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.
I put 32GB of RAM in my desktop for $150 in 2012. (This was a patently ridiculous thing to do at the time.) I got a good deal on it, but RAM definitely shouldn't be more expensive fourteen years...
I put 32GB of RAM in my desktop for $150 in 2012. (This was a patently ridiculous thing to do at the time.) I got a good deal on it, but RAM definitely shouldn't be more expensive fourteen years later.
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.
It goes in the same general category as "discounts", "membership discounts", "action prices", bright red price stickers mentioning the discounts, exclusive sales, seasonal sales. And even this is...
It goes in the same general category as "discounts", "membership discounts", "action prices", bright red price stickers mentioning the discounts, exclusive sales, seasonal sales.
And even this is simply one category of ways to make someone spend more then they intended to and make it harder to reason about the actual price and the actual cost and benefit to me.
The problem is that it works universally, similar to advertising. I generally try to aware about this bit still regularly catch myself unconciously prefering an advertised brand or buying something I didn't intend to while grocery shopping.
Being on guard all the time is not possible, at least for me. The only way this changes is legislation or massive cultural shift.
And the Steam machine pricing is not even too egrerious. Just consumer hostile.
I think a lot of people hate it, but it works and it only costs them a penny to a dollar to sell a few more units at a higher price. The same trick is used here, except it's a dollar less instead...
I think a lot of people hate it, but it works and it only costs them a penny to a dollar to sell a few more units at a higher price. The same trick is used here, except it's a dollar less instead of a penny or 5 cents.
There's a trick to seeing past it. Every time you see it, round it up in your head (solidly think of $.99 as $1, $1.99 as $2, even $1049 as $1050). Eventually it becomes automatic to round prices up and the .99 doesn't bother you as much unless you consciously think of it.
Just to put some comparison, theses prebuilts in France (which are often more expensive than the american counterparts): 1099.99 €: CPU 5700X, GPU RTX 5060 1099.99 €: CPU 5700X, GPU RX 9060 XT...
Just to put some comparison, theses prebuilts in France (which are often more expensive than the american counterparts):
All 3 have 16 Go of RAM, prebuilts from reputable builders in France (I bought 3 PCs with their parts picker tool that they assemble themselves before shipping)
All of these 3 will have in the ballpark of 50% perf more than the Steam Machine.
So I don't know where this notion of reasonable price comes from
The value of the Steam machine would be in the extreme small form factor, low power draw, low noise, steam integration and console like ease of buy, setup and use. It's a question how much someone...
The value of the Steam machine would be in the extreme small form factor, low power draw, low noise, steam integration and console like ease of buy, setup and use.
It's a question how much someone values that and it makes it a niche device. It is not something I would pay but given the unfortunate hw market it is not sadly entirely ridiculous.
Maybe its on me to think they would have offered a genuine alternative to console. Because presented like the niche it is filling, it is actually a price not unheard of. I would still consider it...
Maybe its on me to think they would have offered a genuine alternative to console.
Because presented like the niche it is filling, it is actually a price not unheard of.
I would still consider it a bit unreasonable, but in the shoes of someone it appeals to, I would consider it an okay choice.
There's the fact that you can fit about 4 machines in the space of any of these PCs. All of them are 410x221x410 mm, the steam machine is 162.4x156x152 mm. The machine is closer to a MiniPC than a...
There's the fact that you can fit about 4 machines in the space of any of these PCs.
All of them are 410x221x410 mm, the steam machine is 162.4x156x152 mm.
The machine is closer to a MiniPC than a regular PC.
Sure, and the power target seems to match the form factor they have chosen. So they also lose a bit of performance to maintain a good balance of heat and noise with such a small unit. But at some...
Sure, and the power target seems to match the form factor they have chosen.
So they also lose a bit of performance to maintain a good balance of heat and noise with such a small unit.
But at some point, is it a good deal to pay double the ps5 to have the same performance ?
I think you're vastly overstating the value of performance. How many people play games on their Steam Deck? Clearly that's not pushing the envelope of performance. Yes, it's portable, but that's...
I think you're vastly overstating the value of performance. How many people play games on their Steam Deck? Clearly that's not pushing the envelope of performance. Yes, it's portable, but that's not the point. The point is, the games are playable, and people play them.
What is also unclear in some of these price comparisons people are making is the OS cost. For example, the links you had in your prior comment, say they include a Trial version of Windows 11 with an asterisk that says this
*The trial version allows you to use and test your PC, but you need to register to be in compliance
I don't know what that means exactly, do you have to pay more? If you aren't counting the price of Windows 11 in that, then it's not a straight comparison either.
And if you say that SteamOS or Linux is free and someone is free to install that instead of Windows, well that defeats the purpose of a prebuilt machine. Some people want something that works out of the box. You don't unbox your PS5 and install an OS on that, it's already there.
Also with the pricing of components for GPUs alone over the past several years, then the worsening of prices even more recently from datacenter/AI demands, I genuinely question whether the average gamer can even afford to chase performance in gaming anymore. At some point, you just have to settle with mediocre performance because of just being priced out of anything else. Nvidia and AMD don't give a shit about consumer space anymore.
So this is where I think performance is being overvalued. If the Steam Machine can land 99% or higher of games being released for the next several years as verified compatible/playable, then I think there's a market for people out there who will be satisfied with that.
But it already verifiably can't. I'm not even talking about Linux incompatibility here (which will also be a big impact, mind you). Gaming performance tests regularly show fps values staying below...
If the Steam Machine can land 99% or higher of games being released for the next several years as verified compatible/playable, then I think there's a market for people out there who will be satisfied with that.
But it already verifiably can't. I'm not even talking about Linux incompatibility here (which will also be a big impact, mind you). Gaming performance tests regularly show fps values staying below 60 in tons of popular games at just 1080p unless you significantly downgrade settings to medium/low. If you have a 4K TV you're certainly not gonna be enjoying those extra pixels. The Gamers Nexus review of it has a bunch of comparison charts and the Steam Machine is essentially always at the bottom compared to everything.
That's kind of a glaring issue, no? If you want to just kick back in the couch and play, which I feel is the consumer this is mostly targeting, this machine will throttle and give you a very poor performance on any of the big name games of the past few years, let alone the present and future. Now, whether 30 fps and below is fine for a lot of people or not is debatable, I'll admit, but you are paying what I think most people consider a very high price for an already outdated machine that will not get any better. Meanwhile, you could spend 400 dollars less and get a ps5 with those same games that you know will run consistently.
At least the Steam Deck has the excuse that it's a portable form factor so you shouldn't have any expectation that it can run demanding games that well. I don't think the same benefit of the doubt is warranted for the Steam Machine that has "4k gaming at 60fps" in its description and cannot deliver it for, as far as I can tell, most modern 3D games.
If you're Joe Shmo who doesn't know about computers and just wants something that works, how is the Steam Machine at all appealing for that price? I really don't see how it is competing with anything. It's in a microscopic niche of its own at this price point.
Want a powerful PC? Build a better one yourself for the same price or even get a prebuilt like the person further up above commented.
Want something for your TV? A comparable console is 400 bucks cheaper and comes with a controller.
The only person for whom the steam machine makes sense is either a technology enthusiast with money to spend or someone who has at least a thousand dollars and for whom a bigger form factor and/or more noise than the steam machine is a non-starter. I'm sure they're out there, but I have serious doubts they are very numerous.
I am a Steam Deck buyer, I even payed for the smallest price possible when they did their sale of all models. But my Steam Deck remains largely unplayed on, because the performance is so...
I am a Steam Deck buyer, I even payed for the smallest price possible when they did their sale of all models.
But my Steam Deck remains largely unplayed on, because the performance is so lackluster.
I am convinced we see largely positive sentiment of it online, because the only people discussing it are the ones willing to tinker, sacrifice resolution, or fps, or even buy/print accessories to it.
And so are so engaged in it that they have online communities dedicated to it.
But I think my point of view come mostly from the assumption they were willing to compete, or at least propose a better alternative to consoles.
I would have loved to recommend it to others, but between the ps5 with disc drive and dualsense gamepad at 550€, and the steam machine at 1130€ with the steam controller..
For the same performance, I just don't see the value.
I rarely use my Deck but I think it's still a stellar product. The problem lies in the fact that I almost always have a better alternative nearby (my desktop) and when the difference is that stark...
I rarely use my Deck but I think it's still a stellar product. The problem lies in the fact that I almost always have a better alternative nearby (my desktop) and when the difference is that stark in performance I can't really enjoy the lower quality/frame rate.
Still, what they made and what they were going for hit the mark in a way few handhelds have. It's made exceptional by the OS, the support, and the open nature of the Deck.
I wouldn't recommend it to someone mostly sitting and working from home. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone with a commute longer than 10 minutes (also why it doesn't see much play time in my case).
I'm currently enjoying some time off in a different country and the Deck is an easy take along. It sees more use now than it does at home and I'm happy I took it along.
I am in the same boat, was not prepared to play probably the best convenient game for the steam deck for me: Trackmania 2020 without at least a very stable 60fps. It was just not possible, so I've...
I am in the same boat, was not prepared to play probably the best convenient game for the steam deck for me: Trackmania 2020 without at least a very stable 60fps.
It was just not possible, so I've let it take the dust.
For the commute argument, I just never understood it.
I have 1h each way of commute in public transport, but I would never play my steamdeck in public transports. I just can't see it.
