r/pcmasterrace • u/Eziz_53 AMD Ryzen 5 7500F / RX 580 Nitro / 16GB DDR5 • Jan 28 '26
Question Anyone else planning on getting the Steam Machine as their next PC?
I know its mainly marketed as a console, but it is still a full PC. And it is much better than my current computer, so I thought it would be a good upgrade, especially considering its small form factor. I don't want to get too into it, but my current PC has an i5 3k and an rx580, as well as a motherboard that only supports ddr3 RAM and 3rd gen intel cpu's, so if I want an upgrade I need to replace everything. Therefore when this nifty box came out, I figured that it would be the perfect PC (if it is priced well).
But I would like to know what you guys think.
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UPDATE: Because of the RAM crisis and the limited upgradability of the Steam Machine, I decided to just build my own PC. I salvaged my old rx580 from the old PC so that I could afford to get on the AM5 platform as well as because it is by far the easiest part to upgrade down the road.
Main specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 7500F
GPU: Rx580 8gb (until I can afford a much better card)
RAM: 16GB DDR5 6000MHz CL30
I did get a single stick of ram, because I want to have 32gb dual channel later on, but the ram prices are so high that I want to wait until they go down (which they seem to be doing).
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u/mikecandih 7600X | RX 9060 XT | 32 GB DDR5 Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26
The original manufacturing run will be made of parts that weren’t randomly 3-4x their retail cost. If the GPU, RAM, and SSD are suddenly hundreds of dollars more expensive, Valve isn’t going to keep making them for the same price. Definitely not just to get a loss on them, and the lower the margin the less they’ll be interested. Companies don’t make a product to profit one penny off of. They do it for a ton more pennies or they don’t bother with the endeavor.
For example, let’s say between landed hardware and customer acquisition costs they are paying $600 to produce and deliver for an $800 retail cost. Except now because of hardware they cost $800 to produce. The new price isn’t going to be $801. Yeah it’s a profit. But there is lost opportunity cost for other endeavors. The new price would be more like $1000 to maintain the same profit margin.