I remember there being a lot of speculation on the Steam Machine pricing earlier and it seems like it's finally been unveiled. There's 4 configurations on the site, 2 with a controller included...
I remember there being a lot of speculation on the Steam Machine pricing earlier and it seems like it's finally been unveiled. There's 4 configurations on the site, 2 with a controller included and 2 without.
Base model starts at $1049.00 (not .99) and comes with 512GB of storage space in an all black look. You can get a controller bundled for a total price of $1128.00.
The upgraded config is $1349.00 and comes with 2TB of storage and includes two additional faceplates, red fabric and solid walnut. You can also then bundle in a controller for a total price of $1428.00.
All configs come with the same base hardware:
Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C/12T CPU
Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
16GB DDR5 with dedicated 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
microSD card slot
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit Ethernet
Integrated Steam controller wireless adapter
Honestly, really solid pricing overall! I don't know why I was hoping for it to be below $1k but the pricing seems solid for what you get. If I hadn't built a tower in 2023, I'd absolutely get this to be my gaming/main PC.
Yeah RAM and storage prices are just insane at the moment. I remember seeing 1TB NVMe SSDs for well under 100 bucks just a few years ago and now they're easily $150+. Same with RAM as you...
Yeah RAM and storage prices are just insane at the moment. I remember seeing 1TB NVMe SSDs for well under 100 bucks just a few years ago and now they're easily $150+. Same with RAM as you mentioned. 32GB kits I remember seeing at $120 are now like $350. It's absolute insanity.
Like with the Decks, Valve will likely lower the price if they ever can, I'm quite sure. Not to stan the billion dollar company but it legitimately feels like they just need to try to keep the...
Like with the Decks, Valve will likely lower the price if they ever can, I'm quite sure. Not to stan the billion dollar company but it legitimately feels like they just need to try to keep the margin up over screwy hardware prices.
This is mostly off topic but I hate the 9.99 or even 99 prices. It costs 10 and 100 respectively but makes it more cognitively expensive to think about them that way.
(not .99)
This is mostly off topic but I hate the 9.99 or even 99 prices.
It costs 10 and 100 respectively but makes it more cognitively expensive to think about them that way.
Yeah I called out the .00 prices to sorta spark discussion on this. I hate the .99 pricing tactics that are done. I think I've gotten to a point where I mostly don't see the price by its strict...
Yeah I called out the .00 prices to sorta spark discussion on this. I hate the .99 pricing tactics that are done. I think I've gotten to a point where I mostly don't see the price by its strict dollar amount and spend the extra cognitive cycles to round up the price. It was annoying at first but helps me see through these annoying business tactics in some places.
Cheaper than I thought, and looks like a decent deal if it performs. $1,049 (before tax) for a prebuilt - Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM...
Cheaper than I thought, and looks like a decent deal if it performs.
$1,049 (before tax) for a prebuilt -
Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T
Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
512GB NVMe SSD, microSD card slot
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit ethernet
Integrated Steam Controller wireless adapter
Small form factor, ~6 inch cube
SteamOS 3
Strikes me as decently competitive. The microSD slot is....odd as I'm pretty sure you're not running most games from there, but i guess you could keep your non game storage that way. I think the big issue is that 512 is very small, especially if you do eventually put windows on it or use it for anything else.
The top tier (without controller) is $1,349
Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T
Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
**2TB NVMe SSD**, microSD card slot
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit ethernet
Integrated Steam Controller wireless adapter
Small form factor, ~6 inch cube
SteamOS 3
Extra faceplates - red fabric and solid walnut
Which is literally only upgrading the NVME from 512 to 2TB, which seems pricey but depends on a few factors (oh and some walnut or red fabric faceplates).
I think the big things will be:
How well does this work? Semi custom is a scary scary spec. At what tier of personal/prebuilt will this perform at?
How hard is it to upgrade/repair? A second lane for NVMe would be great, but I'm guessing from the specs it's not a thing. I know this is more for the console team rather than the PC builders, so i'm assuming it's not built with that in mind, but if I can pop open the top like any other SFF build and at least upgrade the memory myself it gets a LOT more attractive.
Again I expect them to be ripped to shreds by know it alls who want to say you can build something better by just buying your own parts and assembling yourself and yadda yadda yadda, but considering the PS5 Pro is $900, this strikes me as very competitive for the family that can afford that but doesn't want to dive head first into doing your own build or specing something out on a place like ibuypower.
