Hiya Lemmy, I’m stuck on a dilemma.

I have a nice PC but I don’t like being stuck at a desk all day and would like to game from my couch without having to lug the tower back and forth. It’s a whole thing and that bitch is heavy.

So I have some options.

A) getting a looong HDMI cable to somehow run from my PC to the TV.

  • this is the cheapest option, for sure. But my controller doesn’t pair well with my PC for whatever reason, so that doesn’t really help a whole lot. I do have a looong usbC cable, but it’s not my favorite option. Especially with cats.

B) build or buy a micro ATX. Something with tiny(relatively) form factor that doesn’t need to be anywhere near top of the line to play what I usually play. So I could probably build something decent for 1200 USD? Maybe 1500. Or buy a pre built and save some heartache.

  • it’s the most expensive option, but it will last me forever and it’ll be a portable PC basically. Just not as portable as a steam deck.

C) buy a steam deck. I don’t need the OLED or anything. I don’t usually travel with gaming things, so I’m not worried about all that.

  • middle price option. While portability isn’t a huge concern, it could really come in handy. I really liked steam OS and the ability to just boot as a PC. I could see myself using an emulator to play some older games. But my biggest concern with the steam deck is that the other one I borrowed from a friend couldn’t really play rocket league. It just didn’t have the juice to run the game? And I’m pretty sure I turned down all the graphics and everything.

Anyhow. This is a long post of thoughts. Anyone been in this situation? What did you choose? How are you feeling about your choice?

  • talEnglish
    5·
    8 days ago

    Especially with cats.

    There are cable pet shields.

    https://www.amazon.com/Protector-Protects-Insulated-2mx0-01m-FUNZON/dp/B07FR722S8

    getting a looong HDMI cable to somehow run from my PC to the TV.

    My experience has been that if you run copper HDMI too far, you’ll get occasional drop-outs. Maybe more shielding or lower bandwidth would help.

    You can get an (expensive) fiber optic USB cable, which doesn’t have the length constraints that copper USB does.

    https://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Distance-Transmission-10Gbps-Laptop/dp/B09NBXSNXW

    This sort of thing.

    Can probably also do fiber-optic HDMI, but I figure that if you’re running cable, might as well use USB, since then you can just stick a powered USB hub at the other end and you can plug in your other peripherals: headphones, gamepads, trackballs, keyboards, whatever.