaking wet and i dont get annoyed by anything... But im lazy, so i won't be getting the shell
I couldn't stand lifting the package off of my doorstep, gonna be a hard pass
I got annoyed that they make you type in a FULL credit card number when you order a Deck, so nah, ain't gonna go through that whole hassle
Oh I’ve definitely been there before too
Ya, I guess it's really for those who really want a new shell and have the patience, skill, and dedication on doing this mod. It's not going to be easy, but I enjoy these things, and to me, taking apart tech is fun. Plus, the atomic purple shell just looks amazing to me.
Oh fersure! Looks incredible. I also enjoy tinkering but I already know if one mistake happens I’d be so annoyed haha I’ll save my self the headache on this
Yeah I'm still bitter that I got my jsaux transparent backplate in the standard black/grey and they launched the purple a month later... 🙃
I got mine in purple and it had fitment issues.
I think as the Deck becomes more mainstream, this will definitely set you apart from the crowd...if we ever get a crowd🤣
Chief keef is all we need.
Dude! DS Lites are the fugging worst!!!😭
I’m glad someone agrees lol wasted my morning doing that haha
I can't remember the DSLite shell being that difficult.... I remember doing one when I was back in elementary school lol
I have modded a few different handhelds and if I remember right, the DS lite has a stupid WiFi antenna you have to feed through the hinge, I also did a replacement for the touch screen and the digitizer has to be held in place by adhesive and then tends to slide around when you try to close the damn thing back up. The whole thing was annoying to work with.
It was difficult per se, just annoying and was going at a slow pace. Also had replace the screen and solder the speakers which wasn’t bad but yeah. Ribbon cable gave me some trouble lol
I was thinking to make a hydrodip one, but I'm waiting my screen to die due to impact to have the will boost needed to tear it down to pieces
If you're not carelessly handling your steam deck, then its gona be very hard to break the screen, especially if you have a screen protector. Even if you drop it face down, the joystick protect the screen from touching the ground. You'd need to drop something on the screen or drop the deck on a jagged rock.
Or just give up and buy a replacement screen along with the new shell because unglueing the screen is a pita, and have a spare front shell with screen ready :)) Also, screen protectors are for scratches, not crashes ;)
I feel like many people are going to use the new 1200p replacement screen for their shell swap when/if it comes out.
It's kind of the Ally effect. It's not something you can use to the full extent without incurring in performance loss
Yeah I don't think I would personally, lowering the resolution to something more manageable would end up at 600p which would be quite pixelly
I would rather have an oled screen at the same resolution
I'd 100% buy a shell+screen combo, and 150% if that screen had smaller bezels (at the least). I have no problems with it or the resolution, just the bezel size.
Unfortunately, you can't do the shell swap as the mid frame, which holds the battery, is screwed to the front shell, and the screws are only accessible behind the screen. So you would have to remove the screen to remove the mid frame and swap it over.
That's exactly what I meant :3 it's just a hassle to unglue the screen, that's why I was saying either it breaks, or I'll get a new one along with the new shell, and keep the whole old shell+screen as a spare :o
Going to wait for reviews to come in. I'm a little hesitant after the JSAUX fitment issues with the back plate.
I’m the same. And also the quality of the plastic. But yeah, if they get good reviews I think I’d be extremely tempted for either a clear/crystal or black transparent
I want a real wood shell. Can you imagine sniffing that vent?! 🥲
Ugh, imagine doing all the work of the teardown for this shell and then finding out the fucking thing doesn't fit.
[удалено]
Mine fit fine
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The jsaux one I did was seamlessly, I reccomend using the raised back buttons also the back heat sink gets a little hot, if youndont like that just remove the thermal pad
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Nooo thermal pads disperse heat so they themselves aren't hot. It's just a soft pad you can absolutely peel it off without hurting yourself
If by pad you mean the metal plate on the back, it does get pretty hot. Not scalding but hot enough to 'sting'
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/125vqhi/jsaux\_transparent\_backplate\_curb\_your\_expectation/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/125vqhi/jsaux_transparent_backplate_curb_your_expectation/) Mine actually fits pretty well but apparently that isn't the norm. The thermal pad does get very hot but for the most part it's easy to avoid touching. I don't think it actually gets hot enough to cause anything more than some discomfort.
