Steam Deck

Very much a unessesary luxury 😂.

I do have toddlers that have smeared TV's in grubby hands and even pulled down the deck when docked, bending the usb connector on the dock in the process.

I've recently mounted my TV to the wall up out of the way. I'll mount this just behind the TV so I can clip it in and have it stored and still connect it to the TV.

You can now do both the streaming from the console (very simple Via chiaki. Just download it from the app store in desktop mode. You do need to get a code from your PSN ID but that take a moment). It works great, can stream from both PS4&5 and let's you play whatever is on the console.

The alternative is to stream playstation plus cloud games. Just download playstation plus for pc exe files and run it in compatibility mode. But you do need the subscription that gives you cloud games.

But both work great. Similar experience with Xbox cloud.

Bought a dock recently for my team deck and have been well impressed with the TV experience, bodes well for Big Picture mode in the future. I know TV gaming with a PC will never be perfect but its light years better than when I used to try and hook up my own laptop with the old BPM to my TV.

Going to pull the trigger on this. A needless purchase for FM23 and FIFA 🤣

I assume best place to purchase is via Steam? Any tips and advice on someone probably impulse buying?

Yeah was going to go the middle one 256gb. Space wise I'm not sure I'd need more as I literally have only played FM/CM and FIFA for the last 30 years and more recently F1. Thanks for the advice.

If you're anyway tech savvy the 64GB model is better value for money. A 512GB A2 Class SD card isn't much slower at loading than the SSD, plus it's easy enough to swap the 64GB for a 1TB SSD as the Steam Deck is easy to open. Shader cache can fill the 64GB quick enough but it can be moved over to the SD card.

Of course if you don't want to bother with that, go for the 512GB model.

Upgraded my 64gb to a 1tb Western Digital SN740 NVME drive. Got it on Ali Express, worked out at €141 delivered but they've already come down about €15 since I bought it (27 Jan). Hopefully the 2230s will keep heading down in price and end up in line with the 2280s. Seems 100% legit to me and the difference coming from the sata drive is huge when in the OS/downloading games.

Easy to say after the fact but replacing the drive was easy. All the screws and the back came out with no fuss, the only thing was most guides recommend pulling on the battery cable to disconnect it but I didn't feel comfortable doing that. Space is a bit tight there and I felt I'd be pulling it up rather than out so just used my fingernails to lever it out. All in all about a 3 minute job from start to finish. Can't tell it's ever been opened now.

Re-imaging the software was a different story though and turned in to a bit of a faff. Had to hard power it down after it was stuck on the boot logo for about an hour, anxious few moments as I wasn't sure how easy these things could be bricked. Turns out I had a couple of problems -

• I was using a usb 2.0 thumb drive to transfer the image - I got no errors doing this but saw a few people saying they had the same problem so used a micro SD card through an adapter (though I think it might work in the deck slot as well) and that got me to the installation screen on the deck.
• Then I got a problem with Steam failing to download an update during install and it wouldn't go any further. Quick google and others were saying you have to force it/your router to only connect over 2.4ghz to get past it. I'm sure I didn't have this problem when I first set it up. Never looked into how to fix it, not sure if it's through the deck or your router, as I have a dock so just unplugged the HDMI cable from that but kept the wired internet in. Worked then with no problem but probably a 3 hour process all in with a lot of nervous moments.

All up and running perfectly now, already have more games/programs installed than what I had with a maxed out 64gb and 200gb sd card. It's not really a necessary upgrade imo, the sd cards seem to work perfectly, mainly I just prefer having everything (shaders/launchers/games) on the same drive. Bit of a luxury really but fantastic it's so easily upgradeable.

Yeah it's the first thing I did regarding FM. It's what made my mind up.

For some reason I thought the hardware was different on the 64 and the 256. That's a game changer now that it's the same. I dont really need to budge over the 64gb so in reality. Yeah I spent a good bit on a powerful laptop just for FM. Ridiculous in most people's eyes I know 🤣

Thanks again all for the advice.

Ok yeah good point. Yeah will pull trigger on this tonight. I assume I'll get done for customs too or is it shipped from EU?

My deck mate arrived. I haven't spent much time setting it up. But from first look It's nice and handy and decent quality.

Put on the big clip and kick stand and that would be great if traveling.

The only downside is that you can't have the big clip on and have it sit in the official dock. So you would have to pop it off. But they do give you the option of a smaller piece you can essentially glue to the back of the deck in place of the big clip so all the attachments work and then it fits in the dock.

I just want to take my time sticking it on as it's got to be lined up so didn't want to rush it.

Yeah, and SD cards pop in and out easily so you can have a few. I've 2 with games on them and ice a third with windows on it.

No issue with bigger games on the SD card, just make sure it's A2 class as that's faster than A1.

Shader cache can fill up on the 64GB internal memory but apparently that's only an issue if you have a lot of games installed at once, it can also be moved to the SD card to free up space.