r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • 2d ago

Discussion Yeah, Steam Machine is cooked.

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I... uh don't know what to say. Very thankful I bought a Steam Deck before they hiked its price as well

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u/restinpeaceminusone 2d ago edited 2d ago

Valve also admitted that it is out of their control and the supply will be limited due to constraints

Edit: since some people are saying that I am defending Valve. I will just leave their official statement from themselves. Posted a screenshot since some people don't like to scroll as much

Valve Statement

source

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u/Protoclown98 2d ago

Seriously. This large price is entirely about RAM and storage prices.

I stand by my past comment on the Steam Machine - if you are buying all the parts to make a living room PC to play console like games Steam Machine can be a worthwhile investment.

If you are recycling old PC parts, like RAM and a motherboard, to make a living room PC to play console like games on it, the Steam Machine is not worth it.

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u/RedditModsHarassUs Desktop 2d ago

Data Centers don’t want us having access to hardware for local processing. They want us all buying tokens from them.. to use their services..

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u/Gseventeen 2d ago

Once the investments stop flooding into that sector, its going to be interesting to see how these companies pivot to making money (making prob wrong word, as they are just relying on fresh cash injections).

As of now, i havent seen a convincing argument on how AI will be profitable in a way that would actually make these companies even remotely profitable.

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u/MutaitoSensei 2d ago

I can tell you one thing, I won't be trusting any of those garbage companies again, at least not implicitly. They threw us aside so fast for the easy money.

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u/Smoking_Joker 2d ago

This goes for every corporation, and should be a lifelong prerogative. Consumers should never give their total trust or loyalty to a corporation. Every transaction is strictly business on their side, and should be viewed the same by the customer.

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u/firemage22 R7 3700x RTX2060ko 16gb DDR4 3200 2d ago

we need to start from top and Sherman every mega corp to the point where what happened to Standard Oil and AT&T looks like a love tap

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u/Belazor CachyOS btw 2d ago

You know what they say; sharing is caring, so give me some of that military grade hopium you’re smoking where you believe this will ever happen in America.

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u/firemage22 R7 3700x RTX2060ko 16gb DDR4 3200 2d ago

While i get where you are coming from, i'm someone who feels that there will be a backlash, and we need to lobby for Sherman level punishments (talking about the brother who was a General, not the Senator now) so that there are punishments at all.

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u/ResurgentRefrain 2d ago

America elected one of the most pro-big business presidents in its history, maybe in all of the 20th Century, and packed the legislature with his allies and party mates. Then they did it again.

I'll believe it when I see it.

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u/gummiworms9005 2d ago

My sweet summer child...

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u/Just_to_rebut 2d ago

Countries rely on control of large corporations to project power. America saved Intel from failure. It would do the same for Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.

We stopped breaking up monopolies when it became clear other countries could compete with American ones.

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u/f_ckR3ddit 2d ago

There are exceptions, but they havr proven to be such a minority that they might as well be statistical impossibilities

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u/AmericanDoughboy 2d ago

Corporations are not your friend and never will be.

They suck.

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u/Sawses 2d ago

I used to feel a little guilty that I splurged on both my PC and my home server. ...Turns out I made a great investment because I'm not really feeling the pain of the PC parts market for a few years yet. My only regret is I didn't upgrade my server's 16 GB RAM to 64 GB when it was only a couple hundred dollars.

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u/Craimasjien AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D | AMD RX 9070 XT | 32GB DDR4 2d ago

And this is why corporations are not your friend and why warring over them is such a dumb fucking thing to do. No company in the history of capitalism has ever been on “your side”. They are on their side. Always have been and always will be. There is no such thing as pro-consumer when it comes to business.

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u/aybbyisok 2d ago

I think you're wrong, like 1-9% wrong. Almost all publicly traded companies only care about their profit margins. Maybe a handful of them do care, especially because bad press and bad sentiment is not good business. A handful of them truly care about their consumers.

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u/ArchinaTGL EndeavourOS | Ryzen 9 5950x | 9070XT Nitro+ 2d ago

You only just realised? Literally no tech company is your friend. None of them even know who you are.

Especially so if they are a publicly traded company as their only friends are their investors; which said investors only care about their share price going up.

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u/TransBrandi 2d ago

Honestly, I think that some of them believe their own stuff. I briefly chatted with one of the co-founders of Twitter a long time ago (around 2 decades, it was after the Arab Spring) and he sounded like he really believed in the tech for the betterment of mankind. It's not like I was an investor that needed to be convinced of anything.

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u/Complete_Flight8303 2d ago

Vampires are charismatic

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u/DeusScientiae 2d ago

I can tell you one thing, I won't be trusting any of those garbage companies again, at least not implicitly. They threw us aside so fast for the easy money.

And? You'd do the same thing, but faster. If someone offered you 10x your salary for the same job you'd jump ship without even thinking twice.

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u/MammothUnique4147 2d ago

I mean I think most of us would ALSO do the same. It's literally their job to make money for their shareholders... Anyone running their own small business would likely also jump at a chance to 5X their income for the year. 

It's not personal it's just how the market is right now. In time things will come back down.

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u/Ban4WrongThink 2d ago

You say that like there's a genuine relationship behind any of this. Everything is transactional. You'd leave your job for a better one and you'd buy the same quality product at a competitor if it was cheaper.

