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So, my Steam Link originally shipped to me about 4 months ago. I didn't open it

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because I already have a gaming capable media center PC, which can run Steam in

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home streaming in big picture mode without any help from standalone hardware. And frankly, I just haven't

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had much time to play games lately anyway. But better late than never,

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right?

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The Fenix Oour is a full-size, minimalistically designed keyboard

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complete with gold-plated Cherry MX brown switches. Check it out at the link

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in the video description to learn more. So, in terms of IO, the Steam Link is

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equipped with three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI

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1.4 for video out, 100 megabit per

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second Ethernet, and a connection for the 5V 2 and 1/2 amp power port. That's

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only 12 1/2 watts, by the way. And it's otherwise completely devoid of

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adornments, save for the Steam logo on

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the top cover. But come on, who's interested in the top cover when we can

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get under the hood? And uh okay, well, we should have known that based on the

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2005 class, with the exception of HDMI connectivity, that we weren't going to

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find much in here. The details are actually fairly sparse online with Valve

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not even bothering to put actual hardware under the hardware

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specifications on the product page. But with a little more digging, we found a

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Reddit post and the Steam Link SDK post on GitHub that shed a little more light

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on the situation. The Steam Link features a single core ARMV7 processor

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running at about 1 ghahz. So, similar to the Raspberry Pi 2 model B with a

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dedicated hardware H.264 264 decoder, 256 megs of RAM, and 500 megs of flash

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storage. Though, it should be noted that is not for user storage or games or

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anything. It is intended to be used for the custom Linux- based operating system

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that it runs and presumably any applicable Steam Link app releases that

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are developed thanks to the availability of the aforementioned SDK. Now, as yet,

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I can't find any information other than the original Valve announcement on

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ongoing Steam Link app projects, but let

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me know in the comments if you've heard something that I haven't. While this

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hardware isn't anywhere near capable of chilling and watching Netflix, as the

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kids say, in Ultra HD, 1080, Twitch,

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Netflix, or YouTube should be possible, if not the greatest experiences. And

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surely there could be other interesting uses for it. But enough speculation.

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What does the Steam Link do today? Well, as Valve helpfully points out in their

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short and very adorable animated promotional video, it takes the power of

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your gaming PC, uses that to render

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games, encode the frames as a video stream, and transmit them over your home

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network. By the way, do yourself a favor and use the wired connection. I know

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it's only 100 megabit, but trust me, inh home streaming does not use more than 50

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to 60 megabit per second and better latency and reliability is worth

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it to the Steam Link. So, all the Steam

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Link does is take inputs from the user via USB from the couch and transmit

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those back to the PC somewhere else in the house to control the game. And

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controller flexibility is a very strong point. Your options include mouse,

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keyboard, uh gamepad, or multiples of

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those using a USB hub, or even thanks to ongoing hard work from developers, more

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exotic stuff like racing wheels, thanks to a third party tool called Virtual

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Here allows Windows, Mac, and Linux users to share peripherals over the

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network. Sounds a lot like NVIDIA's Gamestream, doesn't it? Well, yeah,

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actually. But unlike game stream devices

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like NVIDIA's Shield lineup, it does not

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work with GeForce. Now, you can check out my full review of NVIDIA's on demand

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internet game streaming service here. And there are no handheld gaming devices

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that run Steam yet, but it is much

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cheaper than a Shield console and it works with both NVIDIA and AMD graphics

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cards in the source gaming rig. But

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then, how well does it work? Pretty darn well. Well, I mean, setup was a breeze

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mostly, assuming that the Steam Link and

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your PC are on the same subnet. You basically power on your computer and

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make sure it's running Steam, select the stream PC in the list of connections,

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note down that four-digit PIN, and enter it on the streaming PC. Boom, you're

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done. Although, there are some tips that I have to make your life as simple as

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ours was. Number one, use a wire. Number

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two, if you must use wireless, use 5

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gigahertz to avoid common 2.4 GHz interferes like microwaves and baby

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monitors. Your router should have an option to create separate SSIDs for the

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different bands. Just note though that your 5 GHz range is likely inferior to

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your 2.4 GHz range. So, make sure that you're close enough to consistently get

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your full bandwidth in spite of the usual network

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congestion. So, while the Steam Link wasn't perfect at release, that's one of

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the nice things about reviewing a product months down the line. It tells

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you if the manufacturer really cares or

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if they've given up support to start working on the next thing. And I really

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have to hand it to Valve here. Each change log seems to be a direct response

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to the issues and requests that are brought up in the community forums,

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bringing since release considerable improvements to stream reliability,

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enabling seemingly essential features like being able to forget a wireless

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network and putting your Xbox controller to sleep when powering down the link.

