Unitek, a computer and mobile accessories manufacturer in Hong Kong, has released the Cooling Dock Pro for the Steam Deck.
If you own a Steam Deck, chances are you've already felt your palms sweat with this portable device. Worse, the machine is prone to throttling or even crashes due to overheating, to the point where modders have come up with their own creative solutions. For the rest of us who don't want to void our warranty, however, Hong Kong-based Unitek is now offering the Cooling Dock Pro for Steam Deck. This is essentially Valve's official dock enhanced with a thermoelectric cooler — like the one that comes with the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate — on the back, if you don't mind paying the extra $30.
See also: Valve: The Steam Deck Docking Station is finally available
Like the official dock, Unitek 's Cooling Dock Pro protects your Steam Deck—or any portable device, for that matter—with a soft silicone strip, and there's a short USB-C cable hanging out the back for connecting to the console. The thermoelectric cooler, RGB-lit fan, and metal contact plate are all housed in a modular unit, which allows for a slight tilt adjustment while supporting the Steam Deck.
The Cooling Dock Pro comes with a similar set of ports to those on Valve, but with some placed on the front - the latter includes two USB-A and one USB-C (up to 10 Gbps), accompanied by two RGB. On the back, you have a USB-C PD connector (up to 100 W pass-through), HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4, and Gigabit LAN. It's worth noting that this dock supports Multi-Stream Transport, i.e. connecting multiple monitors to the Linux Desktop mode. If you're only using one video output, you'll get up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz. But if you're using both ports, then it's either dual 4K output at 60Hz, or 8K at 30Hz on one monitor and 1080p at 60Hz on the other.
Unitek has added an additional USB-C port on the left side of the Cooling Dock Pro , which is dedicated to the cooler module. If you only want to use the cooling function while on the go, meaning no displays or accessories are connected to the dock, you can simply connect a power bank to this 10W USB-C port.
See also: Valve: Expanding Steam Deck availability in Asian markets
Unitek claims that when running Apex Legends, the Steam Deck was around 46°C (114.8°F), but when used with the Cooling Dock Pro, that number dropped to 34.5°C (94.1°F) – the recommended ambient temperature range. For a more extreme test, we ran Forza Horizon 5 on ultra graphics settings, where the Steam Deck would normally fail to start a match, but managed to run for around six minutes on the Cooling Dock Pro. The company added that when the game was lowered to a lower graphics setting, the game would crash after around 45 minutes, but with the dock, it continued to run even after an hour.
The Unitek Cooling Dock Pro is now available for pre-order, with shipping starting around mid-December. There's also a cheaper Cooling Dock for those who only need an HDMI 2.0 port (capped at 4K at 60Hz), though that won't ship until Q1 2023. It's worth noting that neither model comes with a power supply (but they do come with a 2-meter 100W USB-C cable), while Valve's official $89 dock includes a 45W charger. Chances are you already have a compatible power supply. Unitek recommends that you'll need 60W or more to get the most out of the Cooling Dock Pro.
Source: engadget.com