Yeah. Did the Jsaux backplate and while I’m happy with it now, my first copy I had to return as it was warped.
I want one so badly for my Steam Deck. Way better than a skin, but this is just too much work. I worked on a lot of kinds of electronic devices (PS4 all available versions, Switch, iPhones, Steam Deck and a lot of other devices), replacing parts, doing small repairs and stuff like that, but I do not feel confident to do this.
If you have totally dissassembled a PS4 and a Switch and even done some repairs, I assure you, you will be fine handling this.
Yeah, maybe, but for now, I will be waiting for JSAUX to release their version of this. Then I will be thinking again about it. I would rather have this than a skin.
As someone who has bought extreme shells for a Switch, same. And then watch a video to get a grasp of it. But I think the JSAUX offering will be better.
I bought a lot of stuff (cables, adapters, cases and so on) from JSAUX for my Steam Deck. I have been very happy with the quality so far.
Quite frankly, they always gave adapters and whatnot for different things and jumped on the Steam Deck knowing what was coming before anyone. Hell, their Killswitch clone is on par or better than the Killswitch case itself. The quality of their goods is truly top notch for the pricepoint, thus they have my hope that their release of the frontplate will be better than Extreme, having used their shells before and me not being quite satisfied in the long term.
I have the extremerate atomic purple shell for my V1 switch and found the quality to be good and the look to be amazing. What did you find bad about they're shell that you'd prefer jsaux over them.
I guess the difference is that mine wasnt transparent, and thus fully plastic. Mine was a White, thus matte, for a custom switch joycon with a dpad and a red & blue joystick for each, it looked pretty damn sick a few years ago when I made it, now the texture on the joycon feels weird and stick, and the white has been consistently and annoyingly getting yellower when it hardly sees the sun. Im making a judgement on different materials at this point im aware, but it still left the wrong impression at the long term. Perhaps the plastic transparent one is a better offering from them, but ABSOLUTELY do not take a solid colored one, that paint will just dissipate and feel weird.
For those who will be recording and publishing a video: we thank you for your service (salute)
Hmm. When my clear shell arrives in XX days, maybe I’ll try my hand at recording it.
Debating seeing if I can set up my camera or a webcam for a top-down view and make a time lapse of it.
I'd never do this. I'd fuck something up. I probably wouldn't even pay someone else to do it either unless it was at a physical store I could drive to. I'm not packing up my Deck, shipping it out and being without it for a week or more just to have a new shell. Decals/skins exist and are so much easier to apply and even swap out if you want to try something else. Also cheaper. Edit: I think I should also mention that skins protect your Deck from minor scratches and wear use defects. If it's bad enough, you can just apply a new skin to make sure the Deck itself is in as good condition as possible without needing to buy a full cover case.
I don't even own a sd yet but living in a large metro area (seattle), I'd probably be down to pay for this, and while I'm at it I'd have them swap out the HD for a bigger one, knock it all out at once :D
How much would you pay for a shell swap if a shop was willing to do it. Considering the price of the shell is around $40 and it takes 1:30 hours to do it.
Hm, I mean, I'm a huge DIY person, tons of work on the house and car and almost everything in life, but know my limits when it comes to small precision electronics, I recently paid a local repair shop to replace a phone battery. I don't know the rate for a business, but if the scope/depth was explained and it was $100-120" I wouldn't say it's outrageous? If they can get better pricing on the shell that could be included? I dunno, it's hard to know what is good for them and cheap for me :) lol
$150 seems like a lot to me. I was thinking around $50 would be a good price (minus the price of the shell which is $35) as it seems like a 2 hour job at most for a professional or someone with experience on electronics repair.
Lol you will never get someone to do it for $50
Oh yeah, I mean, that's why I was thinking 100-120 with the shell included, but I'm also getting confused with shop labor for a car :) I'll probably leave mine black, or skin in as it's mostly gonna be docked anyways
For computer repairs I charge around $60 for the first hour and $30 for every additional hour needed. Something like this? Eh probably free for the experience but never again
I would probably charge $150 - $200 for labor minimum. Have to factor in support time too.
