I <3 My New Steam Link and So Can You!

mistersprinkles

mistersprinkles

Active Member
I got a Steam Link off somebody for $20 day before yesterday. What a steal. They're usually $59 here in Canada. He had opened the box but he hadn't hooked the Steam Link up yet. The cables were unused and the Steam Link still had the plastic on it.

This thing is A M A Z I N G. The quality of the streaming far out-strips what you can get streaming steam to another PC, and it doesn't just stream games. It streams everything.

Want to play a Uplay or Origin game? No problem. Want to watch Netflix? Kodi? No problem. Why buy an HTPC when you can get a Steam Link second hand off some dude for $20?

I've been playing games on it and watching streaming media and the quality is SO good I literally can't tell I'm streaming. It looks just as fantastic as it does on the gaming PC in the other room.

I can't recommend these things enough. Steam is REALLY stupid for marketing it just as a steam streaming box. REALLY stupid. You can stream the entire Windows experience. So worth it. It's a cute little device too.

The box includes the Steam Link unit, a long ethernet cable, a long HDMI cable, AC plug, adapters for Australia/UK/Europe wall plugs. The unit has 1 Ethernet, 1 HDMI, 3 USB. It recognized my Logitech K400 immediately. Setup is idiot proof. Turn it on, plug in an ethernet cable (or wifi... which Valve do not recommend), select the computer on your network you want to stream from and you're in business.

Coolest thing ever. Everyone should own one.

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So this Steam box connects to your network and TV, and I assume you install an application on your computer that lets you stream it to the Steam box? How do you control what you want to stream? I haven't looked at it before but it sounds cool.
 
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Geoff said:
I assume you install an application on your computer that lets you stream it to the Steam box?
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If your main PC has Steam running it will show as a streamable device on the same broadcast domain, kind of similar to how you can use Steam streaming between two PCs with Steam installed.
 
Geoff said:
So this Steam box connect to your network and TV, and I assume you install an application on your computer that lets you stream it to the Steam box? How do you control what you want to stream? I haven't looked at it before but it sounds cool.
Click to expand...

All you need to have installed on your main PC is steam. As long as steam is running on that PC the Steam link unit will automatically detect it. You control the PC from the Steam link. It's exactly the same experience as sitting directly in front of the PC. You see your desktop and you can run any program you want.
 
mistersprinkles said:
All you need to have installed on your main PC is steam. As long as steam is running on that PC the Steam link unit will automatically detect it. You control the PC from the Steam link. It's exactly the same experience as sitting directly in front of the PC. You see your desktop and you can run any program you want.
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Interesting, so how do you interact with the client computer? Can you hook up a keyboard/mouse to the Steam Link, or does it come with it's own remote that acts as a mouse?
 
Geoff said:
Interesting, so how do you interact with the client computer? Can you hook up a keyboard/mouse to the Steam Link, or does it come with it's own remote that acts as a mouse?
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You can hook up a mouse and keyboard, or use a Steam controller (which is the best way to go imo). Here's a full list of supported controllers: http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_compatible_controllers_with_Steam_Link

I also picked up a Link for $20, really good buy. I was using a PC with SteamOS on it for streaming games to my living room TV, but I really like how I can turn on the Steam Link remotely with the Steam controller.
 
lucasbytegenius said:
You can hook up a mouse and keyboard
Click to expand...
This is what I was wondering. Since I keep my desktop in the basement for use with my Vive I don't get to play any traditional PC games that I want to. So maybe I'll look into getting a Steam box.
 
It's like $20 here in Canada too. Can't buy directly off steam though. Valve seems to want you to buy it from Amazon. Totally worth $20.

If I hadn't ordered that large pizza with all those toppings tonight before noticing that low price I would have purchased a second steam link for the bedroom...
 
My Steam Link arrived today. I'm quite impressed with how well it works. I got it all connected and enabled streaming from my desktop. Started testing it by playing Arkham Origins. No video lag and only very minor input lag.

I'l be testing it with GRID and Need for Speed later by pairing my PS3 controller with it.
 
Congratulations! To stream your desktop, click the power button in steam big picture and select minimize big picture. You can use chrome, uplay, origin, etc this way. If you want to play games with a controller which are not steam games, add them to steam as a non steam game first. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas one and all!
 
The only issues I encountered the sound. It worked fine on my desktop, but my HTPC had the on board disabled in the BIOS since I use the HDMI on the video card. Didn't get any sound, even with the receiver on. Had to turn on the on board audio in the BIOS and then it worked.
 
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