And even the Switch which is in the same ballpark of 'portable' console, I've probably seen it twice in all my life in public transport. And I've had at least 45min of commute for near 20 years.
If you want to be even smaller, you can make one of those Jonsbo (and Velka I think?) SFF PCs, though at that point researching what fits and what not is on you, and ITX tax is more prominent when...
If you want to be even smaller, you can make one of those Jonsbo (and Velka I think?) SFF PCs, though at that point researching what fits and what not is on you, and ITX tax is more prominent when you go to such extreme sizes.
Yeah, the power supplies for (at least some of) the Velka/Jonsbo cases are $150+, because they don’t even use the “standard” SFF power supply, there’s a custom one for them.
Yeah, the power supplies for (at least some of) the Velka/Jonsbo cases are $150+, because they don’t even use the “standard” SFF power supply, there’s a custom one for them.
I saw a sale last night on Amazon, via r/buildapcsales, for one of those mini, NUC-sized PCs. $520 for a 32GB DDR5, 1TB NVME, and a Ryzen 7 H255. $520. So I bought one. Other commenters pointed...
I saw a sale last night on Amazon, via r/buildapcsales, for one of those mini, NUC-sized PCs. $520 for a 32GB DDR5, 1TB NVME, and a Ryzen 7 H255. $520. So I bought one.
Other commenters pointed out that this thing can connect to an eGPU. There's some GPU dock that's like $100. Then it's possible to find 8GB 9060 XT for like $350 (also need a PSU for the dock + gpu). So that's somewhere around the price of a Steam Machine. Probably a little over it. But sounds like it's way more powerful.
Not saying I'm going to go the eGPU route, but even as a standalone gaming-oriented HTPC, it should be be pretty good. And beats the Steam Machine cost by half.
I saw that too! Link to the discussion. I also saw a steam machine build based on the deskmeet x600 Pcpartpicker doesn't have some of the more exotic parts/bundles, but there's plenty of room to...
Pcpartpicker doesn't have some of the more exotic parts/bundles, but there's plenty of room to golf on price and/or diy build volume if you're creative. Shucking/extending a prebuilt itx is probably the most direct approach.
I'm half tempted to buy one and try my hand at the gamecube build now that we have omnidrive.
GN to throw another review on the pile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66QzlDewigE Edit- And their teardown/repair vid as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glXA3ObwSwQ
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.
To be clear, i'm unsure how this works with AAA high spec's stuff. I do the same thing on my deck, but I also load it up with lots of lower spec games. You're probably not running some AAA title...
To be clear, i'm unsure how this works with AAA high spec's stuff. I do the same thing on my deck, but I also load it up with lots of lower spec games.
You're probably not running some AAA title on max settings on the steam machine, but I'm not sure if there's a line there where things will be less performant? Say your usual unoptomized pile like CoD?
I think it would probably be fine. I recently watched someone play Kingdom Come Deliverance II on a hard drive and the only issue seemed to be that you could sometimes see a low res texture load...
I think it would probably be fine. I recently watched someone play Kingdom Come Deliverance II on a hard drive and the only issue seemed to be that you could sometimes see a low res texture load before the high res one pops in. But it looked totally playable.
I feel like 512 GB is more than enough, I've long since realized there is no point keeping every single game installed and ready to go when realistically these heavyweight AAA games are best played in one big go and then put on the shelf for months/years rather than flicking between 40 games at the same time. You can then either move them to the SD or delete and reinstall later.
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
Raw throughput is only one aspect though. The reason SSDs smash hard drives for gaming is largely the random read speed, which SD cards are also great at.
Raw throughput is only one aspect though. The reason SSDs smash hard drives for gaming is largely the random read speed, which SD cards are also great at.
Also, NGL it's nice having a microsd slot on things for transferring from cameras and music players and flashing raspberry pis. My new laptop had one when my prior didn't. I love never having to...
Also, NGL it's nice having a microsd slot on things for transferring from cameras and music players and flashing raspberry pis.
My new laptop had one when my prior didn't. I love never having to play 'find my dongle.'
Would have been nicer as a full sized sd card slot imo. They have the space in this machine and it opens up the possibility of using either sized card.
Would have been nicer as a full sized sd card slot imo. They have the space in this machine and it opens up the possibility of using either sized card.
I imagine it's just simpler for Valve. They've already got a supplier and code to handle the microSD card reader on the Steam Deck and they can just use all of that with the Steam Machine, having...
I imagine it's just simpler for Valve. They've already got a supplier and code to handle the microSD card reader on the Steam Deck and they can just use all of that with the Steam Machine, having done all the other engineering.
Code? There’s no difference. The only part that matters here is the micro SD port, as the logic behind it is identical. The real reasons are that: It’s smaller and the device is small Almost no...
Code? There’s no difference.
The only part that matters here is the micro SD port, as the logic behind it is identical.
The real reasons are that:
It’s smaller and the device is small
Almost no people own full size SD cards. Unless you have a dedicated camera (and almost no people do because smartphones are more than good enough) the micro SD is the defacto standard. You’ll have one for your switch, for your Steam Deck, your 3D printer, your Go Pro, your drone, etc. Pretty much all consumer electronics that have convenient removable storage use micro SDs.
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.
I would say competitive maybe in this form factor section of the market, but I've found 3 prebuilts (in my other comment) which are at near the same prices (1099€), but are way more powerful to...
I would say competitive maybe in this form factor section of the market, but I've found 3 prebuilts (in my other comment) which are at near the same prices (1099€), but are way more powerful to run games.
Like probably 50% more performant.
So I don't think theses prices are reasonable
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.
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.
And there's also the big if of compatibility. Proton has some a long way, but every advertised PS5 game will work on your PS5 and has undergone a QA process that game studios tend to find arduous....
And there's also the big if of compatibility. Proton has some a long way, but every advertised PS5 game will work on your PS5 and has undergone a QA process that game studios tend to find arduous. There's a good chance you could pick out a game advertised on Steam and find that it doesn't work on Linux or requires some manual fiddling. Some of the most played games in the world are multiplayer games that could also have incompatible anticheat and high stakes if your account is flagged.
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.
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.
I don’t think you realize how good of a deal this is for 2026. Consider that the 16GB model of the Raspberry Pi went from $120 to $305. If you have all the compute you need on hand then stay away,...
I don’t think you realize how good of a deal this is for 2026. Consider that the 16GB model of the Raspberry Pi went from $120 to $305. If you have all the compute you need on hand then stay away, but for anyone looking at their options this isn’t outrageously priced.
PS5 tier performance in 2026 at this price point is not a good deal. All reviews are showing this thing is severely underpowered even for today's prices. I built a pc this year, I know prices are...
PS5 tier performance in 2026 at this price point is not a good deal. All reviews are showing this thing is severely underpowered even for today's prices.
I built a pc this year, I know prices are ruined, but you can absolutely get better value if you build it yourself and honestly even some pre-builts.
The PS5 is not a great comparison because the prices don't have to reflect the costs. It could be subsidized or lagging. Sony very well may be willing to temporarily eat the cost of the recent...
The PS5 is not a great comparison because the prices don't have to reflect the costs. It could be subsidized or lagging. Sony very well may be willing to temporarily eat the cost of the recent spike to protect the brand long term and to make the money back in game sales.
Best comparison would be comparing the steam machine to a prebuilt PC or what you could build yourself. And it seems exactly on point for pricing there.
I've yet to see otherwise. I don't think people understand that this is what PS5 tier performance costs now, especially when you consider how most console games are heavily optimized to over...
PS5 tier performance in 2026 at this price point is not a good deal.
I've yet to see otherwise. I don't think people understand that this is what PS5 tier performance costs now, especially when you consider how most console games are heavily optimized to over perform for their specs.
I've run this a few ways now and you're lucky to get out the door for $700
I mean, the PS5 Pro now retails for $900. And that's with baking in some loss-leader due to closed platform. While I don't see the Steam Machine competing for PS5 exclusive users....it's...
I mean, the PS5 Pro now retails for $900. And that's with baking in some loss-leader due to closed platform.
While I don't see the Steam Machine competing for PS5 exclusive users....it's definitely in that price point for PC users looking for a TV drop-in
PS5 tier performance costs the price of a PS5, about 600 bucks. Even acknowledging Sony's ability to subsidize the cost, you're still looking at an insane markup. And for 900 you can get a better...
PS5 tier performance costs the price of a PS5, about 600 bucks. Even acknowledging Sony's ability to subsidize the cost, you're still looking at an insane markup. And for 900 you can get a better performing PS5 pro that includes a controller and leaves you with money left over for a year of Playstation Plus. I don't think it's crazy to say that's what most people will see at first glance. The steam machine is trying to be a more mainstream, console-like (ie plug and play) pc gaming experience, so the PS5/Xbox are the most direct comparisons at the moment.
But even if you want to compare to PCs, which yes will cost a pretty penny right now even at entry level (again, I built one a few months ago. It cost me about 2k euros for a ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32 GB of DDR5, and an rx 9070 xt, so I am keenly aware of how absurd prices are), you will always get better value than this machine because this specific hardware is purposefully underpowered to fit in that form factor and not have thermal issues.