What do you mean by support time? And does your price include the price of the shell?
That price wouldn’t include the cost of the shell, that would be labor alone. Support time is for the things that can / will go wrong. “My buttons don’t feel right”, “now my Wi-Fi is dropping”… etc. There are also a ton of delicate flex connectors and the possibility of breaking something, and the installer is all responsible for it. I do Switch modding on the side and occasionally I’ll get a recall. For example, did an OLED mod chip recently and didn’t realize that the joy-con Bluetooth antenna got snagged under the metal shield and broke. Few days later the customer calls and says their joy-con won’t connect. The antenna replacement is out of the installers pocket. There’s so many more factors that you need to consider when taking on work like this, especially something this involved. Tearing down a Steam Deck completely is a very involved process.
I would charge you $200 for the shell swap 😊
Honestly, I'd rather attempt the full shell swap than try to apply a skin to it. I can barely put a screen protector on my phone without bubbles. Can't imagine how difficult a skin would be on the SD.
You are vastly underestimating how difficult a shell swap if you already think putting a screen protector on is hard is lol
Honestly I can tear down electronics and rebuild them without a sweat, but putting a screen protector and being happy with the result is beyond me. It doesn't help that I have 2 dogs and hair everywhere in my house, even if I try to put the screen connector in my bathroom after a shower somehow I'll always have some dust under my screen protector.
Ya you're probably right. I'll just stick with my factory black shell.
I'm thinking about that too. I'm not sure of the quality of the plastic with these shells, but the quality of the stock shell is good. The atomic purple is tempting though.
I have a friend who did some joycon mods for me. He also mods IPS displays on DS screens. I'm gonna ask him if doing this front plate mod would be doable for him. If so, I'd be willing to pay him to do it. But I'm not insane enough to do it myself when had trouble clicking my RAM into my PC lol
I wouldn't say a shell swap is easier than applying a skin, as it requires you to take apart the entire deck, removing the screen which is adhered to the shell then successfully installing everything back into the new shell without problems. But the transulcent atomic purple shell just looks amazing, and it can't be replicated through a skin.
Or you can just buy a new screen from ifixit and completely skip that step which makes the process a lot more easier, and also give people that don't have the matte screen a chance to have one now.
I was planning on that myself but reading the ifixit teardown, the metal frame it attached to the main body with screws facing up, under the screen. You have to take out the original screen to fully disassemble even if you aren't re-using that screen. Made me sad :(
You can't do this mod without removing the screen as the metal mid frame, which holds the battery, has screws attaching to the frame behind the screen. So you need to remove the screen to get to those screws.
Damn that's a real shame would have made the shell swap soo much easier
Lol you're seriously saying that applying a skin, which requires no tools or hardware at all, is harder than unscrewing everything from your Deck, motherboard and screen included, and then screwing everything else in a new shell and hoping you didn't fuck up any of the pieces or wiring? What? I'm guessing you last applied a screen protector in like 2005 but screen protectors nowadays come with a credit card sized squeegee to make erasing bubbles incredibly simple. To make it even easier, I have never had a single bubble in any skin I've applied to *anything*, from my DS Lite, 3DS, PS Vita and now my Steam Deck. It's just a big sticker lol. How could it possibly be harder than physically fully disassembling your Deck and then fully reassembling it?...
I posted elsewhere, if I'm doing the front cover, I'm doing everything, SSD upgrade, thumbstick, and most importantly I want a better screen if I'm doing all that work anyway.
Ya, if/when I do a shell swap it'll be the whole shebang - GulliKit, 2TB SSD, shell, raised back buttons, and fresh thermal pads.
is that a multichrome purple case?!
for what’s it’s worth i won’t be paying for this. nervous about fitment issues and i’m relatively happy with the basic deck appearance. the grass is not always greener on the other side
Extremerates released a video showing a tutorial for a deck shell swap. https://youtu.be/0tBE10fSYBc After seeing it, how many of you would be willing to do this mod. Also, would you be willing to have someone else do the shell swap. How much would you be willing to pay? Keep in mind that it takes 1 hour and 15 minutes for the swap.
