Steam Link ROCKS!

cptnjarhead

cptnjarhead

Crossfit Fast Walk Champion Runnerup
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Mar 9, 2010
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Picked up steam link on sale for $19.99 last week on steam.
I have to say this little gadget really impressed me. Setup was a breeze...about 5 minutes to get hooked up and turned on and recognize my xbox controller, then about 5 minutes for updates, connect to my win10 machine, a code will appear on the screen, go downstairs and enter the code in steam on you PC and BAM... i was sitting in my favorite living room chair playing fallout 4 on my 50" sony...while my PC was downstairs in my den.

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Xbox wireless controller works perfectly. You have to plug in the wireless send and receive unit and the controller at the same time, it will connect and then you can unplug the usb cable and never have to use it again unless you want to charge it.



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At first fallout ran with some stutter and i was a little worried... but i believe the steam link might have been updating in the background because after i ate some dinner and started steam link back up it was smooth as butter. This has to be one of my best purchases since my gtx 1060. @ 1080p you dont notice any lag, but i wouldnt try Counter strike or any online shooters. But i am really pleased with the performance of this little unit. I did have a weird issue with castle wolfenstine new order, for some reason the sound would cut out, the game played fine but no sound. It turned out that my PC USB headphones were the problem. I stopped the stream, and went downstairs unplugged them and it the issue never happened again. My router is a linksys wrt54g nothing special. I am also using a power line adapter for lan connecting to my living room entertainment center. Hardwired connection is supposed to be the best. I have yet to hook up a bluetooth keyboard yet, but i will try that this week. The steam link is a great deal..even at full price. I love it. Having my pc/steam on my living room TV without any hassle is amazing....well unless you ask my wife.
 
I picked these up on sale earlier this year. Sad to say, it's still in the box.

I really should get around to plugging it in.
 
Decibel said:
I picked these up on sale earlier this year. Sad to say, it's still in the box.

I really should get around to plugging it in.
Click to expand...

You definitely should. Its an amazing little gadget for the money. Have not gone downstairs to play on my PC since i set it up.
 
Tried it before, not my liking due to latency.

The latency make this thing completely useless for any fast pace FPS.
 
shansoft said:
Tried it before, not my liking due to latency.

The latency make this thing completely useless for any fast pace FPS.
Click to expand...

From what i have read they fixed a lot of the latency issues since its initial release. I only noticed some issues on my first run, then the next time i started back up it was smooth as glass. However, i would not play counter strike online for sure, but its not meant for that and I'm not all that into FPS anymore. I have not tried KB/Mouse yet, just xbox controller will try some different peripherals this weekend like my GT drive wheel.
 
I'm certain they'll go on sale again, probably at the $35 price point. I paid full retail when they debuted in November 2015- and it was totally worth it. And I love that they added 5.1 surround support, my link is hooked up to a big TV, AVR and *real* home theater speakers. I let my nephew play DIRT 3 on the Link over Thanksgiving, and the sound blew his cynical 15 y.o. butt away. Cool uncle points scored.

Still surprised the Link isn't that popular here on [H]. But mine's on Ethernet, just like every other device/STB on my av rack, so I don't have latency/perfomance issues.
 
These only appeal is to people who have yet to build an HTPC, and don't mind being limited to Steam apps. Hence whey they're not more popular.

The same Steam hardware-accelerated streaming power is available to this, but can also run full apps (Linux, or Windows if you choose to drop the cash). So network latency is identical.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157729

You can build an entire PC with 4GB ram and a small 120gb SSD for under $200 using that motherboard. It's another $50-60 to jump-up to an upgradable Skylake Celeron and a box-style ITX chassis case with a full-sized expansion slot.

Single-use appliances (like the NES Classic or Steamlink) have their place, but once you buy more than one of them, you start to wonder if maybe you'd be better served with one box to rule them all (and all the additional features that brings)? And that MAYBE life would be easier without the added network lag, so make an HTPC with a video card?
 
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I picked one up while they were on sale a while back. It's worked really well for the few games I've tried out on it. Need to get an OK wireless keyboard/mouse to use for non-controller games.
 
whateverer said:
These only appeal is to people who have yet to build an HTPC, and don't mind being limited to Steam apps. Hence whey they're not more popular.

The same Steam hardware-accelerated streaming power is available to this, but can also run full apps (Linux, or Windows if you choose to drop the cash). So network latency is identical.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157729

You can build an entire PC with 4GB ram and a small 120gb SSD for under $200 using that motherboard. It's another $50-60 to jump-up to an upgradable Skylake Celeron and a box-style ITX chassis case with a full-sized expansion slot.

Single-use appliances (like the NES Classic or Steamlink) have their place, but once you buy more than one of them, you start to wonder if maybe you'd be better served with one box to rule them all (and all the additional features that brings)? And that MAYBE life would be easier without the added network lag, so make an HTPC with a video card?
Click to expand...

completely wrong actually. YOu can leave big picture mode and the steam link beomes a Remote desktop. Yep, you heard that right. Steam Link becomes a virtual remote desktop with 3 USB ports, so as long as your wireless is good, or you have it wired (try using a powerline adapter) you can bring your desktop to any tv or hdmi monitor in the house.
 
So wait, Can someone still use my PC while I have this thing running? or does it just mirror my screen to my TV in my bedroom?
 
Dan said:
So wait, Can someone still use my PC while I have this thing running? or does it just mirror my screen to my TV in my bedroom?
Click to expand...