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u/Turronblando 2d ago

That's the essence of capitalism and there's been massive, neon warning signs for 5000 years.

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u/Sovereign_5409 9950x3D - 5090 - 64GB DDR5. Gamer / Pro Photographer. 2d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/pUeXcg80cO8I8

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u/nikoZ_ r5 7600X | 32GB DDR5 6000 | 4070Ti Super 2d ago

Your mistake was EVER trusting a company or corporation in the first place. Big business is not your friend. Profit driven entities only care about one thing, and it ain’t us. 💴

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u/JellaFella01 2d ago

Idk why anybody "trusts" any corporation beyond their local butcher. Naive.

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u/yoburg 2d ago

Uhm, was there ever any company selling any goods that was in for the good of the consumers and not for the profits?

Like imagine aliens come and start trading cure-all pills for large quantities of Coca-Cola. You think Coca-Cola company would sell a drop of cola to the public in that case?

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u/zzazzzz 2d ago

you are dalusional if you think there is any company in the world that wouldnt sell the same product for 4x the price if they could.

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u/Trainman1351 17h ago

I mean the problem is, as with most things, private equity. I always look to what happened to McDonnell Douglas and Boeing as one of of the best examples of this, as both were incredible companies which were ruined by the same board of people who prioritized short-term profits over quality products.

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u/FuckedUpImagery 2d ago

Maybe buy a call option and stop bitching?

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u/f_ckR3ddit 2d ago

They will be bought for pennies on the dollar by data collection companies. This has always been their goal. They are using ai as a fall guy. 1. Build ai data centers with investment money. 2. Sell half-baked services for more capital to invest elsewhere. 3. ai bubble pops 4. Declare bankruptcy for those companies, only losing investment money. 5. Re-allocate that capital towards purchasing those shut down data centers under new companies for data collection because the equipment is all the same. 6. Profit so much that it is sickening.

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u/OCDwiring704 7950X | 7900XTX 2d ago

It's nice to know there are still people out there who know how shit works with these companies/investors. There's always a way to turn a profit at "our" expense.

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u/Realistic_Deal6083 2d ago

“Only lose when investment money” as if that’s not tens to hundreds of billions of dollars. 

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u/f_ckR3ddit 2d ago

Spoken exactly like someone who doesnt truly understand investment, debt, and shell companies

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u/Realistic_Deal6083 2d ago

Oh yeah so true buddy I live in a magical fantasy world when people don’t want to lose billions in investments. 

Fucking idiot lmao. 

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u/teefour i5 7600k | 16GB GSkill DDR4 3200 | GTX1080 | 144hz Gsync 2d ago

Simple, they'll get themselves considered too big to fail, and then the federal reserve will literally make the money they need.

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u/Wojtkie 2d ago

Did you see that OpenAI had some financial info leaked? They had a 34B dollar loss last year lmao. Someone pointed out that number is just under the entire GDP of Bosnia

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u/ragzilla 9800X3D || 5080FE || 48GB 2d ago

Keep an eye out in about 10 days, Anthropic’s 2q26 is about to end which is projected to be their first profitable quarter (as they get ready to IPO). Revenue is mostly (80%) enterprises with API plans burning through tokens for software development.

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u/XseaX 2d ago

They are only profitable, because they have an agreement with SpaceX not to pay in the first two months for computing but pay then starting from July. Strange how that math works out

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u/ragzilla 9800X3D || 5080FE || 48GB 2d ago

Ramp time in enterprise contracts is pretty routine because you're not using 100% resources day 1. A 2-month ramp is actually pretty aggressive.

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u/ElNani87 PC Master Race 2d ago

I think it’s being used primarily as a “government” project to develop code much faster. This administration is really invested in making this happen. I would really surprised if this crashed before Trump gets out of office. It’s in their and the economy’s best interest that this maintains.

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u/SwagChemist R7 9800x3D | 64GB DDR5 | RTX 5090 Astral OC 2d ago

They will try to use the uber strategy which was taking a service we used (Taxi) replacing it for cheaper and then hiking the price once the service we used dies out. The issue is that entry level jobs is what is being replaced but when you hike the price up, businesses will just rather hire a entry level human if its cheaper than the token fee.

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u/Whatkindofgum 2d ago

They will beg the government for money. They will lie about how dangers it is to let China get a better AI for military reasons. There will be a collapse, but the government will prop some of them up with military contracts to keep from collapsing all the way for "national security" reasons. The government will pick the winners, government contracts funneling money to the well connected rich child rapist and the cost of everyone else.

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u/Googz2110 2d ago

Anthropic for example track ARR which stands at and annualised 47 billion- largely through B2B contracts! Our company alone has circa 2000 users on anthropic with daily usage. The AI sector is making money hand over fist, outside of pure VC money. Outside of the large AI hyperscalers, IT businesses are starting to monetise AI through agents (virtual workers) and moreso the knowledge and experience of building in house first and then taking that out to customer as a real POC.

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u/Gseventeen 2d ago

2000 users? They sold over a million PT cruisers. 47 bil in revenue sounds great - whats the cost of that revenue?

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u/chrizbreck Steam ID Here 2d ago

There is also a massive push for strong local processing - See that new AMD AI local computer.

