I Built a $30 SteamDeck...

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

Although I say £60 in the intro… it turned out a lot cheaper…But then again part of my touch screen also doesn’t like to work from time to time. Hope you all enjoyed!

[@markarmstrong2746]

Did you see if the memory can be upgraded? If it can, then I would suggest upgrading it.

[@rughksu]

@@markarmstrong2746 there's no way it can be upgraded it's a tablet plus ddr3l doesn't come in sodimm sticks, it can only be soldered to the board

[@gguy156]

It will be great to have links of covered windows builds. Just in case) Great vid though

[@msinfo32]

@@rughksu actually, ddr3l can be in sodimm. for example some dell optiplexes actually have low voltage ram. i have one myself.

[@TechyBen]

IIRC this was sometimes due to the charge controllers. The early Android also use to completely kill the touch screen whenever you plugged the charger in, and you'd need to unplug it to use it.

[@TheWilldrick]

just a PSA, the SteamOS that you downloaded is based on a really old debian base, it's the one that shipped with Steam Machines way back in the day. The newer SteamOS (based on Arch and with a ton of improvements) is not yet officially released by Valve, but community already ported most of it as HoloISO

[@HearMeLearn]

wait really? I would've thought they've released modern steamos by now for when steam deck users need to reinstall steamos

[@mitlanderson]

@@HearMeLearn the Steam Deck has a recovery image, but an official installer on non-native hardware is still being worked on. The community said fuck it and cracked the recovery image and called is HoloISO (since the codename for SteamOS3.0 is Holo).

[@kevinj24535]

SteamOS was released when you have to reinstall the OS on your Steam Deck. Simply with the program Rufus build a SteamOS usb stick and then reinstall SteamOS. But this version is really only for the Steamdeck and not for other PCs. Valve is still working on the version for other PCs / handhelds. But some programmers have changed this SteamOS version so that you can install it on any PC. The OS is called HoloOS

[@Bubu567]

Steam shoehorned a lot of hardware dependent optimizations into the steam deck so that OS isn't meant for installation onto other hardware in that state. HoloISO is the best available steamOS distro for such a purpose.

[@error.418]

@@kevinj24535 HoloISO, not HoloOS

[@fastrockproductions9788]

The original steam os was trash and it's still trash as valve hasn't updated it. The new Steam os is great. What I would have done for this was I would have used Lubuntu and then just auto started steam in big mode.

[@Cmdrbzrd]

I would have used an even lighter Distro with the Steam gui.

[@EremittV]

HoloISO for example

[@ivan_tty]

just use HoloISO

[@ChrisD__]

@@ZanaGBYT Or just a base Wayland Arch install, game-scope (or sway if that's too minimal) and steam big picture. Base ram usage would be near 0%. But realistically, BBO might be able to debloat Lubuntu, but not do Arch or a custom Puppy.

[@Durkhead]

Lubuntu is pretty light I had it running on an old dell dimension 8300 I think it's like pentuim 4

[@plastichairball]

I had a Lynx back in the day. It was my tablet for travelling. Just pop it open, connect to WiFi and off you go. Emails, remote connections and web browsing sorted. It even ran Half Life and Civ 5 natively. Great tablet.

[@somehow_not_helpfulATcrap]

My Linx 7 ended its life being an always on Discord, Gmail, Skype, and Steam reader / replying device. I'd still use it only I sent it flying off my desk and damaged the screen.

[@Gabu_]

​@@somehow_not_helpfulATcrap what a shame. Could still repurpose it as a wireless server or something similar, though.

[@popcorny007]

I genuinely love these ultra low-power devices. My laptop from high school has a 4W TDP, and can easily last 8 hours with 2D/basic games. When this category of power usage can power 720p60fps high quality gaming, hopefully we see truly 24 hour portable gaming devices

[@protocetid]

Don't know why he used an old Atom, Intel has new ones but the lowest TDP for a recent one is 6W. Another from 2021 is 4.5W. Energy efficient handheld PCs are woefully unexplored. Could they allow for a cheap and small gaming handheld? I can’t tell performance off specs alone. Need me some gaming benchmarks and there are like none for newer Atoms on KZbin. This type of handheld PC could even have potential as an easy and inexpensive way to get into PC gaming (and serious gaming in general), specially for children. I'm not under any illusion that this would play the latest big budget games, I know better. And so should potential buyers, gamers sometimes have a hard time remembering how many old AAA and indies games exist. A handheld PC with very low energy consumption also interests me because it could be small and pocketable, something that isn’t made anymore.

