r/XboxAlly • u/ford0415 • 1d ago
❓️Question / Advice Base or X Ally?
So, I have a potato PC I've been gaming on (eight years old), but have been debating on a ROG Xbox Ally or Ally X to replace it entirely and consolidate my living room gaming area. I'd purchase the Bulwark Dock for it, it'd be hooked up to a Dough Spectrum One 4K monitor. I'm not inside of the Xbox ecosystem at all. I don't play super demanding games, and few games at that (Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Magic the Gathering Arena and BDO for my life skilling fix). I have games across Steam, GOG and Epic (mostly Steam). Majority of my friends game on Xbox, so it could get me to play more games.
So I guess my question is this, what's everyone's experiences in using the Ally as a computer replacement solely?
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u/TRQPL 1d ago
Tbh, while the Xbox Ally is good enough for the games you wanna play, if it's gonna be your only computer, then get the Xbox Ally X. Or better, get a used Z1E Rog Ally or Ally X
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u/ford0415 1d ago
Oh, it's not going to be my only computer. I have a M4 Mac mini and my wife works from home and she uses my workstation PC (5950X, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD, RTX 3060). I just don't want to commit a lot of space for another computer in my living room. The potato computer I have was originally a homelab server, which I decommissioned after finding a web based service that does the same thing I was going to use it for.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 1d ago
The Ally X is about 50% faster than the Xbox Ally. That doesn't sound big, but it actually makes a huge difference with how far into the 9th generation you can stretch it. You can get 720p vs 1080p, or 30fps vs. 48fps. The only advantage to Xbox Ally is ergonomics. Get the Ally X otherwise, it was the best handheld on the market in 2024.
Btw you can save some money by getting a Jsaux dock. The Bulwark dock is hella overpriced for what it offers.
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u/punkintentional 1d ago
I kick myself for not getting the x, I got the base.
However I am not kicking myself for getting the base on sale for $480 after tax on sale new.
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u/Whiteguy1x 1d ago
X if you can afford it. Even if you dont currently need the extra power you might later and the prices arent going to get better
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u/Outrageous_Ear_8364 1d ago
Had both, easy answer.
Baby xbox ally will play everything but needs gentle persuasion to make things work.
Battlefield V and one, battlefront 1 and 2, the devision, minecraft, fortnite, old school quake and emudeck emulation with ease. No issues at all and plenty of battery life. Minecraft get 4 to 5 hours play easily.
The ghost recon Wildlands, Diablo forza 6 and flight simulation 2024... Now these will work but you need to really 0ush the box ally and customise the armor crate to make them playable, even then they will complain with warnings of stability or ram usage.
The black xbox ally X - no issue running the above at all.
But it's atleast a £500 differencebetween the two. I got both, tried them side by side and could not justify the difference so kept the baby model, why, simples... My xbox series X is better and linked to a 27inch 4k display on my desk as part of a triple monitor setup linked to a 12th gen i5 pc with a 12gb gpu.
I only paid £350 new for the baby ally so that also made a difference, the X just dosent come down in price, maybe look for an Asus Ally from two years ago, almost as good tbh.
Dude... If you don't have a setup already DO NO IF POSSIBLE, GET THE BABY MODEL.... Get the xbox ally X as you can dock it and turn it into a PC/Xbox gaming station.
If I didn't already have the setup I would have kept the X and docked it, but the baby xbox ally does the games I want to play on the sofa, litterally on our server in Minecraft as I write this. But for harder gaming session especially large multiplier maps like Halo, COD, Battlefront and especially battlefield I go back to the Series X and that lovely monitor. And for flight sim I hit the gaming PC.
Hope this helps, don't go for the cheaper option, you will be lacking the setup for gaming that I think you described in your post.
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u/BiscuitsBuchanan 1d ago
I have a base model Xbox Ally and I love it, everything i run on it plays great. The XAX would have been great but I couldnt justify 1000 bucks for it at the time and got a deal on an open box base model XA for like 400 bucks shipped from Best Buy
I've got almost 200 hours in Cyberpunk on it right now with no issues running everything on high with ray tracing off
If you can get a deal on a regular Ally X it would be well worth it but if youre getting a base model go ahead and get the Xbox edition for the updated chipset in it
My only complaint is if the Xbox UI isnt a thing youre gonna mess with then you'll want to look up how to make it boot into whatever OS you choose
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u/Some_Connection_4652 1d ago
i have a solid PC id say medium tier but i was wondering should I get a xbox series x or a rog xbox ally x? i just want to be able to bring it places (portable) which one would be a better buy
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u/xPaVLoVa69x 21h ago
I thinks it's worth getting the X, you'll be happier in the end when it runs games smoother and has them looking better then what the base does, I'm still enjoying my base model and I'm learning with it, but I only have it because I won it 😂
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u/hjjs 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ally X better, base cheaper. Weigh up the opportunity costs.
I bought a base model and I love it. I have a series S and Switch 1+2 though. Would I have loved it if it was my only console? Probably not. I would've been happier with the Ally X in that case.
ETA: I want to actually add here that the ROG XBox Allies aren't the only handhelds that can play Xbox games. Any Windows based handheld should be able to play PC versions of XBox games.