I have also seen some pre-built PCs, which are probably the most analogous to a steam machine, with better base specs for similar prices. Ryzen 5 with an rx 9060 xt and 32 GB of DDR5 for about 1.3k euros, for example, or an rtx 5060 system if you're willing to go down to 16 GB of RAM, which gives you access to DLSS (I believe I saw two systems like that just around 1k). That's a very similar price to the steam machine but with significantly better specs and performance, and you didn't need to do any DIY. Plus you have more upgradeability. And pre-builts are extremely popular overall already, so the steam machine is competing with them whether it likes it or not. Sure, they will be bigger and less silent, that's one of the most impressive and unique things about the steam machine, but I'd wager most people who are trying to make the most sensible purchase will likely weigh those factors less compared to performance. This is the price range where you're counting every frame.
I just don't see a reason, outside of the enthusiast crowd that already has extra money to spend, why any regular consumer would go to the steam machine instead of a more full-powered PC for the same price if they're looking to get the most bang for their buck, or a much cheaper console for the same performance if they're looking for couch gaming at an "affordable" price (relatively speaking. Screw these prices to high heaven).
All tests that have come out from reviews show that this is underpowered by any metric even when you look at the current price of components. Yes, it is an absolutely cool machine that has more to it than just raw performance, I'm not saying it should be 600 bucks (in my personal opinion they could have gotten away with up to 800 without much of an outcry) or that it shouldn't exist. But the price is just not computing at all. And that's not through Valve's fault, I'm not blaming them. Screw the tech bros that made this hobby the price-gated absurdity it has become. But as an end consumer, with all the other prices I see, I feel it's fair to say the steam machine is not worth the money in most circumstances. Definitely something I'd love to have if I had a lot of expendable budget, but sadly I need to count every penny to get my money's worth.
Basically what I'm trying to say is I think at this price point this is a cool enthusiast-oriented machine, but it's going to have a rough time breaking into the mainstream like it was most likely hoping to when it was announced.
Hmm yeah just watched a review and it seems a little less powerful than I expected. I still think it will be a popular purchase and a platform developers will target.
Hmm yeah just watched a review and it seems a little less powerful than I expected. I still think it will be a popular purchase and a platform developers will target.
yeah the only things that offset this even a small amount is the compactness, it being silent while being that compact, and it sipping power. but the trade-offs they made in making it so small,...
yeah the only things that offset this even a small amount is the compactness, it being silent while being that compact, and it sipping power. but the trade-offs they made in making it so small, quiet, and power-limited, means they really hampered its performance. i almost feel like they had headroom to not limit things so hard. ~30W on the CPU, 8GB VRAM and ~110W on the GPU.
i do think it's not abysmal for what you get, if you're in the market for an extremely compact PC that can do some decent gaming, and just like the other factors and are already deep in the Steam world, but it's certainly not a good value, all things considered, including industry supply and pricing being what it is
one of the best things about building it yourself or getting a pre-built will mean that you won't have as much constraints to fit into size and power-wise so a comparable pre-built, even if DIY parts aren't much cheaper, won't have anywhere near the power limits, so even building something with comparable hardware at a similar price point will still perform quite a bit better just because things won't be so limited, plus it will be far more upgradable
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.
Yeah $450 is nuts in the current climate. I don't think I could build this box for $450 full stop, and that's doing it myself and letting me skimp on case size and parts. Ram/nvme/GPU probably...
I think anything around $500 was always going to be impossible
Yeah $450 is nuts in the current climate. I don't think I could build this box for $450 full stop, and that's doing it myself and letting me skimp on case size and parts.
For those talking about price: PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 5 8400F 4.2 GHz 6-Core Processor $149.00 @ Walmart Memory Silicon Power SP016GBLVU480F02 16 GB (1 x 16 GB)...
Agreed. $450 these days seems pretty out there. Even before the component shortage, I'm not saying a $450 build wasn't possible, but I imagine that'd be scraping bottom of the barrel. I'm pretty...
Agreed. $450 these days seems pretty out there. Even before the component shortage, I'm not saying a $450 build wasn't possible, but I imagine that'd be scraping bottom of the barrel. I'm pretty sure my brother did a $400-500 OK enough build for his then GF, but that was in like 2022/2023. And that wasn't an SFFPC, just a Mini or MicroATX tower. SFFs are usually more expensive than standard desktops.
In their defense, $450 is what they were hoping for, not something they claimed to build? If it was priced at a loss like other consoles, I get holding out hope for it to be cheap + some people...
In their defense, $450 is what they were hoping for, not something they claimed to build? If it was priced at a loss like other consoles, I get holding out hope for it to be cheap + some people are still mentally in a 2023 state of comparison.
I’d say more 2024-2025, when I made/started ordering parts of my last PC build. The “inflated” GPU prices are “normal” and MSRPs are fake, but SSDs were reasonable, you still would rather wait for...
I’d say more 2024-2025, when I made/started ordering parts of my last PC build. The “inflated” GPU prices are “normal” and MSRPs are fake, but SSDs were reasonable, you still would rather wait for a deal than immediately buy one, and RAM is pretty much a buy once and forget thing, unless it stops working.
But yeah $450 is what I was hoping for, $750 is what I valued it at.
Valve saying it will be priced at PC prices, not consoles killed any chance of it ever being that low, but a few videos looking at comparable parts ended up ranging from $600 to $800, I think one concentrating on BOM estimates(I forgot by who) had it on the lower end, not factoring in bulk savings and b2b deals.
I think if you want to game nowadays just stick with your last gen consoles/parts or maybe look into retro handhelds, mostly old games but newer Retroid and AYN devices are a fraction of the cost of a Steamdeck and Gamenative/Windows emulation is advancing, but ymmv with that.
It's not all that far off a custom built PC for the cost, especially if you consider the form factor, but you would be giving up upgradability. Either way, the comparison against the current...
It's not all that far off a custom built PC for the cost, especially if you consider the form factor, but you would be giving up upgradability.
Either way, the comparison against the current consoles is a bit oof for 6 years into the cycle. This has to be one of the largest divergences between consoles this old and new PCs. When the PS4 was 6 years old you could build a PC quite close or better than it in performance at the same price - makes sense, the new PC has 6 years of technological advances.
Now? This thing is SLOWER than the base ps5, a 6 year old console. It cost twice as much.
I think overall the Steam Machine isn't going to be tearing apart any marketshare from the consoles, but I also don't think that's the entire goal either. They're leaning into that custom asthetic...
I think overall the Steam Machine isn't going to be tearing apart any marketshare from the consoles, but I also don't think that's the entire goal either.
If I presented any of the prebuilts in this thread alongside a Steam Machine to my sister, she'd buy the steam machine in a heartbeat because it is smaller, and that matters a lot more than how many pixels it pushes as she pulls up The Sims 4 on the TV.
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.
Note: after watching/reading reviews the performance is pretty lackluster though, so it's going to be a niche/enthusiast product no matter what. I don't know that they were even trying to compete...
Note: after watching/reading reviews the performance is pretty lackluster though, so it's going to be a niche/enthusiast product no matter what. I don't know that they were even trying to compete with consoles. While I don't like consoles, so I'm more of a market for this than some other people I'm sure, there's no denying that this isn't really competitive performance-wise.
Also, yes you can probably build something more powerful for the same price if you do it yourself- but there are benefits to it being all-in-one:
Simplified warranty instead of individual part warranties
VERY compact, which I think makes it slightly more competitive on its own
They did very well on making the system quiet while being so compact, which is not super easy to do
Compared to a console, it's a full PC which is also a large benefit- but very much depending on your needs/wants. But, I sure was hoping to see better performance out of it but the trade-offs they made for quiet/compact/etc hindered that
I do wonder if other current pre-built systems make this a non-starter though. That said, after bad experiences with some pre-builts, I trust Valve more than some of those companies, but still
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.
Yeah I'm in a nearly-all-linux household now and would not go back to anything else. Though I did go back to Win10 for the music prod machine. Overall as an OS, I do think macOS still is better...
Yeah I'm in a nearly-all-linux household now and would not go back to anything else. Though I did go back to Win10 for the music prod machine. Overall as an OS, I do think macOS still is better than Windows, but I dislike both of them a LOT for their own individual reasons and typically always prefer Linux (my daily driver / gaming PC is 7800X3D + RTX 4070 and running just fine).
macOS just got way too Fisher-Price UI-wise, kept annoying me about updating, and i got tired of the way Apple does a bunch of things. I think Finder still sucks horribly as a file explorer, and I don't like how much Apple likes to control how the OS operates underneath in ways that aren't easy to look into or even modify in some cases. I think they do hardware well but I find the software pretty miserable (even if better than Windows)
I begrudgingly use a non-linux machine for music and some other stuff because despite linux having come far for music production and all of that, it's still a frustrating road to go down if one is already invested in tons of plugins/etc that don't easily work on Linux, and some of them may not at all. So it's much easier for me to stay in Win/Mac because I know I can install and activate everything I need to easily. So it's my one exception to the rule for the forseeable future. Some day I may overhaul the amount of plugins/tools I need for music stuff though and jump to Linux, we'll see. I'd love to be a household 100% free of macOS and Windows
Completely fair. I've never really dug too much into my OS to get it working exactly how I want it, which I guess is why I gravitate to macOS. I do agree Apple's walled garden does get annoying at...
Completely fair. I've never really dug too much into my OS to get it working exactly how I want it, which I guess is why I gravitate to macOS. I do agree Apple's walled garden does get annoying at times and there are still some frustrating omissions in macOS that seem to always require a $20 indie dev application to fix.