[@aboriginalmang]

​@@protocetidthere's the 2 core 3W intel CPU called intel N50, it's really cheap and will run windows 11 almost as well as intel N100 does, but you cant find anyone making a tablet or laptop with it

[@protocetid]

@@aboriginalmang Intel’s site says the N50’s TDP is 6W, got me excited for a second there. An ultra energy efficient x86 processor would also be amazing for a PC phone. After being so curious if the most powerful low TDP x86 chip (the N100 right?) would be suitable for a smartphone, I finally found a video that talks about its thermal performance. In a small SBC it definitely needed a fan, bummer. Intel is bragging about their upcoming Lunar Lake having longer battery life than the Snapdragon PCs, we’ll see if they’re being honest after independent testers get their hands on them. Intel Atoms based on Lunar Lake could be very compelling!

[@aboriginalmang]

@@protocetid ah i got it wrong then, but n50 has 2 cores while n100 has 4 cores. In practice it should consume less power. N series aren't the most power efficient chips, but they're pretty damn power efficient and more importantly they're very cheap. And you could limit tune the chip in the bios if you want greater power efficiency. Lunar Lake will be way more power efficient, but it's not cheap in any way.

[@protocetid]

@@aboriginalmang Personally, the PC smartphone is more appealing. An affordable and small handheld PC is also fun to think about, the likelihood of it becoming real is also higher. It could also bring back traits that have been lost in the Switch and other handheld PCs, things I hadn't thought about until I saw a discussion about it online. Smaller and cheaper games, yes I know that role has been filled by independent games. They're not always designed around the short and spontaneous play sessions you have on a handheld, another thing that has been sort of lost. If this (dedicated?) indie games machine takes off then developers would change their game design to accommodate this handheld. In order for this handheld PC to have a chance, it would be very important to significantly undercut the Switch.

[@gasoline9456]

Would have been really interesting to see whether HoloISO runs on it. Maybe revisit it "soon" when SteamOS 3 officially releases.

[@rastamouse7861]

Yes!

[@TheOtherAnimator]

Nah they can't count to 3, at most they would release it under the name of SteamOS: Alyx or something

[@Alexander-yp5mw]

@@TheOtherAnimator Holo desktop?

[@GraphicalRanger]

@@TheOtherAnimator lol, tho Steam OS is at ver 3.3 now so valve's improving...

[@sam.bartle]

It doesn't currently.. because the Linx Vision is 64 bit, but has a 32bit EFI bios.. which Holo doesnt support. I keep meaning to see about pulling a 32 bit EFI from Arch and see if it can be made to boot.

[@alexrick5092]

The way you were able to squeeze every last drop of performance out of it, it was genuinely very entertaining and I really liked how you covered every aspect of it. It may be limited to older games, but it can still play the newest ones via streaming. I was really surprised that it beat the ps3 and xbox 360 in some cases. Amazing video :)

[@vamnpyre]

❤️❤️

[@pikamaster001]

I have a Terra Tablet with a Intel Atom z3735f. I saw that it hovered around 90-95°C. After adding a thermalpad, it will use the Backplate of the Device as a Thermaloutput and got 10-15% more fps in League of Legends ( from 15-20 to 22-35 in idle). Maybe it could help it too

[@alphabuilders]

"I was really surprised that it beat the ps3 and xbox 360 in some cases." I think beat is a bit of a stretch to be honest!

[@flock9615]

ps3 can play Skyrim on 720p and it was a console from 2006

[@Gabu_]

​@@alphabuilders more like tied

[@dylan8736]

DIY Steam Deck aside, you look good, sir!

[@zingyyellow554]

I thought he may say 'Get the Quattro!'

[@Talondrone]

@@firstlast6618 Is it bad that - that was the first thing I thought when I saw him with this jacket as well? "Oh my god he looks great - but DAMN does he look like Todd with that getup"

[@randchuck2492]

As someone that owns a steam deck and someone that's been interested in the idea of using handheld PCs for gaming since I was a kid, I think this is still really cool. I remember seeing this exact setup years back and wanting the same tablet and controller for this very reason. Obviously it's not going to come close to the steam deck but for what you paid, a portable ps3/360 era machine isn't bad at all.