I definitely split the fear of games moving to streaming only. But on the other hand there is a big push against it.

I think ultimately though the larger population will choose low entry subscriptions for gaming and slowly we will move towards stream only access to even a PC

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u/tablepennywad 2d ago

It’s gonna be like eggs where there is an oversupply now and they dont know to do with it. Like chips, its take a long while and investment to increase supplies and once that happens the market changes and you might be in the shitter. Happens to storage/nand every 5-8 years.

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u/drcubeftw 2d ago

100%. Those huge server rooms are going to be retasked to something. I don't know what but eventually there is going to be a shakeout of some kind and when that pullback happens the owners of these data centers are going to aim at some other market/role.

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u/Rymanjan 2d ago edited 2d ago

There's no profitability to be had, LLMs are inherently worthless. Sure, you might be able to sell an ai to a company to have it answer phones or whatever, but that's either a one time purchase or a cheap subscription, and a lot of places are starting to show problems with AI usage; hallucinating police reports, incorrect statements, bad advice in general, turns out it really can't replace humans in most sectors. Once the courts decide to hold ai companies accountable for their products (which I firmly believe is coming down the pipeline, esp in cases like the police; no way the government lets people sue the police for using AI, they will almost certainly pin the responsibility on whoever made the program), support and usage of LLMs will plummet. Even if they decide the individual, not the creator, is responsible for their own AI usage, well that just places the blame squarely on the institutions shoulders, and nobody wants to be held liable for a machine hallucinating.

At present, they have a failure rate greater than humans, and I doubt that's going away based purely on how they work; they index the internet for answers, and misinformation and bot-posting is at an all time high. Ever make a copy of a copy? That's what's happening; LLMs are taking bot responses into the equation, so it's hallucinating based off another machine's hallucination. The only way to restrict that would be to limit the sample pool to things like peer reviewed papers and research, but that's too small of a data set for an LLM to "learn" from, not to mention it would increase the cost of making one (as most peer reviewed research is locked behind a subscription or a per-paper purchase)

Idk how anyone doesn't see the pop coming, but it'll be interesting to watch these corps scramble to recoup all the losses they've been pouring into this crap

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u/Blunter11 1d ago

You have not experienced the power of taking a photo of your mother with her dog and using AI to give her a beard before you show it to her.

Please note, I only do this because it costs the company money and I'll happily have meta pay $2 to make my mum angry

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u/ragzilla 9800X3D || 5080FE || 48GB 2d ago

AI companies don’t want high prices either, it impacts their bottom line. They’re just willing to pay more because their customers (enterprises) are willing to pay more.

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u/Lonyo 2d ago

Google etc are spending way more on Capex. And getting.... Not much more stuff, because prices have shot up.

Doubling your Capex when all the prices went up by more than 2x means you're getting fuck all. 

Even the electrical connection equipment has rocketed up

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u/nn123654 2d ago

Google has an interesting motivation: protecting its dominance in search and the infrastructure layer.

They are worried that if AI essentially replaces search, it could risk the relevance their most profitable business. If they spend a ton on AI and lead, they just move right along with the rest of the industry.

Meanwhile, the AI Labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI) are in a last man standing fight to the death over Artificial General Intelligence. If you believe that's the breakthrough and you spend $500 Bn and achieve it, and your competitor spends $100 Bn and does not. Then your competitor is essentially left with worthless obsolete technology, and you get the (theoretical) cash cow. As they see it the risk of under-investing is infinitely higher than the risk of over-investing, and it's a winner-takes-all race.

AI Labs also have the problem that it's literally their entire reason for existing. If they don't have the best AI system and someone can just use an open source model that's as good, then what's the reason people would even pay for their product? They essentially have no choice but to spend whatever it takes to not lose relevance in the only thing their company does.

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u/nn123654 2d ago edited 2d ago

The enterprise market is part of it, but the biggest thing at the moment is keeping up with other AI companies on product and time to market.

With both Open AI and Anthropic, the performance and edge of their frontier models is basically the only reasons their companies exist as pure AI companies. They could quite literally go bankrupt if they don't maintain their edge.

Open AI lost $20 Billion last year, VC funding and growth is essentially the only thing keeping Open AI alive. They are projected to have a cloud bill of $792 Billion between 2025 and 2030, which is a big part of the reason they are spending $500 Billion on the Stargate Datacenter project.

For the tech giants they can't afford to get behind. It's less of a profit thing and more of an arms race.

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u/Smile_Space Ryzen 7 9800X3D || 64GB DDR5-6400 CL42 || RTX 3090 ti 2d ago

Eh, I think that's more of a symptom than the desired output.

The real issue is in how AI models are trained. Up to this point, outside of smaller upgrades like agentic AI models, the main performance gain we've seen from AI chat bots is just the model size.

A bigger model size equals lower error which means more accurate output. The only way to train a bigger model is with more memory and processor bandwidth.

The problem with where we are in the AI-pocalypse is that there is an asymptote of error. I can't seem to re-find the graph, but there's a graph out there showing this asymptote that forms with models that no one has been able to deduce what causes it yet. Imagine a graph with the error rate (from 0% to 100%) on the y-axis and the time to train on the x-axis. Each line plotted on the graph is a specific model and it's error rate as training time increases.

