How to use Steam Deck as a DESKTOP PC

Hello and welcome back to a new video. So

in my last video about the Steam Deck, I

touched upon how the Steam Deck is great

because you can turn it into a desktop

computer. And I got so many emails and

questions asking me, how do I do that?

Because it seems like quite a complicated

and complex process, when in reality it's

so simple and so easy. The great thing

about it is it's really cheap to do. You

don't need any kind of expensive gear. I

know there's a Steam Dock thing coming out

later. I don't know if it's out yet, but

it's kind of expensive and you really

don't need it because all you need to

create this desktop experience with a

Steam Deck is one simple thing. What

you're going to need is one of these.

Basically, it's just a USB hub with

a USB-C connector. So this is the USB-C

hub. It's also got USB-Bs or USB-As,

and it's also got HDMI cable and an SD

card slot. So when you're looking for a

USB hub, make sure it doesn't just have

only USB ports. You want everything

really. You want Ethernet, you want HDMI,

you want a card reader maybe— that'd be

also kind of useful— and definitely want

USB-Cs. And this cable is also important.

You want this to be a USB-C so it can go

straight into the Steam Deck without

needing any kind of adapters. Now when

you've got this USB hub, you can transform

the Steam Deck into something magical

because it will allow you to basically

plug in anything you want to into the

Steam Deck. You can plug in webcams,

mics, gaming controllers, and obviously

the basics like a keyboard, monitor, and a

mouse. And this is what I have plugged

into my USB hub. I've got a wireless mouse

Logitech dongle reader thing so it can

transmit wirelessly, wirelessly, and I've

got an HDMI cable that connects to the

monitor, and I've got a cable here that

connects to my keyboard, and that's it

really. And when you have all this stuff

plugged in, you can turn your Steam Deck

into a desktop computer. Look at this,

I've got full mouse functionality on the

Steam homepage front page thing, so I can

scroll up and down. Um, I don't

know why it doesn't scroll down anymore.

I think that's the end of the page. So I

can go to Steam, use the Steam button

interface on the screen by clicking on it.

So you can see the back button, and you

can go to library, you can look at the

games you've got installed. I've got 63

games on Steam, most of which do work on

the Steam Deck, apart from the— obviously

the VR games are not going to work. And

then you've got the search bar up here. I

searched something weird earlier,

but you can just use keyboard like that

and it works completely perfect. Speed.

So you can type really fast. You won't be

able to type that fast with the

touchscreen keyboard. Unfortunately, when

you've got the touchscreen keyboard on the

monitor, obviously, I mean, you can't

touch it anymore because it's not

touchscreen anymore. I don't know if you

can touch the Steam Deck and would it

correlate to it.

It's doing something.

No, I don't think touching the Steam Deck

screen does anything when it's on the

monitor. Can't touch it on the monitor

either, but you can use the mouse back and

forwards buttons so you can navigate the

Steam page pretty well like that. So think

of a game you want to search, for example,

let's say you wanted to look for Jet

Set Radio. Wow, is that on Steam?

No way! What? Jet Set Radio is

on Steam? £5.99. I did not know

Jet Set Radio was on Steam. I might buy

it. Does it work on Steam Deck? It says

playable. Some in-game text is

small and may be difficult to read.

Huh, I just randomly thought of Jet Set

Radio. Didn't think it would really be on

Steam. Interesting. I don't know what else

you can get on Steam these days. I've got

a very small desk, as you can see. I had

to turn it sideways so I could fit the

monitor and the keyboard on, otherwise it

kept falling over. Um, what other games

can we test out the keyboard Um,

Warhammer. So yeah, the keyboard evidently

works pretty well. And here we have the

desktop mode where it acts like a normal

computer with Windows. I mean, not the

operating system Windows, but I mean

windows of applications or programs like

Firefox. You can drag it around the screen

and resize it and swing it over to

the Steam Deck screen, which is down

there. So this is the primary screen, and

then it opens up your monitor as like an

external screen, like an extended screen.

So you can have 2 screens. You could be on

Tinder on, on this screen,

or anything else. Maybe YouTube. You can

have a YouTube video playing here, maybe.

