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ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

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Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#31

Post by Joel_Mckay »

pipes wrote: post #28
Joel_Mckay wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice, the bc-240 is around a GTX 1660 Ti GPU in performance, and some AAA RT eye candy games are less fun anyway... but many still work... so the VRAM requirements are not as big of an issue. People are figuring out what is playable on the platform, and it is a growing list: https://elektricm.github.io/amd-bc250-docs/gaming/compatibil... I was impressed Cyberpunk 2077 is on the list. ymmv =3

I have a 1660 super and I believe it is only a little less powerful than the ti. It definitely is not as powerful as a ps5. Though the original post is saying the bc250 is. I'm not sure which is correct!

It is a silicon lottery if the hidden BC-240 cores are stable when unlocked.

Almost ps5 level, but not quite... still a lot cheaper than a GPU these days, and the discounted racks came with NVMe ssd on each BC-240 as well. =3

Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#32

Post by embedding-shape »

stavros wrote: post #30
embedding-shape wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cries in my ongoing Apple Watch Series 6 battery replacement Seriously, how close can you even put a screen and a metal casing?! Incredibly tiny gap that is impossible to jimmy open. I'm on day 3 trying to get this bastard open now...

Yeah, it's a tragedy that we throw devices away because the battery has a short expiration date :/ At least I guess watches are on the more understandable end of the "hard to repair" continuum.

Truly does suck, imagine the waste... To be fair to the average person though, we're a far away from when you could just pop open the back casing of the phone and switch the battery with your bare hands, no wonder people are afraid of doing these things themselves.

I'm fearing the day my waterproof bone conduction headphones have poor battery health, changing the battery on that will be a whole 'nother challenge.

Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#33

Post by stavros »

embedding-shape wrote: post #32
stavros wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's a tragedy that we throw devices away because the battery has a short expiration date :/ At least I guess watches are on the more understandable end of the "hard to repair" continuum.

Truly does suck, imagine the waste... To be fair to the average person though, we're a far away from when you could just pop open the back casing of the phone and switch the battery with your bare hands, no wonder people are afraid of doing these things themselves. I'm fearing the day my waterproof bone conduction headphones have poor battery health, changing the battery on that will be a whole 'nother challenge.

Yeah, anything waterproof is going to be a problem. I'm curious to see how the new EU laws on battery replacement deal with this.

Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#34

Post by altairprime »

The fan comparisons are interesting. Seems like CFM is the 'peak performance' limiter here, and the P12 specializes in dumping way more RPM/CFM/dBa than the Noctua. The case fan I have, Silent Wings Pro 4, in 120mm goes up to 80CFM with even more dBa at max. There are many more!

https://www.cybenetics.com/evaluations/fans/175/

https://www.cybenetics.com/evaluations/fans/4/

https://www.cybenetics.com/evaluations/fans/101/

Note that if you alter the 3d case print to wedge a 120mm x 30mm fan into it, as opposed to Noctua's 120mm x 25mm, then you can fit the Phanteks T30-120 which hits 105CFM at 43.6dBa, beating the P12 by a solid +30CFM for +4dBa. Its fan noise is described as 'pleasant white noise', as opposed to the jet engine crying baby hell whine that anyone who's booted an HP ProLiant can describe:

> the Arctics actually left HDD temps 1˚C worse than the Phanteks when run at the same speed (around 2,200 RPM) and were significantly louder even at that speed. It wasn't just volume, but their pitch was similar to the 80mm server fans I had tried previously - the kind of sound that echoes throughout my house. By comparison, the Phanteks sound like pleasant white noise, not purely the sound of whooshing but very much like it - and they're virtually silent when run closer to 1500 RPM.

— https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1jpl1g0/quieting_a...

Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#35

Post by 2dvisio »

stavros wrote: post #30
embedding-shape wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cries in my ongoing Apple Watch Series 6 battery replacement Seriously, how close can you even put a screen and a metal casing?! Incredibly tiny gap that is impossible to jimmy open. I'm on day 3 trying to get this bastard open now...

Yeah, it's a tragedy that we throw devices away because the battery has a short expiration date :/ At least I guess watches are on the more understandable end of the "hard to repair" continuum.

Looking at you Withings. My perfectly able and capable Steel HR needs to be binned and repurchased (quite hefty price too) after 8yrs of good use as now the battery lasts only 3 days. Tried to contact them to swap the battery (at a cost) they suggested the only option is the bin... 8yrs is definitely more than an Apple Watch probably, but way less than the Zenith my father wore for more than 30 years.

Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#36

Post by saidinesh5 »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #24
saidinesh5 wrote: post #15

This is a really good card that keeps on getting better. After my steam deck battery puffed up and my RX580 became too old to play any modern games, I had two choices: 1. Upgrade to a new GPU - this was costing me $300 at the very least for a 3 year old card 2. Hope to get a steam machine - but the crazy queue and the $1000 price tag really soured me on this 3. Get a bc-250 for $150 and make do for a year or two befo…

Why not just replace the battery in your Steam Deck?

I intend to.

They don't sell steam deck/it's parts where I live. So the next time people visit me from far away, they'd have to bring one along.

That being said, steam deck isn't as powerful to play some of the games like Spider-Man 2. The stuttering is quite high on that.

Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#38

Post by bigyabai »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #23

This is the finest advertisement for buying a genuine Steam Machine that I have ever seen.

You can put SteamOS on any hardware. Your old gaming desktop, a mini PC, weird crypto mining hardware - it's all a testement to how flexible Proton is.

This project is pretty involved, but by no means is it the easiest alternative.

Re: ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine

#40

Post by tylerflick »

kelvinjps10 wrote: post #37

What case can I buy if I don’t have a 3D printer?

You can buy most ATX (or derivative) cases and have an adapter bracket printed from services like JLPCB. Make sure the material is ABS or another high temperature plastic to resist heat warp.
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