Edit-
Okay just noticed it's a 6 inch cube. Sorta glazed over that but jesus that's small. It's literally just a mini ITX board with a shell. Almost all SFF PC builds are larger because they want to jam in your 8ft GPU.
That could mean ram/nvme is harder to upgrade, and obviously most standard GPU's aren't going to fit. The tear down of this thing is going to be interesting, because while it probably won't be as friendly as PC nerds expect, if it's upgradable/repairable at all it's actually quite impressive.
Not sure if you own a Steam Deck, but it's worth mentioning that the SD card storage works great for gaming on the Deck. I have a 2tb NVMe in mine, but another 512Gb on an SD Card and I really...
Not sure if you own a Steam Deck, but it's worth mentioning that the SD card storage works great for gaming on the Deck. I have a 2tb NVMe in mine, but another 512Gb on an SD Card and I really have no preference where any given game is installed, because they seem to work equally well and load games equally fast.
Provided you look at the small print on the SD card itself and get a decently rated one they're fairly decent for game storage. Same on my Deck, I don't care if it's installed on the internal or...
Provided you look at the small print on the SD card itself and get a decently rated one they're fairly decent for game storage. Same on my Deck, I don't care if it's installed on the internal or the SD.
The Steam Deck has a microSD card slot. 1 TB+ cards used to be very affordable, so I think the intention is to be able to store your games there and swap it between the two machines without a...
Strikes me as decently competitive. The microSD slot is....odd as I'm pretty sure you're not running most games from there, but i guess you could keep your non game storage that way. I think the big issue is that 512 is very small, especially if you do eventually put windows on it or use it for anything else.
The Steam Deck has a microSD card slot. 1 TB+ cards used to be very affordable, so I think the intention is to be able to store your games there and swap it between the two machines without a hitch rather than spend an arm and a leg upgrading the internal storage.
I actually quite like this. I use a MicroSD for games that are a few Gb or under on my steam deck, and loading time never seems to be a problem. I could see myself doing the same on a steam...
The microSD slot is....odd
I actually quite like this. I use a MicroSD for games that are a few Gb or under on my steam deck, and loading time never seems to be a problem. I could see myself doing the same on a steam machine
I do agree that 512gb is quite small. I wonder if there was only going to be a 2TB model originally, and this 512gb model was added after the storage price inflation to keep sticker price down.
I'm consistently surprised that microSD loading is fast enough since it pales in comparison to SSDs. Maybe certain games (massive textures/etc) could be affected, but for most games, maybe access...
I'm consistently surprised that microSD loading is fast enough since it pales in comparison to SSDs. Maybe certain games (massive textures/etc) could be affected, but for most games, maybe access time / storage latency is more important than throughput, which microSD still does well
Valve have previously stated it'll be possible to upgrade the drive and memory (source). From the internals journalists have show on samples, it looks like it has a single NMVe slot, and not a...
[...] if it's upgradable/repairable at all it's actually quite impressive.
Valve have previously stated it'll be possible to upgrade the drive and memory (source). From the internals journalists have show on samples, it looks like it has a single NMVe slot, and not a second like I've seen a few people hoping for (source).
What components of Steam Machine are upgradeable?
Steam Machine's SSD (NVMe 2230 or 2280) and memory (DDR5 SODIMMs) are both accessible and upgradeable.
I think with that in mind it'll be a pretty strong alternative to buying/building a PC, especially if we see game developers start to optimise for it's spec like we saw them do with the Steam Deck. The size is quite impressive, I don't think I could get a PC with that spec that'd fit neatly into a TV stand.
Yeah the packaging for this is super impressive. In terms of upgrades, I remember Valve confirming that the RAM and SSD will be upgradable. The RAM is just standard SODIMM slots and the SSD is a...
Yeah the packaging for this is super impressive.
In terms of upgrades, I remember Valve confirming that the RAM and SSD will be upgradable. The RAM is just standard SODIMM slots and the SSD is a standard NVMe slot, taking in both 2230 and 2280 drives.
I think in terms of performance, I imagine it'd be roughly the same as PCs in its price point. I built a PC with roughly the same specs on paper as the upgraded config in 2023 and I can imagine that building the same now would be about the same price if not a bit more expensive given RAM and SSD costs.