It mirrors your game screen on the PC --- so no - no one can use your PC while you are gaming with steam link.
 
cptnjarhead said:
From what i have read they fixed a lot of the latency issues since its initial release. I only noticed some issues on my first run, then the next time i started back up it was smooth as glass. However, i would not play counter strike online for sure, but its not meant for that and I'm not all that into FPS anymore. I have not tried KB/Mouse yet, just xbox controller will try some different peripherals this weekend like my GT drive wheel.
Click to expand...
Indeed, they have. I have no issues playing a game like Dark Souls over a Steam Link where timing is everything. And that is with it connected wirelessly.
whateverer said:
These only appeal is to people who have yet to build an HTPC, and don't mind being limited to Steam apps. Hence whey they're not more popular.

The same Steam hardware-accelerated streaming power is available to this, but can also run full apps (Linux, or Windows if you choose to drop the cash). So network latency is identical.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157729

You can build an entire PC with 4GB ram and a small 120gb SSD for under $200 using that motherboard. It's another $50-60 to jump-up to an upgradable Skylake Celeron and a box-style ITX chassis case with a full-sized expansion slot.

Single-use appliances (like the NES Classic or Steamlink) have their place, but once you buy more than one of them, you start to wonder if maybe you'd be better served with one box to rule them all (and all the additional features that brings)? And that MAYBE life would be easier without the added network lag, so make an HTPC with a video card?
Click to expand...
If you already have a beastly desktop it's a no-brainer buying a $20 device to a TV elsewhere in the house. $200 is a little harder to swallow, especially if all you want to do in the other room is game on your big ass TV.
Dan said:
So wait, Can someone still use my PC while I have this thing running? or does it just mirror my screen to my TV in my bedroom?
Click to expand...
No. It encodes your PC as a video stream and sends it to the Steam Link while your input is sent back to your PC to control everything. If you have a game running and you go back to your PC you will see the same game on the screen.
 
trentchau said:
completely wrong actually. YOu can leave big picture mode and the steam link beomes a Remote desktop. Yep, you heard that right. Steam Link becomes a virtual remote desktop with 3 USB ports, so as long as your wireless is good, or you have it wired (try using a powerline adapter) you can bring your desktop to any tv or hdmi monitor in the house.
Click to expand...

not unless they've updated since I've used it last. If it went to desktop the steam link froze up. That was one of my issues with this thing --- if you had an error in the game, or an alt-tab issue - then you were stuck and had to go to the actual PC to fix the problem. I had windows 10 --- what OS are you using and how did you get that to work. If it could just be used as a remote desktop that's awesome. I'll put one in several rooms in the house. Are you saying you could basically browse the internet, play videos, or audio with it? use a keyboard and mouse - just like an RDP session?

That's huge - if so.
 
Archaea said:
not unless they've updated since I've used it last. If it went to desktop the steam link froze up. That was one of my issues with this thing --- if you had an error in the game, or an alt-tab issue - then you were stuck and had to go to the actual PC to fix the problem. I had windows 10 --- what OS are you using and how did you get that to work. If it could just be used as a remote desktop that's awesome. I'll put one in several rooms in the house. Are you saying you could basically browse the internet, play videos, or audio with it? use a keyboard and mouse - just like an RDP session?

That's huge - if so.
Click to expand...

yes it mirrors your desktop infact im on it right now typing this replay on steam link in my living room u can play any games on the pc using it or u can just add games to the steam app then ;launch them there as i right this im playing animal from def leppard in itunes on my living room 55 4k ultra tv but you do have to have (EVERYTHING WIRED UP ) luckly my laptop was a lil laess then 50feet from my living room i went and bought a 5oft of eathernet cable at the local hardware and ran it along tyhe wall and under the carpet edges and i paid only $2.50 for the link but total wityh ship was a lil over 10 Us dollors but still worth it considering it mkaes my wife happy and i wont wake her up at night when i play games at night on my laptop or she watches her tv shows in the bedroom happy wife happy life :p


other then having tpo have everything wired i noticed that when im in the living room u have top leave the steam app running all the time on the main pc and then drag the steam app to the bottom with it always open if u close the steam app everything freezzes up and and wont work thay need to fixx this even when its minamaized it still does it thay need to fixx that other then that everything works great i hope that helps and i think itys still onsale for $2.50 right now on steam !!!

ohh by7 the way get a wireless mouse and keyboard on ebay
and get a wireless xbox 360 adaptor if u use use a xbox 360 controller and a usb mic soo u can talk to ppl while playing games ebay is your friend LOL :p

and while at ebay type in the name of the console like this

xbox360 game lots
soo u can buy a crap ton of games around $30 bucks sometimes box loads for that price have fun and cheers
 
Archaea said:
Mine has 4-6ms of lag two floors up on my Asus ac3100. That is impercievable
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How do you measure the Steam Link latency? If that is just network latency, it doesn't tell you much.
 
Gotta use it too lol. Bought it on summer sale.
Maybe anyone used steam controller, how was it?
 
nice! picked on up on sale as gift for a sibling but, haven't used it much my self. I'm running CAT6A to a NETGEAR 24 port gigabit switch and planning on 2 Ubiquity AC-Pro access points, one of which in the living room. Hopefully some proper APs and a proper switch help bump a performance a tiny bit. The Steam Link is listed as wifi AC compatible with MIMO.
 
I partially set my $2.50 link up when I got it. Just finished getting it all the way set up and using it today.. 2.4 ghz wireless thru a cheap ( roku and cell phones are only wireless connected so nothing expensive needed ) Belkin router. 1080p, casual gaming and ZERO issues. If there is measurable lag, I cannot tell. I thought for sure I would need power line adapters, but nope it's just fine.
 
It blew my mind tbh, i thought delay would be a massive problem with fast paced shooters like COD BO3, Battlefield, etc, but it wasn't, it's totally playable with not a single problem.
 
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