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Couch gamers - Do you use a dedicated build, In-Home Streaming, or cable run from main PC?

1K views 20 replies 13 participants last post by  Faded 
#1 ·
I want to bring some PC gaming to my living room TV and have been weighing my options so I'm curious what others are doing and the limitations they've run into. I'd still game on my main PC for games that are more suited to a mouse and keyboard, but it'd be nice to play games where a controller is suitable on the couch on the big screen.

My TV is about 30 feet from my main rig, but that's a straight run. Running it through the floor and across the wall I'd imagine it would be a 40+ foot run of HDMI cable. This option would definitely be the cheapest, but I'm unsure if signal degradation would be an issue. Also, I'm concerned with usability being a concern, having to switch to dual displays whenever I want to use it, etc.

Second option would be something like a steam link, but I've read a lot of negative reviews due to latency. Price wise it wouldn't be too much more than an HDMI cable.

Third option is building a dedicated HTPC / steam machine. Cons would be cost. If I go this route I'd want to keep it $500-$600, but given it'd be only for 1080p/60 I think this is doable. This does give me far more options though and might be the most user-friendly and give me the least complications, at a cost of course.

What does everyone else do and what are your thoughts?
 
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#2 ·
I have not had too many issues with my Steamlink.
Latency seems pretty good to me most of the time.
I had some issues when using DSR on a game in main rig, causing lag/latency.
Went back to main rig, changed resolution, no more issues.

As long as you get the correct cable for a 40' run you should be okay.
I have a 30 or 35' run from my AVR to a projector that works very well.
Bought the cable from Monoprice.

Another option for you could be a nVidia Shield Tablet or TV. The Shield TV can do 4k streaming w/ HDR.
That has an in home streaming option as well as a cloud streaming system. The cloud streaming does have a monthly fee however.
That being said, I do prefer my Steamlink over the Shield. But, steamlink is restricted to 1080p so I only use that with my projector.
I find the steamlink to be a lot easier to use and it just works.
I have had a few issues with the Shield Tablet where the controller would not work in The Walking Dead(the first, second works fine!), Fallout4 modded would not launch on Shield, worked fine on Steamlink etc...
 
#3 ·
I use Steam In-home Streaming for games like Rocketleague and other controller based games in Steam. But for running Emulators, I ended up having to build a decent i5 + 280X power system as a HTPC to be able to run Emulators at full speed at high quality settings. I probably could have gotten away with an APU build but opted for more power considering new emulators are coming out now and a 4k TV or projector is on the list of upgrades for home theatre.
 
#4 ·
Have you considered SteamLink? If you have a robust wifi network within the house or can get a physical line hooked up, you'd have a relatively inexpensive solution right there. However, if you intend to run emulators, I think you'd be forced to build a dedicated PC for it.

As for the couch itself, the Roccat Sova is available and looks pretty awesome.

http://www.roccat.org/en-US/Products/Gaming-Keyboards/Sova/
 
#5 ·
I tried Steam Link over wireless and the latency was absolutely terrible. This was my only option given that my modem & router are bolted next to my PC, which is across the room from my TV stand that housed the Steamlink. I heard it works much better when both PC & Steam Link are on the same wired connection. Other then that, the Link was really easy to use and seemed to generally work well. I would recommend it as a solution, if you can get everything on one wired network. It's still not going to be perfect for uber competitive games such as CS:GO, but you're probably not playing them from your couch to begin with.

Also, I tried running an insanely long HDMI cable to my Samsung KS8000 TV and everything just felt awkward & sluggish. I think the TV approach only works if you're using it as a dedicated monitor, TBH.
 
#6 ·
I put together a small home theatre style PC based on an AMD APU.
Using the on board graphics offered by the APU provide some pretty decent results without a dedicated GPU. acceptable frame rates at 1080p in BF4 for example.
the APU's are cheap and get the job done in one small package
rolleyes.gif
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by axipher View Post

I use Steam In-home Streaming for games like Rocketleague and other controller based games in Steam. But for running Emulators, I ended up having to build a decent i5 + 280X power system as a HTPC to be able to run Emulators at full speed at high quality settings. I probably could have gotten away with an APU build but opted for more power considering new emulators are coming out now and a 4k TV or projector is on the list of upgrades for home theatre.
This might be the route I take. Having a dedicated HTPC for emulators seems like it would be an ideal solution. I could make a fairly low cost build and use Steam in-home streaming for any games the HTPC can't handle and if I want to add a beefier GPU down the road I could always do so. Maybe an i5-7500 build without a dedicated GPU to start and whenever I upgrade my main rig I can re-purpose the 970 for the HTPC. You think I'd run into any issues with any emulators without the dedicated GPU to start? Also, have you ever run into issues streaming non-Steam games?
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoolDrew View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by axipher View Post

