I am using my PC for gaming 80% of the time. Instead of buying a new PC (mine is getting old), I was wondering if I can just buy a Steam Deck with docking station, to work as PC substitute.

How hard would it be to:

  1. Play strategy games with keyboard/mouse/screen setup.
  2. Mod steam games.
  3. Browse web through a browser that supports adblocking.
  4. Watch Netflix/D+/Twitch.
  5. Install random linux apps (e.g. Anki).
  6. Do some recreational python programming .

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  • xmBQWugdxjaA@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    The CPU is quite weak for strategy games (depending on what you play - Victoria 3 was unplayable for example).

    Netflix limits you to 480p on Linux desktop IIRC (although there are some workarounds). Personally I refuse to pay Netflix’s extortionate prices due to this.

    All the others are fine but you’ll need to disable the read-only mode if you want to install stuff to the system (and re-install it after every update) - e.g. anything installed via pacman/paru. That said, maybe Python is okay since you can use pip install --user to avoid the read-only issue.

    But for most apps you can probably use Flatpaks anyway (install from the KDE Discover store).

    One annoying thing is that the root partition is really small (compared to the home partition), so you really can’t install much directly to the system via pacman. That was my main issue when using it as a desktop for a little while.

  • deathblade200@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Can SteamDeck substitute for a PC?

    simple answer is yes it will be more powerful than any laptop/PC in the same price range. I have a gaming laptop and gamingdesktop but use my steam deck more because not only can it transform into a Laptop, a Desktop, a Console, or just be used as a handheld but I also like having all my data on one portable device instead of having to worrying about having to get it off my other devices. as for your questions

    1. a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard will connect to it easily or if you prefer wired you can get a usb hub. for the screen you would need something with a USB-C to HDMI adapter such as a dock.
    2. depends on the game as well as your knowledge working with files. if you know windows at all it works fairly similar though people for some reason act like it doesn’t.
    3. you can just install browsers like chrome and opera. this isn’t a console and has a full normal Desktop mode
    4. again it has full browsers and full desktop mode. there are also apps like Kodi if you prefer that
    5. depends on the apps really flatpak is the main supported app but you can also use other app formats such as appimages or even .deb. there is also nix support now
    6. as stated before it has a full desktop mode that will let you do that.
  • Rastabrotha@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    thats exactly what im doing. everything except modding steam games is easy, also i dont code so i wouldnt know

    modding elden ring required that I install windows, which I have on a 512gb sd card and it just works

  • erwan@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Yes, the only caveat to use it as a Linux PC is that it’s using an immutable distribution.

    That means that if the software you want to install exists as a flatpak then it’s great, otherwise you’ll need to tweak a little bit. You’ll have to turn your filesystem read/write and have apps installed this way be wiped at each SteamOS update.