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And thanks to another recent update, 32-bit CRC checking to detect and take

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action to correct corrupt network packets for a more pain-free, reliable

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experience. I mean, honestly, as far as I can tell, the majority of the negative

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comments surrounding the Steam Link these days are due to issues that are

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100% preventable, which is pretty cool. So, what about that lag then? Gaming

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over the network. Ah, it sounds great,

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but is it actually usable? Well, yeah.

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After a couple of matchmaker games in Rocket League and blitzing through the

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first couple levels in Metro Last Light, our new writer, did I mention that this

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video is the very first work of a new team member? You can let him know in the

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comments if you hated it, was thoroughly impressed by the lack of any noticeable

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input lag. However, upon switching to

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CS:GO, it did become apparent that there was some amount of lag. So, it was time

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then to break out the Makey Makey and the 240fps iPhone camera to uncover the

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extent of it. Not actually bad, but it

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ties in pretty well to the conclusion that most of you were probably expecting

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here. It's perfectly fine for single player and casual multiplayer games.

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However, I couldn't recommend it for anyone wanting to play competitively in

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games like CS:GO, Street Fighter, or the like. That is to say, unless you're

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playing against your little cousin who's in town for a visit. Which leaves us

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only some closing thoughts. Game support

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used to be a major issue with Steam and home streaming where you'd frequently

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have to run upstairs, click a stupid pop-up box, run downstairs, see if it's

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working, rinse and repeat until tired. But thanks to the Steam Link's ability

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to tab out and use your Steam Link keyboard and mouse as though you are

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sitting in front of that computer, it is no longer an issue. And this also

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addresses really most of the need for apps like Netflix since you can also use

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it for that. Pretty cool. The Steam Link does not replace a console or a

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dedicated gaming PC connected to the TV. Remember that the remote computer cannot

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be used for little Sally's book report while you defeat dragons downstairs. But

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as it stands, the Steam Link is inexpensive enough and once configured,

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easy enough to use that in a house with multiple screens and at least one

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serious gamer, I can't think of a good reason not to pick one up. Crunchyroll

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is the site created by anime fans for anime fans. They offer the most current

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episodes of new shows, plus a large collection of the most popular anime

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series. In their spring lineup, they've got Ace Attorney, Twin Star Exorcists,

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and Rezero: Startling Life in Another World. And coming in summer 2016,

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Berserk is coming to Crunchyroll. And all the content on the site is

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professionally subtitled. Just head over to

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crunchyroll.com/lininus which is linked in the video description and you can

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sign up for a 30-day free trial. None of

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this 10day free trial or 15-day free

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trial. No, no, 30-day free trial of Crunchyroll Premium, which gives you a

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whole month of free anime completely without ads. And if you enjoy the many

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benefits of premium, like 1080p streaming, getting new episodes of shows

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straight from Japan within an hour of their premiere, and being able to stream

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anywhere, anytime from a variety of devices like your phone, tablet, or game

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console, you can continue your premium membership to Crunchyroll for only $6.95

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a month. So, head to crunchyroll.com/Linus and check it out.

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Thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if it

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was awesome, get subscribed, hit the like button, or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code

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to shop at Amazon, by buying a cool shirt like this one, or with a direct

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monthly contribution through our community forum, which is linked in the video description. Now that you're done

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doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering, hm, gee, what should I watch next? And that's a great question, too.

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Click that little button in the top right corner to check out our latest channel, Super Fun video, where we all

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had lots of fun and we filmed it and we made a video and we put it on a channel.

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The channel's called Channel Super Fun. That's where the name came from, cuz it's fun. Super fun even.