Community Who’s got dedicated couch pcs?

Crayon

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May 25, 2019
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I don’t buy particularly high performance pc parts. Usually have budget to middling that keep up (maybe a bit ahead) of what the current console can do. I probably could afford to make a nicer machine, but I actually prefer to maintain two of these modest pc’s. I have one at a desk in a kind of office, and one hooked up to the tv in the living room.

One of the fuckin weirdest excuses to avoid pc gaming is the one where you don’t want to play at a desk. Streaming etc solutions are discussed but seldom good enough (more because the mind doesn’t want to be changed). However, the idea of getting a seperate pc set up for gaming and dedicated to tv use is like…. completley off the table. Madness, even. TWO pcs???!

Meanwhile you can have 2 or 3 self contained computers hooked up there in the form of consoles and not think twice. If you use a computer for work, you can say that computer is pulling its weight already. Probably should be set up appropriate for the work you do. Why is it so crazy to get another one set up for gaming in the living room? However, it’s like unfathomable to own two pcs for alot of potential players.

That’s talking with console players, tho. If you are into pc gaming, you’re probably a lot more open minded about a dedicated living room pc. I myself split my resources between those two moderately specced pcs I mentioned.


In my office, I have and oooooold phenom ii office box with 8g of ram (and ive got a few of those old sticks in a drawer for when one fails) with a nice new power supply and a 750ti. I keep it clean inside and make sure the paste and fans are in good condition. It’s job is to drive two 1080p monitors, handle maybe a dozen open tabs at a time, and occasionally get a little workout in blender or squeezing out a cut of video. It has four hdd’s and four os installs. One hdd is usb portable storage, one with kubuntu, one with Mint and a win10 vm. One with win 7. Two of us share this machine and only use our respective linux boots so things are mostly light and snappy for an old computer. Once in awhile I play a game with it but… comfy couch whaa whaa whaa.


So in the front I have a black, featureless, mini tower. It has an up to date board with a baby ryzen and waiting to be upped to the new models. 8g of whatever the proper modern ram is. Two slots still free to double it for next gen. And an 8g 570 black that I got a deal on. This one has just one drive and it’s kubuntu. This is mostly used for playing games and youtube. I've got a small wireless keyboard/ touchpad out there, but the steam controller mostly does what I need. I have one of those wireless dongles for my ds4’s so those are right there when you need a d-pad. I love having this computer up there! I like it more than my ps4 or switch. For reference, it plays dmcv similar to the ps4 but at a higher resolution.

Both computers have a job, do the job, and were worth the money. Anyone else do this? Nah? Chose in-home streaming instead? Had to cram it into a console like box?
 
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fsdood

Junior Member
Jan 9, 2019
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I was thinking of having a couch PC setup in the future with a great SFF PC build, but I need serious dough to make a great PC build for that and I need a TV with low inputlag compared to a monitor in a desk/office setup. I also hated the logitech wireless KB+M but I never tried anything else. The issue is my case is no money, space and I don't really need it but that might change in the future.
 
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JMTHEFOX

Planning to Be a Game Designer
Oct 4, 2018
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I have a dedicated couch PC in my living room that has an Gigabyte R9 380. It worked fine but after a few years the HDMI ports started to glitch out. Also, the CPU suffered from stuttering


I'm thinking about upgrading it with new case, gpu, Ryzen CPU and motherboard.
 
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Arulan

Lizardman
Dec 7, 2018
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I chose in-home streaming as my solution. The desk is my primary playing location. I like the convenience of being able to play at any other display in my home, but local streaming is good enough for those cases.

I did re-purpose my older build for this for a little while a couple years ago, but it's now a dedicated server.
 
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teezzy

formerly 'deftones r cool'
Apr 19, 2019
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I own an older Acer laptop I keep in the living room hooked up to my 5.1 AV receiver. Works like a charm as a little HTPC setup. Great for Google Play Music (my vintage Polk speakers are beasts) and streaming whatever videos I like onto the tv with surround sound (seriously, I love my speakers).
 
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Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
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Yeah I have a PC hooked up to my TV and its used pretty much exclusively for games. I use my little netbook thing for 'normal' computer stuff like browsing MC.

Whenever someone writes ' I sit at a PC all day, i dont want to sit at one when i get home from work' i die a little inside. What year is this?
 

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
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I have one PC on a couch setup which I use for both work and games. It's connected to a 43" TV, around 2 meters from the couch.

My couch is armless so I can put a small table on the right side. That's where I put my mouse and use it. As for the keyboard, I put it on my lap, whether when sit normally or cross-legged. When I don't need to use it, I can easily put the keyboard to the table. It's also where I put my controller, phone, etc.

I haven't played PC games on a desktop in more than a decade, I think.
 
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Crayon

Crayon

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May 25, 2019
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Yeah I have a PC hooked up to my TV and its used pretty much exclusively for games. I use my little netbook thing for 'normal' computer stuff like browsing MC.