Around the prices I was expecting given the state of the industry where RAM has skyrocketed and storage itself has ballooned in price along with it. I think it's relatively competitive (at least...
Around the prices I was expecting given the state of the industry where RAM has skyrocketed and storage itself has ballooned in price along with it. I think it's relatively competitive (at least price wise) and not too wild. Prior to the RAMpocalypse I was thinking $800 so this falls in line with that given hardware prices now. All of this in a very compact system too.
I can't see any need I'd ever have for something like this but I like that it's an option. There are occasionally days where I dream of downsizing my daily driver PC which I also use as my gaming PC to something more all-in-one and compact like this. Especially since I game much less intensely now.
I've had the same thought recently as well. I've got a mid-sized tower with roughly the same specs as the Steam Machine but my gaming is quite limited these days so I don't use it much. It'd be...
There are occasionally days where I dream of downsizing my daily driver PC
I've had the same thought recently as well. I've got a mid-sized tower with roughly the same specs as the Steam Machine but my gaming is quite limited these days so I don't use it much. It'd be cool to have this thing hooked up to my TV to play my games alongside my consoles.
For a brief period I even thought about going to the dark side completely and just getting a Mac mini since the games I run would run fine under macOS too. I've held off since I don't feel like first spending the money to get another PC and then going through the effort of selling my existing one haha.
I temporarily went with an M4 Mac Mini for music production (along with some video/graphic editing, etc), and I can vouch for it being fast, and compact, and practically silent, and the prices...
I temporarily went with an M4 Mac Mini for music production (along with some video/graphic editing, etc), and I can vouch for it being fast, and compact, and practically silent, and the prices aren't horrible for the base model. The inability to do any upgrades later and the gouging-level upgrade prices when initially buying the machine are just awful. I also hated macOS 26 so I exited the ecosystem nearly as quickly as I got into it. At least the machines keep their resale value. Both times I've gone to macOS for a while I've eventually bailed on it, I'm not making that mistake again. It might be fine for others though but I can't stand it anymore, or just feeling trapped hardware-wise and so on.
For a nice compact, quiet system that you're only using for light gaming in particular situations for specific games that you know work, I could see it, it's just not for me anymore.
Yeah I'm in the opposite boat here in terms of macOS. I've been using my MacBook more than my Linux PC mainly because I just find the overall user experience to be a bit nicer. I've gotten used to...
Yeah I'm in the opposite boat here in terms of macOS. I've been using my MacBook more than my Linux PC mainly because I just find the overall user experience to be a bit nicer. I've gotten used to using Raycast, macOS's trackpad gestures, and more. The gaming I do is limited to Minecraft and other games from between 2010-2017 so everything runs just fine.
My Linux experience has been neutral to positive. I do run into issues with Nvidia every now and then but it's been super stable for the most part. I think if/when I do eventually switch away from an iPhone + MacBook, I'd use my Linux PC more and more.
Anything north of $800 and it is severely overvalued tbh. $750 is the price I was expecting, $450 is what I was hoping for(More so to have an excuse to buy one as a console/living room). Sure...
Anything north of $800 and it is severely overvalued tbh.
$750 is the price I was expecting, $450 is what I was hoping for(More so to have an excuse to buy one as a console/living room).
Sure considering the current shortage, it being $1000+ makes sense but at that price point, my interest in is lukewarm aside from the initial hype news/benchmarks, not something long lasting like the Deck.
Anyway, good luck to anyone actually trying to buy this, in case the store crashes or the stock is too low.
I think anything around $500 was always going to be impossible but $750-800 is more what I was expecting. I'd imagine that RAM and SSD costs are a big driver in the 4 figure price tag. I was...
I think anything around $500 was always going to be impossible but $750-800 is more what I was expecting. I'd imagine that RAM and SSD costs are a big driver in the 4 figure price tag. I was mentioning in another comment how 32GB RAM kits that I remember seeing for $120 are literally triple that and 1TB NVMe SSDs I remember seeing for $60-70 are now $160-70 minimum.
They're doing a randomised controlled lottery. Sign up before the 25th and roll the dice. In their own words:
Anyway, good luck to anyone actually trying to buy this, in case the store crashes or the stock is too low.
They're doing a randomised controlled lottery. Sign up before the 25th and roll the dice.
