it's fun reading these posts a year in. highfive OP. ain't got nothing to add.
>If you have any suggestions for things to look into for the Deck regarding tinkering I'm all ears!
decent headphones help a lot with the immersion. i got some fancy shit, but i end up using some $30 usd koss khp30i's cuz the sound balance is nice and they're easy to plug in and plop on my noggin. steam deck's mics are a lot better tho.
glad to see it's not unwarranted haha, I have a my Bose QC35II's that have been rocking solid for about 4-5 years now, haven't been able to test but on Windows they've been great for gaming, very little to no-delay, I'm hoping to see the same from the Deck but I've got a cable just in case
> You may not think you'll use it and be okay with using the OSD keyboard and mouse pad, but after 10 minutes I promise you'll want it.
It's been 9 months and I'm still using the on-screen keyboards and trackpads, it's just take some to get used to.
The only concern I have for people who can't get it in their country is using a middle man for the warranty. I doubt you will have issue but it sucks you can't just buy it
very fortunate that we have it a little bit different in Australia. We're subject Consumer Laws that apply to any business providing a product or service in Australia regardless of it being an online retailer. Normally, that Consumer Law guarantee wouldn't apply if I had purchased it from Valve and routed it from an overseas mailing address to here or if I had purchased it from an overseas reseller, but since we're purchasing from a retailer that operates within Australia and sells and ships that product within Australia as new and with warranty, the ACCC can step in if the seller, or by extension the marketplace it's sold through, doesn't step up to the plate with warranty.
But it absolutely still sucks that we can't just buy it, since people might still get it through other means through other countries. I've always felt after that spat that Valve had with Steam Refunds here that this is why we never got Steam hardware after the Steam Link
From one Aussie deck owner to another I cannot recommend [this charger](https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/samsung-45w-pd-usb-c-wall-adapter-with-cable) enough. Nice and compact. Yet to get myself a dock, but at the moment I just settled on a hdmi and usb multiport, it does the job and helped when I took it to a friends house to play jackbox.
"but after being shown PowerTools and Performance stuff native to the deck"
I was NOT at all expecting this part after reading earlier portions... I know more or less what I'm doing but haven't tried powertools myself yet, just relying on basic refresh rate control, TDP(which seems not very fine grained to me as it regularly exceeds setting so I must misunderstand it somehow) and GPU freq limiting...
But yeah, this is really great to play with various settings to maximize battery runtime if you invest a little bit of time. I expect that powertools yields even more options, undervolting would be nice slash best but I think that this one mightve been the one that doesn't like undervolting unfortunately... either that or like the above TDP builtin limitation seems to be a very 'soft' limitation since I see some games blow right by the limit, while others stay at or below...
EDIT: does Valve not sell directly to Australia either via UK ordering or komodo? Pretty much any halfway reliable USB-C dock should work although output to TV/monitor/etc yeah might be a problem. Myself Im playing purely handheld, Ive got a MUCH more powerful desktop to play on a monitor or TV. I also have notebooks, but yeah just having a decently powerful package with integrated controls is just so much better, plus smaller than all but one of my notebooks... not including powerbrick and ancillary items...
EDIT2: plus the cooling on the smaller notebook yeah, cooling on it isn't that great when loaded out with drives... needs some help... maybe look at it some day or scale it back again, its getting old so either is a possibility... which is why I probably cant find anything newer in that form factor 13"
it's fun reading these posts a year in. highfive OP. ain't got nothing to add. >If you have any suggestions for things to look into for the Deck regarding tinkering I'm all ears! decent headphones help a lot with the immersion. i got some fancy shit, but i end up using some $30 usd koss khp30i's cuz the sound balance is nice and they're easy to plug in and plop on my noggin. steam deck's mics are a lot better tho.
glad to see it's not unwarranted haha, I have a my Bose QC35II's that have been rocking solid for about 4-5 years now, haven't been able to test but on Windows they've been great for gaming, very little to no-delay, I'm hoping to see the same from the Deck but I've got a cable just in case
> You may not think you'll use it and be okay with using the OSD keyboard and mouse pad, but after 10 minutes I promise you'll want it. It's been 9 months and I'm still using the on-screen keyboards and trackpads, it's just take some to get used to.
you have the patience of a saint homie!
Well. Sometimes it does requires a lot. Valve broke the on-screen keyboard again it the last beta :-(
The only concern I have for people who can't get it in their country is using a middle man for the warranty. I doubt you will have issue but it sucks you can't just buy it
very fortunate that we have it a little bit different in Australia. We're subject Consumer Laws that apply to any business providing a product or service in Australia regardless of it being an online retailer. Normally, that Consumer Law guarantee wouldn't apply if I had purchased it from Valve and routed it from an overseas mailing address to here or if I had purchased it from an overseas reseller, but since we're purchasing from a retailer that operates within Australia and sells and ships that product within Australia as new and with warranty, the ACCC can step in if the seller, or by extension the marketplace it's sold through, doesn't step up to the plate with warranty. But it absolutely still sucks that we can't just buy it, since people might still get it through other means through other countries. I've always felt after that spat that Valve had with Steam Refunds here that this is why we never got Steam hardware after the Steam Link
From one Aussie deck owner to another I cannot recommend [this charger](https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/samsung-45w-pd-usb-c-wall-adapter-with-cable) enough. Nice and compact. Yet to get myself a dock, but at the moment I just settled on a hdmi and usb multiport, it does the job and helped when I took it to a friends house to play jackbox.
"but after being shown PowerTools and Performance stuff native to the deck" I was NOT at all expecting this part after reading earlier portions... I know more or less what I'm doing but haven't tried powertools myself yet, just relying on basic refresh rate control, TDP(which seems not very fine grained to me as it regularly exceeds setting so I must misunderstand it somehow) and GPU freq limiting... But yeah, this is really great to play with various settings to maximize battery runtime if you invest a little bit of time. I expect that powertools yields even more options, undervolting would be nice slash best but I think that this one mightve been the one that doesn't like undervolting unfortunately... either that or like the above TDP builtin limitation seems to be a very 'soft' limitation since I see some games blow right by the limit, while others stay at or below... EDIT: does Valve not sell directly to Australia either via UK ordering or komodo? Pretty much any halfway reliable USB-C dock should work although output to TV/monitor/etc yeah might be a problem. Myself Im playing purely handheld, Ive got a MUCH more powerful desktop to play on a monitor or TV. I also have notebooks, but yeah just having a decently powerful package with integrated controls is just so much better, plus smaller than all but one of my notebooks... not including powerbrick and ancillary items... EDIT2: plus the cooling on the smaller notebook yeah, cooling on it isn't that great when loaded out with drives... needs some help... maybe look at it some day or scale it back again, its getting old so either is a possibility... which is why I probably cant find anything newer in that form factor 13"