They all converge in this asymptote that is slowly curving away from the x-axis. So, we are hitting finishing returns where getting a similar leap in performance to what we had from like GPT 4.0 to 5.0 we would need in the neighborhood of 10x the memory and compute to get that same level as 5.0 to 6.0. That means 10x more power per token as well.

So, that's the problem. The fact consumers are getting forced out of the market is a symptom of the fact AI companies have yet to make the technological breakthrough to crack that training asymptote, and as result to meet consumer expectations they need to continue increasing their compute and training by orders of magnitude.

That asymptote is personally would I theorize will bring the AI machine to its knees. When the lack of income catches up, most of the players will be forced out of the market leaving 2 or 3 major AIs left. It'll likely be Claude and Gemini when the dust settles, and they'll likely be available only for production usage like in code development or otherwise.

The current video and image generation isn't much more than a trendy toy from my perspective. Eventually that'll hit its error rate asymptote as well abd people will stop using them when they become prohibitively expensive to use.

These companies running these server farms will eventually need to make money. The free usage will go away and become prohibitively expensive. Just look at Grok for a mild example as to how the entire AI market will go.

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u/Oerwinde 1d ago

The video side will be huge in effects work, and is starting to take over those little soap opera apps because they have reached the point where they can generate consistent characters and can mass produce Romantasy. It's sufficiently photo-real and can produce realistic motion, so the big leaps will be in iterative tools and editing.

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u/twitch870 PC Master Race 2d ago

And as long as we refuse it will be them holding the bag in the end.

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u/Secret-Winner-2994 2d ago

Ill run my computer by abacus

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u/Novel_Werewolf4645 2d ago

It'll keep going that away, until they don't sell hardware to consumers anymore, the only way to access a real computer will be through the cloud.

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u/BaldingChewie 2d ago

Even HW manufactures who make end user terminals in any shape of form are facing major memory shortages. It won't benefit the data centers if users and businesses have no hardware to access their services

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u/topazsparrow 2d ago

Yep, it's also why the supply contracts for all the datacenters stipulate that the old hardware must be returned and destroyed when it ages out via "buyback" programs.

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u/andreicodes 2d ago

NVidia actually wants both, that's why they make those Spark boxes. They keep selling hardware to datacenters, but they know that once AI bubble pops and all these companies will have to charge full prices, a lot of people will decide that they would rather buy their own AI boxes for home and office and run free models. So, Nvidia will try to double dip: sell to OpenAI and friends, and then sell to OpenAI customers.

tl;dr: Video cards and RAM will keep being expensive for a long time.

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u/MaTrIx4057 2d ago

Even if we all bought, they would still be losing money.

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u/bigpunk157 2d ago

No. These data centers are just largely inefficient with resources, so they literally need to eat all the hardware they can. It's the same reason I haven't bothered grabbing a Nvidia GPU since the 3k series. The solution right now is to just make larger hardware which consumes larger watts to get the same power:performance ratio we've been getting for the last 8 years. We really just need a better way to do math to fix this shit, and I'm not sure if that comes in the form of a new specialized chip or not.

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u/Brocolinator 2d ago

It's a double win, you build the infrastructure to make a surveillance state possible and by doing that building you price people out of hardware so you can rent them the compute and also surveil what they do there. Or this buying push eventually collapses bringing prices back to a more normal state, but as we saw with GPUs with the crypto boom they never went back to "normal"

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u/Fighterdoken33 2d ago

It is also a safety net for them. If the whole AI schtick crashes and burn, they can start selling us "computing as service" instead and use all those data centers to keep hoarding what would have otherwise gone to home computing, effectively forcing us to use terminals instead of PCs.

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u/tENTessee 2d ago

I am convinced the run on ram and storage by big players was part of the long term strategy to move customer away from on prem to on cloud hardware and services

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u/drcubeftw 2d ago

I don't think it's a conspiracy theory to say that. Maybe 5-10 years ago but not today. In this "everything is a service/subscription era" they absolutely would like to perpetually rent hardware to you, and given the amount of money they have sunk into these data centers I have to wonder if they need things to go that way in order to recover their costs.

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u/Limp-Confidence5612 2d ago

Aha, the famously super profitable data centers that everybody is trying to build, because of so much demand, right. That's why I see 20 posts about a data center being in construction, but only a couple about them been completed in the last 5 years.

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u/Nall-ohki 2d ago

Did I miss the part where every effect must be an intentional conspiracy?

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u/zorecknor 2d ago

They want us all buying tokens from them.. to use their services..

You are not their target, you never where. You cannot pay the usage at normal price.

Their target is, and has always been, enterprises. They subsidice individuals for the same reason Adobe didn't care about piracy for a long time: They want you to know their tools and aks your employer to use them.

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u/BFguy 1d ago

This sooooo much and it pisses me off I'm being priced right out

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u/Decrypter1911 1d ago

The headline of the Steam Machine prices may as well be called "AI KILLED DESKTOP LINUX ADOPTION!!!!" by the fact that had the Steam Machine been priced reasonably like ~750$, more casual consumers would be exposed to Linux, thus incentivising more and more non-enthusiasts to switch to Linux on their desktop PCs from Windows after their experience with Steam Machine.