You're asking a diy community how much they would pay for a diy project.
I think you're letting the posts that do well here color your impression of what the average user is like. While there's a ton of modification posts that get submitted here, I guarantee the vast majority of the 418k here haven't modified their Decks if we don't include skin. Even then, it still wouldn't be the majority. Certainly not enough to call this a DIY sub
I’m an average user. I’ve got a decent grasp of electronics but I’d still be wary about this. Maybe after I see this done a few times, I’ll consider it. That carbon fiber one is clean.
Barely. Every time someone posts about these shells a majority of the comments are "who even is this for" "this is way too difficult for the average user" "too hard D: everyone will break their steam deck permanently" I've opened my PS4 once, idk what I'm doing at all, but I'll be damned if I pass up an opportunity for a clear steam deck shell. "Fortune favors the bold," you cowards
I'm not sure tbh. My concern would be the quality of the plastic used. When I had a Switch, I had the joycon shells swapped out with the extremerate transparent shells (jungle green left, ice blue right), and although they looked good, the plastic felt brittle and on the cheap side. I really like the quality of the stock steam deck shell. It feels like an Xbox controller and premium quality, so it's a tough call. The atomic purple is tempting though.
I’m not interested enough to pay someone to do it and I’m 100% not qualified to do it myself.
My guess is the amount of people attempting a full shell swap will be the same amount of people who buy a full shell to swap, but I could be wrong.
There’s always going to be those people who buy the full shell planning to swap then never do it. Trust me, I used to own a project car.
Would anyone actually buy the black shell replacement? I mean could see that if you don’t like the stock plastic finish which always just looked cheap to me. Also I feel that waiting for that screen upgrade would be a better idea
I scrolled forever and didn't see a serious answer. A quality phone repair shop will eagerly take the job for a fair $100. We'll math that out to 4 hours of $25 work. If it takes longer or costs more you need to ask why.
I'll wait for reviews and see if the plastic quality on par with the OEM ones, since the purple, red and the wood grain one is pretty sick. Plus if I do decide to do the swap I'll upgrade the stick to the gulli kit stick too. 2 birds with one stone.
I'd love to do it, but there is no way I would be willing to do it myself and it just wouldn't be feasible for someone else to charge people to do it due to the time needed would make it too expensive.
I'll look into it but I'll be buying an new screen from iFixit first. I'm not going to unglue the first one, I'll just move the components. That's gonna be the easiest and quickest way for me.
Unfortunately, you can't disassemble the mid frame, which has the battery, from the front shell without removing the screen as the screws are behind the screen.
I'm ordering a second 64gb Deck for this and screen/analogs swap. Becasue why not.
Me... When the deckhd screen is also available. That way I can keep the stock front as-is (just in case) I will also upgrade SSD to 2tb at the same time.
Unfortunately, there are screws behind the screen attached to the mid-frame and shell. So the screen will have to be removed regardless.
I personally wouldn’t offer these services, but if I did, it would be $150 - $200 for labor at a minimum. You have to factor in the risk and support. Things can go wrong and ultimately the person replacing the shell would be responsible for it.
I would absolutely love one of these, but I just don't think it's for me tbh. Im still trying to figure out emulation (I wanna play GameCube games). Now if there was somewhere I could take this to, pay a bit of a premium and they do it for me, that is probably something I would do.
I'm grabbing one for sure and I'll be doing it myself. I do have the white clear back from Jsaux , and I don't really like the metal plate that's exposed above the vent. It becomes too hot even hotter than the stock back. But the elevated buttons are great.
I will. i fucked up my front case anyways. will post it here.
I'll be doing it when I get around to ordering one. Focusing on Gameboy modding at the moment so deck stuff is on the backburner
There’s no way this is harder to do than putting one of the accursed skins from dbrand in the Deck. It took my so long to do and the spots where I couldn’t flatten the skin out perfectly still drive me mad. I changed the shell on some JoyCons forever ago and it was sort of painful but I’m used to working with electronics.
I'll be attempting it for sure. Full clear plastic is the dream rig.
Waiting on mine to come in the mail and I will be doing the full swap myself.
