Being able to use my gaming PC for work comes with some perks. Whenever the words stop flowing, I can fire up a game without getting up from the chair or picking up another device. My rig is fairly powerful, and I can choose between the latest titles or old classics. As much fun as it is, the experience of playing on a 50-inch TV from the comfort of my couch is unmatched.

I've been meaning to stream my PC games to the TV to get the console experience without actually buying a PS5 (I don't care for Xbox). However, Steam Link lets me turn my Apple TV into a console without moving my PC to the TV room or running a long HDMI cable. It's not a perfect solution, but it has allowed me to enjoy my favorite titles on the TV when I'm too tired to game on what has essentially become my work machine.

I've been a PC gamer all my life, but I was losing motivation

I thought couch gaming would reignite my passion

I've been a PC gamer for over 25 years. I started with an HP pre-built in 2000, built my first PC around 2006–2007, and now use an RTX 3080 PC that's over 3 years old. I bought a PS4 for my brother back in 2018 because I wanted to play The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, and Horizon Zero Dawn. Other than that, it's been a quarter-century of PC gaming for me. All of that is to say that I never felt the need to buy a console for myself. When The Last of Us Part II came out in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, I rented a PS4 and finished the game in a few days. Nothing on the PS5 has convinced me to invest in the console yet. And the less I say about Xbox, the better.

However, over the last few years, I've found myself gaming less and less. I don't know if it's the lack of time, the quality of modern games, or just a lack of motivation. Maybe it's because I didn't want to play on my PC after working on it all day. Gaming used to feel like a delight, and the ability to spend hours lost in another world felt like a privilege. The inner drive to fire up a game, however, began to dissipate over time. That's when I felt I had to do something to fix the problem. I didn't want to buy a console to switch things up, but I still thought the console experience could be the key to getting back into gaming. And Steam Link felt like the simplest way to do it.

It saved me the hassle of taking my PC to the TV for a direct connection. After all, it was still my work device. And I didn't want to run a long HDMI cable from the PC to the TV either. Using Steam Link was as simple as enabling Remote Play in the Steam app on my PC and connecting it to the Steam Link app on my Apple TV.

My Apple TV 4K made everything seamless

"We have Steam Machine at home"

I have been using the Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen) for quite some time now. I switched from my TV's native Android environment to get rid of the sluggish performance, cluttered UI, and lack of software features. However, Apple TV's hardware is also much more capable of handling 4K streaming than my Hisense TV.

Despite not using Ethernet to connect to my gaming PC, I'm able to enjoy a mostly stutter-free experience in single-player titles. I've been revisiting Life is Strange, Death Stranding, and Forza Horizon 4 on my makeshift Steam Machine, and it has firmly put me on track to rediscover my love for gaming. I look forward to finishing work on my PC and moving to the TV room to enjoy a much-deserved gaming break on my 50-inch TV while lounging on the sofa.

The 200Mbps Wi-Fi connection is more than sufficient for seamless streaming on my TV. My TV has a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz, but the gaming experience has been smooth. Steam Link has enabled me to use my PC in a whole new way, letting me enjoy the couch-gaming experience without investing in a console. I would have bought the PS5 had it not been for the woefully lacking first-party library of Sony's latest console. For now, I'm content playing my old favorites and the occasional new release on my TV while the PC handles all the heavy lifting. That said, I haven't abandoned playing on my PC — I still come back for some Cyberpunk 2077, Control, and Metro 2033 action now and then.

Steam Link isn't perfect, but it'll do for now

I'm enjoying my makeshift console

For someone new to game streaming, Steam Link is perhaps the most convenient way to enjoy PC games on a TV. It doesn't require setting up a server on the host device or configuring too many settings on the client side. Since it's a Steam feature, it works seamlessly across multiple devices. That said, it's not without its flaws.

Even in the few months I've spent streaming games from my PC to the TV, I've encountered my fair share of bugs. Sometimes, a game launches with a black screen that refuses to go away, no matter what I do. The same game works perfectly on other occasions. Non-Steam titles don't always play well with Steam Link, getting stuck on the main menu with unresponsive inputs. Then there's the occasional "Slow Connection" issue, despite the home Wi-Fi experiencing no slowdowns.

These issues haven't yet put me off Steam Link. When they do, I'm planning to explore Moonlight and Sunshine to achieve a smoother, more compatible streaming experience. This method requires more involvement in terms of setting up a Sunshine server on the PC and the Moonlight client on the TV, but the benefits are seemingly worth it. For now, Steam Link is enough for my needs.

I didn't imagine streaming games from my PC to TV would be so much fun

I have to admit I didn't expect much from Steam Link before I set it up. Game streaming has always been plagued by connectivity and latency issues. Steam Link, however, worked seamlessly for the most part. I have been enjoying playing my Steam favorites on the TV while sitting on the couch with a wireless controller. Moving away from my PC, which has become my work device, has successfully reignited my passion for gaming.