Months ago, I built a video game console for my buddy, with support from his parents (who are my close friends) on the selection of games.

I took suggestions from the fediverse, but I haven't reported back about the project.

I am happy to report it has been going very well. A lot of the obsessive behaviors the kid was exhibiting have reduced. The consistent access has been helpful. He is now seeking variety, rather than just trying to play the same one or two games over and over.

This is all very good!

It has presented me with a challenge, though.

There are many games the kid is interested in that might actually be positive for him, but that require newer hardware than he has access to.

So I'm looking at building or buying a PC that has the rough technical specs of a steam deck, but without the handheld form factor.

Any ideas?

To be clear, handhelds are still a compulsive trigger. We're sticking with desktops and will be using a decade plus old 720p TV as the primary output.

I'm comfortable with new or refurbished or used, but I'm hoping for off the shelf. I don't really want to build the thing.

A NUC would be swell, if there's one that had the juice.

I don't need to *exactly* mimic the steamdeck specs (which I believe would be pretty difficult to do anyway) but the steamdeckndoes represent the rough level of power I'm looking for.

My gut says a 10 year old xeon + a 5 year old graphics card in a micro tower, running steamOS or just ubuntu + big picture mode but... I'd love something I don't have to build!

Maybe the trick is another 2013 mac pro trashcan.

For reference, the trashcan mac pro's GPUs don't have the juice to play even 5+ year old games on low settings under linux, don't bother.