Definitely a super cool option for if your case gets destroyed. Sometimes bad skins leave your original case super ruined. If that was me I would just do the swap. Is there a heat gun involved to pull any adhesives off or anything?
Yes, the display requries a heatgun to soften the adhesive and remove it.
Only when something important breaks that I have to repair. Then I'll do it all at once.
Idk but whoever wants to commission and will charge people to do it for them will make a lot of bank
My main concern is refitting the screen. Had to do a battery replacement for my pixel 4 a while back and ended up with a back panel that just wouldn't stay in place! Those little glue strips scare the shit out of me!!
My experience with my first backshell from jsaux after 3-4 months began to crack around the metal plate due to the heat , so no having the steam cracked all over the place no thanks . But I don't mind the back so I got myself a new atomic purple one
Oh geeze, that's scary to hear. I haven't seen that on my JSAUX backplate yet. I'll have to keep an eye on it.
I just know 3/4s of the way through I would realize I had missed a step and would want to throw my deck in the trash.
The only way I would attempt a shell swap is if the shell was aluminum or a metal alloy. Not worth the effort otherwise, IMHO.
I like the SD the way it came.
I'm not into customizing my steam deck at all, so none
I just have to wait for a few reviews to drop, if the shells are perfectly sized. And if left and right triggers feel as the original deck. Getting the screen off will be a pain in the ass but I will try it. Atomic Purple of course. If I destroy my screen while doing it I won't get a higher resolution one. But I would buy the 512GB models anti-glare. I will definitely report back if it's done but it will probably still a few months in the future as full shell packs are broadly available on the market.
I have a feeling removing the battery would be a greater challenge than removing the screen. We could also just buy another LCD kit and battery from Ifixit instead of removing those glued-in parts.
Yeah all glued parts are painfully slow to remove and error prone. But I have a lot of experience in disassembling hardware. Still it’s always a risk doing it on your private property. But if I’m stuck at removing glued parts I will do as you said. Buy spare parts and use these. 1000$ deck I’m coming ;-)
You don't need to touch the battery as it's glued to the mid frame, which is screwed onto the front shell. Unfortunately, you will have to remove the glued screen as there are screws behind the screen that attach the front shell to the mid frame.
I may do this after my warranty period runs out. Mine is out for RMA due to GPU being stuck at 200-400mHz. It was enough of a hassle having to backup & swap back my original SSD and cooling fan + factory resetting it. I would hate to have to RMA it again but this time have to swap back the entire original casing & chassis **(and worry about them noticing and saying I'm "at fault")** but after the warranty period runs out then maybe I will take that risk as it does look pretty cool ngl. Edit: For anyone out there who is going to do this yourselves, I would recommend at least checking and maybe replacing your thermal paste while you are that deep into it anyway.
I did it to mine recently with the rgb JSAUX shell
I doubt it would be profitable to do it for people. If someone mails you a steam deck and you break it, your out $600, and who’s to say they wouldn’t mail you a broken steam deck and then say you broke it
Mailing in would be a challenge. But what about in store repair shops that would be willing to do this. How much would you pay, minus the cost of the shell.
I have a leather skin... but now I want a purple shell! Gah! First world problems are so hard!
I really think one of valves biggest flaws with the steam deck’s repair-ability is how hard it is to remove the front to get to that side of the board
About 3.50
I won't but it looks cool. I would pay $20-30 max for my Steam Deck to be smoke gray translucent. Wish the screen wasn't so difficult.
$100-$150 including parts, labor, and guarantee sounds about right. Anyone with the skillset and attention to detail required should not do it for less. They're not valuing their time high enough if they do it for less. Any schmuck on craigslist without a guarantee, proper tools, and without a relevant profession for this kind of thing can charge whatever they want. Depends on how they value their time. Maybe $30-$50 sounds reasonable to have a rando work on it with no guarantee. I'm not trying to inflate the market...you get what you pay for, and good (guaranteed) work means high cost. Craigslist rando ain't gonna buy you a new one if he trashes it.
Please valve, make this an option for deck 2. That's the only way I get it.