In their own words:
We underestimated customer interest when we recently released the new Steam Controller, and we wanted to create a system that would be less frustrating and more fair for everyone. A launch that starts at a specific day and time tends to reward bots, people with fast internet connections, talented gaming fingers for quick F5/refresh reactions, and those who can schedule their life around that moment. By accepting reservation signups over the course of a few days, without any incentive to be first, we're hoping to take away some of that friction. The longer timeframe also allows us to do some extra validation on the signups to make sure they're real accounts, with only one per household.
Anything above 800 makes this basically an enthusiast-only machine, sadly. I know it was kind of a given with RAM prices but there's essentially no reason to get this anymore. The performance it...
Anything above 800 makes this basically an enthusiast-only machine, sadly.
I know it was kind of a given with RAM prices but there's essentially no reason to get this anymore. The performance it gives for the price just sadly isn't there and the tests that have come out today as the review embargo lifts prove it. It is extremely underwhelming for what it costs.
Price-wise this is competing with a ps5 pro with worse performance and a signficitanly higher price tag. I know there are other benefits but man that price is just impossible to swallow for me and I can't imagine anyone outside of the enthusiast crowd that's looking for a couch gaming experience will turn to the steam machine over a ps5 or switch 2.
It also goes to show that budget PC gaming is practically dead at the moment. These prices have made it impossible to get into high performance gaming without saving a substantial amount of money.
Not blaming Valve though, this was simply astronomically unlucky timing on their part.
It actually performs worse than a base PS5 at half of the price. Digital Foundary is estimating that it’s somewhere between the Series S and base PS5 in performance based on their benchmarks.
Price-wise this is competing with a ps5 pro with worse performance and a signficitanly higher price tag.
It actually performs worse than a base PS5 at half of the price. Digital Foundary is estimating that it’s somewhere between the Series S and base PS5 in performance based on their benchmarks.
How much is a comparable self-built or even pre-built going for these days? I know prices are volatile on practically all components these days, so tough to pin down. A few days ago, a friend and...
How much is a comparable self-built or even pre-built going for these days? I know prices are volatile on practically all components these days, so tough to pin down.
A few days ago, a friend and I were discussing the Steam Machine and possible pricing and wondering, "OK, so what will we be paying for here?" SFF? SteamOS? What are the cons? Lack of customization/future upgrading? Are those things worth it? Now the pricing is definitely within reason. So that definitely makes takes the "edge" off some of my questions.
For me, yeah an SFFPC is nice, but I don't really care. I used to have a MiniATX desktop attached to my TV (it's now my secondary gaming machine in the living room; now I have an old NUC attached to the TV). SteamOS is nice -- I have a Steam Deck -- but do I really care that much? I've had no issue connecting my Steam Deck to dock and then connecting it to the TV, and then using a controller from the couch. When I had the miniATX with the TV, I just used Steam's Big Picture mode and a controller. Or even Remote Play.
I think for me, I'm having a hard time convincing myself that this a console. I'm still seeing it as a PC. I don't have a problem with consoles. I have a PS4 and a PS5 and a Switch. I'm obviously not thinking upgradability and customization with a console. But with a PC, I do. And compared to a console, >$1000 is a lot. Think my PS3 was priciest console I've ever purchased at like $500-600.
Something to think about, I suppose. I'd like to get one, but if I'm paying $1049...can I get something "better" for that same price? Idk.
I was actually helping my friend last month buy a pre-built pc since the steam machine was taking forever and price-to-performance ratio wasn't looking good. He ended up getting 32 GB of DDR5 and...
I was actually helping my friend last month buy a pre-built pc since the steam machine was taking forever and price-to-performance ratio wasn't looking good.
He ended up getting 32 GB of DDR5 and an RX 9060 XT machine with a 1 TB SSD for around 1,300 euros. That is just a bit less than the 2 TB steam machine with no controller and, outside of storage, is better in every way I'm pretty sure.
It'd likely be cheaper than that if you bought the parts yourself.
So, yeah, very hard case to make for the steam machine. It is way too expensive for the performance it gives you.
I would expect that another thing you're paying for is a specific hardware benchmark that hopefully developers will be targeting for years to come. So yes, you could be paying for a SFF PC,...
I would expect that another thing you're paying for is a specific hardware benchmark that hopefully developers will be targeting for years to come. So yes, you could be paying for a SFF PC, SteamOS pre-installed but I don't see that as the main draw.
