The $450 Gaming Setup That Replaces Your Laptop: ROG Ally Z1 Extreme Docked

Here’s how the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme stands out as one of the most portable and powerful under $450 gaming setups.

Have you spent most of your time scouring the internet for a laptop that could do it all? Playing with friends in your free time, incredibly responsive to your content research/writing work, and incredible software support?.

Right now, there’s an uncomfortable truth about laptops, especially the budget ones. They have quietly become terrible value. Most entry-level gaming machines today cost around $800 to $1000 but offer little to nothing, struggling to push decent frame rates at 1080p, lagging, overheating, and then you’d have to deal with the warranty hassle if anything goes wrong.

Meanwhile, there is a silent all-rounder available as a handheld that costs half as much as these laptops and fully meets all your requirements.

This guide isn’t about handles; it’s about quoting which one is better among others. Nor is this about laptops, comparing XYZ and so on; this is more about a perfect portable device that can do anything you throw at it—a legitimate desktop gaming setup that costs half as much as those budget laptops yet performs exceptionally well and offers portability.

Read More: How To Dual Boot Windows and Linux

Building the $450 Gaming Setup

You don’t need a premium dock with custom cables, a new monitor, or anything else. If you already own a keyboard, a mouse, and a display, your entire setup is pretty much reused here. However, that one thing you need is the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme.

Here’s the breakdown:

• ROG Ally Z1 Extreme – around $450 (on discount right now)
• USB-C dock with power pass-through – $30 to $40
• Keyboard and mouse – free, you already have them
• Monitor – same deal, just plug it in
• Steam OS / Bazzite or any other Linux distro flashed to a bootable USB device

And that will be it. Steam OS, Bazzite, or any other Linux distro is compulsory, since Windows with 16GB of RAM is slowly becoming outdated, and multitasking can be challenging. However, on Linux, thanks to optimizations, 16GB is plenty. With this software-side aid and a few others, including better Radeon Mesa Drivers, the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme becomes a compelling and portable device.

Why the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme Wins on Paper

After you have fully set up Steam OS on the Z1 Extreme, things will get really interesting. Under the Z1’s hood is a Zen 4 (8 cores, 16 threads) CPU, with 24MB of cache. The GPU is a Radeon 780M. Now, if you search for a laptop with these iGPUs, you will be pleasantly surprised by how poorly they are marketed. The good ones, such as the HP Omnibook and the Lenovo Yoga 7 Pro, cost more than $1200. The rest have 8 cores, but in terms of cache and iGPU performance, they come nowhere near. Manufacturers mark up the AI slogan and jack up the pricing.

The Z1 Extreme cuts to the chase. Since it’s a handheld, it already has a screen and a good battery. Yes, it’s a gaming device, but it’s not locked down like Apple; you can attach a dock and do whatever you want with it. As a result, using this particular handheld with Steam OS or any given Linux distro makes it literally the best device money can buy.

Device	GPU	CPU Cores	Price	Docking Support
ROG Ally Z1 Extreme	12 CU 780M	8 Zen 4	$450	Excellent (USB-C)
Steam Deck OLED	8 CU RDNA 2 (Van Gog)	8 Zen 2	$649	Minimal
Ryzen 5 7520U Laptop	2 CU Radeon 610M	4 Zen 4	$400-500	Yes
Ryzen 7 8840U Laptop	12 CU Radeon 780M	8 Zen 4	$850	Yes

ROG Ally Z1 Docked Performance vs Budget Gaming Laptops

Note: These figures are approximations and sourced from publicly available sources. Real-world performance varies due to factors such as cooling solutions, OS, driver versions, power limits, resolution/upscaling settings, and game optimization.

Mode / Device	Power Mode	Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p)	Forza Horizon 5 (1080p)	Elden Ring (1080p)
Ally Z1 Extreme (Handheld)	Battery-constrained mode	~ 35-45 FPS	~ 40-50 FPS	~ 50 FPS
Ally Z1 Extreme (Docked, USB Power)	Moderate TDP	~ 45-50 FPS	~ 50-55 FPS	~ 55-60 FPS
Ally Z1 Extreme (Docked, AC + Turbo Mode)	Higher TDP/thermal headroom	~ 55-60 FPS	~ 60 FPS	~ 60 FPS
Typical ~$600 Laptop (e.g., Ryzen 7 8840U + Radeon 780M)	Standard laptop TDP	~ 60-65 FPS	~ 65-70 FPS	~ 60 FPS
Budget ~$450 Laptop (e.g., Ryzen 5 7520U + Radeon 610M)	Low TDP, integrated graphics	~ 25-30 FPS	~ 30-35 FPS	~ 35-40 FPS

If you take a closer look, you will realize the potential of this device. It behaves exactly like a budget gaming PC and offers incredible performance. With the Steam OS 3.8 update, battery backup is much better, and Valve has added a custom TDP option too —you no longer need a third-party app to set a custom TDP.

In terms of multitasking and other content-related work, you can, hands down, plug in a keyboard and a mouse, attach a monitor, and call it a day. There are lots of portable displays out there that, over VRR, connect via a dock, and you’re done.

Conclusion

If you choose to settle for a laptop that offers what the Z1 delivers, you’d have to shell out nearly double the cash and deal with the budget-laptop build-quality hassles, overheating, lagging, and so much more.  If you want a gaming laptop, you’d have to start with 4GB of VRAM, given how ridiculous pricing is now. However, with the Ally and the Linux setup, the memory problem isn’t an issue because Windows won’t be there to occupy a large portion of your available memory.

Read More: 11 Reasons To Leave Windows 11 and Move to Linux

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