[@jbritain]

I had a very similar charging issue with an old Asus tablet of mine! I didn't use it for several months and then took it out in 2019, but found it wouldn't charge, and gave up. At the start of 2021 I took it back out and plugged it into my laptop on a whim, and what do you know, it charged! I use it for Netflix now, it runs horribly slowly navigating the menus but it does video playback fine and has a very nice screen!

[@Ormmwar]

Just take the back off, unplug the battery for a few minutes and plug it back in, put it back together. Had that same issue before with a T100TAF, apparently the charge controller gets confused

[@jbritain]

@@Ormmwar non removable battery and I don't have the experience to try and pry it open. Works now anyway.

[@guesswho2778]

I had a similar issue with my acer aspire r13 (also sometimes called an r7 for some reason), except that suddenly overnight it decided it didnt want to turn on unless i disconnected the battery, held the power button for a minute and left it to sit for an hour or two, at which point i would plug the battery back in and it would turn on. This of course was really annoying so i just packed it away to be dealt with later. A couple months later i decided to try and turn it on again and it did so with no issues. I am now using it to host some network shares and a to host a few private game servers.

[@somehow_not_helpfulATcrap]

There is a big flaw in those Atom tablets. Its something to do with the CPU going into a deep sleep mode and not waking up correctly when you hit or hold the power button or plug it in to charge. The usual fix was to open the back and disconnect the battery for a few minutes to manually restart the system.

[@jbritain]

@@somehow_not_helpfulATcrap funnily enough my tablet is also Atom even though it's ARM based

[@ahmetkemalkeskin5445]

This video genuinely made me happy. The fact that for £30, you can get such a surprisingly-usable and actually capable package for retro gaming and emulation makes me happy that despite the ridiculous hardware prices, there is still scalability in the hardware space. I would love a device like this mainly for emulation and retro gaming on-the-go first, streaming from my console second.

[@DaisyHollowBooks]

Two things I admire about this: You found a way to reuse something and keep it out of a landfill. Second, I like doing things on the cheap. I’ve put together a Windows 10 PC for about $200 that games about as well as my kid’s much more expensive PC.

[@alyctro8158]

Tips to increase fps on this device: Enable either usb or disk cahing (disk ram) or both. Sacrafices storage for little faster processing. Cap the framerate to 30, that way the gpu doesn't stress so much. Do not use the latest gpu drivers, rather try to search for a version that was best optimized for this config. Do some more mild overclocking via an Afterburner and such. Disable any background updates and unneeded services. Download a program called D3D Overrider to force tripple buffering on any direct x game. Get a program called Timer Resolution to reduce input lag. In regards to the display driver, use a clean installer instead. (removes bg programs that come with a normal driver install)

[@livingthedream915]

don't forget ThrottleStop to limit the CPU kneecapping itself!

[@alyctro8158]

@@livingthedream915 OH right i forgot the CPU unpark tool.

[@Rabbit_AF]

OMG, thanks for including the Firestrike benchmark. I ran it on a VIA EPIA M920-20Q running Windows 11 and it scored an 80. So, it's running about where it should be.

[@LakoIsFun]

Why wasn't Windows 8 a choice? It's the OS that these Intel Atom tablets were made for. The lack of Aero and the simplified tablet UI were perfect for these tablets and it ran really well on 1gb of ram.

[@leonidas14775]

Everyone remembers they hated it, just not why lol

[@Bogster13]

Well is probably an overstatement, I had at least 2 Atom windows tablets, they worked, but I don't think I would classify any experience with them as good or running well.

[@LakoIsFun]

It's obviously still going to be limited by the hardware, but compared to Windows 10 (especially *modern* Windows 10), it's nearly night and day.

[@TheSpotify95]

Windows 8... just yuk. Not even worth considering IMO. Windows 7 would be better due to lower RAM usage, and better usability than 8

[@ChristianRogers3]

And 8.1 is still supported by many things

[@Ant_105]

Hope this man is okay, would love to see a new vid from him

[@lazix9769]

That’s what I’ve been thinking 😞

[@oldwildchris]

he is I think, he just retweeted a post on twitter 1h ago

[@emerson-biggons7078]

He made a new video not too long ago

[@rometherevenant8749]

Man i remember this when i was playing on my wifes Razer Edge Pro. This was such a good video man and brings me back to those early pc handheld days. Its awesome to see how many options there are today.

