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| Image by Igor Karimov on Unsplash |
It's not because I didn't want a monitor. It's not because I couldn't afford a monitor either. It's just that I didn't NEED a monitor. But sure, gaming on a fancy 144Hz monitor with 4K display, HDR support and fast response time is always better.
My plan for a gaming setup didn't really favour a monitor. All I wanted to do is turn a desktop PC into a entertainment hub that sits right under the TV. I had first thought of buying a low end PC just for playing my old console games through emulation, but that didn't stop me from improvising on the idea. This idea was focused more on entertainment for family and friends. So I went on to buy a second hand and small form factor variant of the Lenovo Thinkcentre M93p and a few other components to upgrade the PC. I had finally made myself a PC that was capable of emulating heavy PS2 games at 720p. I found it very cool to have a fairly powerful entertainment center sitting in the living room (now shifted to a bedroom) that was able to do the jobs of both a streaming device and a regular computer. I had primarily thought of emulating co-op games to play with my family and friends online on the big screen.
But then I wanted to try out PC gaming at the same time too. Gaming on my laptop kinda sucked because it wasn't a gaming laptop in the first place. The BIOS didn't have any option to change the TDP and the CPU (Ryzen 5 3500U) would easily get heated up within a few minutes of gameplay. The cooling system built inside was poor and thus playing games was out of the question. I did manage to play Assassin's Creed 2 but with minimal stuttering even at 900p, around 45-50 fps on average and temperature going up to 85 degrees Celsius. After this unsatisfactory experience, I then resorted to my home theatre PC. The problem was, I also wanted to use a keyboard and mouse for gaming (a gamepad works too, but it wouldn't be called PC gaming would it?). Playing games using these peripherals from the couch isn't ideal. Moreover, the TV was also being used by my sibling and my parents to use my good old PS3 and the Amazon Fire Stick.
That's when I found out about a free software called Parsec. It's an amazing remote desktop application just like TeamViewer or AnyDesk but aimed towards gaming. It lets you share your entire desktop over the Internet with your buddies using ultra-low latency video streaming. You can even remotely access your computer using another PC or an Andriod device to play games and this is the feature I am making use of quite extensively. So, here's my answer as to why I don't use an external monitor. I can boot my desktop PC whenever I want, especially when the TV is occupied, and access it from my laptop or smartphone. You can say that Parsec has turned your device into a portable console as you can access your host PC from anywhere you want. I usually do this in my bedroom. It feels revolutionary because I can literally stream and play fast-paced games like Rocket League on my laptop with the keyboard and mouse (sometimes gamepad too) over a 5Ghz Wifi with negligible lag and stuttering. Yes, you need a pretty solid Wifi connection that has to be 5Ghz to achieve high upload speeds for your host PC and high download speeds for your client device (my laptop in this case). Ethernet connection is recommended but I couldn't use it as the LAN port in my room doesn't work and the router is placed in the corridor.
Parsec is super easy to setup but will require a few tweaks to get the ultimate experience. You need to create an account first and install the app, with hosting only limited to Windows 10. The client apps can be installed on macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi OS and Andriod. You just need to enable hosting for the host computer and it will show up on your dashboard. I just needed to use the TV for the initial setup and haven't used it much since then. My desktop PC is pretty much like a headless server now. When compared to similar services like Steam Remote Play and Rainway, Parsec works far better than these two. Trust me, I have tested all three of them. I've heard that Moonlight is pretty good too. I have been using Parsec and streaming it to my Linux laptop for around 3 months and it's going great. Parsec also has something called Arcade where you can host or directly play games hosted by other users. Very helpful if you want to try out a new multiplayer game for free!
Thus, my gaming setup enables me to play games alone or with my friends, even those who don't have a Parsec account, online on both my TV or any of my devices whenever I want and most importantly, not spend on a external monitor that sits on my desk. I guess Parsec will keep me from not having thoughts of buying a monitor for quite a long time. I am actually using a technology that has improved significantly over the years.
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