Image: Foundry
If you add an HDMI dock and a wireless controller to your Steam Deck, it’s basically a console that can play Steam games on your PC. But can you build a box that plugs into your TV and handles Steam as well as the Steam Deck does, without needing a screen or battery? Will Smith tried that very thing in the latest PCWorld video.
Digging through the piles of loose tech at our PCWorld office, Will found a Beelink SER7, a gaming mini PC that runs off an AMD 7840HS APU. It’s remarkably similar to portable PC gaming gadgets like the Steam Deck, except it uses laptop hardware to make a teeny tiny desktop instead.
The second part of this one-two punch combo is the software. Valve doesn’t officially publish the SteamOS builds that run on the Steam Deck… but since it’s basically just Steam running on top of open-source software, you can get it off there and tweak it for other machines.
Which is exactly what the HoloISO project is. If you know how to load up a regular build of Linux, you can do the same thing with HoloISO and you’re about 95 percent of the way to getting the Steam Deck experience, with updates coming from the maintainer for the OS and Steam for the software. That includes the crucial ProtonDB tool, which makes running Windows-only games on Linux almost seamless.
Of course, it’s not quite as smooth as that. Plugging the gadget into a standard 4K TV will let you get around the interface easily enough with a wireless controller, and you can log into Steam and download all your compatible games. But HoloISO throws up a couple of weird issues, like looking for the battery (which isn’t there) or initially outputting video at 1280×800 (the Steam Deck’s native screen resolution). If that happens, you’ll need to manually set a resolution for each game (either 1080p upscaled or native 4K).
After that, things tend to work like they should. Getting through the Steam Big Picture user interface with a controller is fine, and the majority of games that are “Steam Deck verified” work just as well (or better) than they do on the portable hardware when docked.
Older games and 2D titles might hit 60 frames per second at 4K, but 3D games might need to make do with lower resolution or framerates. Big AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077 might benefit from being played remotely from a dedicated gaming PC via Steam’s local streaming.
That said, things can get a little hairy with games that aren’t Steam Deck verified. Will found that some older PC games with dedicated launcher tools, like Fallout 3, relied on the touchscreen for navigation… which this Beelink doesn’t have, obviously. It’s possible to use Steam’s overlay to input text and move a mouse cursor around, but keeping a mouse and keyboard handy is an easier solution.
Furthermore, audio over HDMI is great, but Linux and Bluetooth are fussy roommates as always—whatever analog audio hardware the Beelink is using doesn’t seem to agree with the HoloISO build.
Is it a good experience overall? Yeah, if you have the hardware and the know-how. But it’s worth pointing out that this mini PC—which is about $650 on sale—is as expensive as a mid-range Steam Deck plus a dock, and you can’t play it on the bus.
If Valve wants to truly muscle in on the console market, they’d need to mass produce something similar at a considerable discount versus the Steam Deck. And the Steam Deck is already pretty dang cheap for what you get. (Plus, if you recall, Valve has already tried this twice—first with the third-party Steam Machines running its software, then with the Steam Link streaming gadget that was eventually sold off for a song.)
For more wacky builds and insights on the PC gaming market, be sure to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube. And subscribe to The Full Nerd podcast while you’re at it, which recently moved out of the house to its own channel. They grow up so fast.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he’s the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop “battlestation” in his off hours. Michael’s previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he’s covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he’s always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.
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