I see it as more like a next tier of benchmark for developers to target beyond the Steam Deck. And it does seem like Steam Deck was meaningfully used this way, if only in part because Valve built it into the Steam store whether games were compatible. I can pick any game in the store and it tells me right away whether that game works on the Steam Deck. I would think that has some meaningful impact on what developers would target with their games, if it is within reason to target the Steam Deck's hardware for the game they are making, trying to make sure their game is compatible is the difference between getting the green flag on their Steam store page or not for that specific hardware.
And they explicitly state on the Steam Machine page linked in this post that they will be doing this for the Steam Machine.
Steam Machine Verified
We are expanding our Verified program to include ratings for Steam Machine, so customers can understand how their games will run.
This is the console-like aspect to the Steam Machine I would say, a specific set of hardware that potentially will have a large enough user base worth targeting and ensuring that the game they're developing works on that hardware.
According to a cursory and not-researched google search, $600 in 2010 with inflation is around $900 today. And the PS5 Pro price is that now too, so unfortunately I don’t think it’s that...
According to a cursory and not-researched google search, $600 in 2010 with inflation is around $900 today. And the PS5 Pro price is that now too, so unfortunately I don’t think it’s that unexpected that this is $1000+.
I also hate that it’s $1000+. The fact that the SSD is self-upgradable is nice though.
That's what I was wondering since using either of my machines didn't feel like good or fair comparisons. I quickly slapped together this list of a rough comparison. Comes out to $850. It'll be...
That's what I was wondering since using either of my machines didn't feel like good or fair comparisons. I quickly slapped together this list of a rough comparison. Comes out to $850. It'll be bigger, you've got to put it together yourself, and install a SteamOS-like distro, so not a perfect comparison, even if I somehow nailed the performance.
Specs/Prices
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BpfJyF
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 8500G 4.1 GHz 6-Core Processor ($150.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock A620AM-X Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Memory: Silicon Power SP016GBLVU480F02 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory ($185.97 @ Silicon Power)
Storage: Intel 670p 512 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.46 @ Walmart)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger OC Radeon RX 7600 8 GB Video Card ($279.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Segotep GN 650 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $850.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
I haven't got a clue about prebuilts. My friend linked one he bought the other day and I have no clue if he paid the price the page had then of like $5.5k, we're in different income brackets.
I’m really on the fence about signing up… I have a perfectly functional SFF computer that I use for gaming, it’s just…not in my living room, so I don’t use it for couch gaming. We bought a Switch...
I’m really on the fence about signing up…
I have a perfectly functional SFF computer that I use for gaming, it’s just…not in my living room, so I don’t use it for couch gaming.
We bought a Switch 2 last year and use that periodically for games, but I miss out on games that are not out on the switch (and on most sales for games that are on both the switch and PC).
I would move my PC and use it as a gaming hub, except I still play some games (mainly just Hell Let Loose) that I wouldn’t want to play on a controller, and prefer to play at my desk.
But I don’t think it’s worth $1000 to me for that functionality.
I wish I could like, KVM my computer through the office to the TV so I could get the best of both worlds lol, leaving my computer in the office but able to use it for couch gaming every once in a while without having to unplug everything and plug it back in.
I remember there being a lot of speculation on the Steam Machine pricing earlier and it seems like it's finally been unveiled. There's 4 configurations on the site, 2 with a controller included and 2 without.
Base model starts at $1049.00 (not .99) and comes with 512GB of storage space in an all black look. You can get a controller bundled for a total price of $1128.00.
The upgraded config is $1349.00 and comes with 2TB of storage and includes two additional faceplates, red fabric and solid walnut. You can also then bundle in a controller for a total price of $1428.00.
All configs come with the same base hardware:
Honestly, really solid pricing overall! I don't know why I was hoping for it to be below $1k but the pricing seems solid for what you get. If I hadn't built a tower in 2023, I'd absolutely get this to be my gaming/main PC.
I think if not for Sam Altman and Trump it easily could have come in $200 cheaper.
The 16 DDR4 I bought 4 years ago retails for triple what I paid.
Yeah RAM and storage prices are just insane at the moment. I remember seeing 1TB NVMe SSDs for well under 100 bucks just a few years ago and now they're easily $150+. Same with RAM as you mentioned. 32GB kits I remember seeing at $120 are now like $350. It's absolute insanity.
