Can I download from Steam for different OS?

Question

I would like to avoid having my main computer turned on just to download from Steam for a considerable amount of time, although it shouldn't be that expensive since most of the CPU will be sleeping and so entering energy-saving states.

A low-end device (e.g. Raspberry Pi) would be a much better choice, but is it possible to let it handle that? Basically I'd like to have such device download the contents and then transfer them to Windows. Steam does run on Linux, but is there a way to download for another OS, Windows in this case?

In case it weren't possible, what could be another viable choice?

Answer 1

Negative. A device running Linux will pull the Linux version of the game from a Steam server and won't have any Windows only games available to download.

In order to get this to work, you'll need a device that is running a full copy of Windows (or I guess WINE might do it but I don't know how well), a full install of Steam, access to enough storage to fully install all the games in question, etc...

Your best option is to look into making your PC as efficient as possible (Better power supply, newest CPU with the lowest TDP you can make work, adjusting your power settings so that the PC doesn't sleep or shut off but runs at a much lower power than the defaults, etc...) and let it run all the time. There are new Titanium rated power supplies that I'd recommend you look into. Corsair has one that I've been eyeing up.