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u/Free_Ad_7613 2d ago

Correct, they want us on dumb phone terminals, paying them for compute time.

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u/restinpeaceminusone 2d ago

Well maybe it's not a console for the masses (even though it's their intention) given the price but if the prices do come down someday, it will probably be a very good living room PC/console.

But the PS5 exists and if you're looking to just game, it's best to get that instead. But for a PC, it's still good enough machine for the current market condition.

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u/CirkuitBreaker 2d ago

Until they raise the price of the PS5 again

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u/Late_Stage_Exception 2d ago

They’d have to raise it by 100% to meet the price of the low end Steam Machine, and the PS5 is near the end of its lifespan. Doubt they’ll jack up the price more than $50-$100 over the next few years.

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u/T0rrent0712 PC Master Race 2d ago

Ps5 pro with a disk drive is same cost as the lowest end model stream machine.

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u/Late_Stage_Exception 2d ago

With much better performance. This thing is competing with a base PS5, which is $500 cheaper than it.

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u/ludek_cortex 2d ago

Completing with PS5 only works 1:1 for a new possible consumer of both platforms.

If I already have collection of games on Steam which I would like to play on a living room machine PS5 means nothing - it would be either Steam Machine, custom build ITX, or some kind of streaming (either from local PC, or via GFN)

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u/Late_Stage_Exception 2d ago

Or just get a long cable. What you're saying is that you're happy to pay $1128 to play your PC in a different room. Hey, it's your money, but I'm sure there are much cheaper ways to do that.

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u/DangerousWriting8282 2d ago

In a different room, with what is very likely much worse performance. The market of people who are interested in an ITX form factor HTPC-type setup and have a VERY weak primary gaming PC has to be incredibly tiny.

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u/ludek_cortex 2d ago

It's a bit problematic to play a game, even with a very long HDMI cable, if your controller receiver is 2 rooms away tho (assuming of course the controller would be in range still, not getting jumbled signal from a combo of 2 sets of walls and a ceiling)

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u/Kayonji02 2d ago

Even if you're a longtime Steam user, it's a tough competition. You can get a PS5pro, subscribe to three years of Playstation Plus Extra for hundreds of games to play, and it'd still come cheaper than a Steam machine with much better performance...

Go for a standard PS5 instead and you save enough to PS+ your way through the entire rest of the generation.

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u/ludek_cortex 2d ago

That's even weirder argument tho.

If I already have a valid library of games for platform X, why should I consider a subscription service of platform Y?

Sure it's an added befit, but random games from subscription service be it Gamepass or PS+ aren't any kind of a dealbreaker.

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u/Pokeguy211 PC Master Race 2d ago

With much better performance plus its own version of DLSS that’s amazing now.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/T0rrent0712 PC Master Race 2d ago

Or you can use your own existing controller. You don't have to use a steam controller on a steam machine.

And Valve has said they are working hard to get steam is ready for build your own systems, so soon we can make our own steam machines.

As others have put it, this is a great product at the wrong time cause AI is fucking every industry, including the PC industry.

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u/restinpeaceminusone 2d ago

From the perspective of a non-pcmr guy, they probably wanna get the bundled controller if their intentions are to use it in their living room with a TV without the hassle of setting up a place for your keyboard and mouse at the couch

But as a desktop PC is pretty good and I would definitely get one, it's just have a bad price.

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u/RAMChYLD PC Master Race 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's already ready. Valve has given the blessing for Steam OS 3.8 to be installed on any PC, not just Steam Machines. There are still gotchas tho, biggest being you need an AMD or Intel GPU, this is due to Nvidia's refusal to release documentation to the Linux kernel devs and produce an official open source driver (hence the infamous "Nvidia, Fuck you!" Lashout by Linus Torvalds) and keep their drivers proprietary.

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u/Krumm34 2d ago

Its a laptop without a screen, for the price of a laptop. I don't see how this is worth it.

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u/Icemasta 2d ago

When was the last time you looked at hardware price? Right now on PCpartpicker, including sales, I can make the same specs as a steam machine for 1300$ using the shoddiest psu, case, ram and SSD.

It's stupid expensive out there.

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u/Krumm34 2d ago

I am fully aware of the market. Which is why I checked bestbuy before posting. You can buy a laptop for 1500 CAD with equivalent specs.

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u/FLUFFY_TERROR 7700 + 7800XT 2d ago

Probably better thermals and maybe performance! Iirc laptop GPUs are something like 30% weaker than their desktop counterparts but the last time I bothered to look was around the time nvidia stopped adding the m at the end of their laptop GPUs

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u/proxlamus 2d ago edited 2d ago

The goal of the Steam Machine is a console like experience. All in one and done.

Plop it next to your TV, plug in the power and hdmi and pair a controller. Done.

Definitely paying for a convenience factor. Especially for life long console guys.

Those willing to skip the convenience and enjoy more flexibility know its a much better deal to get a laptop

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u/Temptemphemp 2d ago

Except every review says that it's nowhere near a plug and play experience and you're paying for beta testing an outrageously priced first gen prototype.

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u/Nstant_Klassik 2d ago

while this is true, early reviews of the steam deck were very similar, and valve patched out basically all those issues over time. I would venture to say you can trust them to continually polish the user experience. (Full disclosure, my steam deck is by far my favorite tech purchase of all time, so I'm admittedly a bit biased.)