I use Steam In-home Streaming for games like Rocketleague and other controller based games in Steam. But for running Emulators, I ended up having to build a decent i5 + 280X power system as a HTPC to be able to run Emulators at full speed at high quality settings. I probably could have gotten away with an APU build but opted for more power considering new emulators are coming out now and a 4k TV or projector is on the list of upgrades for home theatre.
This might be the route I take. Having a dedicated HTPC for emulators seems like it would be an ideal solution. I could make a fairly low cost build and use Steam in-home streaming for any games the HTPC can't handle and if I want to add a beefier GPU down the road I could always do so. Maybe an i5-7500 build without a dedicated GPU to start and whenever I upgrade my main rig I can re-purpose the 970 for the HTPC. You think I'd run into any issues with any emulators without the dedicated GPU to start? Also, have you ever run into issues streaming non-Steam games?
Non-steam games that require a controller are going to be hit or miss depending on what API they use to access the controller. For myself, all my games are in Steam so they all work fine, then all my emulators are loaded through LaunchBox on the HTPC itself, but all the ROM's and Saves for PS2, GCN and older are on a mapped network drive. ROM's for Wii, Wii U, 3DS are copied on to the local machine at launch with a simple batch script using xcopy and saves are still stored on the network drive.

As for emulators and GPU, if you want to run above emulator native resolutions, you want to start looking at 4 GB mid-tier GPU's. My 7970 could run Dolphin at 4x Native with 2x AA on most Wii and GCN titles, so a 280X or 380X would be in the same boat. The bigger thing with emulators is the CPU single-threaded performance though. Haswell i3 or newer at 4 GHz shouldn't have an issue, i5 would be nice, no need to get an i7 for an emulation box with Steam streaming though. I run an i5-4570S at 3.6 GHz on H97 and it handles all the current stable emulators no problem. Wii U, NDS and 3DS emulators run in to slow downs in certain games that are just known to run poorly in general though like Xenoblade and Golden Sun.
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by axipher View Post

Non-steam games that require a controller are going to be hit or miss depending on what API they use to access the controller. For myself, all my games are in Steam so they all work fine, then all my emulators are loaded through LaunchBox on the HTPC itself, but all the ROM's and Saves for PS2, GCN and older are on a mapped network drive. ROM's for Wii, Wii U, 3DS are copied on to the local machine at launch with a simple batch script using xcopy and saves are still stored on the network drive.

As for emulators and GPU, if you want to run above emulator native resolutions, you want to start looking at 4 GB mid-tier GPU's. My 7970 could run Dolphin at 4x Native with 2x AA on most Wii and GCN titles, so a 280X or 380X would be in the same boat. The bigger thing with emulators is the CPU single-threaded performance though. Haswell i3 or newer at 4 GHz shouldn't have an issue, i5 would be nice, no need to get an i7 for an emulation box with Steam streaming though. I run an i5-4570S at 3.6 GHz on H97 and it handles all the current stable emulators no problem. Wii U, NDS and 3DS emulators run in to slow downs in certain games that are just known to run poorly in general though like Xenoblade and Golden Sun.
Thank you for the detailed response.

When all is said and done I'd like to have it setup similar to yours with most stuff stored on a NAS and I think something like an i3-7100 + 1050 Ti would work well while keeping cost down. However, with Ryzen right around the corner I think I'm going to hold off a bit longer to see what is brought to the table.
 
#11 ·
Planning on a 55"-65" Oled 4k TV in March. It'll use a 15'-20' Hdmi cable from my desktop pc in the living room. Haven't decided on the Oled make yet. More brands getting into the mix again like Sony and Phillips in addition to the apparent leader LG. Sony released a 55" 4k Oled pc monitor which would be the best choice for gaming imo but not paying the $20k+ for it (it's not a TV, it's a full fledged monitor.)

4k Rig
i7 6700 3.4ghz || Titan X Pascal || Win 10 Home || ASRock H110M-DGS
DDR4 16gb Crucial || Toshiba HD 1tb || Cooler Master 750W || Onboard Sound
32" Samsung 4k 3840 x 2160
1440 Rig
i7 3820 3.6ghz || Titan X Pascal || Win 7 Pro || Asus P9 X79
DDR3 16gb Corsair || WD HD 1tb || Cooler Master 650W || Onboard Sound
27" Samsung 2560 x 1440
 
#12 ·
I was using a freebie Dell Opiplex 745 hooked up to the TV for steam steaming and media for the longest time. Worked pretty well. Now I have box built from an old Athlon X2 5000 and GTX260.

Honestly most old hardware can stream steam perfectly fine. An old Laptop/Desktop is fine. A 500$ build for this purpose wouldn't really be 100% necessary in my opinion.
 