And then you can have your, your WordPad

open here. Maybe you are doing some

homework, or studying something like

that on your WordPad, and then you can

also be checking the exchange rate for yen

and pound, which is doing pretty well. If

you have pounds and you want to change

that into yen, then maybe now is a good

time with Japan possibly reopening nearing

the end of this year. Might consider

buying some yen. I don't know, yen is

pretty weak right now, so Anyway,

look, got YouTube working on my Steam Deck

with a 144Hz refresh rate. So as

you can imagine, that's so funny.

So you could be watching YouTube on the

side like that, watching your favorite

YouTuber, and you can be doing stuff on a

web browser here on Firefox. Um, don't

know what else you can do. Maybe there's

like a calculator somewhere. So you can

operate the Steam Deck using the mouse on

this side.

Expand it. I could also bring it

over to the main screen, which is over

here, but the sound is coming from the

Steam Deck because my monitor doesn't have

built-in speakers. And then go full

screen on YouTube on the big screen. And

maybe you can play games. I don't know if

you can play games in desktop mode. I'm

gonna try that, see what happens.

So I'm gonna try opening— what should I

try opening? Maybe something small that

won't take a lot of time to, to open.

Maybe some Cult of the Lamb.

I'm hoping it just opens a game on this

screen and then I can switch which screen

I want it to be on, and then I can just

play the game and have YouTube on the

second screen at the same time. That'd be

pretty cool. I don't know if it's going to

switch back to gaming mode or

if it's going to stay on desktop mode.

Oh, oh, it looks like it's

doing what I hoped it would do. It's got—

oh, it's got the game open With multiple

tabs open. Oh, it feels kind of weird

though, like it's a bit delayed.

Let me try plug my controller in. Oh wow,

it's actually working how I thought it

would, how I hoped it would. So I got

YouTube open here. I guess I don't even

need the mouse because I can just tap it.

Oh no, now it closed the game down. Um,

let me bring the game back up.

This is a little bit fiddly because

there's no tab bar at the bottom on the

monitor, so I have to come back over to

this, the Steam Deck screen, minimize

YouTube again, reopen the game. The thing

is, when I click anything on the second

screen, it minimizes the game on the other

screen, so I need to finish doing

everything I need to do on this screen

first, I guess. So play.

But then when I go into full screen on

this, I won't be able to click on the game

again. Hmm, a bit

weird. See, when I go full screen here,

it opens the full screen there, but then

I can't click on the game unless there's

some kind of shortcut. Okay, I found the

shortcut. You have to hold Alt and Tab,

and then you can switch between the

different things that are open. On this

bar, which is pretty nice. So I've got

YouTube playing on full screen, but now

it's kind of— it's a bit laggy. Look,

it's not smooth. I don't know if you can

play Cult of the Lamb using keyboard and

mouse. Let me try.

Oh, now it's just gone. Okay, this isn't

the best experience I'm having. Maybe you

wouldn't want to do this because the game

is really slow as well. I think because I

don't have— I don't have the charger

plugged in, so it's on kind of battery

saver mode.

Why is nothing happening?

Okay, maybe I can turn battery saver mode

off. I don't know how to do that on the

desktop mode, but it seems like, yeah,

you can play the game with keyboard and

mouse. But the frame rate is so

bad. Yeah, maybe this is where the limits

of the Steam Deck comes in. Or what if I

try plug in my charger and see if it

increases the performance? Okay, so I have

my charger plugged into the USB hub at the

back. See if this makes any difference.

I don't think it would.

No, it's still, still pretty rubbish

performance on this. Look how, look how

laggy that is. Yeah, for multitasking,

even though you can do it, I wouldn't

recommend doing it. It doesn't feel smooth

at all.

So if I was gonna do anything with this as

like a desktop setup, I wouldn't play

games. Everyone's dead in my village,

nearly everyone. Do you like my Cult of

Lamb village? I got bored with this game

because after you get everything and

you've built everything, there's not

really anything else to do apart from just

farm the materials over and over again.

So I wouldn't really recommend this

because this game is— this game should run

really smoothly because it's not a very

demanding game. Can you imagine trying to

play Elden Ring like this? I'm surprised

it could even do it, so I'm kind of

impressed. It's still playing my YouTube

video on the Steam Deck, but yeah, not,

not a great experience. Anyway, that is

how you turn Steam Deck into a desktop and

the various things you can do with that.

It's not the most powerful thing, but it

can get the job done. Thanks for watching

and goodbye.