YouTuber builds miniature Steam Machine using RedMagic 11S Pro Android phone and 3D printed clamshell

What you need to know

ETA Prime built a Steam Machine-style mini PC around a RedMagic 11S Pro, 3D-printed clamshell, USB hub, and Peltier cooler. Using DroidDeck, it ran several PC games at 720p and 30-60 FPS, showing that Android PC gaming is playable on flagship Android hardware.

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PC gaming on Android has taken off over the past few years, thanks to huge development milestones in ARM-to-x86 translation on Android and DXVK. Performance has become good enough that YouTuber ETA Prime built a miniature Steam Machine using only a liquid-cooled RedMagic 11S Pro smartphone as the main hardware to power the device. In games, the liquid-cooled Android phone was capable of running AAA games such as Cyberpunk 2077 at a steady 30 FPS.

ETA Prime used a 3D printer to create a clamshell just large enough to house the Redmagic 11 Pro S, a USB hub, and a peltier cooler, while still having the aesthetics of a Steam Machine on the outside. To do this, ETA Prime created a front panel that mimics the Steam Machine’s, including adding fake USB ports to the front panel. Originally, the YouTuber wanted to add a tiny case fan to the rear for airflow, but the 3D print for the rear fan mount did not come out as planned. To complete the setup, the smartphone was hooked up to a high refresh rate desktop monitor.

Despite having liquid cooling at its disposal, ETA Prime reports that the phone will still thermal throttle with its integrated cooler. In fact, the YouTuber also mentioned that equipping the extra Peltier liquid cooler on the device will not completely solve the issue, showing just how hot the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 can get. The RedMagic 11S Pro is one of the most powerful Android smartphones on the market today, featuring Qualcomm’s aforementioned flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 12 or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a liquid cooling system paired with a 24,000 RPM internal fan.

• Read more: DroidDeck runs Steam games natively on Android, and Cyberpunk 2077 is already hitting 60 FPS

For software, ETA Prime is using DroidDeck, an app that ports the Steam Linux client’s Big Picture experience to Android, while also featuring the necessary translation layers to run Windows games on Android. DroidDeck is capable of running DX11 games using DXVK 2 and DX12 games, though the author warns that DX12 games can “still crash” as the app is still under development.

How does thermal throttling affect sustained frame rates on the RedMagic 11S Pro when running PC games through DroidDeck?

How much does the added Peltier cooler improve the RedMagic 11S Pro’s performance during extended gaming sessions?

No performance gain from the added Peltier cooler is quantified. ETA Prime reports that the RedMagic 11S Pro still thermal throttles with the extra cooler, so it does not fully solve the problem during extended gaming.

Which Windows games and graphics APIs can DroidDeck run on Android, and what stability limits affect DX12 titles?

What setup is needed to run DroidDeck on the RedMagic 11S Pro with an external monitor and USB hub?

ETA Prime’s setup uses the RedMagic 11S Pro as the main hardware, with a USB hub and a high-refresh-rate desktop monitor connected to the phone. DroidDeck runs on the phone to provide a Steam Big Picture-style interface and translation layers for Windows games. ETA Prime housed the phone and hub in a 3D-printed clamshell with an extra Peltier cooler, though the cooler did not completely prevent thermal throttling.

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ETA Prime tested Spider-Man 2, Injustice 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Cyberpunk 2077, all running at 720p with frame rates ranging between 30 and 60 FPS. It’s not a great PC experience, especially on a full-size PC monitor, but the performance results show that PC gaming is playable on Android with the right device. In a previous video, ETA Prime showed even better results from the vanilla pro version of the device, running Cyberpunk 2077 at 60 FPS and Left 4 Dead 2 at 120 FPS.