[@AncientTruthSeeker]

I remember that thing. It was the original Steam Deck

[@BIOHAZARD_V2]

This was such an amazing video. I love portables and low end PCs, so this is incredible!

[@SeniorBetro]

i miss you bro :(

[@ropergames889]

What happened

[@Vuknovic_04]

@@ropergames889he died...

[@Kapteinpro]

Same

[@D.G24]

@@ropergames889he took a long long break from youtube

[@slambamcam]

He’s back!

[@EasyHeat]

The iMac I'm typing on right now is a 21.5" 2013 i7-4770, 16gb ram, 256gb Nvme SSD, GTX 750m 1gb that I purchased local "as is/parst only". I did the ridiculously tedious tear down/rebuild and maxed out the specs for a mere additional $40 in parts/tools, and I absolutely love this machine! Sure, the 32gb ram capability of the 27" model (not to mention the easy access!!) would of been ideal, but... I do genuinely get a sense of enjoyment and pride prolonging the life of "obsolete" tech, and this 11yo iMac does everything I need it to in 2024! Cheers!

[@Gadgetman1989]

Oooooh a 30 buck steam deck? May take some good notes lol Edit; after watching really liked the idea of using that tablet, I imagine all the ram is not user serviceable, as most things are but wonder if you say stacked some of the ram chips or see if there's unpopulated parts you could upgrade the unit? Great video my dude

[@scarecrow5848]

If only there was a better tabelet you could use. I would say a M1 ultra ipad, but then you'd be stuck most likely with driver issues if you tried to install windows 10 or something on it. There's also the fact that it would be around the same price as a actual steamdeck so there's not really much of a point there.

[@huskyfluffers9017]

@@scarecrow5848 apple tablets suck for gaming.

[@scarecrow5848]

@@huskyfluffers9017 that's only the OS. Seriously. Everything with the physical hardware is fine. Infact take a m1 max macintosh and use a External SSD with windows and bootcamp mounted on it for drivers and such. I promise you, you'll get something magical.

[@huskyfluffers9017]

@@scarecrow5848 does the turd sparkle is that why its magical

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

@@scarecrow5848 there’s no bootcamp for m1

[@pcmarkpolled1320]

Hey, where are you? . Love watching you do these videos. Awaiting your return.

[@The_Original_Hawkez]

I really enjoyed this video. I like to see what use I can get out of old hardware I have lying around. I wouldn't go out an buy this stuff, but it was entertaining to see you do it.

[@watercannonscollaboration2281]

Mom: we have steam deck at home Steam deck at home: In all seriousness, I’m genuinely surprised to see how well this was running. I’ve tried doing some stuff with a surface 3 (which has a similar cpu but with 4gb of ram) and I can’t believe the Linx manages to run this with only 2gb of ram

[@Herrikias]

I love these creative/unconventional alternatives. In the coming months and years, I'd love to hear about how you've used your Steam Deck alternative, even if it isn't for gaming at all.

[@yashveerthakur7265]

First time I've seen his face. Good vid btw.

[@etz80808yy]

dudeeee where are youuuuuu i miss you a fkn lot, you were my main source of entertainment whenever i ate something alone, come back please!💖

[@zingyyellow554]

Yeah, really missing him.... I'm hoping he's creating all sorts of reviews for us. Hope you're ok...

[@zingyyellow554]

Yeah, get your uni work done BB, we'll see soon...

[@loonyleny]

Dam just spent £565 and all i had to do was all this and would of saved myself a packet 😂😁🤟 great video and can see knock off steam decks coming soon lol

[@joannaatkins822]

This was excellent! I'd love to see this compared to some of your other ultra low budget systems of the past and future

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

I think Digital Foundry's recent Lowest Resolution Switch Games video has proven that Standard Definition is still very much alive in 2022.