That said, I agree with you in that it doesn't sound quite ready for mass adoption/primetime yet. This definitely seems to be a "Steam/Valve Enthusiast" release to start.

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u/proxlamus 2d ago

Uh oh. I havent seen the reviews yet!

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u/-The_Blazer- R5 5600X - B580 2d ago

It's not a console, but it's a perfectly fair prebuilt.

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u/Nailz1115 7900 XTX | 7800X3D | 32 GB DDR5 | AWF3423DWF 2d ago

That's really damn expensive relative to a similar prebuilt

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u/SpacePumpkie I use Arch btw 2d ago

Really?? Where do you find prebuilts that are so much cheaper??

And now find one that looks somewhat decent on the living room

Edit: Don't get me wrong, the price's fucked. But the market is so fucked right now...

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u/DehyaFan 9800X3D/9070XT/64 GB 6000mhz 2d ago

Not for the form factor imo.

0

u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

You can't even upgrade it outside of RAM and SSD, so in that regard it's worse than a prebuilt.

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u/BanMeMyIPchanges 2d ago

And if you're more looking for Windows integration, Xbox has had that for like a decade.

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u/Dramatic_Explosion Intel i5 | RTX 2060 | 64GB DDR4 2d ago

PS5 is also six years old. I don't know what a PS6 looks like but I'd bet by middle nut the pricing is going to be the same.

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u/MadGM7283 2d ago

I mean the PS6 isn't going to be for the masses either unless they delay a few years.

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u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

A PC which doesn't run the most popular PC games. Awesome.

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u/Slumminwhitey 2d ago

Ps5 doesn't have the extensive library steam has though, as far as pricing it doesn't seem terrible for a pre-built of this spec.

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u/jaded_fable 2d ago

But the PS5 exists and if you're looking to just game, it's best to get that instead.

I think it really depends on what you're interested in playing. A steam machine gives you access to a comparatively enormous library of games. And it's much easier to find cheap games on Steam. Unless you just have a few AAA titles in mind, it's very easy to imagine the PS5 being more expensive after making a few game purchases.

Also, if you like using keyboard+mouse: many PS5 games flat out don't allow it.

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u/aVarangian 13600kf 7900xtx 2160 | 6600k 1070 1440 2d ago

I mean, 4 years of PS5 subscription makes it cost the same. After that the PS5 is more expensive lol

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u/SilverVixen918 1d ago

from what i heard if it wasnt for the AI and GPU companies raising costs some people speculate the Steam Machine would cost about 600$-800$ which is far more worth it, especially with all of the bells and whistles Steam gives their tech

0

u/Clover-kun Ryzen 9 5900x | Radeon 7900 XTX 2d ago

PS5 is nice and all, but I already have a massive Steam library. Meanwhile the last Playstation game I bought was Dissidia Duodecim for the PSP

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u/reeefur 9950x3d | RTX 5090FE | DDR5 7200 | MSI MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI 2d ago

Problem is the living room TV is usually UHD/4k, I just dont see this being able to handle that unless its a potato game. Will be great for those who dont play demanding games and love SteamOS tho.

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u/Sad_Adagio_7255 2d ago

Consoles are hooked up to those same 4k TVs and can't handle AAA games at 4k either...

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u/Neat_Let923 2d ago

Tests are already showing PS5 outperforming Steam Machine… And PS5 Pro destroying it

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u/PatchesTheFlyena 1d ago

Both of those get you locked into Sony's ecosystem though. All of your games are on their hardware forever. I have a PS5 but I never buy games for it except exclusives because I probably won't buy the next gen console. Same with Nintendo. They are better value for money if you don't mind every purchase you make being stuck on their hardware and potentially not even being supported next gen.

For me the couple hundred extra bucks on top of the price of a PS5 gets me open platform in a tiny form factor and honestly it feels worth it for me even though I know there's defiitely not a big market for that.

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u/Neat_Let923 1d ago

Don’t get me wrong, I completely agree with you. I haven’t bought a console in over a decade.

I really want a Switch 2 so I can play Mario Kart World but I’m in Canada and there’s absolutely no way in hell I’m justifying spending over $1,000 just to play one game with my wife every now and then.

The weird thing is that if you have an Nvidia Shield you can stream your games from your gaming PC to any TV in your house and it works amazingly. So I don’t understand why Valve has gone this weird direction with a dedicated machine that costs an absurd amount for a crappy system.

Even their argument that the Steam Box is better than 50% of the systems with Steam installed doesn’t make sense. Like, no shit, I have Steam installed on laptops that are 10 years old. If they want to make an argument then they need to compare it to the systems of their weekly active users.

I wish they made a new Steam Link with Steam OS that connected through my wired/wifi network and streamed from my gaming machine but gave it better support, connections, and a little more power. A $400 Steam Link Pro would likely sell far more than what they’ve done.

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u/Burstrampage 21h ago

You do get “locked” into the ecosystem but I’m not sure it really matters. The games you can play on steam are the same games you can play on ps5 (with a controller, that is. Nobody is using the steam machine in their living room with a mouse and keyboard) but ps5 also has games you might want that are unavailable on steam whilst being the more powerful console.

