Steam Deck is Valve’s latest hardware announcement that looks to put a PC in everyone’s hands. Similar to the Switch, Valve is building a handheld that runs Steam + Linux and looks to allow users the ability to play their Steam library and install whatever else they want including Windows. Steam Deck comes in three SKU’s and is available for pre-order right now with a $5 initial deposit.

I’m not quite sure if I’ll buy one in the end, but I’ve already pre-ordered the 3rd option (faster storage and anti-glare screen). For quite some time I’ve been very interested in Valve consoles and for someone to make a big play in the PC space with a handheld and this seems like it might be it.

Looks like Steam Deck will start shipping later in the year and I’m curious what everyone thinks about it?

https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

Travis   Admin wrote on 07/20/2021 at 06:37pm

The work on Proton makes a lot of sense now. And they say they’re working to have every game on Steam playable in Linux via Proton by the launch. If they can pull that off, I will ditch Windows.

I’m not sure I have a use case for this, I want it because “ooh new toy” but I don’t know that I’d really use it. I’m just glad it exists because the Proton work has made Linux gaming so much better in a very short time.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 07/20/2021 at 10:03pm

Huh. You know, if Proton does do that maybe I will too. I really keep Windows around for gaming and general web surfing. Heading back to a Linux Desktop would be killer.

Will_Ball   Game Mod   Super Member wrote on 07/21/2021 at 06:16pm

Wait and see for me. Valve doesn't have the history of supporting their hardware for long.

Azurephile   Super Member wrote on 07/22/2021 at 12:50am

I recognize the game on the screen in that screenshot! It's Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, which I'm playing now and think I'm about to finish, so I may have my review written and posted soon.

Will_Ball   Game Mod   Super Member wrote on 07/22/2021 at 01:29am

I loved Fallen Order, despite it being sluggish on my launch xbox one.

Azurephile   Super Member wrote on 07/22/2021 at 01:31am

One thing that's impressed me about this is the use of NVMe, which I think is great! I haven't experienced NVME vs. SSD yet, but I expect I'll be able to do so next month. I think I can imagine a day when HDDs are phased out and SSDs become more widely used, and I think the newest generation of consoles shows that. But, I can also imagine the day when NVME is used instead. From my understanding, this will greatly improve loading times and performance. From there, it's kind of difficult to imagine what would come next. Maybe they some how find a way to improve on NVME technology. (Yes, I see these are listed as NVMe SSDs and I've separated the two, because in my mind they're different, though my knowledge of the tech is a bit limited as I've begun to learn about both technologies in the last two years.)

Azurephile   Super Member wrote on 07/22/2021 at 01:38am

I had a problem with two cinematics, but I learned that people with RTX 30 series GPUs and the game on an SSD have had the same experience. Other than that, I've only seen sluggishness maybe twice so far and I think I'm near the end of the game. Hopefully since they're showing it, it means that the system is powerful enough to play it, which will be impressive. What they should do is put it to the real test, play Ark: Survival Evolved on it. LOL!!!

Travis   Admin wrote on 07/22/2021 at 02:57pm

Yeah my new PC has an nvme SSD and the difference is really that it isn’t slowed down by SATA standards as far as I can tell. They can keep making the drives themselves faster but they’re limited by SATA cable throughput. The nvme drive just slots right into the motherboard

Azurephile   Super Member wrote on 07/22/2021 at 07:57pm

Awesome that you have one and yeah, I know that they go straight into the mobo. I had to look at a list of compatible ones for mine and I finally found one I'm planning to buy soon. I'm planning to clone my SATA SSD to it, but then I won't know what to do with m SATA SSD. I have an old HDD in there for files like documents. I wish my Alienware's 2TB HDD didn't die, that was a lot of storage. My SSD and the NVMe I'm getting are both 1TB, while the old HDD I'm using is 320GB.

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