I’ve recently been looking at “upgrading” a small computer that I have in our living room as there are a few games that I’d like to play that the 12-13 year old machine I’ve got setup there can’t handle. Rather than spending a fortune on a new PC or on a device like the Steam Deck™ , I decided to build myself a little computer with parts from eBay. My desire for a relatively small compact PC (and a few mistakes along the way) have bumped up the cost a bit, but I think I’ll be landing somewhere in the £200-250 range.
This also got me thinking, whilst definitely not a apples-to-apples comparison, how is the gaming experience likely to stack up between this device and say the previously mentioned Steam Deck, assuming that I was to have one of those docked to a TV?
The power usage and noise from my old PC is definitely going to be higher, but comparing specs, the processing power at least compares quite well and what I can see online suggests that the graphics performance of my little device may actually be better than what the Steam Deck offers.
I’m wondering if there’s any mileage to be had in throwing together a low cost ”gaming” PC from second hand parts to show at the repair hub as a kind of "second hand gaming on a (very tight) budget”?