Fair enough! In my instance the PC would be almost entirely dedicated to gaming. My day-to-day computer stuff is either done on my phone or my laptop. I don’t really do anything that can’t be handled by either of these
Definitely hits home, I’m in school and working toward a better career at the moment. I have a decent laptop that fufills my “computer” needs, and the PC/deck was purely oriented towards gaming. I think a deck might be the better option for the moment. My current budget and ideas for a build had some compromises, with the knowledge that I’d need to replace/upgrade a lot of stuff down the line. I’m not 100% sold on the steam deck, but it does seem like a more viable and pragmatic choice now
My rationale for the steam deck was mostly the convenience and broad support. Prior to this thread, portability was more of a bonus than a main draw for me. However, a few people have mentioned how much they like the steam deck for use around the house over their PC and I hadn’t really considered that before. I will say that this prospect does shift me a little more towards the steam deck than before.
I was mostly drawn to building a PC for upgradability and longevity. As I understand it 600-700 for a PC (buying secondhand) is on the line of acceptable and decent. The last time I gamed on a PC was in the days of halo CE on a hand-me-down windows XP machine so my personal experience on the matter is extremely out of date, but I’m willing (and interested).to learn
I’m not in a rush by any means. Between working full time and being in college, I don’t have a lot of time to play games. I have a handful of AAA titles I’m interested in, but indie gaming has been a pretty large draw for me towards PC gaming in general. There’s so many interesting and innovative titles out there that I simply haven’t had an opportunity to play on my Xbox
Fair point! Another user mentioned gaming around the house and the option never occured to me haha. I’ve been so locked in on the dock and having a dedicated space that I didn’t think about using the steam deck anywhere but there or outside the house. Graphics aren’t a huge deal for me but I do like the idea of longevity and upgradeability that a PC offers. I’m not sure how the steam deck is planning to address these issues. If I went with the steam deck I would essentially be trading out one console for another. A more adaptable one, but a console nonetheless
Yeah the 600-700 figure is just for the PC, I made a little room for a monitor, keyboard and headset/speakers as I would wind up needing those whichever way I went
Whichever way I went, I was planning to use Linux for my OS, so I haven’t really considered a windows handheld until now. I might have to look into those a bit more. I’m not opposed to windows per se, but I do like how light most Linux distros are. It would free up more resources for gaming, and considering my budget, I could definitely use the extra wiggle room haha
Outside of windows, you’ve essentially described my radionale for building a PC. I was planning to build a Linux machine to 1. Save on not having to buy windows and 2. Simply because I like Linux, and (besides competitive games) gaming on Linux seems to be a pretty solid option nowadays. I wanted to buy second hand as much as I could and upgrade piecemeal to keep up with hardware demands and improve my experience.
The convenience of the steam deck is attractive because I’ve never built a machine before and graphics aren’t all that important to me. But I do like the prospect of having something that will last and be able to be iteratively improved for years to come
That’s definitely an added bonus. Having been a console player for the majority of my life, learning and researching parts and compatibility has been a bit confusing for me. Especially since I was planning to build a Linux machine. I like that building a PC offers versatility and an opportunity to upgrade parts down the line for a better experience/ longer lifespan, but there’s something to be said for the convenience of knowing that something will just work out of the box
I honestly haven’t considered using the steam deck in my house outside of the dock. Playing on the couch is definitely an enticing idea. The prospect of poor AAA support isn’t a huge deal. Baldurs gate 3, the new dragon age, the new Warhammer game (if that’s considered AAA), helldivers, and the new god of war games are the only recent titles that have jumped out at me. I’ve really wanted to get more into indie games, theres so many that seem interesting and innovative, and with the pace of steam deck adoption, I feel like I wouldn’t be missing out on much with it. I’m still 50/50 on the decision. Gaming around the house has definitely given me something more to consider though!