Assume complaints are a sign of cognitive inferiority and offend a significant percentage of the other commenters.
Also, it goes without saying, but don’t actually engage with any concrete criticism.
Well played.
But how do I know if a random cable that comes with a device I bought is just something USB-C shaped or the real thing? How do I know the same thing on Amazon or whatever other big retailer with thousands of cables I use?
The last time I bought one I looked for one with a proper certificate but that eliminated the vast majority of cables on Amazon and I suspect that I ended up buying something ridiculously over engineered.
No one explains it this way for some reason, but USB-C "60W" is more like USB-C 20V. All USB C-to-C cables are supposed to be rated to something like 600V by laws and common sense, and 3A by USB-C spec. 20V x 3A = 60W.
USB-C in C-to-C configurations require all the PD pins working for voltages to be supplied at all. So all USB-C cables that aren't the ones that actually don't work at all should be able to do that 20V x 3A -> 60W. Only in rare cases where a C-C cable is wired to make it look like one by being internally wired as C-A-A-C it becomes problematic since only USB-C has the config pins used for non-5V modes, but that should be actually rare.
I think USB-C shaped thing mentioned in GP refers to USB-C devices, like dollar store Bluetooth speakers and such. For those things, it's in fact not so rare that they come with tons of stupid quirks.
The can of worms is mainly in USB 3.0, Alt Mode, 5A mode, and Thunderbolt/USB4. 3A mode is fine. Raspberry Pi notoriously used a "5V 5A" mode that it's not supposed to be using.
> Only in rare cases where a C-C cable is wired to make it look like one by being internally wired as C-A-A-C
Such cable would have to be directional, so you'd quickly realize something's wrong with it. I rather meant things like "power-only" cable, which can't exist and be complaint simultaneously. I've also seen non-compliant USB-A to C cables having incorrect/missing resistors and causing troubles.
In any case, the point was that this is just counterfeit shit to be thrown away. Take literally any other connection standard and I can also make a cable that looks like it's real but doesn't actually work, it's trivial.
You're right that it's much easier to find a USB-C-shaped shitty device than a USB-C-shaped shitty cable - and it's astonishing how little would usually be needed to make it complaint and working correctly. Since using some kinds of cables can mask some of the device's issues, people end up incorrectly blaming the cables.
I can't believe that a bunch of Markdown files now comes with a "Commercial Services" section. It feels like an elaborate GitHub Karma farm. Everything has to be commercialized and advertised.
I’m surprised by the somewhat positive comments. I thought this was just a chance for insider trading without repercussions. If I work at $corp and know the hotly anticipated whatever is announced tomorrow, I can finally cash in on that knowledge.
And the people losing their life savings on gambling now have one more tool.
But what do I know. I’m probably oblivious to what greatness those Truth Engines will enable.
The Steam Machine is smaller than any case that would be considered mainstream in the small form factor community, at least to my knowledge. The FormD T1 is around 10L for example, and would look almost comically large compared to the Steam Machine.
And enthusiast cases like this are often quite expensive and not easy to get. Then you need to think about thermals, and find hardware that actually fits.
You can approach it form another angle and treat it more like a NUC and get a SoC but then you're probably not going to get close in terms of gaming performance.
So long story short: I disagree that it would be straight forward to build something like this on your own, at the same price point.
