Steam Deck

[windoesnot]

So we have a thread for the Nintendo Switch so lets see about one for the Steam Deck.

Got mine (64GB version) last Saturday and have been having a good tinker with what its capable of. So have have done the following with it:

Installed and played Steam games (obviously)
Run the Batocera emulation platform via a micro SD card and have emulators up to Gamecube / PS2 / Dreamcast running on it
Installed and running Windows 10 on an external USB SSD drive so its now working as a desktop replacement. Even posting this thread on it
Installed and run VMWare ESXI hypervisor 7.0.3 on an external USB SSD drive (just to see if it would just install and run at all)

For the hardware inside it and what it is capable of the price (£350 for mine) is a bargain. Have heard some people are even using them as vpin PC alternatives

 

[cyberkryten]

Had mine for ages and love it. Not messed about with it much, just turn it on and play my Steam games.

 

[Davey D]

Ive got one too. They are a great bit of kit. Now I have this I keep pondering on selling all my other retro handhelds, and just playing everything emulated on the SteamDeck

 

[Deleted member 2463]

the battery life is a ****ter though at most for any 3d FPS you get 1.4 hours.

 

[cyberkryten]

the battery life is a ****ter though at most for any 3d FPS you get 1.4 hours.

True, but you can make choices and limit refresh rate, TDP and GPU clocks if you want to extend it at the expense of visual quality.

Also, some decent batteries about, I've got a Baseus 20000mAh one that charges at full rate so can get that up to 5+ hours. Keep meaning to order a Deckmate so I can clip it on for travel, but shipping costs are a PITA and no UK supplier.

 

[johnwhitfield]

I was toying with getting this for my son’s 20th birthday.

Is it worth coughing up more for the more expensive models?

 

[windoesnot]

I personally don’t think so as you can just use a micro sd card for your games or upgrade the ssd drive inside it easily enough for far less than the price difference between the models on offer.

They all come with a case which is nice, anyone else would not do and charge you at lease another £20 for one

 

[cyberkryten]

The only differences are more storage (and anti-glare screen on 512GB) so the more expensive ones aren't 'faster' - the CPU/GPU/Battery are identical between models.

If you get a fast SD card (not cheapo rubbish) then load times are mostly identical between MicroSD, 256/512SSD and the 64GB's eMMC storage - Valve seem to have done a really good job of maximising memory bandwidth for all storage types. It's possible some in game loads may be slightly faster on SSD but most of the tests done it's a couple of seconds at most, so nothing to be concerned about.

If you get the 64GB you'll probably need expansion and the OS/Proton/Shaders take up about 20-30GB so you'll only be able to load about 30GB of games before adding extra - whilst you can add an internal SSD, it means cracking it open and prone to errors/mistakes - not really worth it given MicroSD performance is similar.

Mine is 256GB and I've got a 512GB MicroSD as well which is enough to load anything I'll want to play for any trip away.

 

[paulg100]

got a 256gb few months back. Hardly used it tbh but coming from the days of "game and watch" its bloody amazing what such a small thing can pump out now in terms of graphics!

Love the ergonomics etc but if your at the age where things are starting to fall to bits including your eyesight, then the screen is a bit small really.