#13 ·
For anyone curious about Steam Streaming, my HP 4510s from 2008 with a Core 2 Duo T7400 @ 2.16 GHz and an ATI 4330 Integrated GPU with 512 MB VRAM can handle Steam Streaming of Rocket League with a Xbox One Controller plugged in over Gigabit. My gaming rig was pushing out over 150 FPS and I was playing on my laptop to a 720p TV in my bedroom and still pulling off aerials. There was some slight input lag, but it was at least consistent and not game breaking.

Now I wouldn't recommend something more twitch style like Counter Strike, but controller based games should be perfectly fine on at least a Core 2 Duo or Athlon X3 machine and up with a decent GPU that can play back 1080p 60 FPS video.

I can try to do more solid testing tomorrow night or maybe even quickly tonight if anyone is interested. I could just stream Rocketleague and record with my phone at 60 FPS.
 
#14 ·
I actually do have an old Lenovo T61 with a Core 2 Duo just collecting dust right now. Perhaps this would be good for the time being for just some in home streaming and light emulation. Might not handle Wii/GC games and whatnot, but should be plenty for NES/SNES/Genesis etc.

The laptop is currently running Ubuntu but from a quick google search it seems Windows to Linux streaming works fine?
 
#15 ·
I built a couch gaming PC for my brother, using an ITX case (Corsair Obsidian 250D) so that it can fit just fine next to the TV along with other devices. So just a short HDMI cable run, router is right up there too. Easy. ITX can be super convenient, I'm tempted to build a monstrous ITX PC one day for myself.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by boredgunner View Post

I built a couch gaming PC for my brother, using an ITX case (Corsair Obsidian 250D) so that it can fit just fine next to the TV along with other devices. So just a short HDMI cable run, router is right up there too. Easy. ITX can be super convenient, I'm tempted to build a monstrous ITX PC one day for myself.
What kind of gpu can you install yo that case?
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by iARDAs View Post

What kind of gpu can you install yo that case?
It can fit full length GPUs (any reference card and non-gigantic non-reference). He got an EVGA GTX 1060 SC.

If the Dan Cases A4-SFX was available in North America, that is the case I would use for my ITX powerhouse. Good airflow (not as good as 250D but good enough), can also fit full length GPUs. Just imagine the look on your friends' faces, bringing that tiny PC over to their house, plugging it in, and playing modern games at 4k 60 FPS as it's loaded with a delidded i7 7700k, 16GB high speed DDR4, and GTX 1080 Ti.
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by boredgunner View Post

It can fit full length GPUs (any reference card and non-gigantic non-reference). He got an EVGA GTX 1060 SC.

If the Dan Cases A4-SFX was available in North America, that is the case I would use for my ITX powerhouse. Good airflow (not as good as 250D but good enough), can also fit full length GPUs. Just imagine the look on your friends' faces, bringing that tiny PC over to their house, plugging it in, and playing modern games at 4k 60 FPS as it's loaded with a delidded i7 7700k, 16GB high speed DDR4, and GTX 1080 Ti.
Cool. In the future I am really tempted to make my case smaller so I can carry around.

Just looking for a case that can pretty much fit my sig rig minus probably 1HDD.
 
#20 ·
I built an i5 system in a Silverstone case in Dec 2015 specifically for gaming in my living room. Scraping around Newegg for combo deals and limited everything where I could I kept the build cost right at about $650. I've found that a cheap Logitech K400 handles all of the necessary multimedia duties. My own personal experience is that for couch playing, a owning both a steam controller AND a Mircrosoft wireless controller helps exponentially (again, this is just my opinion) but will add another $100+ to your cost (so, around $750-800 in my case). If a game supports a native controller, the MS controller is great and gives you headphone jacks in the controller which I pair with some cheap ear buds and they work fine for me. For older games, the steam controller usually takes up the slack, especially if you can find a user profile for the game.

I've not had good luck with wireless mice, the lag + the awkwardness is a turn off. I tried the Razer Turret and took the thing back, I found it awkward to use, but that is just me, some may love the thing.

I used a Silverstone Grandia Series GD09 case and have not experienced any issues with room for VGA (I started with an AMD R9380 and then swapped over to an MSI GeForce 1060.) It is no larger than a typical A/V receiver and it looks decent as well.

Good luck on your build!
 
#21 ·
I use our crappy 200$ laptop with an A10, and hook that up to our living room tv, with a wireless Bluetooth dongle and external soundblaster X FI surround, to stream from my main pc, to the living room. The setup is ghetto, but it works great. The latency across our wireless network, was unplayable. Once I got both machines wired, the lag is pretty much unnoticeable.
 
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