You can now pre-order Valve's Steam Machine! Fortuitous timing as I drafted this as a follow up to my post from December where I wrote about using Linux for PC gaming. At that time Steam ran well on my desktop and I chipped away at lighter games on the Deck.
I ended that post by saying:
I don't think I'll buy a Steam Machine, but I'm very happy it will exist. I've been testing out dual booting Bazzite on my desktop and I'd love to replace that with SteamOS proper. If I can pick up a controller and play a game on Steam with my TV as easily as the PS5, then I won't need to boot that up as much.
I underestimated that last sentence.
The Desktop to TV experiment
Initially I ran a 20ft HDMI cable across the floor to my TV so I could play games from my NixOS install. The setup was fiddly though. Each time I wanted to play a game I had to hook the cable up, change sound outputs/display, etc.
I installed my Steam games on their own NVME drive separate from my NixOS install. So I added a third NVME drive and put Bazzite on that.
In Big Picture mode Bazzite figures out the correct display to use and remembers to use the HDMI out for sound. That meant I could reboot and play games without any setup. Yet I stopped using that setup and went back to docking my Steam Deck. As silly as it sounds, two additional changes have made the new setup stick for me:
- The release of the Steam Controller 2
- A 50ft fiber optic HDMI cable
The Controller
I want a controller that has:
- Good compatibility with Linux and Steam
- Symmetric joysticks
- A touchpad for when I need to do something mouse-like
- Back buttons
I used to use a DualSense Edge with steam and it checked all those boxes. However, I prefer the controls on the Steam Deck even more. :
- Split symmetric touchpads
- First class support with Steam and Steam Input
- More comfortable for my hands thanks to the larger vertical height
When the Steam Controller 2 dropped I managed to snag one by spamming the checkout button in the Steam Store for 18 continuous minutes before they went out of stock.
I also no longer need to use a USB extender with a UB500 bluetooth adapter. The range on the DualSense leaves a lot to be desired. Even with perfect line of sight, my arm will often interfere with its reception. The Steam Controller 2 puck works great and has not set anything on fire yet.
The HDMI Cable
I doubted long HDMI cables would work well, so I never bought one. Turns out we've had active fiber optics cables for a good while now! I snagged a 50ft cable that supports HDMI 2.1 for about ~$75 and have had no issues. I now run the cable along the molding and keep it in place.
I do not need HDMI 2.1 at the moment since my aging TCL Roku TV maxes out at 60hz. Regardless, I plan to get an LG C5 as they go on sale since Fox bought Roku and that will require 2.1.
Unfortunately, HDMI 2.1 does not work with AMD graphics on Linux due to shenanigans from the HDMI Forum. As far as I can tell:
Sounds like Valve played a role in persuading the forum! I also like to hope that the threat of a reverse engineered implementation that they could not control convinced them to change their tune.
Why not streaming?
Finally, why not use Steam's in-home streaming to connect to my desktop from my Steam Deck? Try as I might I couldn't get a good stable setup. No amount of triaging worked for me in the end to get a simple and reliable setup. I expect streaming would work better with Bazzite than NixOS, but at that point, why not just run the cable?
For me, a 50ft HDMI cable was the lowest friction option.
I grew up playing games on desktops with a keyboard and mouse. I never expected to want a console-like experience. However, as life gets busier I've come to appreciate the ability to pick up and put down a game as needed. The Steam Deck handled that well and new setup gets even closer. Plus, I still get to keep control over my system unlike a console.
I have one last problem to settle: Right now I can sleep Bazzite and resume without issue. If I want to boot into NixOS, I need to quit my game and restart. It looks like you can enable swap and hibernate to disk with Bazzite. That would allow me to save my state and reboot into NixOS. I can't share the game SSD anymore in that scenario though. Even mounting read only while hibernated could cause file system corruptions.
If I like using Bazzite long term, I might start booting into desktop mode for games I would play at my desk. Then I can detach the third SSD from my NixOS install.
The Steam Machine costs about as much as a comparable self-built PC. So if you want a gaming computer at that spec tier, it's a great option. Especially if you primarily use Steam or prefer Linux. I almost ordered a Steam Machine just to support Valve and all the work they do to support gaming on Linux, but I have a feeling the Machine will sell just fine without me. Instead, a 50ft HDMI cable will do.