There's a reason we aren't as harsh on the Steam Deck. Actually, a couple.
cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/3922769
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The original was posted on /r/linustechtips by /u/RevolutionaryAd8204 on 2024-09-14 15:50:43+00:00.
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Also the price scales wayyyy better. Steam Deck starts at 313,65€ now.
if you have less money, buy that, get an sd card, and if you enjoy it put an ssd in later.
That's $346 in USD, if anyone is interested.
That's the 512gb version even. You can get the 64gb version for $296 right now, which is a great deal. Upgrading the SSD later is pretty easy too.
Jesus. That's a great deal. Makes me consider getting one instead of a new laptop.
Not to mention you can just toss a 1tb SD card in, with no skills needed and only minimal cost difference.
Yes, accessing your data off an SD card is marginally slower than off an NVME ssd.... but we're talking, iirc, milliseconds. If it really bugs you later down the line, then you can upgrade the SSD.
You think a microSD is only marginally slower than an nvme SSD?
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/x0wdd8/disk_benchmarks_results_emmc_vs_nvme_vs_microsdxc/
Found some benchmarks. Load times appear to be influenced by the CPU doing decompression. It's not the SD being as fast as a SSD, but rather the SSD being as slow as a SD because of this. That's... interesting.
Load times have always been bottlenecked by the CPU, so it's not a massive surprise that the SSD is about on par with a decent SD card.
On the PS4 an SSD was faster than a HDD, but not by a massive amount. At least it was quieter though.
In the steam decks case yeah.
Yep. At some point maybe Valve will change that, but for now, it's a great way to get a steam deck. And even if they do change/fix that later, you're not really missing out on anything- everything will be the same speed it always was for you.
Does it have a USB port to plug in my external hd filled with games?
Usb-c port, so yes, though you may need an adapter.... And a long cord.
Unless you also grab the dock, but then you also need a controller.
I'm a PC couch player, I've played with a controller for the last decade with my 75" TV.
I'd definitely get a dock for it.
You guys are selling me big time on this.
I've been told (haven't done it myself) that the ps5 controller pairs extremely well with the steam deck + dock. I would ask around though- I have an actual Steam Controller that I use, myself, but I don't think you can buy those anymore.
You can buy them used if you can find them. I bought 2 directly from Valve before they were discontinued then a 3rd on Ebay.
I have an 8bitdo that can switch between Xbox and switch at any time. It's great and works with everything.
Well, sometimes load times matter. In Borderlands 3 going off SD card instead of disc drive caused a minute or more of loading time when launching the game.
That's not the cause- benchmarks have been done on the matter, as you can see slightly down the comment chain. You've simply attributed the slow load times to what you think is the issue.