- Need to game on a budget?
Normally the answer is obvious.
Find an empty corner of your room
and plunk a DIY PC in there.
But, and I can't believe I'm saying this
with the incredible performance of Valve's, Steam Deck
handheld console, not to mention it's aggressive pricing.
It might make more sense to forget all that hassle and pick
up one of these instead.
But, can it possibly keep up with
the performance of a custom gaming PC?
Obviously, as the build a PC guy, my instinct is to side
with Jackery, who sponsored this video
do whatever it takes to Game on PC.
But, if you care about portability at all
that might not be the best idea.
And even if you don't,
Valve's new dock accessory turns the Steam Deck
into a bonafide desktop.
And besides, there are other options
for portability like this eBay special gaming laptop.
So, we're gonna take all three and put them
to the test to see what deserves your hard earned money.
(upbeat music)
The challenge was simple.
Take the budget of a Steam Deck
you know the one with the storage that people actually buy
and stretch it as far
as we can to build a full ready to game desktop
including monitor, mouse and keyboard.
Then drag Race our custom PC
against both a 256 gig Steam Deck with the latest updates
and the best gaming laptop that we can find for $500.
And I gotta be real with you guys.
The results are both surprising and also not.
We settled on a mostly new gaming PC with a core i3-12100F,
two eight gig sticks of memory
at 3,200 mega transfers per second,
a 256 gig
(clears throat)
SATA SSD.
So, it's not fast, but look
with motherboards, cases and power supplies being
as expensive as they are, some sacrifices had
to be made in order to afford our secondhand
GTX 1070 without going even farther over our budget.
Seriously though there was a chance custom PC
was gonna lose this fight if we went all new.
So, I have no regrets.
The 12100 KF may only have four processing cores
but, that's actually on par with the Steam Deck
and the cooler it comes with weighs almost
as much as the Steam Deck.
So, I consider that a win.
It's reassuringly heavy.
Important note, because this is a SATA M.2 SSD,
it actually won't even work
in this top slot that uses the PCI express lanes off the CPU
but it will work in this bottom slot.
Yes.
This is really not a great case
but sometimes compromises
must
be
made.
CyberBron more like cyber braun.
We overlooked something,
we don't have audio.
- Crap
- That's gonna cost us what
like 10 bucks, five bucks dollars for earbuds?
- Yeah, buy some earbuds. - Yeah, sure.
We'll add that to the budget.
Come on buddy.
Hey!
There it is.
Okay look, it's not gonna wow your bougie friends
but I'm actually pretty happy with this.
Our motherboard gives us a decent upgrade path
and most of the parts in here are new with warranty.
That's usable, that's usable.
We don't have to cheat on audio
which is good because we ended up cheating on a controller.
I'm pretty sure I told Plouffe
that a controller had to be part of the budget
of a computer that competes with the Steam Deck.
But here we are, secondhand Xbox 360 controller, let's go.
We don't need no stinking frame rate counter.
This has gotta be near 60 FPS though.
As bad as the speakers might be
this is 100% playable like,
smooth.
And not only that
but our system manages to comfortably game at
1080P ultra on our Scepter 22 inch monitor.
Pretty much across the board like we're talking
60 FPS or better in multiple AAA games that we tested.
Plus it's a freaking computer.
You can use it for all sorts of tasks like sending email,
editing video or browsing the web.
It's not really all that portable though, is it?
Obviously we're not gonna be gaming
on this thing unless we're plugged into the wall
or we happen to bring a Jackery power station
with us on the family camping trip.
And even if we just wanna pick it up
and bring it to a friend's house, I would say you could pick
up a high quality tech backpack at lttstore.com
but I think you're actually gonna need something bigger.
We also built this PC
without factoring in the cost of Windows.
To be clear,
you can indefinitely run Windows without a license key
but if you're daily driving this machine,
you might want to remove the pesky watermark
and get full access to system personalization at some point.
But laptops come with Windows licenses.
Unfortunately, after checking to see
if you can find any brand new gaming laptop at this price
we concluded that no, you cannot.
Thankfully, one of the first things that showed up on eBay,
it's fine.
Was this, the Dell G5 15.
It's heavier than I was expecting
but, it's got a core i5-10300 H
and a GTX 1660 ti outputting to a 1080p display.
It's not nearly as upgradeable
as our coupled together desktop
but it actually came in slightly cheaper,
has a proper Windows license and only fell
behind our desktop by about five to 10 FPS.
