Help build private gaming cloud server

[MacBH928]

Greetings.

I like to use Macs but they do not run games. I thought I would buy a headless gaming PC and make it a private cloud gaming server except there doesn't seem to be much information on that. Basically I want to turn the PC on and play on my mac laptop on the local wifi network.

I heard there is Steam Remote Play but that is only Steam library. I would like to play anything possible on Windows including GOG, retro games, and emulation. Its very important that any controls will work too but I would like to use retro controllers. I heard there is options like Parsec and Moonlight. I am not up for setting something complex like TruNAS, I want something closer to launching an app on host+client and "it just works" !

As for the hardware I am completely lost. I am completely out of the game when it comes to CPUs,GPUs, Motherboard, case etc. Looking for something that play modern games but not over spending for something that plays 8K 120FPS. My target budget is arond $600-700 mark.

I would also like to double it as a Plex server and possible Mac backup storage but I wouldn't like Microsoft to snoop on my personal files.

any one has or tried a similar setup? In the past I tried VNC and it kind of moved in slow motion.

 

[keeper]

My mate uses this

Sunshine | LizardByte

A LizardByte project

app.lizardbyte.dev

Sunshine is a self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight. Offering low latency, cloud gaming server capabilities with support for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs for hardware encoding. Software encoding is also available. You can connect to Sunshine from any Moonlight client on a variety of devices. A web UI is provided to allow configuration, and client pairing, from your favorite web browser.

 

[LeeW]

I heard there is Steam Remote Play but that is only Steam library.

It's not just the Steam library. You can stream anything from the PC to your laptop, whether it's in your Steam Library or not. It's what I do to play PC games on my Mac. You just use the Add a game option in the bottom left (Add a Non-Steam Game).

 

[MacBH928]

My mate uses this

Sunshine | LizardByte

A LizardByte project

app.lizardbyte.dev

Sunshine is a self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight. Offering low latency, cloud gaming server capabilities with support for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs for hardware encoding. Software encoding is also available. You can connect to Sunshine from any Moonlight client on a variety of devices. A web UI is provided to allow configuration, and client pairing, from your favorite web browser.

wow, this is exactly what i wanted thanks!

any advice on hardware? I would like to at least run Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 capability. Not sure if buying a few years old high end PC is the answer. I looked up online and it says a mid-range PC would cost me around $1300 which is totally out of my budget but understandable given the specs. In fact I would consider it cheap if it was my main computer for the next 5-7 years.

 

[MacBH928]

It's not just the Steam library. You can stream anything from the PC to your laptop, whether it's in your Steam Library or not. It's what I do to play PC games on my Mac. You just use the Add a game option in the bottom left (Add a Non-Steam Game).

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like can it stream apps? I wonder how it compares to Sunshine