Steam Machine's official repair guides reveal the true trickiness of some upgrades the RAM especially is causing some raised eyebrows

Date:
Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:54:37 +0000

Description:
Steam Machine's official iFixit repair guides look great but I'm worried about the difficulty of some upgrades or replacements.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The Steam Machine now has a collection of official repair guides They're written by iFixit and are commendably thorough The only catch is that they highlight the trickiness of some repairs or upgrades, notably the system RAM The Steam Machine now has a whole raft of repair guides from iFixit, which is great to see although they have highlighted some fiddly and less-than-ideal aspects when it comes to working inside Valve's compact PC.

TechPowerUp spotted ( via VideoCardz ) that iFixit published 18 repair
guides for the Steam Machine, which cover essential maintenance or the replacement of parts in the device. It's a thorough set of instructional guides, detailing how to replace parts of the chassis or the Steam Machine's fan, and carry out key upgrades to the RAM and SSD . It even shows you how to replace the motherboard, and how to properly clean and maintain the Steam Machine. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

Valve has a partnership with iFixit which has produced a similarly in-depth collection of guides for the Steam Deck , and also sells replacement parts
for that handheld, from thumbsticks and bumper buttons through to a new
screen or battery. Replacement parts are reportedly coming for the Steam Machine, too, though they aren't on sale yet. Analysis: easy does it with
some of these repairs (Image credit: iFixit) This is great, and what I particularly like is the cleaning guide, which is an effective reminder of what a dust magnet PCs can be and to keep the innards of the Steam Machine relatively dust-free. You may like Valve Steam Machine review All Steam Machines have 16GB RAM, but a configuration twist sets some apart Valve clarifies that all Steam Machines have a single 16GB RAM stick

However, what this also makes clear, as noted at the outset, is that some of the replacement procedures are relatively tricky notably upgrading (or replacing) the system RAM .

Okay, so it's nothing too bad if you take your time and work carefully, but there are a lot of steps 49, in fact, and that's to reach the memory to replace it (then you have to reverse those steps and put the Steam Machine back together). This isn't something that less tech-savvy people will be able to do, at least not without running a serious risk of breaking something else in the process. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign
up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Indeed, I'd say you'd need to be pretty confident in your abilities to
perform a RAM replacement. Removing the fan is one of most awkward steps, and one method involves heating the glue (with a hair drier if you don't have iFixit's iOpener heat pad) to make the two attached antennas easier to
detach. This, and a few other fiddlier aspects, are where I could see something quite easily going awry.

As one of the readers of VideoCardz observed: "Upgrading RAM is super annoying. They should place it near SSD or something in the next revision, because as it is now you have to basically dismantle the whole damn thing.
Not that it's particularly 'hard' to do, but it's super annoying and you can actually damage something, like Wi-Fi antennas for example."

Still, I can't knock the quality of the guides, and the thoroughness of the step-by-step instructions, complete with diagrams and information about exactly which way you should orientate the device when moving onto the next step.

Of course, you won't be able to perform repairs until you have the
replacement parts, and hopefully iFixit will stock these before long (as it does with the Steam Deck). Right now, parts are obviously thin on the ground, as Valve needs them for manufacturing as many Steam Machines as it can, but that situation will change in time. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add
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