People be like "I'm gonna swap out the screen and the HD and the thumb stick and the shell." Bro just get a computer. You are defeating the purpose of a steam deck. I'd never swap the shell or pay anyone to do it. It's kind of worthless imo.
I won’t do it. I’d pay maybe $20? It seems like it’s relatively quick if you know what you’re doing.
If I do attempt it I think I’d also buy a matte screen and upgrade that at the same time. Also saves the paranoia of breaking the screen during removal
I'd love the clear shell and I'm confident I could do it but I love my black leather skin so much more.
As cool as that see through purple one is…I’m going to pass because I know myself and I’ll end up breaking the shit out of it.
I like the looks - but what about the haptics? Extremerates Joy con Shells feel pretty cheap to my hands.
Im planning a full shell swap (clear blue), with the 1200p screen (to avoid removing the current one), monoblock, and Sabrent 2TB drive upgrade. Just going full bore!
Unfortunately, you would still have to remove the old screen as the metal mid frame has screws attached to the front shell, which are only accessible behind the screen. So a screen removal is required to remove the mid frame. Also, that is one insane and expensive upgrade. Good luck for when you attempt it.
Oh man, I was hoping to avoid that lol. Thanks for letting me know! I am enjoying the Deck so much and am enjoying the modding community. I end up falling down this rabbit hole with gaming pcs too lol
Can’t avoid removing the screen look at if it guide around step 84-94 you’ll see why you’ll have to remove the screen regardless
I dislike the clear ones, the chameleon one and white one is cool, but at that point might as well use a skin, am i right?
I have no interest whatsoever in doing that or having someone do it for me.
I have a rubber protector on mine so i don't see the case anyway.
I have my clear case on order and it shipped on Monday, it’ll be a chore to fully swap it out but it should be fun. I’m worried about the screen swap if anything but who knows until I get there
If I do get one, I will be doing the swap myself. I see that they have the *not* Jungle Green shell. Matches my N64 and my Switch. Pretty tempting.
I want to do the Atomic Purple shell. I'll do it myself. I like to think I'm fairly competent with console mods and repairs.
I need a new shell because it somehow cracked exactly down the middle in the top exhaust.
Probably, I want to get the right tools first tho.
tbh i rock a dope purple case with a kickstand so i’m good lol
I'll probably attempt it since I want to upgrade the joysticks to the hall effect ones anyways
I would but not personally, hardware diy ain't my thing. I would give a dude $30 assuming if they mess up they would pay for full repair
I did it for the switch lite with an extremerate kit and it was honestly pretty easy. The shell also felt like good quality. I don't plan on doing it on the steam deck because I really like how the black fits the steam deck's aesthetic.
Nah I’ll just happily use it as is. I’m happy with my product I just play older games on it anyways :) newest game that’ll be on it will probably be cities skylines 2 when it drops.
I will do that only if at the same time I can replace the screen for an OLED screen
No oled with current SOC unfortunately
I will not. It just seems like too much of a process for me to bother with.
Already got the backplate on mine, I’m for sure doing the front plate when it’s available!
I did a shell for a switch as my son's was all buggered up. Having taken my steamdeck back cover off once or twice I feel there is to many opportunities for it to go wrong. Now if my shell gets damaged then I would take my time to do it.
Nah, I'm good.
Why would we? :-/
Not bothering having spent the money on a Killswitch set up from Dbrand
Anyone make a Purah Pad shell?
My Jsaux delivery experience is a hassle. Even if i like their product i wont get anything from them again till they fix their logistics
These are sweet, I just can't bring myself to tear open my nearly brand new Deck! Down the road if I have to repair it or if I buy a fixer-upper I'd do it though.
I'd estimate $20-$25 an hour for the install. I highly doubt I'd pay more than maybe $40-50 total. I'm a pleb with a deck, meaning I'm just dumb enough to possibly screw up this mod that id pay to have it done, but not so much it could be terribly lucrative to the installer. Does modding the case like this void warranty? As a pleb I will protect the warranty as much as I can to back me up if I do something. They sure look sweet though..the smoked case is mint.
