diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'pages/blog')
| -rw-r--r-- | pages/blog/steam-deck-workstation.md | 99 |
1 files changed, 99 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/pages/blog/steam-deck-workstation.md b/pages/blog/steam-deck-workstation.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..884282d --- /dev/null +++ b/pages/blog/steam-deck-workstation.md @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ +--- +title: Steam Deck Workstation +date: !!timestamp '2023-08-03' +--- + +I have this dilemma. Do I: a) spend ages tearing down my PC so I can lug it onto +a train to take to my uni house and rebuild it again there, where it could +get stolen, or b) forego the PC and simply not have a desktop workstation / +gaming rig instead? + +Earlier this year, genius me came up with a third option: +convert my [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/) +into a desktop PC instead! + +## Why + +While I was back at home over Christmas, I had played and really enjoyed +Overwatch 2, and wanted to keep playing once I went +back to university. Unfortunately for me, my laptop is both not powerful enough, +and not capable of outputting to external displays for Complicated reasons. + +The obvious solution would be to simply bring my PC, however I had a criminally +small desk at the time (which means I have absolutely nowhere to put it, not +even the floor), and it would take too much effort to bring back on the train +with everything else I brought home. + +I remembered I had recently bought a Steam Deck, which had been sitting in +my bag collecting dust, and figured I could try and turn that into my +desktop PC. After all, it *is* a device designed to be portable. + +## Testing Valve's claim + +Valve champions the fact that their Steam Deck can be used as a normal PC. +They have Windows drivers, and even sell a +[dock](https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeckdock), which I bought solely for +this purpose. + +Unfortunately Overwatch breaks when using Proton, which meant I had to install +Windows. This involves the tedious task of partitioning the Steam Deck. +Additionally, my scope had expanded to wanting to install a Linux environment +as well, so I could use it instead of my aforementioned dodgy laptop to work on +projects. + +<figure> + <img src="/images/steam-deck-gparted.jpg" width=300> + <figcaption> + GParted running on the Deck. It was as annoying to use as it looks. + </figcaption> +</figure> + +SteamOS is based off Arch, so in theory I could have just installed all +my packages on there and replaced KDE with by preferred sway. However, the root +partition is mounted as read only by default, and any changes made to it get +completely wiped whenever SteamOS is updated. No go. + +Instead, I repartitioned the internal disk and decided to do a triple-boot +setup: SteamOS (so I can still use it as it was intended), Windows (solely to +play Overwatch 2), and Arch (because I use Arch btw). + +<figure> + <img src="/images/steam-deck-partitions.jpg"> + <figcaption> + Internal drive partition table + </figcaption> +</figure> + +As the Deck is only 512gb in size, I decided to go with booting Arch +off a microSD card, which would be left inserted in the Deck's built-in microSD +slot. + +## The experience + +For productivity, it was great. I managed to work on some projects using it, +got some university work done, and procrastinated a lot. + +<figure> + <img src="/images/steam-deck-arch.jpg"> + <figcaption>My university setup</figcaption> +</figure> + +For gaming, it was not so great. Turns out running games on a 1080p +monitor is quite a bit more demanding than 720p. Overwatch 2 experienced quite +frequent frame drops, and Counter-Strike was even worse somehow. Not to mention +I was also on Wi-Fi, which means I'm rubber banding all over the joint anyway. + +There were some other issues too. The Steam Deck is nice and fast when a single +game open is in +[gamescope](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/gamescope). +However, when trying to use it as a general desktop PC, +its limitations start becoming much more obvious. Simple things like updating +the system with `pacman` left the system effectively unresponsive until it +completed. Loading a heavy program like IntelliJ also froze up the system until +it finished. I don't know if this is an IO bottleneck (this partition is booted +off a microSD card after all) but I did observe the same 100% CPU utilisation +when doing simple tasks in Windows too. + +## Conclusion + +Maybe just plug a laptop into the monitor next time. |