Steam Server - thoughts?

Bluecube · 25 May 2015 at 19:50

I currently have a Xeon powered home build server which runs a fairly standard bunch of apps - Plex, Sonarr, etc. nothing too taxing. Currently it's a headless unit. I have a couple of PCs and a laptop or two in the house, one of said PCs is a SteamBox. I was thinking of replacing the graphics card in the SteamBox when it occurred to me that I could put a powerful graphics card in the server and replace the SteamBox with something like a low powered NUC and stream Steam games from the server. This would, of course, also be applicable to all the other machines o have in the house. It sounds straightforward. Too straightforward.... Has anyone done something like this before? And am I missing anything obvious?

PS I'm aware the stream quality depends on the network. I'm ok with that...

pandem0nium · 25 May 2015 at 19:58

You might have problems if the server's not connected to a display.

Bluecube · 25 May 2015 at 20:07

How come?

Deathjester · 26 May 2015 at 09:34

I'm currently doing something similar for my home PC, although the significant different is that I'm actually using a PC to stream to my lounge PC.

The only thing is that the "server" actually needs to be running the game locally to stream it, I don't think you'll have a problem with no display since it uses the refresh rate and resolution of the client's display.

Bonjour · 26 May 2015 at 11:44

I have done streaming over Steam to a MacBook Air. It worked surprisingly well.

Bluecube · 26 May 2015 at 14:34

One fly in the ointment that I've just discovered is that only stereo sound is output rather than the 5.1 I'd like for my SteamBox replacement. One way round this would be to rebuild the Server into a MATX cube case and put it in the living room. It's certainly help keep the heating bills down a bit!