Has anyone else tried Steam Link and how well does it work for you?

I'm contemplating getting one myself, and I remember Vinny had decent success with using it, except he had a fairly ideal setup (can't remember what it was exactly). I live in a fairly small apartment, and my desktop is quite close to the TV and on a wired connection. I could also just run an HDMI cable, but it would look a little cluttered so I'd prefer not to.

I use one over AC wifi with the PC wired into the router. It works really well. I notice next to no input lag and it was a fairly easy setup. I did not play a twitch shooter, but XCOM 2, Worms, Deus Ex all ran with no issues. I also use the steam controller with it, but any controller will work well. If you are expecting to play more laid back games or RPGs I say it is a great option.

I got one last Christmas, and I've used it almost exclusively for all of my controller-compatible PC games ever since. I've had a great experience with it overall. With a wired connection, there's really no perceptible lag (though I still probably wouldn't try to seriously play a fighting game or arcade shooter with it), and compression artifacts are only really visible in very specific occasional circumstances. Some games still aren't perfect about end-to-end "full controller compatibility" so you might have to run back to your PC to click through a launcher or config tool here and there, but in general it's really about as brainless as you'd think.

I did have some annoyances with the Steam controller the last time I tried to use it (game profiles not saving properly, the D-pad thing just being garbage overall, etc), so I just use an Xbox 360 controller for everything. You can plug it right into the Steam Link and it works just as you'd expect.

I've had one since last year. It's far from my router and was unusable over wifi so I had to buy powerline adapters, which have thankfully worked perfectly. I haven't used it for a while but I'm glad I have the option, I mostly played third person action games and indie games with it.

In your setup, I'd say it would work perfectly except for competitive FPS and fighting games. It's also very easy to implement, couple of plugs and you're ready to go. I even play SNES games every now and then.

Overall I'd say it's not made for a standard wi-fi setup. It may work if you have the best router in the market, but I wouldn't count on it. To anyone planning on a wired setup, it's probably going to work flawlessly.

It's literally been life changing for me, my PC is now the definitely the best of both worlds gaming device that I hoped it would be when I went PC this gen instead of PS4. Having basically a console living room experience with the graphics, mods and installed digital library of a PC is simply fantastic.

It's not going to be as good as a straight HDMI but I think it' easily well worth the money.

But even on wireless I've been able to play games like Rocket League and Mortal Kombat X online with with only very occasional issues that I'm not sure is even related to the link. Might be a bigger issue for you if you are a high level player.

The only 2 minor things I tend to run into is a hiccup in the signal after about 2.5 hours of straight play and occasional minor artifacting/slight compression on some titles (e.g. like Rise of the Tomb Raider and MGSV).

Using a cat 6 cable pretty much eliminated these.

I got two in the house, one for the living room and one for the bedroom. The PC is downstairs and wired into the router on the main floor (802.11ac). It runs great in my situation, most games play just fine except for some reason Doom won't get past the start up animation.

I would suggest using a DS4 controller as it is natively supported through Bluetooth and it can be used to turn the link back on after you've shut it down. Also pick up a wireless mouse and keyboard.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/valve-corporation-1734/steam-link-controller-initial-impressions-1784505/

I got one fairly recently when it and the controller were both on sale (if you want a deal it will probably be in the next steam sale), other then a few hiccups where the screen froze for a few seconds but resumed after whatever caused it was resolved it has worked perfectly fine. I do use it over Wi-Fi since i am running it to the TV upstairs from where my PC is, and it hasn't been a problem. As others have said you might run into a few games where the controller support is not the best and you may need to jump on the PC to fix it if you use a DS4 or Xbox controller. I haven't played anything too fast paced to really test out the input lag, but singleplayer games have worked just fine and i haven't noticed any lag really, but i wouldn't trust it on something like Counter Strike Vs. real people.

Here is a blog post where I tested out the steam link. http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/steam-link-latency-tests-55/113161/

Summary is that it works flawlessly for me. No loss of quality in the picture and lots of options for your own experience. Imperceptible latency if any at all (watch the video in the blog; I couldn't even notice any in the slow-mo video), and it was probably due to the response time of the TV vs the 1ms response time of my monitor. All wireless works as well as wired ethernet (I use wireless now even when I could easily run a cable to it because there's no difference at all for me). The tests in the blog were with the link ~30 ft away. I've been using it a tone since I've moved out. I also use it to stream my desktop to the TV by just minimizing big picture mode. PS4 controllers work flawlessly on it but connecting any controller to it requires some figuring out. To keep it off you have to unplug it which is a pain. It's, without a doubt, one of my favorite pieces of video game related tech that has recently come out.

If anyone is questioning the purchase of the Link because they're worried about it's performance, don't be. Jump on it.

I have my PC upstairs in my room, while the Steam Link is downstairs connected directly to the router. My experience has been... Inconsistent. Earlier this year I played through all of Dying Light and for the most part it worked pretty well, I had a few times where the steam link completely lost connection to the PC and just booted me out to the menu saying the PC was offline. Hadn't used it much since then until recently when I tried out Mad Max, which worked well at first then started stuttering.

It's probably just my set up, there's a few walls between the link and my PC. Could also be that I'm using a usb wifi receiver in my PC that sometimes slows down.

I've had no issues with mine since I hardwired it (Cat7). Was laggy and inconsistent when hooked up wirelessly (my PC is in my basement, my HDTV is on the other side of the house in my living room along with my modem/ router). I'd highly recommend it if you're using a wired setup.

works great - using it wired though - only minor annoyance is having to unlock the pc in order to run steamlink - just means you have to run back to pc to unlock it before you can access steamlink - could always turn off pc auto lock feature I guess.

Cool, I'll have to try it out then, since in my case there's only about 10 feet between the computer and TV, and no walls.

I bought it the first week it was available and they've noticeably improved streaming quality since release. I still see some degradation, but not enough to care. I can't say I really use it a ton since I prefer KB/M for most games, but if you've got games you really love to play on the couch with a controller, it's easily worth the $50.