I don't understand why people buy Steam Decks...

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[fsdfmsbcxx]

The love and effort that Valve puts into the Support of their Steam Deck is something that Asus only can dream of. That's why ;)

[MrXaule]

This is a secret advertisement for the Steam Deck.

[DavidPruitt]

"Its better than anything else" Proceeds to tear apart and rebuild.

[peppefailla]

Valve made Linux gaming actually possible thanks to steam deck. I want to thank them for all the efforts are making, still keeping everything open source

[kenshiku]

"I don't understand why people buy Steam Decks..."
"Let's fix the Asus ROG Ally"
This man is actually a comedian!

[VSLURKR]

I like that you tried this and you did a great job of it.
But I don't see how any of this makes the Steam Deck less worth buying.

[rbus]

I bought the Steam Deck for it's price and the fact that it's absolutely loaded with buttons, joysticks, capacitive touch sensors and an awesome key mapping tweaking tool in SteamOS.

[marcedoreste]

I can think of 3 reasons immediately.
1. Price
2. Convenience / support from Valve with their own OS
3. Elegance / design vs Ugly RGB lights

[milescarter]

Do *NOT* use liquid metal like he shows. It will leak and ruin your system. He only protected the CPU from shorts, he didn't install a barrier to prevent it from getting away from the CPU. Usually it's a type of foam that completely fills in between the CPU and heatsink. (For testing purposes on a flat PC test bench it may not be entirely necessary, but this is a mobile device.

You have been warned.

[Noobochok]

Deck's trackpads are a killer feature for some of us. Can't fix the lack of those (not in an ergonomic way at least).

[AboTurkiPro]

Repairabiliy? Availability of spare parts? Great software and optimization for a handheld?

[harmonised]

Valve have done everything SO right with the launch of the OLED Steam Deck, they have cemented my love for them forever!

[shawnwade]

Valve has the pull to influence game manufacturers to get optimizations for games specifically for the steam deck . In that regard the steam deck is an appealing option

[barrettabney]

@20:00
Heat is a big killer for batteries. It causes a breakdown in the capacitance layers. Folding the battery will cause thermal issues while charging or during high current draw downs. I would think you'd need a thermal pad in the middle of the batteries with side fins of some sort to dissipate the heat from the 2 center cells... Stacking the batteries was a sure fire way to an early end of life for the 2 center cells.

[Shadow_Enz]

Valve's support, not cooking my SD card, and not needing to burn time customizing/working on the deck. I don't have time right now to mess with it, but I can turn it on and play right out the gate super easy. That's why.

[zach]

I bought a Steam Deck 64gb on the Spring sale for like $349. I then upgraded it with a 1tb Corsair SSD for $80. Less than $500, I have a 1tb handheld that runs everything I like to play, including MW2 through Windows 10 dual boot.

The Ally is cool and all, but when the SD exists for the price it is, I'll always recommend the Deck.

[oof]

imagine sending asus rog ally for new tumbsticks repair for free and have to pay 200 euro more for things u dont want to be repaired

[cyphre]

I feel like you're making a pretty good case for buying a Steamdeck. None of these alternatives that also came out recently are truly complete packages, and always have caveats.
Personally, I'd rather use a GPD Win, because I like the format and keyboard.

[Reaprar]

"Why do people buy the steam deck when they could buy a product that is twice as expensive for 10% performance increase!?!?!?" we may never know

[SeekerOfTux]

1. Native linux install, which allows valve to do specific things that you cant do on windows, like custom DE, compositor and kernel tweaks.
2. Did I mentioned native linux? Cause this is a huge deal, no longer being forced to run windows for games is a godsend. The steam deck has propelled the Proton / Wine / DXVK / VKD3D projects into developers eyes, since now they have a standardized platform to target with minimal effort required on their part thanks to the previous projects I mentioned. The only reason to run windows is either you have an nvidia card (sucks to be you), you play games like valorant which basically have anti cheats that resembles spyware (honestly not much was lost), or the game you want to play isnt available on steam, epic or GOG (heroic game launcher covers GOG and Epic).
2. The steam deck has been made in such a way thats easily repairable.
3. Parts can be acquired from Ifixit thanks to valve partnering up with them.
4. Long support. Till this date new updates for the steam controller have been released, valve tends to offer support even after they discontinued production.
5. The steam deck offers better performance on the go when it comes to battery life (which is the main use for this device).

Also Asus has been doing some nasty things with their motherboards and products in general, like refusing RMAs and releasing bioses that fry CPUs and the QC of the rog Ally hasnt been great.