DIY Steam Machine: How I turned my Steam Deck right into a gaming console

Your Steam Deck simply wants a dock

Unlike the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck doesn’t include a dock. But when you add a dock? You get a Switch-style expertise.

I bought Valve’s official Steam Deck Docking Station for $79 and it really works nicely. That worth does really feel a little bit excessive, although, and loads of players have nice experiences with cheaper docks. For instance, Anker has a $30 Steam Deck Dock (which I personally haven’t used, however my expertise with Anker {hardware} has been stable).

Chris Hoffman / Foundry

Third-party docks typically don’t ship with energy adapters whereas the Steam Deck Dock does ship with one, so it’s a greater deal than it could appear at first look. Then once more, your Steam Deck already got here with its personal energy adapter that you should use for the Steam Deck Dock, so chances are you’ll not want one other one anyway.

Simply plug the dock into an influence outlet, join it to your TV by way of HDMI cable, and also you’re able to go! Now all it’s a must to do is ready your Steam Deck within the dock, then join the little USB-C cable from the dock to the port on high of your Steam Deck. Done!

You’ll want some peripherals, too

With your Steam Deck correctly docked, now you simply want to attach a couple of peripherals. A contemporary Xbox Controller works nicely, however it connects by way of Bluetooth and I’ve seen some chatter about latency with Xbox controllers. Still, mine labored nicely for me. We have a full information to slicing by way of the BS when shopping for gaming controllers for PC.

Chris Hoffman / Foundry

You may wirelessly join Bluetooth keyboards and mice with ease in the identical manner. That stated, Steam Deck docks have USB ports that permit you to join wired controllers, keyboards, and mice.

If Bluetooth appears flakey however you don’t just like the wired choice, you may as well go for wi-fi USB receivers. Not all peripherals help this feature, however most do. If it got here with a little bit USB dongle, you simply need to plug it in and change the gadget to wi-fi dongle mode.

Put your TV in Game Mode

If you encounter enter latency—noticeable lag whenever you press buttons leading to delayed actions on display—go into your TV’s image settings and put it into “Game Mode.” This reduces enter latency and is important for a great gaming expertise on many TVs.

Samsung

Tweak the show decision

The Steam Deck’s native decision is 1280×800, however it may possibly output at greater resolutions. I used to be in a position to get it as much as 4K on my TV, although it appeared fairly good at 1080p as nicely. Note, nevertheless, {that a} greater decision places an even bigger pressure on the Steam Deck, particularly with higher-end triple-A video games. The Steam Deck is greatest with lighter video games.

There’s one other massive downside: SteamOS makes use of a show system referred to as Gamescope to handle resolutions, and it may possibly lock video games to resolutions that make sense within the native handheld mode however not in docked mode. You can tweak it, however it’s not intuitive.

When a sport refuses to run at greater resolutions, right here’s what I do:

• I’m going into Settings > Display and turned off computerized decision for the exterior show. This is simply in case.
• For the sport itself, I choose Properties > General > Override decision and enter the TV’s goal decision.
• I launch the sport, go into its settings, and selected the upper decision that’s accessible.

This works with most video games, bringing them up from a pixelated low decision to a surprisingly sharp expertise.

Game streaming could be inconsistent

The Steam Deck works nicely as a lounge console. Firing up Hades and taking part in it with an Xbox Controller on my sofa is nice! And I’m completely happy I can play the video games I already personal with out having to, say, purchase a Nintendo Switch 2 and re-purchase titles on the Nintendo eShop.

But the Steam Deck’s sport streaming efficiency is inconsistent. I streamed Doom: The Dark Ages from my Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080-powered PC and it did surprisingly nicely on the Steam Deck when handheld. But with the Steam Deck docked and utilizing a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox controller? The Wi-Fi apparently interfered with the Bluetooth connection, inflicting enter to be stuttery.

Chris Hoffman / Foundry

Bluetooth points apart, not each sport streamed in addition to Doom. I discovered less-demanding video games usually didn’t stream nicely in any respect. It appears depending on the sport’s engine and whether or not it’s utilizing Vulkan, DirectX 12, DirectX 11, and so forth—there are such a lot of variables! You’ll have a greater, extra constant expertise taking part in video games proper on the Deck’s {hardware} than streaming them to the Deck.

I additionally personal one in all Valve’s discontinued Steam Link containers designed for streaming video games from a desktop PC to a TV, and the sport streaming expertise wasn’t nice for that both. Steam has all the time been inconsistent for me on this space, so I’ve all the time most well-liked taking part in video games regionally than streaming them over the community.

What if you wish to stream? Instead of Steam’s built-in streaming help, use Nvidia GeForce Now to stream video games from Nvidia’s servers to your Steam Deck. I’ve had extra constant outcomes with Nvidia GeForce Now over time than streaming from my very own PC.

A docked Steam Deck is enjoyable and straightforward… however I need much more!

The Steam Deck is nice in docked mode, however it has actual drawbacks.

Compared to a Nintendo Switch, there’s much more fidgeting with decision settings. Things that ought to ideally “just work”? Well, they don’t. The Steam Deck works nicely in handheld mode, however the expertise with an exterior show isn’t as polished.

The Steam Deck can be clearly designed for use in hand. In idea, it may possibly ship high-end gaming energy to your TV by streaming video games out of your gaming PC. In actuality, it’s flakey. I wouldn’t rely on a dependable streaming expertise with each sport in your Steam library.

If something, utilizing the Steam Deck in docked mode makes me notice how a lot I desire a highly effective SteamOS console-style expertise. I like taking part in PC video games in my lounge, however I’m not a fan of the Windows desktop expertise on my TV. Clicking by way of OneDrive promos and Microsoft Edge advertisements on my 4K TV shouldn’t be my thought of a chill time.

SteamOS has an ideal TV interface. If the decision configuration was extra seamless, it will be wonderful. The Steam Deck simply wants extra highly effective {hardware} to face as much as fashionable Xboxes and PlayStations in the lounge—and that’s why I’m wanting ahead to the brand new Steam Machine. But till it comes, I’m completely happy sufficient to make use of my docked Steam Deck as a makeshift SteamOS console.