Like with the Decks, Valve will likely lower the price if they ever can, I'm quite sure. Not to stan the billion dollar company but it legitimately feels like they just need to try to keep the margin up over screwy hardware prices.
This is mostly off topic but I hate the 9.99 or even 99 prices.
It costs 10 and 100 respectively but makes it more cognitively expensive to think about them that way.
Yeah I called out the .00 prices to sorta spark discussion on this. I hate the .99 pricing tactics that are done. I think I've gotten to a point where I mostly don't see the price by its strict dollar amount and spend the extra cognitive cycles to round up the price. It was annoying at first but helps me see through these annoying business tactics in some places.
Cheaper than I thought, and looks like a decent deal if it performs.
$1,049 (before tax) for a prebuilt -
Strikes me as decently competitive. The microSD slot is....odd as I'm pretty sure you're not running most games from there, but i guess you could keep your non game storage that way. I think the big issue is that 512 is very small, especially if you do eventually put windows on it or use it for anything else.
The top tier (without controller) is $1,349
Which is literally only upgrading the NVME from 512 to 2TB, which seems pricey but depends on a few factors (oh and some walnut or red fabric faceplates).
I think the big things will be:
Again I expect them to be ripped to shreds by know it alls who want to say you can build something better by just buying your own parts and assembling yourself and yadda yadda yadda, but considering the PS5 Pro is $900, this strikes me as very competitive for the family that can afford that but doesn't want to dive head first into doing your own build or specing something out on a place like ibuypower.
Edit-
Okay just noticed it's a 6 inch cube. Sorta glazed over that but jesus that's small. It's literally just a mini ITX board with a shell. Almost all SFF PC builds are larger because they want to jam in your 8ft GPU.
That could mean ram/nvme is harder to upgrade, and obviously most standard GPU's aren't going to fit. The tear down of this thing is going to be interesting, because while it probably won't be as friendly as PC nerds expect, if it's upgradable/repairable at all it's actually quite impressive.
Not sure if you own a Steam Deck, but it's worth mentioning that the SD card storage works great for gaming on the Deck. I have a 2tb NVMe in mine, but another 512Gb on an SD Card and I really have no preference where any given game is installed, because they seem to work equally well and load games equally fast.
Provided you look at the small print on the SD card itself and get a decently rated one they're fairly decent for game storage. Same on my Deck, I don't care if it's installed on the internal or the SD.
The Steam Deck has a microSD card slot. 1 TB+ cards used to be very affordable, so I think the intention is to be able to store your games there and swap it between the two machines without a hitch rather than spend an arm and a leg upgrading the internal storage.
I actually quite like this. I use a MicroSD for games that are a few Gb or under on my steam deck, and loading time never seems to be a problem. I could see myself doing the same on a steam machine
I do agree that 512gb is quite small. I wonder if there was only going to be a 2TB model originally, and this 512gb model was added after the storage price inflation to keep sticker price down.
I'm consistently surprised that microSD loading is fast enough since it pales in comparison to SSDs. Maybe certain games (massive textures/etc) could be affected, but for most games, maybe access time / storage latency is more important than throughput, which microSD still does well
Valve have previously stated it'll be possible to upgrade the drive and memory (source). From the internals journalists have show on samples, it looks like it has a single NMVe slot, and not a second like I've seen a few people hoping for (source).
I think with that in mind it'll be a pretty strong alternative to buying/building a PC, especially if we see game developers start to optimise for it's spec like we saw them do with the Steam Deck. The size is quite impressive, I don't think I could get a PC with that spec that'd fit neatly into a TV stand.
Yeah the packaging for this is super impressive.
In terms of upgrades, I remember Valve confirming that the RAM and SSD will be upgradable. The RAM is just standard SODIMM slots and the SSD is a standard NVMe slot, taking in both 2230 and 2280 drives.
I think in terms of performance, I imagine it'd be roughly the same as PCs in its price point. I built a PC with roughly the same specs on paper as the upgraded config in 2023 and I can imagine that building the same now would be about the same price if not a bit more expensive given RAM and SSD costs.
Not bad at all. Well within the price range I was budgeting for it. Let's fucking go!