[@numbazZify]

I've got myself a OnePlus 6 8/128 for 80$ with a cracked back cover, put Windows 11 on it, bought a gamepad with a smartphone clip, and there you go. Skyrim works well on medium Also, Windows 8.1 is a best choise for those kinda tablets you've got

[@ivanramirez8247]

I really enjoyed you breaking down os and the amount of resources it uses. This gave me motivation to try to install a windows 10 unbloated os on my old laptop to give it a speed boost

[@AshleyFoxo]

I used Windows 8.1 Embedded for a few years on my desktop. I wonder if that would've helped it. I remember about 450MB~ RAM usage at idle. I should have an ISO around if you can't find one. Miss using it to be honest, it was godly stable and fast.

[@Gabu_]

I've finally found a w8.1 peer! IMO, it was just as good as Windows 7, too bad its reputation was damaged by the preceding OS.

[@xr.spedtech]

With Xfce Manjaro ... I still consume 180-250 MB At idle...

[@RyderWestwood]

This is amazing, best bang for your buck with what you were able to do with it. Skyrim on an old cheap tablet? What?!

[@lowqualitytech1216]

I have this tablet. Unfortunately I had the awful idea of putting linux into it. I did anything to make windows work again but nothing. Maybe I put steamdeck OS on it and make it a mini gaming machine.

[@EmergencyChannel]

That's the problem with these Intel atom cheapy tablets, non-standard drivers with zero support. My RCA Cambio had the same problem.

[@FAKEAXIS]

Yeah so you need the 32bit .efi file to install windows again, It took me a while to find one of those files. My memory is foggy but you had to add it to the BOOT/EFI/ on the root of your install USB. This was a weird time where these tablets ONLY ran 32bit .EFI files for the installers BUT used 64bit windows. Or you can just find and install 32bit windows and call it a day since these things at most came with 4gb ram. Oh and also if your boot menu for some reason did not read the USB, you have to use the EFI Shell , its almost like a console and you have to use commands to point to the file on the USB flash drive.

[@BastetFurry]

@@EmergencyChannel, the problem is, this is not an IA-32/AMD64 platform but some x64 SoC that has been kicked long enough to accept booting Windows or Linux. From the Userland this won't concern you, but the underlying OS has to know the quirks and whatnot it has to roll with. I have a Trekstor TrekStor SurfTab duo W1 running Debian and it had cost me a whole afternoon configuring it so that almost everything works. My only gripe, the onboard wifi doesn't like WPA3 for whatever reason, even under Windows, so i have to use a little wifi thumb stick.

[@zakkc6395]

Bought this exact one a few years ago for £80 refurbished, was actually really impressed, used it to play portal and portal 2 mainly and it had no issues

[@matthewday7565]

Maybe a lightweight Linux + Steam client would be a better hardware fit than SteamOS

[@ransacked]

@@Lukeasdf123 yes

[@AkiraElMittico]

@@Lukeasdf123 yes

[@AkiraElMittico]

MXLinux / Xfce desktop / steam / proton will do the work 👍

[@otacon5648]

This is amazing. Dedication to squeezing every bit of performance out of every penny on another level.

[@ZackHab]

there are quite cheap tablets roughly £70, 5 or 6 times faster with petiums, would love to see a follow-up! great video

[@neakmenter]

I’ve been doing this for years with a couple of kocaso brand £30 (new!) win10 7” tablets and some other (ployer and onda brand) £80 8” tablets. All bay trail. New generally use a teclast x80 power 8” Cherry trail tablet. All with iPega controllers. Nice to see others scraping the gaming barrel and getting this stuff done cheap. Ta!

[@lordmikethegreat]

Did you ever try to run linux on it?

[@neakmenter]

@@lordmikethegreat not yet. Been watching the linixium bay trail work since 2016 but haven’t had the time to give it a shot. I kinda have to now one of the kocaso’s foresee SSDs has died - I could try to buy a bga replacement/upgrade but I’ve never done bga work before and that is even more of a time sink… if I do ever give Linux on it a shot I’ll report back. Related: the Cherry trail tablet came dual-boot with an old version of android that worked just fine, but I never tried it for games other than a basic android needforspeed and I needed the Windows space, so I wiped that partition…

[@OldGodOfAsgard]

Such an amazing video, i have a sort of tablet PC myself, mine is equipped with an intel atom x5 x8350, 4 gigs of RAM and 32 gigs storage.

