I have never had a PC in my adult age. We had one when I was a kid that I would play Putt-Putt on, but I never got into it much beyond that. I had a Macbook in college and gaming in 2010 on that was not really an option. When I got the Steam Deck, that was the closest I got to PC gaming.

With the Steam Deck, I just used it for gaming and did not mess with the Desktop mode besides setting up emulation. I wanted something that I could dual use as a PC to work on and also play some games. The HP laptop that my work provided was not cutting it. Introduce my time with the ROG Ally X.

Set-Up

Amateur Battle Station

Like I said in a previous article, I tried the original Rog Ally, but I was not a fan. The new Ally X with the improved battery was exactly what I was wanting in a Windows device. I decided this would be my new gaming rig that I could dual purpose to do work on. I finally had a PC Switch kind of experience.

Before the Ally X came, I decided to get a keyboard and mouse. My wife already has an ASUS monitor that she uses in our office for working from home. I decided on Prime Day to order the 8BitDo C64 keyboard along with the number pad. I also got a transparent mouse from A.Jazz.

Finally, for a dock I used Sabrent Multi-Port USBHub I got to play my Steam Deck in docked mode. With all of this, I was all ready to go! I just had to wait for my Ally X to arrive.

The Experience

After 2 months of using the Ally X as my main computer and also gaming, I can say it is a fantastic experience! I do not do any video editing or anything huge like that. My main purpose is writing for the site (like I am doing now from the Ally X) and working on lesson plans and curriculum updates for work.

I have written every article I have released in the last two months from the Ally X. I have even reworked most of our reading curriculum for work as well. It is insane how much faster and more productive I am now with using a keyboard and mouse. The Ally X is worlds faster than my HP laptop.

The experience of gaming for a couple of hours on the Ally X and then instantly docking it to work is seamless. I have not had any issues with this process at all. I just insert it in a dock I got from Etsy, plug in the USB hub, turn my accessories on and I am instantly in.

Final Thoughts

I can’t believe how happy I am with using the Ally X as a PC. It just works so great for my needs and takes up so much less room than getting a full PC build. I also love being able to take it with me and look forward to getting a portable keyboard in the future. Gaming on the couch and then sitting down in the office to work on the same device? What a great time to be alive.

Future plans? I think I am going to try my hand at recording some music next on the Ally X. I have the USB hub and could easily plug in my old Snowball microphone to it. Perhaps another article about this process in the future?

Links to Accessories Used:

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1 Comment

Eric on September 14, 2024 at 5:50 pm
To your comment, I agree that it’s great to have these devices available now. People have been talking up the “fusion” of gaming / work / television for decades now and it hasn’t really come to pass – though it would seem more possible than ever now, with devices like the Ally.
I for one would be interested in reading about your further adventures with the device, be it music production or other non-gaming tasks (that one would ordinary delegate to a static machine). These devices (and even ARM-type emulator handhelds) seem capable of so much more than simply playing video games. Sharing more examples of novel use cases would make for welcome reading.