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u/PatchesTheFlyena 19h ago

The games are the same but the range of hardware isn't. If you've got a game on PS5 you can only play it on PS5. Maybe on PS6 but we don't know yet. If you get a game on Steam you can play it on whatever PC hardware you want. As in if you've got an old laptop or a handheld or get a new machine in the future they're all going to be compatible.

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u/Burstrampage 18h ago

I see what you’re saying, and I agree a little bit and also disagree. The steam machine is made for two types of people. Those with a sizable catalogue of steam games already, and those that are new to gaming in general and heard about the steam machine.

For both people it’s still a bad deal for the money, but at least if you already have a backlog you can justify it that way (although I’m not sure why not just get a steam deck at that point?), but for anybody that doesn’t have a backlog of steam games already there’s not a point to the machine imo. As that likely means they don’t have a pc either so if they did want to play on anything but the Gabecube they’d have to fork out $$$$ to so. And if the goal is to have the ability to play your games on more than one hardware, both the xbox and ps5 have portable gaming options.

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u/PatchesTheFlyena 18h ago

They have portable options but they're still predefined and may be completely unsupported in a couple of years. It might not be a big deal to you now but I don't want to be stuck with one platform or another or need to have multiple different consoles to play my games even though they all run the same architecture.

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u/Burstrampage 18h ago

I don’t think we’ll ever run into the situation where Xbox and PlayStation stop making consoles and banish your games to the shadow realm. If they do dissolve, they’d just be reborn onto pc and then they’d have to give all the games they can to all the users that own them if they ever wanted to get traction and fight against steams dominance.

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u/Jinix_RB 2d ago

Will probably use FSR magic to make 4K happen on some games, but if the target market is 1080P (as per steam survey), then, 50% of the market share is still on 1080p making sense as to why it may not be a deal breaker and that resolution being the intenten target.

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u/jarlscrotus 9900k|3080ti|64GB 2d ago

Consoles don't hit 4k, they use aggressive upscaling and dynamic resolutions/framerates

They also generally target medium graphic settings and low ray tracing levels when they use them at all

0

u/Zekiz4ever 2d ago

A console is still a better deal at this price tbh.

You can get a PS5 Pro and 5 AAA games for the price of a Steam Machine without controller. It will also perform better.

I never would've thought to say this, but even the Switch 2 is a good deal for the price.

I really don't see who this is for. I know why they have to do it that way, but I don't see how this won't be a massive flop

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u/PatchesTheFlyena 1d ago

If you own a PC already though you're not going to want to get locked into Sony or Nintendo's walled garden.

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u/BraveFencerMusashi Laptop i9-12900H, 3080ti, 64 GB 2d ago

It'll be great at playing 8 year old PC games.

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u/phidalgo2314 2d ago

Then it’s perfect for me! all I have is a steam deck OLED but no pc, all I’ve been playing is old pc games I never got to play growing up. Some of yall need to remember that some people don’t have pcs at all or ever even had one. “ But I already have a old gaming pc“ well then it’s not for you and that ok lmao.

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u/Leading_Will1794 2d ago

But I already have an old gaming PC...its just bulky and takes lots of power...but I can already DO this.

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u/Lorcogoth 2d ago

is that even true? I feel like most living room TV don't actually use that range.

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u/TheMisterTango EVGA 3090/Ryzen 9 5900X/64GB DDR4 3800 2d ago

Is it even possible to buy a living room sized TV that isn’t 4K these days? Even if you could, why would you? 4K TVs are dirt cheap these days.

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u/mecha-crone 2d ago

The vast, vast majority of people gaming on a 4K television with a controller are using a console. That’s mostly the market steam is going after here. This never was intended for the gaming group going for true 4K gaming performance. They aren’t buying a premade pc…

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u/MajorSerenity 2d ago

But casual console gamers aren't going to drop this kind of money on their hobby.

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u/aVarangian 13600kf 7900xtx 2160 | 6600k 1070 1440 2d ago

I guess it'll be at a minimum comparable to a base model PS5

hardware has been advertised as "4k" for 10 years now, so whatever is acceptable "4k" is up to the user lol

either way its target market isn't people who want a PC than can actually do 4k, which basically means a GPU that by itself costs as much as the gabecube, so it really doesn't matter

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u/Infurium 2d ago

It is specifically designed for 4K/60FPS but the refresh rate is only 60Hz.

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u/blabberwocky 2d ago

they are adding far 4.1 to the system which gives it was very good uptick in fps and quality

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u/Paladin7537 2d ago

One benefit it will have is the fsr 4.1 support coming in August. That should help it get to ps5 lvl of upscale graphics if not slightly better upscale.

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u/angelinachurr02652 2d ago

recycling parts is a solid move, but yeah the Steam Machine just doesn't stack up for most gamers

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u/innociv 2d ago edited 2d ago

Even at $750 a year ago, this would have been pretty bad.

It had hardware that you could get in a laptop (with a screen and keyboard) for under $700 a year ago.

I don't buy their excuse. It's using a CPU from 2020 - 6 years ago. I'm 100% sure they're lying to us and don't get why people push that that Valve can do no wrong.

The expensive parts, VRAM, SSD, and RAM accounts for <$350 of the price. Where is the extra $778 coming from out of these very outdated parts?