[@NigelMelanisticSmith]

I tried this around 5 years ago, and the slow Intel Atom from the cheap tablet I got and the iPega controller both made it impractical. This solution seems alot smoother than what I put together, nice!

[@KingLamink]

Just bought one for myself off eBay since they look so interesting. Apparently has a dodgy touch screen and a battery that only charges to 41%. Interesting issues, looking forward to messing with it

[@Nuhazel]

i owned so many of these in the past but i never really had the tech or knowledge to properly use it when i was younger but this video has really gave me some good ideas for emulation and portable pc gaming amazing video :)

[@jamesbolho]

I'm absolutely blown away, what a feat. Great content, loved this one!

[@divyanshus7363]

9:06 That setup looks super cozy. Great video mate!

[@forgetful-soup.]

I’m doing this too I’ve been doing it for a month or so keep getting stumped on the windows aspect and also thanks for showing me how did not know that tablet existed so imma buy that

[@chiveicrook]

I have an identical unit which was sold under "Kazam" brand, got it for 50EUR new! Great bang for the buck, perfect for steam streaming and/or lightweight games like Spelunky. Used to stream games off my home PC over the internet when travelling, perfect use case. The only issues are with some versions of drivers, which can cause SD card to disappear or touch screen to stop responding after sleep (usually fixable by reboot or by installing older drivers). There was a compatible accessory keyboard dock but I've never been able to find one for sale for a reasonable price, pins on the bottom are ordinary USB so it's easy to fit some DIY contraptions to it.

[@SeraVenza]

All in all, considering the cost especially, I'd have to say that that's a VERY impressive device.

[@applehazeva2739]

Absolutely

[@tomb3782]

Okay, this is not what I expected, but this was still interesting to watch.

[@rubeusvombatus]

Scirocco with a MiniDisk deck? That's so cool, even though it doesn't really fit IMO. I think it would be even cooler in something like a Corrado but still pretty cool.

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

It is a VW Corrado 😎

[@rubeusvombatus]

@@BudgetBuildsOfficial Just noticed the dashboard looking way too new for a first gen Scirocco... I actually quite like the Corrado which makes this mix up even more embarrassing. Oh, well. Nice Corrado, mate.

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

Much appreciated. I do prefer the pre-facelift interior on the Corrado, but ended up with. 93’. It’s actually a Sony VW Branded Minidisc Player out of one of their Late 90s cars. So fits the surround fa r better than you’d think.

[@rubeusvombatus]

​@@BudgetBuildsOfficial VW branded? Wow, wouldn't have thought VW once offered MiniDisc (dunno why I spelled it with a k at first) head units as an option for their cars, much less in the late 90s. Always thought MiniDisc kinda died off around the mid-90s (apart from in the Japanese market obviously)

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

They never really sold VW branded stereos here in the UK before the 2000s. So most options at dealerships tended to be Sony options. The UK had a surprisingly big minidisc market, similar to Japans. So I’d imagine that some people wanted to Spec a Minidisc player, it comes with the same CD Multichanger as their CD and Casstte options, so an odd option, but an easy one for them to spec in. Didn’t realise they were so uncommon.

[@108kitsune]

I gotta say I enjoy the fact that you build your own car too.

[@fastrockproductions9788]

Honestly shovel knight would be great for this

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

I should have tested it 👍

[@fastrockproductions9788]

@@BudgetBuildsOfficial no worries man but you have it for future reference considering I got it for ya last year!

[@alecrisser12]

For roughly %10 the price of a Steam Deck, this is an amazing success! Recycling a tablet that might otherwise be in a landfill is awesome!

[@CougarCat21]

No more videos for 4 months already. Wonder what happened?

[@David73977]

That is pretty cool. Works far better then I thought it would.

[@lukabrasi001]

"built" my brother in christ, you bought three components made for each other and combined them as should

[@BWOWombat]

I’m literally so glad and thankful you started making videos again. I’ve been a subscriber for a few years and I love your content more than any other KZbinr! Thanks for the great vids and keep it up brother we appreciate you!!!

[@bartekdudek848]

Bro where are you

[@aries0968]

I have and still own this tablet and grip, and was using as a steam streaming station for about 4 years (mostly to play borderlands 2 and Fallout NV while not streaming games from the PC). It got used a lot in the run up to the steam deck release, a LOT more in fact. Now I have the deck its been "donated" (stolen) by my GF... who now after playing wit it for a few months wants a steam deck of her own... ...however your option may be a better (cheaper) idea, as it had been running stock. Wonderful and still very viable little bit of kit bot as a tablet and windows based portable and streaming gaming device.