Whenever someone writes ' I sit at a PC all day, i dont want to sit at one when i get home from work' i die a little inside. What year is this?
Hahaha, I just love how sitting in front of a tv all night is somehow a better alternative
Heard it so much and it's still hard to tell how much substance there is to it. The only thing that is going to be super familiar is windows itself, and that can be hidden to a reasonable extent with the nice frontends you can get these days. Steamos really is a good idea. I used it for years and it goes a long way towards making a pc feel more like a console. I hope steamos 3 is badass because it's been a long time.

I have one PC on a couch setup which I use for both work and games. It's connected to a 43" TV, around 2 meters from the couch.

My couch is armless so I can put a small table on the right side. That's where I put my mouse and use it. As for the keyboard, I put it on my lap, whether when sit normally or cross-legged. When I don't need to use it, I can easily put the keyboard to the table. It's also where I put my controller, phone, etc.

I haven't played PC games on a desktop in more than a decade, I think.
I sit on a comfy couch working all day. I don't want to sit at one when I get home.

Actually I had a friend who did most his work just like that. We both had desks but he'd rather work on the tv. He drank a lot of soda. Pepsi.
 
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gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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I have my gaming/programming/etc computer at my desk in the corner of my living room and a C2Q 9450 with 8GB of dd2 and an ASUS 1050 ti (I picked it up from Bronson on the other site) all sitting in this on the bottom shelf my tv stand:



It's ancient as shit (minus the case) and probably causes my hydro bill to cost more each month that it should, but for a media machine and old pc game/emulation rig it more than does the job. Since the case will fit atx, when I do a new build, my current pc, minus it's heatsink will be going in this and the cycle will start a-new, as this was once my main desktop machine.

Saying goodbye to the old socket 775 mobo will be quite a sad day - except for the bios that resets with a power outage, that's annoying as hell and I won't miss it
 
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RionaaM

Vogon Poetry Appreciator
Sep 6, 2018
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Now that I'm living on my own I finally pluggled my PC to the TV, and downloaded a program that lets me control the PC from my phone. Been using it for Netflix and Youtube, and yesterday I tried Wolfenstein New Order with the Steam Controller. It'll be awesome once I get my sofa, because sitting on the floor is a little uncomfortable.
 

MJunioR

MetaMember
Mar 13, 2019
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I have a APU build hooked on my living room. I have been using it a lot more than my main (but older) build.
 
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Alo81

Junior Member
Jul 29, 2019
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When building my current PC, I had in mind that I wanted it easily movable to bring to friends places and to move for a dedicated VR space.

The solution ended up being rather than duplicating PCs, duplicating cable setups - and installing a nice little handle on top of my PC.

My current set up is a Node 202 with a 1080ti and i7 6700k. I attached a handle to the top so its easily movable. I bought USB hubs and multiple power cables.

When I want to play in the office, I unplug one power cable, one video cable, one Ethernet cable- then plug in one power cable, one video cable, one USB cable, and one sound cable. When I wanna play on the living room TV / VR, I do the inverse.

Feels very straightforward and convenient all things considered, and its been much easier to bring over to other peoples places to play. Highly recommend it.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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TV is maybe 1 meter away from the PC, so no. And for TV use, I never found an UI that satisfied me more than 360 / PS3. Windows is so not there it's not even worth mentioning. Steam Big Picture is not bad, but not that good imho.
I'm more interested in building another middle of the road PC to play in LAN with my... uh... mother. I think chillax crafting games might hook her.
 
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Crayon

Crayon

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I use bpm all the time. It's jsut like you said. Not bad but not good. Its fast enough to get where you want to go, sure. But it's no that pleasant to use and the extended functions feel messy. Plus it inherits problems from the desktop mode like store videos not playing.

I know there's other ones to try but bpm is right there and it works well enough. I wish I could change the hue...
 
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texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
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I've tried using BPM a few times. It's useful, but sadly not quite reliable. A lot of times, there are games that would require you to use the mouse whether it's to confirm something or click a button on the launcher. Also, I don't use my PC only to play games, sometimes I want to browse or watch something and I'll use the mouse.
 
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Crayon

Crayon

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I have a APU build hooked on my living room. I have been using it a lot more than my main (but older) build.
As soon as I had a pc on the tv, I was playing way way more pc games in general.

Strangely, I had my desktop set on like a coffee table in front of a love seat for a few months, and suddenly I was playing on that all the time. - With a controller. I should try a controller at the desk sometime. I guess I prefer it more than I thought.

Bless steam controller. I crammed mechwarrior 2 on there. Took a few hours of fiddling but it's crazy to play the game on a controller. The controls are complex, but I made them up so that helps. Most the obscure keys are in a 16 button touch menu. I can put the rudder on the paddles so it feels a little more authentic. For alot of stuff you can get away with a dualshock because the touchpad, but a game like this is where you need a steam controller.
 
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ScreamingTrees

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Dec 12, 2018
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My PC is right beside my TV that has the consoles underneath it. I have the PC hooked upto the monitor and TV at the same time. Depending on the game, I either sit at the desk (headphones for sound then) or sit back on my TV seat (surround sound speakers), if I'm using a controller or not.

I either use Steam BPM or a logitech k400 for wirless mouse/keyboard to launch the games. Playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey at the moment and that's on the TV but Uplay doesn't work well with just a controller so I use the k400 to launch it.
 
