If iFixit starts selling steamdeck motherboards, can you buy just a motherboard and make a console-only version? Same motherboard, just no screen, battery, buttons.
And a SSD I guess.
Alternative question: Do you want steam to offer a console only version? Same motherboard, just no screen or battery.
Before ifixit official sold Steam Deck parts, all the prices got leaked and the motherboard was sold for $350. When they officially started selling steam deck parts the motherboard was no longer included, but that’s unsurprising if that one part is going to sell for so much when a 64GB deck is only $400.
The Steam Deck works so well because the screen is only 720p, and even then people have complained about low framerates on some games. Scaling it up to 4k for a modern TV would drop the performance even more.
It looks like a great handheld, but I think trying to use it as a console wouldn’t work.
I use Deck mainly docked in 1080p. The only issues I have are with very recent games. After some questions and learning, I’ve come to expect not to use it for current big-name games. To that end, well optimized modern games like Powerwash Simulator run fabulous. Most of my Steam library plays very well and is perfectly enjoyable!
You can do that, but be aware, upscaling with FSR takes a performance hit. It’s not a big one but can make the difference between stable and unstable 30FPS.
Unpopular opinion - while the steam deck is cool, get a tablet with steam link and an Xbox controller. All the benefits of your rig with a better display and familiar controller.
Edit: I bought a refurbished iPad 2 with retina display for $65 and now I have this setup, so it’s even cheaper than your proposal.
That's cheaper, but it's also a whole hell of a lot worse.
Streaming is OK, if you have a great network, but it's significantly worse than playing on device. An XBOX controller is OK (but worse), but attaching a tablet to it is awful balance.
The Steak Link app doesn’t recognise controllers reliably on Android. I’ve got a few controllers that work in other games, are recognised as being connected in Steam Link, but just don’t work. Connecting them with a cable lets them work straight away.
I’ve had more luck streaming games with Moonlight (+ Sunlight server on game pc) than using Steam Link, both for controller support in certain games and just better latency. Even on Steam Deck, when I’m at home I barely notice a difference, it saves a lot of battery and I can AAA games without compromising in graphics settings.
You could. You would need some sort of dock for HDMI/DP output but you can run just the motherboard by itself, though you would also need cooling. If someone made a fitting heatsink/fan you could make a little case that has a built in USB C hub and turn the motherboard into a mini-PC/console pretty easily.
When I was repairing my broken motherboard after my failed RGB mod I tried powering up the motherboard by itself with a dock and display and it booted up just fine. Would be a good repurposing of that board since the thing that died was related to the built in game controller and that isn’t needed on a console. If Valve or iFixit sold replacement motherboards I’d replace my bodged repaired board with a new one and repurpose the bodged one for a console.
honestly the steam controller’s killer feature for me isn’t even the touchpads – it’s the multiple-profile support. “oh, you want to connect to your PC for a bit, then reconnect to your console later? sure, just hold select during startup, I’ll remember your last 2 bluetooth connections.”
An RX 6600 paired with a Ryzen 5600 would blow the Deck out of the water (3-4x depending on the measurement) for a very similar cost to a mid-range Deck.
those two parts are 330€ new for me right now.
I’d still need:
a Mainboard, AM4 starts at 50€
RAM, 16GB for ~25€
Power Supply, 20-50€
ssd 10-30€
starting at 435€
Actually, that seems reasonably competetive with the 64gb version (420€), depending on the other parts you choose (I’d not want to completely cheap out on Power Supply or Storage, so give that ~20€ more each).
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