[@yusufhatake1377]

You should try windows 10 ltsc with the snappy driver and modded driver.

[@sam.bartle]

The switch on the bottom of the device switches the joystick modes between PC (directcontrol) and XBOX (xinput) as well if anyone picks one up.

[@sp0el]

Haha, amazing! Love it. Wouldn't expect that battery life from an old tablet - and I am pretty sure it isn't easy to replace, if even possible. There is a ton of things you could do with a device like that, if only replacement batteries were available. Sure, it won't run anything modern (maybe some 2D indie games), but with it being able to run low settings Skyrim (I know the PS3 experience, that is how I played it on 11.11.11)... There is so much of gaming history up to this point! Heck, for that price, it being an emulation device is good enough. I had an 11 inch 3317U based tablet once and it somewhat struggeled to run PS2 era games (Soul Reaver 2), but I didn't tinker with settings much. Also, it had an AMOLED screen, so after few years ghosting was a serious issue. You gotta respect the longevity of an IPS screen :)

[@aurionson]

The battery is ridiculously easy to replace on those cheap tablets, unlike the ultra thin (read: full of glue) Apple and Microsoft tablets.

[@sp0el]

@@aurionson Is it easy to come by? - would be the next question. I had problems finding replacement battery for Sandy Bridge era Sony Vaio laptop once, and this was a device made with possibility of user replacing the battery in mind. Cheap tablets? Kinda doubt it, but I'd love to be wrong! Also, yeah, I heard nowadays high end devices are a pain to work with as well :)

[@aurionson]

The AliExpress seller even says in the description, "battery size can be customized". This tablet can be my slow 2gb RAM color eReader for years to come, no Ewaste if the battery gets dead cells.

[@andrewlee3037]

Since my gaming budget is basically $0 (or whatever Epic has for free at the time)..I am totally in LOVE with this idea!...However, im not nearly tech-know-logically inclined enough (nor very literate, apparently) so i just have to live this fantasy vicariously through you, which is fine by me, because now there's at least a shimmer of hope that "it CAN be done, if you have the time to follow the video instructions exactly"... definitely Liked AND Subscribed! Thanks dude!

[@Aragon23-p2k]

You can call this the Steam Deck from Wish

[@hotlinefrenzy]

It would be interesting to run community-driven gaming debloated OS there exist out there such as GGos, ReviOS, KernelOS etc. They run pretty neat in limited hardware, and see how performs in a device like this. Genuinely the steamdeck competitor video i've seen someone put the most effort into so far, keep up the good work!

[@MistyWatersss]

As impressed I am by this device, I gotta say Im kinda pissed you didn't even consider 8.1, the OS designed for these tablets. It's really fast on low end devices, because it was designed with cheap tablets in mind.

[@inteli5gamer]

hey! this tablet I own! I (for some reason) love it a heck ton. even though I don't use it that much, its a cool thing to have. I use it to just read the news, do some general web browsing and playing some very casual games occasionally . the gaming part has been taken over by something else. but still I enjoy owning this thing

[@oddvin0000000000000]

Had one of these when they first came out, Absolutely loved it. Played all my indie and easy to run games on the tablet inself. and the streaming features worked really well.

[@aleksandersats9577]

Oh this is quite common. If any tablet/phone lies unused for years the battery can get below the minimum voltage and it will charge the battery at very low current this can take many many hours. You can also just manually charge the battery by opening the tablet if you can't wait or it doesn't take any charge. In this case a USB tester is very useful it shows whether the connected device is taking any current and if it it is that is a good sign in most cases.

[@mohamedmostafamohamedmahbo5706]

I really enjoyed the video For 30$ is very immersive

[@nede7527]

Well done on doing the piece to camera dude. The more you do the easier it will become.

[@JarvinTheJar]

0:51 "I mustache you a question" lmao good one! 😆

[@thedungeondelver]

I'd love to see a Thin Client budget build someday. Loved this video!

