This Steam Deck dock has a thermoelectric cooler

R. Lai@richardlaiNovember 11, 2022 3:15 AMIn this posting: information, gear, unitek, gaming, thermoelectric cooler, Valve, Gaming, steam deck, dockRichard Lai/Engadget

If you are lucky enough to observe down a Steam Deck, odds are you’ve got now knowledgeable the sweaty palm syndrome with this handheld console — just as our really possess Jess Conditt did in her review. Worse still, the equipment is prone to throttling or even crashing thanks to overheating, to the point where modders arrived up with their personal resourceful solutions. For the rest of us who really don’t want to void the guarantee, while, Hong Kong-based mostly Unitek is now offering the Cooler Dock Pro for Steam Deck. This is effectively Valve’s official dock boosted with a thermoelectric cooler — like the one that comes with the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate — on the again, if you will not brain spending the extra $30.

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Substantially like the official dock, Unitek’s model cushions your Steam Deck — or any portable gadget, for that make a difference — with a strip of soft silicone, and there is a shorter USB-C cable dangling from the again for connecting to the console. The thermoelectric cooler, RGB-lit supporter and metallic contact plate are all housed in just a hinged module, which will allow for insignificant tilt angle adjustment while supporting the Steam Deck.

The Cooler Dock Pro arrives with a established of ports similar to those on Valve’s dock, but with some placed at the entrance instead — the latter consist of two USB-A and one particular USB-C (up to 10Gbps), accompanied with two RGB lights. On the back, you get a USB-C PD socket (up to 100W passthrough), HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 and Gigabit LAN. It’s truly worth noting that this dock supports Multi-Stream Transport i.e. daisy-chaining several displays in the console’s Linux desktop manner. If you might be working with just 1 video clip output, you will get up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz but if you are applying equally ports, then it can be possibly dual 4K at 60Hz, or 8K at 30Hz on a single and 1080p at 60Hz on the other.

Unitek has added 1 excess USB-C port on the remaining, which is dedicated to the cooler module. If you want to use just the cooling functionality whilst on the go i.e. no displays nor components related to the dock, you can just plug a electricity bank into that 10W USB-C socket.

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Unitek promises that when running Apex Legends, the Steam Deck’s average area temperature was close to 46°C (114.8°F), but when used with the Cooling Dock Pro, this figure dropped down to 34.5°C (94.1°F) — slipping inside of the suggested ambient temperature range. For a much more serious check, we ran Forza Horizon 5 on ultra graphics settings, in which scenario the Steam Deck would commonly are unsuccessful to get started a race, but it managed to very last for close to six minutes on the Cooling Dock Pro. The company additional that when reduced to large graphics settings, the match would crash after all over 45 minutes of gameplay, but with its dock, it stored functioning even just after an hour. Of program, your mileage may vary from one recreation to an additional, but it is much more about prolonging your Steam Deck’s lifespan.

The $119 Unitek Cooling Dock Pro is now available for pre-order, with shipments starting off from about mid-December. There is also a cheaper $89 Cooling Dock for all those who only need an HDMI 2. port (capped at 4K at 60Hz), while it will not likely be shipping and delivery right until Q1 2023. It need to be pointed out that you can find no electric power provide provided with possibly model (but they do occur with a 2-meter 100W USB-C cable), even though Valve’s $89 official dock includes a 45W brick. Possibilities are you might by now have a suitable electrical power offer Unitek endorses that you will have to have 60W or previously mentioned to get the most out of the Cooler Dock Pro.

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