Linux UX has improved greatly though in the last 10 years so I'm excited to see where it goes in the next 10 years. I still use a lot of cross-platform applications specifically to prevent me from being locked into Apple's platform.
Yeah when it comes to operating systems it always kinda comes down to "they all have their benefits and drawbacks" and how those will balance out strongly depends on peoples' needs and wants I...
Yeah when it comes to operating systems it always kinda comes down to "they all have their benefits and drawbacks" and how those will balance out strongly depends on peoples' needs and wants
I totally get when people just don't want to think about digging into anything too deeply and just want things to work. It's the same reason that even though Linux is SO much better these days, I still don't automatically recommend it as a solution for anyone having trouble with other operating systems. A lot of people just need their stuff to work- and the easiest road for many of them will be to stay on the bigger corporate operating systems, it just depends.
Honestly that's why I'm still on iOS and iPadOS. I have a bajillion grumbles with iOS and iPadOS and Apple's direction as of late, but in general, they still simply just work, and get out of my way most of the time, and they perform well- which is what I want out of mobile/tablet devices
What kind of upgrades do you mean? I added a 4T thunderbolt drive to mine, and if you check out guys like DosDude on You Tube, it's possible to do other kinds of internal upgrades too.
The inability to do any upgrades later
What kind of upgrades do you mean? I added a 4T thunderbolt drive to mine, and if you check out guys like DosDude on You Tube, it's possible to do other kinds of internal upgrades too.
Easy RAM / internal storage / GPU upgrades like you get with regular PCs (even tiny/mini PCs the size of the Mini are for the most part easy to upgrade RAM/storage-wise) Yeah some internal...
Easy RAM / internal storage / GPU upgrades like you get with regular PCs (even tiny/mini PCs the size of the Mini are for the most part easy to upgrade RAM/storage-wise)
Yeah some internal upgrades are "possible" but not intended, so you have to really involve yourself if you want to go that deep. That's not "upgradable" in the normal sense where I can just add something. I'm not looking to buy a mac to try and do a bunch of hardware mods in an upgrade to a system that i bought knowingly with its limitations in the first place.
I already had added a fast external SSD, but the OS drive being limited in size itself eventually got a bit frustrating. Given some particular applications / types of installs that strongly prefer having certain things stored on the primary/OS drive, it was still dwindling in space over time in an uncomfortable way. Majority of why I left is really being sick of macOS, but the hardware was a big part of it. I originally thought it wouldn't be a big deal to me but eventually I decided it was mistake to buy the system. Just always bouncing into limitations or things I didn't like about how they are handled that I just decided to leave. I don't love Win10 either, but it does get out of my way and I can heavily customize it/restrict it to my exact desires, and having a full-size PC for ease of hardware swaps is nice
All to say, in other words, I get that there are some ways around some of my frustrations but they're not enough for me, and not in the ways I prefer to have them. Just realized I was working with a system that felt philosophically opposite of how I want my computers to operate and decided to change to have systems that align better with how I approach computers and hardware
Yeah Apple really don't want you to do any internal upgrades, which is really frustrating given how great the rest of the system is. I feel like at a minimum SSD upgrades should be more easily...
Yeah Apple really don't want you to do any internal upgrades, which is really frustrating given how great the rest of the system is. I feel like at a minimum SSD upgrades should be more easily doable on the M-series Macs. I can get the RAM not being user upgradable given their unified architecture (though I've got my eye on LPCAMM2 modules) but SSDs not being easily upgradable sucks.
Yeah and as much as I don't like the RAM being non-upgradable, even before the RAMpocalypse, Apple's RAM upgrade prices when initially buying the system were gouging-level high- like nonsensically...
Yeah and as much as I don't like the RAM being non-upgradable, even before the RAMpocalypse, Apple's RAM upgrade prices when initially buying the system were gouging-level high- like nonsensically high. High enough that I refused to buy anything higher than the base model because I refused ethically to pay the margins they were asking
If Apple had always made it more cost-effective / reasonable to upgrade over the base model, I'd probably have felt far less restricted by the limitations or inability to upgrade it myself. I still think I might have eventually bailed over macOS though but they would have made it a tougher choice to leave.
Yeah for a variety of Apple products I've bought over the years, I've also only bought the base model for the same reasons. It's insane to me that Apple were able to hold off on increasing their...
Yeah for a variety of Apple products I've bought over the years, I've also only bought the base model for the same reasons. It's insane to me that Apple were able to hold off on increasing their prices due to the RAM/SSD cost increases purely because their margins were so large.
The SoC affects the SSD as well. Somewhat uniquely, the SSDs on macs do not have a memory controller - instead, the M series chip acts as the memory controller for uncontrolled NAND flash.
The SoC affects the SSD as well. Somewhat uniquely, the SSDs on macs do not have a memory controller - instead, the M series chip acts as the memory controller for uncontrolled NAND flash.
Weird thing for me to notice, I guess, but it seems odd that the front USB ports both appear to be USB-A. Is that what's on the controller (for wired use or maybe just charging)? It seems like the...
Weird thing for me to notice, I guess, but it seems odd that the front USB ports both appear to be USB-A. Is that what's on the controller (for wired use or maybe just charging)? It seems like the whole world has pretty much shifted to USB-C, even for flash drives and such, at this point.
Controller-included cable uses USB-A on one side. When it comes to a gaming rig, there are a lot of older peripherals, especially in the scope of wired controllers. I appreciate it, because so...
Controller-included cable uses USB-A on one side.
When it comes to a gaming rig, there are a lot of older peripherals, especially in the scope of wired controllers.
I appreciate it, because so many cheap old chargers use USB-A, and it's not like A can't push 3.2 speeds anyhow. That, and I won't need to replace my 15ft microusb cable.
Aside from ease of access for wired peripherals - 2.4 GHz wireless adapters for controllers/keyboards/mice etc. are still overwhelmingly USB-A, and they should be plugged into your front panel for...
Aside from ease of access for wired peripherals - 2.4 GHz wireless adapters for controllers/keyboards/mice etc. are still overwhelmingly USB-A, and they should be plugged into your front panel for best line-of-sight connection.
I think it's because tons of devices are still USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other. It depends, but like, even when I had my Mac mini which was all USB-C/TB ports, nearly everything I had that...
I think it's because tons of devices are still USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other. It depends, but like, even when I had my Mac mini which was all USB-C/TB ports, nearly everything I had that I needed to plug into it was USB-A so I needed adapters/hubs
If you get a full-size desktop PC these days, or even a "mini" PC that isn't a mac, they'll have a mix of USB-C and USB-A, and full-size desktops will have tons of USB-A ports. Mice and keyboards are still USB-A. A lot of wired controllers are still USB-A. A lot of dongles are still USB-A. Plenty of storage is C now, but there's still a lot of USB-A storage (it might be C on the drive side, but a lot of the times it can be A on the other side of the cable)
I don't think the world has really shifted that much yet on the "host" end, though it has on the device end. It has begun to, but I think overall the mix of devices out there isn't overwhelmingly USB-C (except on the device's end of the cable) yet. Apple has tried to push it with some of their laptops and desktops, but they pushed ahead of the curve a bit, and it's actually a selling point for some people that laptops come with some USB-A ports. Also have to take into consideration the devices people already own. Sure brand new devices may have shifted a bit more, but so many people already own so many devices, and most of already-owned devices are probably majority USB-A
Also, purely from a manufacturing standpoint, A is exponentially cheaper and easier. In the realm of durability and repairability it's hard to beat that gen 1 A to B connector.
Also, purely from a manufacturing standpoint, A is exponentially cheaper and easier.
In the realm of durability and repairability it's hard to beat that gen 1 A to B connector.
This a bit of a nitpick but that's the cable rather than the device. If the cable is not permanently soldered on the device then you can pick between a C to A or an C to C. Usually they throw a C...
tons of devices are still USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other.
This a bit of a nitpick but that's the cable rather than the device. If the cable is not permanently soldered on the device then you can pick between a C to A or an C to C. Usually they throw a C to A in because that's what they got in the bargain bin. It's usually best to just throw those included cables in the bin and use your own higher quality ones. IMO it's better to standardize on C to C cables because you have to use them for USB PD and they can do everything USB A can do.
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.
You could install Sunshine on your computer in the office, then use something with a Moonlight app to stream it to your TV (I use a Fire TV stick). It works unbelievably well. I had originally...
You could install Sunshine on your computer in the office, then use something with a Moonlight app to stream it to your TV (I use a Fire TV stick).
It works unbelievably well. I had originally soured on local game streaming because I didn’t find Steam’s built-in streaming option to be very good, but the difference with Sunshine+Moonlight is night and day (ha!).
Aside from the gaming I do on my Deck, almost all of my stuff is streamed to a different device these days. Heck, I’ve even streamed titles to my Deck when particular games won’t run on it (e.g. Riders Republic and The Crew 2).
I have the same issue with my PC being in a different room to my living room. I considered a bunch of solutions (including a separate PC like the Steam Machine) but ultimately ended up just...
I have the same issue with my PC being in a different room to my living room. I considered a bunch of solutions (including a separate PC like the Steam Machine) but ultimately ended up just getting a 15m optic fibre HDMI cable and running it from my PC to my TV.
The upsides:
Pretty cheap. A decent HDMI 2.1 cable was only about the equivalent of USD 70.
No setup required. You can just run games exactly the same way you do on your current PC. My wireless controller works through the wall when in my living room, as do wireless / Bluetooth mouse / keyboard.
