PCs and Steam: Thread 01

[speedlolita]

It's an i7. Most towers need a mounting bracket put on the back of the motherboard, and I don't really have the time to take it all apart and fit one right now. I'll probably do it at some point, but I'm just looking for a quick stop gap.
I've looked around and found a few but I just wanted a recommendation.

I popped a be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 onto my partner's 5600X and it does a decent job. On the Intel side it wouldn't require a backplate either. It is a smaller tower so cooling performance would be lesser, but still far greater than the stock cooler.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I popped a be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 onto my partner's 5600X and it does a decent job. On the Intel side it wouldn't require a backplate either. It is a smaller tower so cooling performance would be lesser, but still far greater than the stock cooler.

Nice. Yeah I saw this one but I wasn't sure if it'd just click in, but it looks like it would.

[briareos_kerensky]

Asus shed some details about their upcoming Steam Deck opponent, the ROG Ally.
The Ally will be powered by AMD's Ryzen Z1 or Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU; both use Zen 4 CPU cores and RDNA 3 GPu cores, but how many and the cache vary between the two models.
The Ryzen Z1 uses 6 cores (12 threads) and 4 RDNA units, with a cache of 12MB. The Z1 Extreme doubles the cache to 24MB, ups the CPU core count to 8 (16 threads) and goes for 12 RDNA units. For comparison, the Deck uses 4 CPU cores and 8 RDNA2 units.

Prices and availability will be communicated the 11th of May.

[briareos_kerensky]

Rumor: the most powerful version of the Asus' ROG Ally will be priced $699, $51 more than the Steam Deck. Other rumors place the less powerful version at 599$.

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[speedlolita]

That AMD SoC looks a bit nifty. Seems less friendly to games that are primarily played with a mouse cursor but aside from that could be a promising alternative.

[Ouenben]

Rumor: the most powerful version of the Asus' ROG Ally will be priced $699, $51 more than the Steam Deck. Other rumors place the less powerful version at 599$.

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Wonder if it'll last more than an hour on a full charge

[nonny]

I think that is the main issue for me. The price is fantastic if that is true but with a 1080p120 screen and the exact same size battery as the Steam Deck you have to wonder if the battery life is going to be the Achilles's heel for this product...

I also think the dpad looks horrific and not having trackpads might be another small mistake... but it's good to see competition.

[MartyG]

The first handheld using the AMD 7840U which is an 8 Core 16 thread Zen 4 CPU with RDNA 3 GPU (12 CUs), so similar spec to the Z1 Extreme (they are essentially the same thing).

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aokzoe-a1pro-world-s-1st-7840u-gaming-handheld#/

There are a couple of different variations, but the closest spec is with 32GB RAM and a 512GB SSD, none early bird price of £794 - get in early and you can have it for £635.

So I still think £800 is a realistic price in the UK for the Z1 Extreme ASUS ROG Ally.

[nonny]

[fishbowlhead]

Is that thing running Cyberpunk at 60fps?

[nonny]

Yep basically chewing through it (and the battery no doubt)...

I like that this handheld manages to squeeze in the 2280 SSD form factor. The 2230 size models are still stupidly expensive for 1tb storage.

[huxley]

Oh dear

Currys has been chosen as the exclusive stockist for the UK: "We're thrilled to offer our customers the ROG Ally, the most powerful graphics and best quality screen on a handheld device to date, providing strong competition for Steam Deck," said the retailer's head of gaming, Nick Hayden.

Would you like Norton with that, extended warranty, insurance?

[nonny]

Annoying, though with the way Steam Deck was rolled out via the Steam store only it's nice to get an actual physical store option for release... even if it is Currys.

[huxley]

Annoying, though with the way Steam Deck was rolled out via the Steam store only it's nice to get an actual physical store option for release... even if it is Currys.

Pray you never have to return something to Currys.

[fishbowlhead]

Pray you never have to return something to Currys.

True but they’ve been brilliant the last 2 years for Switch game bargains of all things.