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Comment by detaro | Hacker News Reader

And then lug the local rig around the country for the occasional game?

This is assuming that wherever you're going to be has enough bandwidth to support streaming games.

Hotel internet seems to be about 10 years behind the current technology at all times.

Yea this is where I envision this working best for me. I travel for work and have been playing a ton on RetroPie lately. I wouldn’t mind being able to bring a SBC of some sort and being able play higher end games on the hotel TV. I don’t like lugging around a bunch of extra stuff.

You can build a 1080p rig that is about as big as a Nintendo Switch.

Now I'm curious: GPs ~$500, lets say max double the volume of a Switch + Dock, even if we exclude the screen and input devices seems like a quite tall order.

You can build some fairly impressive SFF PCs, but even an InWin Chopin breaks that volume budget if I've done the math right, and it's not a cheap hobby. They to me feel like a class above this.

You could definitely go eGPU + intel NUC and tape them together for 2x Switch + Dock. M2 nvme drives are tiny and I think some boards take laptop memory. You really only need the equivalent of a gtx 970 to do 1080p which probably exists in Pci x4.

Nuc makes a model called a Hades Canyon that is an awesome gaming rig for its form factir. 4k at mid-range settings, 1080p at anything you can throw at it. (And I'll be honest... Maybe I'm getting old, but from 2 feet away I can't tell the differece between 1080 and 4k.)

And double the "just spend $500 one time" initially suggested as being the solution.

Not quite double, I waited for a ~$700 deal, but yeah, you pay a premium for the form factor. If you aren't looking to optimize both performance and small form factor, $500 is reasonable. Less if you can recycle an old case, psu, etc.

I personally can handle putting a desktop in 1br apartment for $200 less.

Yeah, if you're smart about these things and know where to look and don't mind some diy, an adequate desktop can be found for $200. A game streaming service would be perfect for that sort of setup. But I still think the price point for streaming is wrong for mass adoption, and for anyone with even minor gaming interests already (e.g. you've bought a decent amount of games over the years) then being able to use your existing library of games is an essential feature.

Wrong subthread, small apartment isn't regular travel ;)

But I don't think there's need to argue this further, I think the point that there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution has been made exhaustively, by everyone.

I barely find Steam Link playable on my wired home network. There is no chance Stadia is playable on hotel Internet.

Yeah, I didn't want to build so I sprang for an Intel Nuc Hades Canyon, and it was a significant, massive upgrade from my 3yr old gaming rig. And it streams through Hamachi like a champ.

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