You can go back to playing games on your desktop whenever you feel like it. No need to fiddle around with separate installations.
Only one device to maintain and upgrade.
The downsides:
Having to roll up and roll out the HDMI cable each time you game in the living room. If you can install this through walls / around molding in your home, this isn't even an issue. Otherwise, it's pretty fast if you just use the 'over and under' coiling technique.
TV occasionally forgets the right audio source. This is pretty rare though.
I've also tried streaming to my TV via Apollo (a variant of Sunshine) / Moonlight. It's fine for non-action intensive games, but I found the occasional hitches (even over Wifi 7) and compromise in image quality to be a bit of a bummer and nowadays mostly go for the HDMI.
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.
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.
Fun fact, think you used the same nvme drive I did, which no longer lists. Next comparable I found is $20 more getting you to the $870 line. Edit: Ahh found one for $10 more, so your "bones" look...
Fun fact, think you used the same nvme drive I did, which no longer lists. Next comparable I found is $20 more getting you to the $870 line.
Edit:
Ahh found one for $10 more, so your "bones" look something like this:
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total
$765.93
Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-06-22 19:40 EDT-0400
So $765.93 for PS5 level performance with no case, PSU, cooler. Lets be nice and say $50 more for that (case/psu, no cooler) which is wildly generous, and we're at a nice and even $800 for a fullsize you build yourself.
There ARE some quick gains that make the $1k price point a little rough. If you can afford $200 more on this build and drop it on the CPU/GPU you can get a significant jump in performance, and that's I think where the real discussion about the steam machine is.
So yes if you can afford to say "well if i'm spending $1000 i might as well spend $1300" yeah you can see a pretty big bump even in premades, but this is pretty close to the bottom line for a commercial product at these specs.
The only thing I couldn't see included in your build is a cec adaptor which the steam machine has inbuilt. It does make it a lot more console like as the tv and console will turn on together from...
The only thing I couldn't see included in your build is a cec adaptor which the steam machine has inbuilt. It does make it a lot more console like as the tv and console will turn on together from whichever one you turn on first is my understanding. But that does only add $50 with rounding.
Oh good point. I use a $20 universal remote that can do that stuff on my TV while having nav buttons for the HTPC plus mouse and keyboard. I figure something like that would be preferable, but...
Oh good point. I use a $20 universal remote that can do that stuff on my TV while having nav buttons for the HTPC plus mouse and keyboard. I figure something like that would be preferable, but using CEC is feature parity.
I forgot to double check the motherboard's wireless too, but that's another $20 if you haven't got a spare wifi/Bluetooth adapter about.
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.
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.
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.
Valve has been working on Steam Machines for over a decade. I think this launch will be remembered as rough, but they're going to keep working on them and once prices aren't so bad they'll have an...
Valve has been working on Steam Machines for over a decade. I think this launch will be remembered as rough, but they're going to keep working on them and once prices aren't so bad they'll have an even more polished product at a reasonable price. Then we'll finally have a solid competitor to other consoles.
I think their timing might be just fucked. The ram and SSD tax is probably adding an extra $200, and I feel like around $800 would have been a good price for the hardware. I also think they had to...
I think their timing might be just fucked. The ram and SSD tax is probably adding an extra $200, and I feel like around $800 would have been a good price for the hardware. I also think they had to delay launch to get enough of both/either components, so that makes it feel even more outdated. And both of these make it feel like an iffy deal. I am also surprised that they went so small-form factor; I get making it small, but its very small. Making it a little bigger might have allowed them to use cheaper components, but maybe all those parts are custom anyway so it wouldn't matter a lot.
I think the big deciding factor is how much developers take it seriously as a platform. I believe the Steam Deck has gotten at least some attention, so they have some hope for it. For the casual social console gamer, they also need to have the big multiplayer games just work. I believe at least some anti-cheats do have Linux versions, but they are either not enabled by the game itself or Linux users don't want to give them below root access. With the GabeCube being a psuedo-console, I imagine they can get anti-cheat enabled more easily and with less complaints by end-users, because they view it as a console not a general use PC. Overall, I hope it does well even though I won't buy one, because the more successful it is will make Linux gaming even better.
I think someone in another comment mentioned that the base MSRP was targeted to be $750 so there's definitely a massive premium right now because of memory and SSD prices unfortunately.
I think someone in another comment mentioned that the base MSRP was targeted to be $750 so there's definitely a massive premium right now because of memory and SSD prices unfortunately.
I was amused to see that at least one retailer is already offering its own homebrew Steam Machine at the same price. Price / performance aside, the little cube form factor is quite nice and I hope...
Price / performance aside, the little cube form factor is quite nice and I hope Valve takes another crack at this format when component prices eventually settle.
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.
I put 32GB of RAM in my desktop for $150 in 2012. (This was a patently ridiculous thing to do at the time.) I got a good deal on it, but RAM definitely shouldn't be more expensive fourteen years later.
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.
It goes in the same general category as "discounts", "membership discounts", "action prices", bright red price stickers mentioning the discounts, exclusive sales, seasonal sales.
And even this is simply one category of ways to make someone spend more then they intended to and make it harder to reason about the actual price and the actual cost and benefit to me.
The problem is that it works universally, similar to advertising. I generally try to aware about this bit still regularly catch myself unconciously prefering an advertised brand or buying something I didn't intend to while grocery shopping.
Being on guard all the time is not possible, at least for me. The only way this changes is legislation or massive cultural shift.
And the Steam machine pricing is not even too egrerious. Just consumer hostile.
It's the psychology of charm pricing. https://thehustle.co/originals/why-youre-more-likely-to-buy-something-for-499-than-500
And thus why we should probably ban the practice.
I propose a blanket ban on using well-documented psychological tricks for marketing.
I just mentally round up every time reflexively. Now if I see something for $15.99, it’s $20.00 in my head.
I think a lot of people hate it, but it works and it only costs them a penny to a dollar to sell a few more units at a higher price. The same trick is used here, except it's a dollar less instead of a penny or 5 cents.
There's a trick to seeing past it. Every time you see it, round it up in your head (solidly think of $.99 as $1, $1.99 as $2, even $1049 as $1050). Eventually it becomes automatic to round prices up and the .99 doesn't bother you as much unless you consciously think of it.
It's the psychology of charm pricing. https://thehustle.co/originals/why-youre-more-likely-to-buy-something-for-499-than-500
Just to put some comparison, theses prebuilts in France (which are often more expensive than the american counterparts):
All 3 have 16 Go of RAM, prebuilts from reputable builders in France (I bought 3 PCs with their parts picker tool that they assemble themselves before shipping)
All of these 3 will have in the ballpark of 50% perf more than the Steam Machine.
So I don't know where this notion of reasonable price comes from
The value of the Steam machine would be in the extreme small form factor, low power draw, low noise, steam integration and console like ease of buy, setup and use.
It's a question how much someone values that and it makes it a niche device. It is not something I would pay but given the unfortunate hw market it is not sadly entirely ridiculous.
Maybe its on me to think they would have offered a genuine alternative to console.
Because presented like the niche it is filling, it is actually a price not unheard of.
I would still consider it a bit unreasonable, but in the shoes of someone it appeals to, I would consider it an okay choice.
There's the fact that you can fit about 4 machines in the space of any of these PCs.
All of them are 410x221x410 mm, the steam machine is 162.4x156x152 mm.
The machine is closer to a MiniPC than a regular PC.
Sure, and the power target seems to match the form factor they have chosen.
So they also lose a bit of performance to maintain a good balance of heat and noise with such a small unit.
But at some point, is it a good deal to pay double the ps5 to have the same performance ?
I think you're vastly overstating the value of performance. How many people play games on their Steam Deck? Clearly that's not pushing the envelope of performance. Yes, it's portable, but that's not the point. The point is, the games are playable, and people play them.
What is also unclear in some of these price comparisons people are making is the OS cost. For example, the links you had in your prior comment, say they include a Trial version of Windows 11 with an asterisk that says this
I don't know what that means exactly, do you have to pay more? If you aren't counting the price of Windows 11 in that, then it's not a straight comparison either.
And if you say that SteamOS or Linux is free and someone is free to install that instead of Windows, well that defeats the purpose of a prebuilt machine. Some people want something that works out of the box. You don't unbox your PS5 and install an OS on that, it's already there.
Also with the pricing of components for GPUs alone over the past several years, then the worsening of prices even more recently from datacenter/AI demands, I genuinely question whether the average gamer can even afford to chase performance in gaming anymore. At some point, you just have to settle with mediocre performance because of just being priced out of anything else. Nvidia and AMD don't give a shit about consumer space anymore.
So this is where I think performance is being overvalued. If the Steam Machine can land 99% or higher of games being released for the next several years as verified compatible/playable, then I think there's a market for people out there who will be satisfied with that.
But it already verifiably can't. I'm not even talking about Linux incompatibility here (which will also be a big impact, mind you). Gaming performance tests regularly show fps values staying below 60 in tons of popular games at just 1080p unless you significantly downgrade settings to medium/low. If you have a 4K TV you're certainly not gonna be enjoying those extra pixels. The Gamers Nexus review of it has a bunch of comparison charts and the Steam Machine is essentially always at the bottom compared to everything.