[@JessicaFEREM]

You can look it up online, but you can modify a steam shortcut to force steam to open up deck-mode. so the software would be the same on this from a steam deck

[@sunnygalli]

As an american, when he said 60 pound steam deck, I head 60lb steam deck and was like "Why the hell is it so heavy!....Wait..."

[@CrapkinsTheBrave]

I would be really interested in a comparable device. Can't wait til your next one

[@tex69420]

Good to watch this video while waiting for my deck delievery

[@dariusmester]

CeX for life.

[@ItsPikablu]

Fantastic video, it's clear to see the effort gone into this. With LowSpecGamer going more into journalism, there is a gap left for squeezing out performance from low end hardware. Would love to see you fill that niche.

[@KopMike94]

Absolutely brilliant video. With the streaming option it makes it easier to game.

[@Codemantic]

good video, I love those "because I can" projects

[@killx17]

This guy is so british i love it ur vibes always hit after work ❤❤

[@mrcomenttoe2009]

What a build on what a budget amazing nice job dude lots of technical stuff too you got quite a brain

[@user-vn9ld2ce1s]

This is surprisingly "for the price, i would buy this just for the meme"

[@hugojmaia]

I have a laptop with similar specs to your tablet, paid the equivalent of $80 for it. It's incredibly weak. However with enough fiddling around and some recklessness to rip out as much stuff from windows as possible I managed to get ram usage at idle to sit at around 600 mb and the free space to be about 8 gb. That includes disabling update modules and completely deleting every file in the system related to Edge and some other stock programs I don't use. Gonna put it through it's best possible case as a presentation pc on tuesday, got myself a cheap mini hdmi to hdmi adapter and confirmed it's working.

[@eurithmicsrocks]

Never seen this man before but minidisk player in the car is such a flex

[@Oscotron]

its so good to get the budget projects back!

[@laudedbattlecry]

I would honestly try something like Pop! on this. That's what I run on my old APU laptop from around this time so it can play some games and stuff when I want to unwind from studying in a coffee shop or whatever. The difference is pretty staggering, games like Civ 5 or Borderlands 2 barely worked on windows but once you use Pop! it frees up enough RAM to make them playable. IDK if you can still find it because I know that Microsoft went after them but back in college our slim OS of choice was a build called EEE7 that was a special hack of windows 7 designed for low ram, low clock speed netbooks like the kinds that were very popular in the early 2010s.

[@johannes4177]

Very impressed with the outside the box resourcefulness. You should try to make something similar with an easy to find cheap American tablet

[@digglerdiggler]

I have this good 'ol Linx tablet still here on a shelf displayed with other handheld consoles. I really wanted to love that thing back in the day - but it's just too darn slow. In home streaming was basically the only way of using this. But still, a nice bit of hardware nostalgia with the attached controller. The real Steam Deck however really knocks it out of the park. Thanks for putting this video together covering that bit of tech history :)

[@internziko]

Found one of these on ebay back in 2018 for $130 and had a lot of fun with it. It was one of the few dedicated mobile gaming devices of it's time that was able to run PS now streaming. Ended up giving it to my nephew (definitely regret it as he broke it a couple months later)

[@NatInTheHat49]

Love the video like usual and that's a beautiful vintage vw you got. Now I wonder what a $100 option would look like

[@cherylin4u]

Best thing I have seen all day! Nailed it!

[@Trusteft]

PS. For anyone who loves using touch screens and Star Trek. There is a late 90s strategy game, Star Trek The Next Generation, Birth of the Federation. The game has a LCARS for GUI and at least under W8.1 it is 100% compatible with the touchscreen. It's epic feeling.

[@MoChuang343]

This was an awesome little project. Fun vid. Great job.

[@Songbirdstress]

Really interesting, lots of food for thought, thank you.

[@brutzie]

Omg, please more of these types of builds! 😍 absolutely magnificent!

[@Hijaked]

Love it .. make more content pls, your channel has such a good vibe.

[@daxterstrock3319]

honestly the capability of creating your own for even double that price or triple would result in a wonderful little device, personlly i run a JB switch, and if i flashed steamOS onto it, its super fun and fairly easy too set up. that sets you back a bit but... for a mid way point and a little know how, its super cool and a GREAT conversation piece. at the college people always ask me about the switch, no matter the OS on it. ive often thought about doing a set up like this with some extra cash. see what youve done here makes it seem waayyy more feasible now