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Crayon

Crayon

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I've been playing the original release of MechWarrior 2 couch/tv/controller all weekend.

Back then, if you wanted to play in the living room, you use the console. And games were not allowed to be that complex on console. There were some uncut strategy games coming to Playstation, but those were importantly pointer driven. Cramming something like mech 2 onto a controller required changing up the game a bit. They even tightened up the missions so they play it out more quickly and were all action. Presumably to cater to the console players alleged gnat-like attention span.

Back then I could have never imagined playing the full original release like this. I don't think I've ever enjoyed the game so much as I am now. I haven't played it out over the years, despite my holding it in high regard oh, so that helps.

So comfy!!
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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I've been playing the original release of MechWarrior 2 couch/tv/controller all weekend.

Back then, if you wanted to play in the living room, you use the console. And games were not allowed to be that complex on console. There were some uncut strategy games coming to Playstation, but those were importantly pointer driven. Cramming something like mech 2 onto a controller required changing up the game a bit. They even tightened up the missions so they play it out more quickly and were all action. Presumably to cater to the console players alleged gnat-like attention span.

Back then I could have never imagined playing the full original release like this. I don't think I've ever enjoyed the game so much as I am now. I haven't played it out over the years, despite my holding it in high regard oh, so that helps.

So comfy!!
What kind of devil magic are you using to get mechwarrior2 working with a controller?
 
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Crayon

Crayon

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What kind of devil magic are you using to get mechwarrior2 working with a controller?
I installed dark forces from steam, which somehow makes steam input work on dosbox, and just dumped a .conf file for mech2 in there. So if you see me playing dark forces on steam,its really mech2 lol.

Pretty clever huh? :D
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
We already know PC/couch setup is the bee's knees, but how about bedroom setup?

I have two PCs, one in the study, and one in the living room. This setup works wonders for years, until I started reading VNs more, and lying in bed seems like an ideal way to read those while winding down my night. And thus I need more computing power to make this a reality:


(I joke, but I want to upgrade my bedroom TV to 4K soon, so a Steam Link probably won't cut it)

So, I put my Steam Link to pasture, and I built another PC for the bedroom, with full custom watercooling and low RPM fans so it's totally quiet. No offense to Switch owners, but why game on a piddly 6.2" screen when you can game in bed on a 42" screen (soon to be 55") ?

:wd_p:
 
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gabbo

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I installed dark forces from steam, which somehow makes steam input work on dosbox, and just dumped a .conf file for mech2 in there. So if you see me playing dark forces on steam,its really mech2 lol.

Pretty clever huh? :D
🍻 Heck yes. ..
 
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Crayon

Crayon

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🍻 Heck yes. ..
Yah i got the game fit onto the controller well enough in one evening. But I've been making many changes to make the controls feel more mechy. Like I took the rudder off of the analog stick and put it on the paddles. I'm going to work with the motion control right now, see how it feels aiming!!

I love fucking around with steam input! I always dreamed of something like it.
Oh btw gabbo , dark forces installs dosbox via proton on linux, and it works fine. I tried the same thing with Duke nukem megaton edition (steam, obviously), which installs dosbox on Linux natively, and it didn't work. Makes sense because steam input never worked in that game to begin with.

I'm sure other dosbox games work. But I can confirm dark forces.
 
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Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
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I'm just using the steam link. My TV has a Steam app as well, but the latency is much higher compared to Valve's hardware.
 
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Le Pertti

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Oct 10, 2018
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I used to have my pc hooked up to my TV with a long hdmi cable that I ran through the wall. Thankfully wireless controllers worked also so it was quite nice! But when I got an ultrawide I stopped gaming on the TV all together:D
 
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Alexandros

Every game should be turn based
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Does having a PC permanently connected to a TV and only playing on the couch with a controller count? The PC is still on a desk but I never play games on it that way. TV and Steam Controller is 100% of my gaming.
 
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Crayon

Crayon

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Does having a PC permanently connected to a TV and only playing on the couch with a controller count? The PC is still on a desk but I never play games on it that way. TV and Steam Controller is 100% of my gaming.
Idk. Some others in here have a setup like that.

Uhhhh.... two-headed pc.
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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I use the Shield TV for my couch-based PC gaming. I use a powerline adapter to stream from my PC in the office to my living room. Luckily, the wiring in my flat is actually quite high quality, so the connection is solid. 1080p streams practically lag-free and without any issues whatsoever.

Personally I prefer Gamestream to Steam Link, but I switch between both depending on the game. Some titles just don’t like one or the other.

In the past I did have a dedicated couch PC before, but I opted for the streaming method once I got an Ultrawide monitor for the Mac in my office, which that PC now shares. And before that, when I was living in a studio apartment, I had my desk near enough to my TV, so I used a long HDMI cable with an app in the taskbar that automatically changed my pre-set monitor/resolution settings when I wanted to play on the TV.

Personally, I think the one that’s caused me the least trouble is the dedicated couch PC, but streaming is good enough in terms of troubleshooting (or lack thereof) that it works 90% of the time without issue.
 
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