That's kind of a glaring issue, no? If you want to just kick back in the couch and play, which I feel is the consumer this is mostly targeting, this machine will throttle and give you a very poor performance on any of the big name games of the past few years, let alone the present and future. Now, whether 30 fps and below is fine for a lot of people or not is debatable, I'll admit, but you are paying what I think most people consider a very high price for an already outdated machine that will not get any better. Meanwhile, you could spend 400 dollars less and get a ps5 with those same games that you know will run consistently.
At least the Steam Deck has the excuse that it's a portable form factor so you shouldn't have any expectation that it can run demanding games that well. I don't think the same benefit of the doubt is warranted for the Steam Machine that has "4k gaming at 60fps" in its description and cannot deliver it for, as far as I can tell, most modern 3D games.
If you're Joe Shmo who doesn't know about computers and just wants something that works, how is the Steam Machine at all appealing for that price? I really don't see how it is competing with anything. It's in a microscopic niche of its own at this price point.
Want a powerful PC? Build a better one yourself for the same price or even get a prebuilt like the person further up above commented.
Want something for your TV? A comparable console is 400 bucks cheaper and comes with a controller.
The only person for whom the steam machine makes sense is either a technology enthusiast with money to spend or someone who has at least a thousand dollars and for whom a bigger form factor and/or more noise than the steam machine is a non-starter. I'm sure they're out there, but I have serious doubts they are very numerous.
I am a Steam Deck buyer, I even payed for the smallest price possible when they did their sale of all models.
But my Steam Deck remains largely unplayed on, because the performance is so lackluster.
I am convinced we see largely positive sentiment of it online, because the only people discussing it are the ones willing to tinker, sacrifice resolution, or fps, or even buy/print accessories to it.
And so are so engaged in it that they have online communities dedicated to it.
But I think my point of view come mostly from the assumption they were willing to compete, or at least propose a better alternative to consoles.
I would have loved to recommend it to others, but between the ps5 with disc drive and dualsense gamepad at 550€, and the steam machine at 1130€ with the steam controller..
For the same performance, I just don't see the value.
I rarely use my Deck but I think it's still a stellar product. The problem lies in the fact that I almost always have a better alternative nearby (my desktop) and when the difference is that stark in performance I can't really enjoy the lower quality/frame rate.
Still, what they made and what they were going for hit the mark in a way few handhelds have. It's made exceptional by the OS, the support, and the open nature of the Deck.
I wouldn't recommend it to someone mostly sitting and working from home. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone with a commute longer than 10 minutes (also why it doesn't see much play time in my case).
I'm currently enjoying some time off in a different country and the Deck is an easy take along. It sees more use now than it does at home and I'm happy I took it along.
I am in the same boat, was not prepared to play probably the best convenient game for the steam deck for me: Trackmania 2020 without at least a very stable 60fps.
It was just not possible, so I've let it take the dust.
For the commute argument, I just never understood it.
I have 1h each way of commute in public transport, but I would never play my steamdeck in public transports. I just can't see it.
And even the Switch which is in the same ballpark of 'portable' console, I've probably seen it twice in all my life in public transport. And I've had at least 45min of commute for near 20 years.
If you want to be even smaller, you can make one of those Jonsbo (and Velka I think?) SFF PCs, though at that point researching what fits and what not is on you, and ITX tax is more prominent when you go to such extreme sizes.
Yeah, the power supplies for (at least some of) the Velka/Jonsbo cases are $150+, because they don’t even use the “standard” SFF power supply, there’s a custom one for them.
I saw a sale last night on Amazon, via r/buildapcsales, for one of those mini, NUC-sized PCs. $520 for a 32GB DDR5, 1TB NVME, and a Ryzen 7 H255. $520. So I bought one.
Other commenters pointed out that this thing can connect to an eGPU. There's some GPU dock that's like $100. Then it's possible to find 8GB 9060 XT for like $350 (also need a PSU for the dock + gpu). So that's somewhere around the price of a Steam Machine. Probably a little over it. But sounds like it's way more powerful.
Not saying I'm going to go the eGPU route, but even as a standalone gaming-oriented HTPC, it should be be pretty good. And beats the Steam Machine cost by half.
I saw that too! Link to the discussion. I also saw a steam machine build based on the deskmeet x600
Pcpartpicker doesn't have some of the more exotic parts/bundles, but there's plenty of room to golf on price and/or diy build volume if you're creative. Shucking/extending a prebuilt itx is probably the most direct approach.
I'm half tempted to buy one and try my hand at the gamecube build now that we have omnidrive.
Digital Foundry Review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhWtLi_FqLo
IGN confirms was originally supposed to cost $750:
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-steam-machine-was-originally-meant-to-cost-about-750
GN to throw another review on the pile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66QzlDewigE
Edit-
And their teardown/repair vid as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glXA3ObwSwQ
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.
To be clear, i'm unsure how this works with AAA high spec's stuff. I do the same thing on my deck, but I also load it up with lots of lower spec games.
You're probably not running some AAA title on max settings on the steam machine, but I'm not sure if there's a line there where things will be less performant? Say your usual unoptomized pile like CoD?
I think it would probably be fine. I recently watched someone play Kingdom Come Deliverance II on a hard drive and the only issue seemed to be that you could sometimes see a low res texture load before the high res one pops in. But it looked totally playable.
I feel like 512 GB is more than enough, I've long since realized there is no point keeping every single game installed and ready to go when realistically these heavyweight AAA games are best played in one big go and then put on the shelf for months/years rather than flicking between 40 games at the same time. You can then either move them to the SD or delete and reinstall later.
Same with the Switch 2. I wonder if Valve will also adopt microSD express with this? Honestly, the speed of my Switch 2 card might as well be an SSD.
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
Raw throughput is only one aspect though. The reason SSDs smash hard drives for gaming is largely the random read speed, which SD cards are also great at.
Also, NGL it's nice having a microsd slot on things for transferring from cameras and music players and flashing raspberry pis.
My new laptop had one when my prior didn't. I love never having to play 'find my dongle.'
Would have been nicer as a full sized sd card slot imo. They have the space in this machine and it opens up the possibility of using either sized card.
I'm mostly left wondering why micro. Full-size SDs are usually more reliable/better value and this isn't exactly a portable.
I imagine it's just simpler for Valve. They've already got a supplier and code to handle the microSD card reader on the Steam Deck and they can just use all of that with the Steam Machine, having done all the other engineering.
Code? There’s no difference.
The only part that matters here is the micro SD port, as the logic behind it is identical.
The real reasons are that:
And if you wanted to you could have games installed on your steam machine and then put that in your deck to go
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.
I would say competitive maybe in this form factor section of the market, but I've found 3 prebuilts (in my other comment) which are at near the same prices (1099€), but are way more powerful to run games.
Like probably 50% more performant.
So I don't think theses prices are reasonable
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.
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.
Total cost of ownership will be far greater on a PS5. $80 per year for online multiplayer plus games cost more on average and same for repairs
And there's also the big if of compatibility. Proton has some a long way, but every advertised PS5 game will work on your PS5 and has undergone a QA process that game studios tend to find arduous. There's a good chance you could pick out a game advertised on Steam and find that it doesn't work on Linux or requires some manual fiddling. Some of the most played games in the world are multiplayer games that could also have incompatible anticheat and high stakes if your account is flagged.
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.
They're doing a randomised controlled lottery. Sign up before the 25th and roll the dice.
In their own words:
I don’t think you realize how good of a deal this is for 2026. Consider that the 16GB model of the Raspberry Pi went from $120 to $305. If you have all the compute you need on hand then stay away, but for anyone looking at their options this isn’t outrageously priced.
PS5 tier performance in 2026 at this price point is not a good deal. All reviews are showing this thing is severely underpowered even for today's prices.
I built a pc this year, I know prices are ruined, but you can absolutely get better value if you build it yourself and honestly even some pre-builts.
The PS5 is not a great comparison because the prices don't have to reflect the costs. It could be subsidized or lagging. Sony very well may be willing to temporarily eat the cost of the recent spike to protect the brand long term and to make the money back in game sales.
Best comparison would be comparing the steam machine to a prebuilt PC or what you could build yourself. And it seems exactly on point for pricing there.
I've yet to see otherwise. I don't think people understand that this is what PS5 tier performance costs now, especially when you consider how most console games are heavily optimized to over perform for their specs.
I've run this a few ways now and you're lucky to get out the door for $700
I mean, the PS5 Pro now retails for $900. And that's with baking in some loss-leader due to closed platform.
While I don't see the Steam Machine competing for PS5 exclusive users....it's definitely in that price point for PC users looking for a TV drop-in
PS5 tier performance costs the price of a PS5, about 600 bucks. Even acknowledging Sony's ability to subsidize the cost, you're still looking at an insane markup. And for 900 you can get a better performing PS5 pro that includes a controller and leaves you with money left over for a year of Playstation Plus. I don't think it's crazy to say that's what most people will see at first glance. The steam machine is trying to be a more mainstream, console-like (ie plug and play) pc gaming experience, so the PS5/Xbox are the most direct comparisons at the moment.
But even if you want to compare to PCs, which yes will cost a pretty penny right now even at entry level (again, I built one a few months ago. It cost me about 2k euros for a ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32 GB of DDR5, and an rx 9070 xt, so I am keenly aware of how absurd prices are), you will always get better value than this machine because this specific hardware is purposefully underpowered to fit in that form factor and not have thermal issues.
