 So my Steam Link originally shipped to me about four months ago. I didn't open it because I already have a gaming-capable Media Center PC, which can run Steam in home streaming and big picture mode without any help from standalone hardware, and frankly, I just haven't had much time to play games lately anyway. But better late than never, right? ["Phoenix O Tour Theme Song"] ["Phoenix O Tour Theme Song"] The Phoenix O Tour is a full-sized, minimalistically designed keyboard complete with gold-plated Cherry MX Brown switches. Check it out at the link in the video description to learn more. So in terms of I.O., the Steam Link is equipped with three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI 1.4 for video out, 100 megabit per second ethernet, and a connection for the 5-volt, 2.5-amp power port. That's only 12.5 watts, by the way. And it's otherwise completely devoid of adornments, save for the Steam logo on the top cover. But come on, who's interested in the top cover when we can get under the hood and, uh, okay. Well, we should have known that based on the 2005 class, with the exception of HDMI connectivity, that we weren't going to find much in here. The details are actually fairly sparse online, with Valve not even bothering to put actual hardware under the hardware specifications on the product page. But with a little more digging, we found a Reddit post and the Steam Link SDK post on GitHub that shed a little more light on the situation. The Steam Link features a single-core ARMv7 processor running at about 1 GHz, so similar to the Raspberry Pi 2 model B, with a dedicated hardware H.264 decoder, 256 megs of RAM, and 500 megs of flash storage. Though it should be noted that is not for user storage or games or anything, it is intended to be used for the custom Linux-based operating system that it runs, and presumably any applicable Steam Link app releases that are developed thanks to the availability of the aforementioned SDK. Now, as yet, I can't find any information other than the original Valve announcement on ongoing Steam Link app projects, but let me know in the comments if you've heard something that I haven't. While this hardware isn't anywhere near capable of chilling and watching Netflix, as the kids say, in Ultra HD, 1080, Twitch, Netflix, or YouTube should be possible, if not the graced experiences, and surely there could be other interesting uses for it. But enough speculation, what does the Steam Link do today? Well, as Valve helpfully points out in their short and very adorable animated promotional video, it takes the power of your gaming PC, uses that to render games, encode the frames as a video stream, and transmit them over your home network. By the way, do yourself a favor and use the wired connection. I know it's only 100 megabit, but trust me, in-home streaming does not use more than 50 to 60 megabit per second, and better latency and reliability is worth it... to the Steam Link. So all the Steam Link does is take inputs from the user via USB from the couch, and transmit those back to the PC somewhere else in the house to control the game. And controller flexibility is a very strong point. Your options include mouse, keyboard, gamepad, or multiples of those using a USB hub, or even, thanks to ongoing hard work from developers, more exotic stuff like racing wheels, thanks to a third-party tool called Virtual Here, that allows Windows, Mac, and Linux users to share peripherals over the network. Sounds a lot like Nvidia's GameStream, doesn't it? Well, yeah, actually, but, unlike GameStream devices, like Nvidia's Shield lineup, it does not work with GeForce now. You can check out my full review of Nvidia's on-demand internet game streaming service here, and there are no handheld gaming devices that run Steam, yet, but, it is much cheaper than a Shield console, and it works with both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards in the Source gaming rig. But then, how well does it work? Pretty darn well, I mean, setup was a breeze, mostly. Assuming that the Steam Link and your PC are on the same subnet, you basically power on your computer and make sure it's running Steam, select the stream PC in the list of connections, note down that four-digit pin, and enter it on the streaming PC. Boom, you're done. Although, there are some tips that I have to make your life as simple as ours was. Number one, use a wire. Number two, if you must use wireless, use 5 GHz to avoid common 2.4 GHz interferers like microwaves and baby monitors. Your router should have an option to create separate SSIDs for the different bands. Just note, though, that your 5 GHz range is likely inferior to your 2.4 GHz range, so make sure that you're close enough to consistently get your full bandwidth in spite of the usual network congestion. So, while the Steam Link wasn't perfect at release, that's one of the nice things about reviewing a product months down the line. It tells you if the manufacturer really cares, or if they've given up support to start working on the next thing. And I really have to hand it to Valve here. Each change log seems to be a direct response to the issues and requests that are brought up in the community forums, bringing, since release, considerable improvements to stream reliability, enabling seemingly essential features like being able to forget a wireless network and putting your Xbox controller to sleep when powering down the link, and, thanks to another recent update, 32-bit CRC checking to detect and take action to correct corrupt network packets. For a more pain-free, reliable experience. I mean, honestly, as far as I can tell, the majority of the negative comments surrounding the Steam Link these days are due to issues that are 100% preventable, which is pretty cool. So what about that lag, then? Gaming over the network? That sounds great, but is it actually usable? Well, yeah. After a couple of matchmaker games in Rocket League and blitzing through the first couple levels in Metro Last Light, our new writer, did I mention that this video is the very first work of a new team member? You can let him know in the comments if you hated it, was thoroughly impressed by the lack of any noticeable input lag. However, upon switching to CSGO, it did become apparent that there was some amount of lag. So it was time, then, to break out the Makey Makey and the 240-FPS iPhone camera to uncover the extent of it. Not actually bad, but it ties in pretty well to the conclusion that most of you were probably expecting here. It's perfectly fine for single-player and casual multiplayer games. However, I couldn't recommend it for anyone wanting to play competitively in games like CSGO, Street Fighter, or the like. That is to say, unless you're playing against your little cousin who's in town for a visit. Which leaves us only some closing thoughts. Game support used to be a major issue with Steam in-home streaming, where you'd frequently have to run upstairs, click a stupid pop-up box, run downstairs, see if it's working, rinse and repeat until tired. But thanks to the Steam Link's ability to tab out and use your Steam Link keyboard and mouse as though you are sitting in front of that computer, it is no longer an issue. And this also addresses really most of the need for apps like Netflix, since you can also use it for that. Pretty cool. The Steam Link does not replace a console or a dedicated gaming PC connected to the TV. Remember that the remote computer cannot be used for little Sally's book report while you defeat dragons downstairs. But as it stands, the Steam Link is inexpensive enough and once configured, easy enough to use that in a house with multiple screens and at least one serious gamer, I can't think of a good reason not to pick one up. Crunchyroll is the site created by anime fans for anime fans. 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So head to crunchyroll.com slash Linus and check it out. Thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit the like button, or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon, by buying a cool shirt like this one, or with a direct monthly contribution through our community forum, which is linked in the video description. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering, hmm, gee, what should I watch next? And that's a great question, too. Click that little button in the top right corner to check out our latest Channel Superfun video, where we all had lots of fun, and we filmed it, and we made a video, and we put it on a channel. The channel's called Channel Superfun. That's where the name came from, because it's fun. Superfun, even.