It might get a little hot, it might get a little loud.
But, it's a perfectly viable option
if you're looking to game.
Besides, a little TLC is all this needs, isn't it?
Maybe some re-pasting, a battery swap,
pop in a bigger drive.
so you've actually got some room for games
and you're laughing all the way to the bank.
Like I'm laughing, thanks to our sponsor Jackery.
Thanks to Jackery for sponsoring this video.
From November 24th to 28th, Jackery is offering
up to 1080 U.S. dollars
off of some of their products for their Black Friday
Cyber Monday sale.
Popular products
like their solar generator 2000 Pro, 1000 Pro,
and 1000 will be eligible for solid discounts.
The SG 2000 Pro has a huge 2160 watt hour capacity
for all your camping appliances.
The 1000 Pro can be charged to 100%
in just 1.8 hours using either a wall plug or solar.
And the normal 1000 weighs only 22 pounds
making it carry friendly with an easy carry handle.
Jackery and Black Series will also be giving
away a travel trailer during their $250,000 giveaway
during their Cyber Monday livestream.
Click the link below
and keep a close eye on Jackery's website
and social handles to make sure you don't miss anything.
This is not bad.
I mean it's hard to compare the portability
of a laptop to the Steam Deck.
I mean obviously it's easier to go from desk
to couch than it is with our desktop PC without shelling
out for a long HDMI and USB cable or something like that.
But, you're stuck with either a track pad
or trying to use a mouse on an uneven surface
like a couch cushion or a younger sibling.
You can plug in a controller for gaming
but that's a whole other peripheral that you need to carry
with you alongside your beefy power brick.
Also, you don't wanna be that guy trying to chat
on a terrible integrated laptop mic,
so you'll probably need to carry around a decent headset.
Something you won't have to worry about
with the Steam Deck whose integrated microphone
is shockingly good.
Trying to game on the train or a bus
during your morning commute.
We've made fun
of how big the Steam Deck is compared to smaller handhelds
like the GPD WIN Max 2 and the Ayaneo air.
But, let's be real, it's a lot easier to whip this
out on transit than this honkin' thing.
I mean, imagine sitting on a packed bus
and trying to make enough space
for this thing so you can spend 15 minutes
to the next stop killing demons in Doom Eternal.
And those other handhelds that I just mentioned, as much
as I adore those, they've got their own problems, too
that completely disqualified them from this video.
For one, they just outright cannot compete on
price with most of them costing at least a few
hundred dollars more than the Steam Deck.
And secondly,
the performance on them kind of hit or miss actually.
I mean sure the GPD WIN Max two actually
can outperform the Steam Deck at certain wattages.
But, it's almost $400 more than our 256 gig model here
for their base model.
And the entire Ayaneo lineup,
at least at the time of filming
still isn't shipping with RDNA 2 graphics.
Meaning, that you could struggle to play modern AAA games.
So, Steam Deck then.
There is a lot to like here, still.
For starters, since it's brand spanking new
we're getting a warranty with our purchase.
If that GTX 1070
or that entire laptop kicks the bucket, that's it.
Time to go buy a new one.
As for performance, it does fall short of the competition
but honestly not by as much as you might expect.
We tested everything at 720p to make it fair.
'Casue that's the resolution of the integrated display.
And while we're consistently getting around or over 60 FPS
on our alternative machines, our Steam Deck
performs admirably reaching playable frame rates
usually in the low thirties.
Remember guys, we're testing at ultra or high settings, too.
Except for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
which crashed on ultra though in fairness
it's not officially supported on the Steam Deck.
Anyway, more on that later.
The point is that all of this means
that even though the Steam Deck has no real upgrade path
it's a fraction of the size and you can easily turn
down the settings to something more reasonable
like high, medium, or even low to keep gaming
as new titles get more demanding in the years to come.
But, there is a big caveat.
I just mentioned the lack of support for Wonderlands
and while this little device has been a major boon
to Linux gamers with ProtonDB currently listing
over 6,000 verified or playable games.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows.
We actually wanted to use F1 2022 instead
of Forza Horizon 5 for our racing game
because Forza takes up nearly half
of the entire drive of all of these computers.
But unfortunately, despite being a verified game on Deck,
F1 simply refused to launch at the time of testing.
The reality of it is then you're not guaranteed
that the game you wanna play is gonna work on Valve's
shiny new toy.
However, and it might be exceptionally rare
but, this is a two-way street.