I have also seen some pre-built PCs, which are probably the most analogous to a steam machine, with better base specs for similar prices. Ryzen 5 with an rx 9060 xt and 32 GB of DDR5 for about 1.3k euros, for example, or an rtx 5060 system if you're willing to go down to 16 GB of RAM, which gives you access to DLSS (I believe I saw two systems like that just around 1k). That's a very similar price to the steam machine but with significantly better specs and performance, and you didn't need to do any DIY. Plus you have more upgradeability. And pre-builts are extremely popular overall already, so the steam machine is competing with them whether it likes it or not. Sure, they will be bigger and less silent, that's one of the most impressive and unique things about the steam machine, but I'd wager most people who are trying to make the most sensible purchase will likely weigh those factors less compared to performance. This is the price range where you're counting every frame.
I just don't see a reason, outside of the enthusiast crowd that already has extra money to spend, why any regular consumer would go to the steam machine instead of a more full-powered PC for the same price if they're looking to get the most bang for their buck, or a much cheaper console for the same performance if they're looking for couch gaming at an "affordable" price (relatively speaking. Screw these prices to high heaven).
All tests that have come out from reviews show that this is underpowered by any metric even when you look at the current price of components. Yes, it is an absolutely cool machine that has more to it than just raw performance, I'm not saying it should be 600 bucks (in my personal opinion they could have gotten away with up to 800 without much of an outcry) or that it shouldn't exist. But the price is just not computing at all. And that's not through Valve's fault, I'm not blaming them. Screw the tech bros that made this hobby the price-gated absurdity it has become. But as an end consumer, with all the other prices I see, I feel it's fair to say the steam machine is not worth the money in most circumstances. Definitely something I'd love to have if I had a lot of expendable budget, but sadly I need to count every penny to get my money's worth.
Basically what I'm trying to say is I think at this price point this is a cool enthusiast-oriented machine, but it's going to have a rough time breaking into the mainstream like it was most likely hoping to when it was announced.
Hmm yeah just watched a review and it seems a little less powerful than I expected. I still think it will be a popular purchase and a platform developers will target.
yeah the only things that offset this even a small amount is the compactness, it being silent while being that compact, and it sipping power. but the trade-offs they made in making it so small, quiet, and power-limited, means they really hampered its performance. i almost feel like they had headroom to not limit things so hard. ~30W on the CPU, 8GB VRAM and ~110W on the GPU.
i do think it's not abysmal for what you get, if you're in the market for an extremely compact PC that can do some decent gaming, and just like the other factors and are already deep in the Steam world, but it's certainly not a good value, all things considered, including industry supply and pricing being what it is
one of the best things about building it yourself or getting a pre-built will mean that you won't have as much constraints to fit into size and power-wise so a comparable pre-built, even if DIY parts aren't much cheaper, won't have anywhere near the power limits, so even building something with comparable hardware at a similar price point will still perform quite a bit better just because things won't be so limited, plus it will be far more upgradable
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.
Yeah $450 is nuts in the current climate. I don't think I could build this box for $450 full stop, and that's doing it myself and letting me skimp on case size and parts.
Ram/nvme/GPU probably jumps that cleanly.
For those talking about price:
PCPartPicker Part List
This is what i've gotten to so far, but it's been a long time since i've done any real comparison work and I tend to miss some stupid detail.
This is CPU, Memory, Storage (no gpu, motherboard, case, power supply, cooling) for $400.
@Nihilego I'd be curious to see if i'm missing something because I don't see how you get anywhere near $450.
Agreed. $450 these days seems pretty out there. Even before the component shortage, I'm not saying a $450 build wasn't possible, but I imagine that'd be scraping bottom of the barrel. I'm pretty sure my brother did a $400-500 OK enough build for his then GF, but that was in like 2022/2023. And that wasn't an SFFPC, just a Mini or MicroATX tower. SFFs are usually more expensive than standard desktops.
In their defense, $450 is what they were hoping for, not something they claimed to build? If it was priced at a loss like other consoles, I get holding out hope for it to be cheap + some people are still mentally in a 2023 state of comparison.
I’d say more 2024-2025, when I made/started ordering parts of my last PC build. The “inflated” GPU prices are “normal” and MSRPs are fake, but SSDs were reasonable, you still would rather wait for a deal than immediately buy one, and RAM is pretty much a buy once and forget thing, unless it stops working.
But yeah $450 is what I was hoping for, $750 is what I valued it at.
Valve saying it will be priced at PC prices, not consoles killed any chance of it ever being that low, but a few videos looking at comparable parts ended up ranging from $600 to $800, I think one concentrating on BOM estimates(I forgot by who) had it on the lower end, not factoring in bulk savings and b2b deals.
I think if you want to game nowadays just stick with your last gen consoles/parts or maybe look into retro handhelds, mostly old games but newer Retroid and AYN devices are a fraction of the cost of a Steamdeck and Gamenative/Windows emulation is advancing, but ymmv with that.
Not bad at all. Well within the price range I was budgeting for it. Let's fucking go!
It's not all that far off a custom built PC for the cost, especially if you consider the form factor, but you would be giving up upgradability.
Either way, the comparison against the current consoles is a bit oof for 6 years into the cycle. This has to be one of the largest divergences between consoles this old and new PCs. When the PS4 was 6 years old you could build a PC quite close or better than it in performance at the same price - makes sense, the new PC has 6 years of technological advances.
Now? This thing is SLOWER than the base ps5, a 6 year old console. It cost twice as much.
I mean...of course? Moore's law is over and the base ps5 costs more now than it did at launch.
I get it, but this is a pretty bad way to phrase it.
I think overall the Steam Machine isn't going to be tearing apart any marketshare from the consoles, but I also don't think that's the entire goal either.
They're leaning into that custom asthetic angle hard...like this $130 companion cube dbrand will probably sell out immediately.
If I presented any of the prebuilts in this thread alongside a Steam Machine to my sister, she'd buy the steam machine in a heartbeat because it is smaller, and that matters a lot more than how many pixels it pushes as she pulls up The Sims 4 on the TV.
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.
Note: after watching/reading reviews the performance is pretty lackluster though, so it's going to be a niche/enthusiast product no matter what. I don't know that they were even trying to compete with consoles. While I don't like consoles, so I'm more of a market for this than some other people I'm sure, there's no denying that this isn't really competitive performance-wise.
Also, yes you can probably build something more powerful for the same price if you do it yourself- but there are benefits to it being all-in-one:
Compared to a console, it's a full PC which is also a large benefit- but very much depending on your needs/wants. But, I sure was hoping to see better performance out of it but the trade-offs they made for quiet/compact/etc hindered that
I do wonder if other current pre-built systems make this a non-starter though. That said, after bad experiences with some pre-builts, I trust Valve more than some of those companies, but still
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.
Yeah I'm in a nearly-all-linux household now and would not go back to anything else. Though I did go back to Win10 for the music prod machine. Overall as an OS, I do think macOS still is better than Windows, but I dislike both of them a LOT for their own individual reasons and typically always prefer Linux (my daily driver / gaming PC is 7800X3D + RTX 4070 and running just fine).
macOS just got way too Fisher-Price UI-wise, kept annoying me about updating, and i got tired of the way Apple does a bunch of things. I think Finder still sucks horribly as a file explorer, and I don't like how much Apple likes to control how the OS operates underneath in ways that aren't easy to look into or even modify in some cases. I think they do hardware well but I find the software pretty miserable (even if better than Windows)
I begrudgingly use a non-linux machine for music and some other stuff because despite linux having come far for music production and all of that, it's still a frustrating road to go down if one is already invested in tons of plugins/etc that don't easily work on Linux, and some of them may not at all. So it's much easier for me to stay in Win/Mac because I know I can install and activate everything I need to easily. So it's my one exception to the rule for the forseeable future. Some day I may overhaul the amount of plugins/tools I need for music stuff though and jump to Linux, we'll see. I'd love to be a household 100% free of macOS and Windows
Completely fair. I've never really dug too much into my OS to get it working exactly how I want it, which I guess is why I gravitate to macOS. I do agree Apple's walled garden does get annoying at times and there are still some frustrating omissions in macOS that seem to always require a $20 indie dev application to fix.
Linux UX has improved greatly though in the last 10 years so I'm excited to see where it goes in the next 10 years. I still use a lot of cross-platform applications specifically to prevent me from being locked into Apple's platform.
Yeah when it comes to operating systems it always kinda comes down to "they all have their benefits and drawbacks" and how those will balance out strongly depends on peoples' needs and wants
I totally get when people just don't want to think about digging into anything too deeply and just want things to work. It's the same reason that even though Linux is SO much better these days, I still don't automatically recommend it as a solution for anyone having trouble with other operating systems. A lot of people just need their stuff to work- and the easiest road for many of them will be to stay on the bigger corporate operating systems, it just depends.
Honestly that's why I'm still on iOS and iPadOS. I have a bajillion grumbles with iOS and iPadOS and Apple's direction as of late, but in general, they still simply just work, and get out of my way most of the time, and they perform well- which is what I want out of mobile/tablet devices
What kind of upgrades do you mean? I added a 4T thunderbolt drive to mine, and if you check out guys like DosDude on You Tube, it's possible to do other kinds of internal upgrades too.
Easy RAM / internal storage / GPU upgrades like you get with regular PCs (even tiny/mini PCs the size of the Mini are for the most part easy to upgrade RAM/storage-wise)
Yeah some internal upgrades are "possible" but not intended, so you have to really involve yourself if you want to go that deep. That's not "upgradable" in the normal sense where I can just add something. I'm not looking to buy a mac to try and do a bunch of hardware mods in an upgrade to a system that i bought knowingly with its limitations in the first place.
