Store games on desktop, play from laptop.

[incloud]

Simply put, I have a pretty worthy desktop computer that I mainly use for work. The desktop has a lot of unused storage capacity. Although the desktop is sufficient for gaming, I also have an MSI gaming laptop that is connected to my theater system in my living room with a 85 inch TV, xBox controller, and massive sound system. Problem is the laptop only has 500 gb system wide. I'm trying to figure out the best way to utilize the storage from my desktop to play games through steam to my laptop and ultimately play on my theater in the living room without affecting the storage on my laptop. I could keep fighting for space or buy more space on the laptop but why when I have terabytes unused on my desktop. I've read it should be done with ease through Steam but I'm obviously missing something.

 

[Alm]

I think you need to use Steam Link software:

Steam Support :: Steam Remote Play

help.steampowered.com

 

[Zloth]

Trade in the massive TV and laptop for an OK TV, a nice monitor, and a comfortable desk/chair. Put your PC there. Hang the TV above the desk. Play games on the PC with the nice monitor and sound system. If you have to watch TV for some reason, just move back to the couch - having a desk below the TV won't detract as long as you turn the monitor off.

(And that, basically, is my setup.)

Really, though, I think all you would need to do is set up your PC drive as a network drive for your laptop to get what you're after. When you install a game on your laptop, install it to the network drive, which is your PC's big hard drive.

I'm not real sure how well it will work. Network access is going to be a bottleneck. If the game is one that's constantly loading data, you could get pretty bad performance. On the other hand, if it's the type of game that loads pretty much all it needs into memory, then it will be fine. Still, if it were me, I would just use the network as an easy way to push files back and forth. Even the most huge games are well under 200GB, so you should be able to keep a couple if big games plus some little ones installed.

 

[Slasken]

You only need Steam on both computers and be logged in on both. Just click stream.

 

[Zloth]

But then it's using his work PC for the graphics and so-on, isn't it? In this case, the laptop is the stronger computer. The PC is just for storage.

 

[Alm]

I got the impression that the desktop was fine for gaming and the main issue was getting games to play on the home theater system. But not 100% sure what solution the OP is after.

 

[Slasken]

If he's going to use the desktop as storage only, he will need to share the game folder on the desktop and connect it as a network drive on the laptop.

Not ideal, because the loading times will be horrendous, worse than hdd. Better to just buy an external ssd for the laptop, imo.