I have noticed that trying to return to gaming mode after a long period in desktop mode triggered a reboot more often than not. My impression was that Steam updates that occur in desktop mode would trigger a restart, when attempting to return to gaming mode. That made the SD feel janky, with long restart times.

Don’t get me wrong, I found the SD to be a very versatile device, priced very competitively (compared to low-end gaming laptops for example). I will likely buy its successor if and when it comes out. As a portable gaming device, it’s the best deal around. As a daily driver PC, it’s okay but not great.

I’d say there is nothing too wild about my peripherals: 1080p60 display, USB mouse and keyboard and the occasional PS4 controller. Everything is indeed pretty much plug n play. However in my experience things go south after a while (sometimes days, sometimes weeks) and get fixed after a full restart cycle. Hard to say where it comes from exactly but the dock is a prime suspect.

Bought these to make the most out of those shipping costs. I do not tinker all that much, but having adequate tools like those certainly is a big help.

I also used them to replace the sticks of a Nintendo Switch joy cons with hall effects ones. I saw that similar components are available for the SD, but I currently have no drift problem, so …

I am not aware of better options than the Huaying fan for an OG Steam Deck LCD. Did you have something specific in mind ?

It was OK but not great. I used the official dock and had frequent peripherals issues which could were only solved by rebooting both the SD and the dock. Turning it off and on again is more a Windows that a Linux thing usually, so that was disappointing.

On the software side, the “flatpak” way of applications delivery usually works well, except when the Discover “store” randomly chooses to offer downgrades instead of upgrades. I used software such as Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, OpenShot, OpenRGB, LosslessCut, LocalSend with no hassle.

As expected, gaming performance on a 1080p screen was not as smooth as the native SD screen resolution. I would not recommend it for games needing a bit of oomph unless you are fine with sub 30fps.

Not sure what you mean. I got this one: https://www.ifixit.com/products/steam-deck-original-model-fan?variant=39723201658983

It was setup as a desktop PC for my kid, (official dock, 1080p display, kb+m) for the last year and a half. Bit of an experiment on my part here, because I was curious to know if it was really viable.

The short answer is: yeah, kinda, but with big caveats.

The long answer is:

• It’s alright to watch youtube, browse the web and such.
• It’s perfectly fine for creative tools (GIMP, OpenShot, Libreoffice, etc).
• It’s unsuited for games kids actually want to play (no Fortnite, no more Roblox as of this year, no Valorant, etc).
• It’s surprisingly unreliable. We have had frequent issues (once every two weeks or so), with peripherals suddenly stopping to work for no apparent reason, or the system being slowed waaaay down. Turning it off and on again worked most of the time, but that is not something I expected from a Linux-based machine.

A few too many superlatives in their pitches for my taste. Not a bad idea overall, though the bias in favor of Rust is strong. Did it really become the go-to (heh) memory safe programming language for performance ?

Welcome, you’re in for a treat !

• If you stick to verified games on Steam, there is little need for tinkering, if at all.
• If you do want to tinker, this well is so deep it can become a hobby in and of itself.
• As for recommendations for single player games, there are so many and often heavily discounted. Somewhat randomly, I’m going to suggest Prey (FPS, scifi setting) and Sniper Elite 4 (TPS, WW2 setting). Get them on sale !