I already had added a fast external SSD, but the OS drive being limited in size itself eventually got a bit frustrating. Given some particular applications / types of installs that strongly prefer having certain things stored on the primary/OS drive, it was still dwindling in space over time in an uncomfortable way. Majority of why I left is really being sick of macOS, but the hardware was a big part of it. I originally thought it wouldn't be a big deal to me but eventually I decided it was mistake to buy the system. Just always bouncing into limitations or things I didn't like about how they are handled that I just decided to leave. I don't love Win10 either, but it does get out of my way and I can heavily customize it/restrict it to my exact desires, and having a full-size PC for ease of hardware swaps is nice
All to say, in other words, I get that there are some ways around some of my frustrations but they're not enough for me, and not in the ways I prefer to have them. Just realized I was working with a system that felt philosophically opposite of how I want my computers to operate and decided to change to have systems that align better with how I approach computers and hardware
Yeah Apple really don't want you to do any internal upgrades, which is really frustrating given how great the rest of the system is. I feel like at a minimum SSD upgrades should be more easily doable on the M-series Macs. I can get the RAM not being user upgradable given their unified architecture (though I've got my eye on LPCAMM2 modules) but SSDs not being easily upgradable sucks.
Yeah and as much as I don't like the RAM being non-upgradable, even before the RAMpocalypse, Apple's RAM upgrade prices when initially buying the system were gouging-level high- like nonsensically high. High enough that I refused to buy anything higher than the base model because I refused ethically to pay the margins they were asking
If Apple had always made it more cost-effective / reasonable to upgrade over the base model, I'd probably have felt far less restricted by the limitations or inability to upgrade it myself. I still think I might have eventually bailed over macOS though but they would have made it a tougher choice to leave.
Yeah for a variety of Apple products I've bought over the years, I've also only bought the base model for the same reasons. It's insane to me that Apple were able to hold off on increasing their prices due to the RAM/SSD cost increases purely because their margins were so large.
The SoC affects the SSD as well. Somewhat uniquely, the SSDs on macs do not have a memory controller - instead, the M series chip acts as the memory controller for uncontrolled NAND flash.
Weird thing for me to notice, I guess, but it seems odd that the front USB ports both appear to be USB-A. Is that what's on the controller (for wired use or maybe just charging)? It seems like the whole world has pretty much shifted to USB-C, even for flash drives and such, at this point.
Controller-included cable uses USB-A on one side.
When it comes to a gaming rig, there are a lot of older peripherals, especially in the scope of wired controllers.
I appreciate it, because so many cheap old chargers use USB-A, and it's not like A can't push 3.2 speeds anyhow. That, and I won't need to replace my 15ft microusb cable.
Aside from ease of access for wired peripherals - 2.4 GHz wireless adapters for controllers/keyboards/mice etc. are still overwhelmingly USB-A, and they should be plugged into your front panel for best line-of-sight connection.
I think it's because tons of devices are still USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other. It depends, but like, even when I had my Mac mini which was all USB-C/TB ports, nearly everything I had that I needed to plug into it was USB-A so I needed adapters/hubs
If you get a full-size desktop PC these days, or even a "mini" PC that isn't a mac, they'll have a mix of USB-C and USB-A, and full-size desktops will have tons of USB-A ports. Mice and keyboards are still USB-A. A lot of wired controllers are still USB-A. A lot of dongles are still USB-A. Plenty of storage is C now, but there's still a lot of USB-A storage (it might be C on the drive side, but a lot of the times it can be A on the other side of the cable)
I don't think the world has really shifted that much yet on the "host" end, though it has on the device end. It has begun to, but I think overall the mix of devices out there isn't overwhelmingly USB-C (except on the device's end of the cable) yet. Apple has tried to push it with some of their laptops and desktops, but they pushed ahead of the curve a bit, and it's actually a selling point for some people that laptops come with some USB-A ports. Also have to take into consideration the devices people already own. Sure brand new devices may have shifted a bit more, but so many people already own so many devices, and most of already-owned devices are probably majority USB-A
Also, purely from a manufacturing standpoint, A is exponentially cheaper and easier.
In the realm of durability and repairability it's hard to beat that gen 1 A to B connector.
This a bit of a nitpick but that's the cable rather than the device. If the cable is not permanently soldered on the device then you can pick between a C to A or an C to C. Usually they throw a C to A in because that's what they got in the bargain bin. It's usually best to just throw those included cables in the bin and use your own higher quality ones. IMO it's better to standardize on C to C cables because you have to use them for USB PD and they can do everything USB A can do.
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.
You could install Sunshine on your computer in the office, then use something with a Moonlight app to stream it to your TV (I use a Fire TV stick).
It works unbelievably well. I had originally soured on local game streaming because I didn’t find Steam’s built-in streaming option to be very good, but the difference with Sunshine+Moonlight is night and day (ha!).
Aside from the gaming I do on my Deck, almost all of my stuff is streamed to a different device these days. Heck, I’ve even streamed titles to my Deck when particular games won’t run on it (e.g. Riders Republic and The Crew 2).
I have the same issue with my PC being in a different room to my living room. I considered a bunch of solutions (including a separate PC like the Steam Machine) but ultimately ended up just getting a 15m optic fibre HDMI cable and running it from my PC to my TV.
The upsides:
Pretty cheap. A decent HDMI 2.1 cable was only about the equivalent of USD 70.
No setup required. You can just run games exactly the same way you do on your current PC. My wireless controller works through the wall when in my living room, as do wireless / Bluetooth mouse / keyboard.
You can go back to playing games on your desktop whenever you feel like it. No need to fiddle around with separate installations.
Only one device to maintain and upgrade.
The downsides:
Having to roll up and roll out the HDMI cable each time you game in the living room. If you can install this through walls / around molding in your home, this isn't even an issue. Otherwise, it's pretty fast if you just use the 'over and under' coiling technique.
TV occasionally forgets the right audio source. This is pretty rare though.
I've also tried streaming to my TV via Apollo (a variant of Sunshine) / Moonlight. It's fine for non-action intensive games, but I found the occasional hitches (even over Wifi 7) and compromise in image quality to be a bit of a bummer and nowadays mostly go for the HDMI.
Add in a USB extender cable and you can have all your wireless dongles there too.
I'll get one next year when the platform is more stable and (maybe! just maybe!) RAMageddon isn't in full swing.
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.
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.
Fun fact, think you used the same nvme drive I did, which no longer lists. Next comparable I found is $20 more getting you to the $870 line.
Edit:
Ahh found one for $10 more, so your "bones" look something like this:
PCPartPicker Part List
So $765.93 for PS5 level performance with no case, PSU, cooler. Lets be nice and say $50 more for that (case/psu, no cooler) which is wildly generous, and we're at a nice and even $800 for a fullsize you build yourself.
There ARE some quick gains that make the $1k price point a little rough. If you can afford $200 more on this build and drop it on the CPU/GPU you can get a significant jump in performance, and that's I think where the real discussion about the steam machine is.
So yes if you can afford to say "well if i'm spending $1000 i might as well spend $1300" yeah you can see a pretty big bump even in premades, but this is pretty close to the bottom line for a commercial product at these specs.
The only thing I couldn't see included in your build is a cec adaptor which the steam machine has inbuilt. It does make it a lot more console like as the tv and console will turn on together from whichever one you turn on first is my understanding. But that does only add $50 with rounding.
Oh good point. I use a $20 universal remote that can do that stuff on my TV while having nav buttons for the HTPC plus mouse and keyboard. I figure something like that would be preferable, but using CEC is feature parity.
I forgot to double check the motherboard's wireless too, but that's another $20 if you haven't got a spare wifi/Bluetooth adapter about.
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.
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.
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.
Valve has been working on Steam Machines for over a decade. I think this launch will be remembered as rough, but they're going to keep working on them and once prices aren't so bad they'll have an even more polished product at a reasonable price. Then we'll finally have a solid competitor to other consoles.
I think their timing might be just fucked. The ram and SSD tax is probably adding an extra $200, and I feel like around $800 would have been a good price for the hardware. I also think they had to delay launch to get enough of both/either components, so that makes it feel even more outdated. And both of these make it feel like an iffy deal. I am also surprised that they went so small-form factor; I get making it small, but its very small. Making it a little bigger might have allowed them to use cheaper components, but maybe all those parts are custom anyway so it wouldn't matter a lot.
I think the big deciding factor is how much developers take it seriously as a platform. I believe the Steam Deck has gotten at least some attention, so they have some hope for it. For the casual social console gamer, they also need to have the big multiplayer games just work. I believe at least some anti-cheats do have Linux versions, but they are either not enabled by the game itself or Linux users don't want to give them below root access. With the GabeCube being a psuedo-console, I imagine they can get anti-cheat enabled more easily and with less complaints by end-users, because they view it as a console not a general use PC. Overall, I hope it does well even though I won't buy one, because the more successful it is will make Linux gaming even better.
I think someone in another comment mentioned that the base MSRP was targeted to be $750 so there's definitely a massive premium right now because of memory and SSD prices unfortunately.
I was amused to see that at least one retailer is already offering its own homebrew Steam Machine at the same price.
Price / performance aside, the little cube form factor is quite nice and I hope Valve takes another crack at this format when component prices eventually settle.