Around the prices I was expecting given the state of the industry where RAM has skyrocketed and storage itself has ballooned in price along with it. I think it's relatively competitive (at least price wise) and not too wild. Prior to the RAMpocalypse I was thinking $800 so this falls in line with that given hardware prices now. All of this in a very compact system too.
I can't see any need I'd ever have for something like this but I like that it's an option. There are occasionally days where I dream of downsizing my daily driver PC which I also use as my gaming PC to something more all-in-one and compact like this. Especially since I game much less intensely now.
I've had the same thought recently as well. I've got a mid-sized tower with roughly the same specs as the Steam Machine but my gaming is quite limited these days so I don't use it much. It'd be cool to have this thing hooked up to my TV to play my games alongside my consoles.
For a brief period I even thought about going to the dark side completely and just getting a Mac mini since the games I run would run fine under macOS too. I've held off since I don't feel like first spending the money to get another PC and then going through the effort of selling my existing one haha.
I temporarily went with an M4 Mac Mini for music production (along with some video/graphic editing, etc), and I can vouch for it being fast, and compact, and practically silent, and the prices aren't horrible for the base model. The inability to do any upgrades later and the gouging-level upgrade prices when initially buying the machine are just awful. I also hated macOS 26 so I exited the ecosystem nearly as quickly as I got into it. At least the machines keep their resale value. Both times I've gone to macOS for a while I've eventually bailed on it, I'm not making that mistake again. It might be fine for others though but I can't stand it anymore, or just feeling trapped hardware-wise and so on.
For a nice compact, quiet system that you're only using for light gaming in particular situations for specific games that you know work, I could see it, it's just not for me anymore.
Yeah I'm in the opposite boat here in terms of macOS. I've been using my MacBook more than my Linux PC mainly because I just find the overall user experience to be a bit nicer. I've gotten used to using Raycast, macOS's trackpad gestures, and more. The gaming I do is limited to Minecraft and other games from between 2010-2017 so everything runs just fine.
My Linux experience has been neutral to positive. I do run into issues with Nvidia every now and then but it's been super stable for the most part. I think if/when I do eventually switch away from an iPhone + MacBook, I'd use my Linux PC more and more.
Anything north of $800 and it is severely overvalued tbh.
$750 is the price I was expecting, $450 is what I was hoping for(More so to have an excuse to buy one as a console/living room).
Sure considering the current shortage, it being $1000+ makes sense but at that price point, my interest in is lukewarm aside from the initial hype news/benchmarks, not something long lasting like the Deck.
Anyway, good luck to anyone actually trying to buy this, in case the store crashes or the stock is too low.
I think anything around $500 was always going to be impossible but $750-800 is more what I was expecting. I'd imagine that RAM and SSD costs are a big driver in the 4 figure price tag. I was mentioning in another comment how 32GB RAM kits that I remember seeing for $120 are literally triple that and 1TB NVMe SSDs I remember seeing for $60-70 are now $160-70 minimum.
They're doing a randomised controlled lottery. Sign up before the 25th and roll the dice.
In their own words:
Anything above 800 makes this basically an enthusiast-only machine, sadly.
I know it was kind of a given with RAM prices but there's essentially no reason to get this anymore. The performance it gives for the price just sadly isn't there and the tests that have come out today as the review embargo lifts prove it. It is extremely underwhelming for what it costs.
Price-wise this is competing with a ps5 pro with worse performance and a signficitanly higher price tag. I know there are other benefits but man that price is just impossible to swallow for me and I can't imagine anyone outside of the enthusiast crowd that's looking for a couch gaming experience will turn to the steam machine over a ps5 or switch 2.
It also goes to show that budget PC gaming is practically dead at the moment. These prices have made it impossible to get into high performance gaming without saving a substantial amount of money.
Not blaming Valve though, this was simply astronomically unlucky timing on their part.
It actually performs worse than a base PS5 at half of the price. Digital Foundary is estimating that it’s somewhere between the Series S and base PS5 in performance based on their benchmarks.
How much is a comparable self-built or even pre-built going for these days? I know prices are volatile on practically all components these days, so tough to pin down.
A few days ago, a friend and I were discussing the Steam Machine and possible pricing and wondering, "OK, so what will we be paying for here?" SFF? SteamOS? What are the cons? Lack of customization/future upgrading? Are those things worth it? Now the pricing is definitely within reason. So that definitely makes takes the "edge" off some of my questions.
