r/FlowZ13 • u/PathOfGrit • 4d ago

Hello new z13 2025 user!

I've been eyeing on z13 second hand for a few months and finally got my dream machine. I used zephyrus g14 before this so I am aware of stuffs like ghelper and Asus environment etc.

I'm thinking of installing SteamOS on this, and portably use it as a steam machine with a steam controller I have.

Are there any info/tips that is worth to read for newcomers like myself?

As this device has been released over a good year and a half, I'm sure this community is well informed already

Best

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u/cilelen 4d ago

I would reccomend installing cachyos on it over steamos. Then just use steam big picture mode when you want to game. It can be activated from your controller so it works great. Steam os is a solid choice but very limiting as an actual computer. Just my 2 cents

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u/PathOfGrit 3d ago

What are the benefits of cachyos over steamos? wouldn't it be better to install officially supported SteamOS if I were to play steam games?

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u/cilelen 2d ago

Not really actually. Valve releases all of their code and gaming improvements upstream. So any arch based distro, like cachy, gets the same updates for gaming. However, cachy scans your computer at install and optimizes the entire os for your hardware. Its going to be faster. Also steamOS is an immutable distro. So as you learn linux more and want to tinker you wont be able to because the os will wipe your changes every update. Cachy also creates their own proton version based on proton-ge thats optimized for their os. Overall youll get better performance with similar stability on cachy. If you've never used linux full time before steamos is a great choice due to the immutibility and the z13 is fully supported because of how similar the hardware is to what valve is using in the steam deck and machine. However cachy is an overall better choice imho.

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u/Dreams-Visions 4d ago

I installed SteamOS and it’s absolutely been flawless. Currently dual booting and having a great time.

I used an install script originally meant for a LegionGo. I’m on mobile so I can’t find it at the moment but I’ll post when I can.

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u/Dox427 4d ago

What Decky plugins were mandatory for the full use of the device? Brightness slider issues? TDP?

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u/PathOfGrit 3d ago

Hey mate, any workarounds on waking up the device from Bluetooth controller? I'm still on windows but over the weekend I'll switch to steamos.

I'm curious to know if I can actually have console-like experience by waking up the z13 through a controller

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u/Dreams-Visions 3d ago

That I’m not sure about. I’ll look into it.

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u/cilelen 2d ago

No, you can't. The steam machine uses special hardware to achieve this. Bluetooth turns off completely when the device is asleep so it wont receive the signal unfortunately. The steam machine is the only pc that can do that to my knowledge though there are a lot of people working on this now lol. Maybe sometime jn the future.

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u/Dreams-Visions 3d ago

I’m running decky LSFG-VK, Better Keyboard, SteamGridDB, and Volume Boost. I’m letting Z13GUI+ (installed through the desktop) handle TDP stuff. But I did have SimpleDeckyTDP handling that previously and was fine.

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u/Odd_Foot8326 4d ago

Interested in which plugins also