The person who won our Space Cadet table challenge
at Whale Lan did so
on a Steam Deck running a ported Linux version
of this 1995 classic.
And not only was the frame rate buttery smooth
but the controllers actually mapped properly.
For whatever reason,
I was not able to achieve the same thing
on an Ayaneo device running Windows when I tried.
Of course, while the portability
of the Steam Deck is its biggest strength
it also contributes to its biggest weakness.
Not everybody wants to game
on a tiny low resolution seven inch display.
Thankfully, that gives us a perfect opportunity to test
out the Steam Deck Dock.
Those guys, right?
It puts significant strain
on our limited budget at $90 plus,
obviously all the peripherals we're going to need now.
But, this little guy right here turns the Steam Deck
into a full fat desktop with display port out HDMI out,
USB-C for power, ethernet and three USB type A ports.
Let's give it a shot.
Move aside, desktop.
Ha-ha!
Now, because of Valve's awkward positioning
of the USB-C port on the Steam Deck
it's got this kind of flopsy doodly cable hanging
out of it and then it just kind of sits in here.
It doesn't actually dock to it like the Nintendo Switch.
But I mean I guess that was,
that was easy enough, that process.
All right, docking station updated.
Oh, updating dock firmware, one moment, please.
That was actually surprisingly seamless.
After the firmware update, it went straight
from the integrated display to the external one
and my controller,
keyboard,
and mouse are immediately working, kind of sick.
Oh, what just happened?
Oh, I went off course.
I mean there's nothing it can do to make you a better gamer.
Oh wow, this is the most pathetic
big air jump ever.
Blah, blah, blah, graphics.
So I guess, why don't we just turn that down to medium then.
Oh, oh, she needs a minute here.
She, she needs a minute.
(imitating vomiting)
Buddy.
Num lock light works.
Oh wow.
We just crashed this boy.
Yikes.
Well, that's a little awkward.
My keyboard doesn't work to enter my pin.
Let's see if I can at least use this.
Okay, I'm at least able to use the controller,
but that was, that was not optimal.
You know what though, this gives us a perfect
opportunity to check out the desktop experience.
Switch to desktop.
Wait, what the, that's my primary display.
Uh, okay.
Got some feedback for Valve so far.
That should not be, but we'll get that addressed.
Hey, there we go.
We can just disable the Steam Deck screen.
Hey, look at that.
Keep this configuration.
Boom, look at that.
We are on the web.
Okay.
It's not the world's fastest computer.
But,
I can get tech tips.
Look at this, tech tips.
Who needs Nvidia GPUs boom,
at 4K.
Not bad,
not bad.
I don't see any like bit rate disadvantage
or anything like that.
That's obvious.
I don't know if there's much else
I would wanna do from here, but hey.
If you wanna be able to just have one computer
and all you really do is game handheld
or
switching back to gaming mode, let's see
if it handles it a little more gracefully this time.
Oh boy.
- [Plouffe] It does this when you switch from desktop
- Oh, okay, okay.
That was not an actual crash.
Are you sure?
- [Plouffe] Yeah, it does that when
you switch from a desktop.
Because it like logs you out of desktop
- Okay. Well at any rate, it may not be perfect yet
but the Steam Deck dock is a viable way
to take your portable only Steam Deck experience
and use it for, you know, browsing the web
or just basic desktop use.
And you've gotta give it credit with or without the dock.
It's a pretty convincing little package.
We definitely bent the rules a little bit today,
but I think we were able to draw
some pretty solid conclusions.
If you want to buy all new,
no laptop can come even close to standing up to
the Steam Deck and even a desktop might have to
make some pretty uncomfortable compromises like
settling for a slow cacheless SSD or choosing
a GPU from a brand you've never heard of.
Not to mention that you will need to assemble
the whole thing yourself and you might end up
spending a bit more.
Valve's portable gaming machine almost is the one
that makes the most sense here then.
At least until you want to use a keyboard, mouse and monitor
at which point the price starts
to get a little less attractive
And I gotta say the performance and
lower details hit a little harder on the bigger screen.
Also, the Steam Deck has some pitfalls that you
simply won't encounter on either of our other machines.
Like imperfect game compatibility
especially in cases where Windows specific anti-cheat
is required for multiplayer.
Whatever route you go, we're gonna have everything
that we talked about today linked in the video description
and if you're looking for something else to watch
maybe try out some of our other handheld videos.
How about this review of the Ayaneo Air.