For me, yeah an SFFPC is nice, but I don't really care. I used to have a MiniATX desktop attached to my TV (it's now my secondary gaming machine in the living room; now I have an old NUC attached to the TV). SteamOS is nice -- I have a Steam Deck -- but do I really care that much? I've had no issue connecting my Steam Deck to dock and then connecting it to the TV, and then using a controller from the couch. When I had the miniATX with the TV, I just used Steam's Big Picture mode and a controller. Or even Remote Play.
I think for me, I'm having a hard time convincing myself that this a console. I'm still seeing it as a PC. I don't have a problem with consoles. I have a PS4 and a PS5 and a Switch. I'm obviously not thinking upgradability and customization with a console. But with a PC, I do. And compared to a console, >$1000 is a lot. Think my PS3 was priciest console I've ever purchased at like $500-600.
Something to think about, I suppose. I'd like to get one, but if I'm paying $1049...can I get something "better" for that same price? Idk.
I was actually helping my friend last month buy a pre-built pc since the steam machine was taking forever and price-to-performance ratio wasn't looking good.
He ended up getting 32 GB of DDR5 and an RX 9060 XT machine with a 1 TB SSD for around 1,300 euros. That is just a bit less than the 2 TB steam machine with no controller and, outside of storage, is better in every way I'm pretty sure.
It'd likely be cheaper than that if you bought the parts yourself.
So, yeah, very hard case to make for the steam machine. It is way too expensive for the performance it gives you.
I would expect that another thing you're paying for is a specific hardware benchmark that hopefully developers will be targeting for years to come. So yes, you could be paying for a SFF PC, SteamOS pre-installed but I don't see that as the main draw.
I see it as more like a next tier of benchmark for developers to target beyond the Steam Deck. And it does seem like Steam Deck was meaningfully used this way, if only in part because Valve built it into the Steam store whether games were compatible. I can pick any game in the store and it tells me right away whether that game works on the Steam Deck. I would think that has some meaningful impact on what developers would target with their games, if it is within reason to target the Steam Deck's hardware for the game they are making, trying to make sure their game is compatible is the difference between getting the green flag on their Steam store page or not for that specific hardware.
And they explicitly state on the Steam Machine page linked in this post that they will be doing this for the Steam Machine.
This is the console-like aspect to the Steam Machine I would say, a specific set of hardware that potentially will have a large enough user base worth targeting and ensuring that the game they're developing works on that hardware.
According to a cursory and not-researched google search, $600 in 2010 with inflation is around $900 today. And the PS5 Pro price is that now too, so unfortunately I don’t think it’s that unexpected that this is $1000+.
I also hate that it’s $1000+. The fact that the SSD is self-upgradable is nice though.
That's what I was wondering since using either of my machines didn't feel like good or fair comparisons. I quickly slapped together this list of a rough comparison. Comes out to $850. It'll be bigger, you've got to put it together yourself, and install a SteamOS-like distro, so not a perfect comparison, even if I somehow nailed the performance.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BpfJyF
Specs/Prices
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BpfJyFCPU: AMD Ryzen 5 8500G 4.1 GHz 6-Core Processor ($150.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock A620AM-X Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Memory: Silicon Power SP016GBLVU480F02 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory ($185.97 @ Silicon Power)
Storage: Intel 670p 512 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.46 @ Walmart)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger OC Radeon RX 7600 8 GB Video Card ($279.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Segotep GN 650 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $850.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
I haven't got a clue about prebuilts. My friend linked one he bought the other day and I have no clue if he paid the price the page had then of like $5.5k, we're in different income brackets.
I’m really on the fence about signing up…
I have a perfectly functional SFF computer that I use for gaming, it’s just…not in my living room, so I don’t use it for couch gaming.
We bought a Switch 2 last year and use that periodically for games, but I miss out on games that are not out on the switch (and on most sales for games that are on both the switch and PC).
I would move my PC and use it as a gaming hub, except I still play some games (mainly just Hell Let Loose) that I wouldn’t want to play on a controller, and prefer to play at my desk.
But I don’t think it’s worth $1000 to me for that functionality.
I wish I could like, KVM my computer through the office to the TV so I could get the best of both worlds lol, leaving my computer in the office but able to use it for couch gaming every once in a while without having to unplug everything and plug it back in.