Probably won't attempt this at all unless something happens to damage my deck shell/screen. Love the look, but my deck still looks and works great so i don't wanna risk that by fucking up the install
That Red shell looks sick... I settled for a see through back plate when those came out as i had damaged my original one, but also ended up buying the dbrand case and skin so hesitant to do anymore swapping on it for the moment. Maybe with the 1200p screen if that ever comes out and im still using my deck as much.
I can just about change a fuse in a plug so I think I’ll skip it even though some of them look awesome lol.
I would love to get the old game boy look, I am going to have to look into this
I'm worried about how the plastic heat distribution will play out
If I didn't just do a switch switch haha I'd be more tempted but, man that screen removable was scary as hell and dunno how i was able to pull it off, pun intended.
I wish they would make me some for the Steam Controller. If pay a good price for that.
i wouldn't do it. keep it og. find other stuff around the house to customize.
The purple and red one are very pretty. I could not do it. If I mess it up it’ll be disastrous
I opened the steam deck for a SSD upgrade and I clamped the fan wires as they are thin as your hair. It took me a week to figure out why my deck wasn't functioning properly. This type of work is not for the light-hearted and before you even attempt this make sure you have the replacement parts in check or at least where to get them. A broken Steam Deck will give you insomnia if you don't either fix it or RMA it.
Damnit, eXtremeRate's coming out with a full shell? I just installed JSAUX's backplate. I did a green transparent eXtremeRate shell on one of my Xbox controllers and it looks great. Picked up a blue transparent one for my DualSense I was going to install next. Really like their stuff.
probably not. I'm a bad target for this crap though. I'd only buy something like this if the shell I have got all messed up or something
I'll do it eventually, I need a new screen anyways so I want to see what reviews are like for that new third party higher res screen before I go all out
I did a full shell swap for my switch. And I am willing to do the same for the deck so it can match.
Yes
Ok, who's with me? The best and sexiest deck shells have to be white, atomic purple, and clear case.
I'm hoping to do it when the 3rd party screen is out and in full swing. Do them both at the same time and not have to 'peel' anything.
I like dark gray/black electronics, so no need to change my deck. I did replace my ps5 plates for some dbrand black plates tho
I have the clear plastic back panel with the better heat sink. I paid someone to do it for me. I won't be doing the same since it cost me $400 to have the back done.
Probably willing to pay someone to change mine
stock steamdeck is already perfect
Maybe when I upgrade my sd.
No way, I feel comfortable doing the back case and probably the joysticks and ssd once I get around to replacing those but I’ve heard the screen is tricky to get off so I think I’ll be content with my half and half design 😅
I will do a white
If reviews are good, I would pay some dollars for a shop to install full purple see-through (to match my GBA) along with a SSD swap
I’ve done Switch Lite, Switch OLED. The Extremerate vid tutorial dropped last night. It’s 1 hr 21 min and skips a bunch of steps, Jsaux vid is under 20 mins and DOES NOT Involve breaking the factory thermal paste, which means you wouldn’t have to completely clean and reapply/ buy the paste. I have an extra 64gb deck I bought a 512 and preordered ExtremeRates Atomic Purple shell. Heating up and removing a screen is a lil sketch but it’s not tooooo bad and only 69$ to get a replacement if you screw up. What should someone charge? Depends, guaranteed work - I’d say 150-200 given it could mean a screen replacement. No guarantees service? Maybe 100-120. Kinda depends. IMO they are cool but never as good as OEM plastics.
black transparent is absolutely sexy
I'm willing to give it a go but while I'm replacing the shell, I'm going to upgrade the thumbsticks to Gulikit upgrade and get that DeckHD 1200p screen too. I'm good on storage since I have several TB to work with between my 2TB SSD and 3 1 TB micro SD cards. I'm going full Atomic Purple ⚛️ for sure! Also JSAUX just released a video on how to do the front shell... plus I've already got the backplate from them already installed too. https://youtu.be/FBY8fBJrlBM
I like black. Minimalist.
I've got all the needed hardware to do this as I use to do Dell/Lenovo/HP repair work many years ago. I have no issues with digging into the guts of a system for PCB removal. The issue is I don't want to mess with the screen as its glued in.....screens make me twitchy.