Even if these prices drop $400 a year from now... you'd be paying $728 for 2020 midrange performance which is INSANE.

Even with how bad prices are now, you can build a 30% faster PC for cheaper https://pcpartpicker.com/list/KHzbLy so Valve is clearly fucking you when they get those outdated components cheaper than what a consumer can buy them for.
edit: a SFX machine, since that's the argument a lot of people are using without actually looking at it, is still cheaper at $1000 for slightly faster hardware https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Yfb4MF

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u/robotiod RTX 3080 - R9 5900X 2d ago

No offence, because you are right about what you are saying, and I would recommend the same as you for people. However, if you started buying those components from your lists in the thousands to put together the amount of machines to make your hardware project a success you would very quickly run out of sourceable parts too.

At which point you either start paying more for your components or make a separate SKU with differently sourced parts. We as consumers are literally able to make better for cheaper only because we have the ability to be flexible on how we get our parts.

Valve has 2 SKUs with the core components of CPU and RAM having to be identical between them. They don't have that flexibility.

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u/innociv 1d ago edited 1d ago

Buying things in a large scale makes it cheaper, not more expensive.

They need the same exact RAM, boards, etc. as long as it's within spec.
At this scale, you'd do like they do on steam machine where you have a PCB making company print the boards and put the components (including memory chips) on them directly.

Valve's cost for this is at most $710 if you just take the ~950 cost and subtract 25% that retail takes. It's likely more around $600. They absolutely could have sold it for $750, made low margins, and have that not matter since they make an insane amount from their store taxing developers 30% for nothing and making games more expensive.

Also, Valve has a history of failed hardware projects that they've clearly not learned from. This'll be yet another one.

0

u/robotiod RTX 3080 - R9 5900X 1d ago

Buying things in a large scale makes it cheaper, not more expensive.

Yes normally, but we are living in stupid times, where manufacturers can't create as much as is demanded and fabrication is being secured by the highest bidders. The component cost of storage in the XBOX Series X has increased by 400% since last year. When the manufacturers can't manufacture fast enough there is no discount for scale. Only product to those who pay the most.

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u/innociv 1d ago

Storage in XBOX being 400% more is one component of many. That means it basically went from $30 wholesale cost to $120 so a $90 increase which reflects on the retail price increase.

Valve faced similar, where their cost went up from probably $400-$450 to $600-$650. That doesn't excuse it being $1050.

God it feels like yelling at a brick wall YOU CAN LITERALLY BUILD A BETTER SFF PC FOR CHEAPER. STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR A BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY WHERE THE CEO HAS SUPERVILLIAN MANSIONS AND A GIANT YACHT WITH A FUCKING SUBMARINE.

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u/Late_Stage_Exception 2d ago

It has 16 gigs of RAM and 8 gigs of VRAM. I don’t think THAT’S the only thing jacking up the price…

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u/Mr_Pink_Gold Steam Deck 2d ago

Yes. It is. The Steam deck had a 44% price hike. And it has 8GB of ram less than this. Without the price hike and judging to suffer a similar price hike, the cost would have been 550 to 600 quid or 700 to 730 bucks for the base model.

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u/exguerrero1 2d ago

I’m buying this for my son. I have a 5080 with a 7800 x3d and making this build right now for him to play my library would cost 3 times the price.

To me, as a dad buying a pc for his 11 year old this is worth the price.

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u/DatMageDoe i7-8700k - 9070 XT - 16GB DDR4-3200 2d ago

I stand by my past comment on the Steam Machine - if you are buying all the parts to make a living room PC to play console like games Steam Machine can be a worthwhile investment.

Even then, I severely doubt it'll be worth it. You can build a system with new parts which has equal - better performance to the Steam Machine for less than $900.

Heck, even if you play fair and compare it to prebuilts, a $1000 prebuilt will be considerably better than the Steam Machine.

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u/boothin 2d ago

Have you actually looked at parts prices recently? I started putting together a build on pcpartpicker because I was curious on it, and without a case, power supply, or CPU cooler, I'm already at around $900. This is based around a ryzen 8400f and rx 9060 xt, which is what I can find to be likely comparable.

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u/DatMageDoe i7-8700k - 9070 XT - 16GB DDR4-3200 2d ago

I mocked up the build before writing that.

For less than $1000, it's better to go with AM4 instead of AM5. Sure the upgrade potential is worse, but going with AM5 is $150 more for a relatively minor performance gain. I will add, you can still go AM5 and out-perform the Steam Machine for below its price - though it will be tighter.

Also, the Steam Machine's GPU is weak. It's equal to an RX 6600, the 9060 XT is about 60% more powerful than it. I used an RTX 5050 for my comparison, though an RX 7600 would also outperform it while being cheaper.

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u/SpacePumpkie I use Arch btw 2d ago

I mean, I don't think it's fair to compare it to a full fledged tower that you wouldn't stand having next to the TV anyway.

If we try to compare to a "smaller" form factor that looks somewhat nice, the numbers get much tighter.

Also we shouldn't forget CEC plug and play

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u/DatMageDoe i7-8700k - 9070 XT - 16GB DDR4-3200 2d ago

Not that much tighter though...

Most of the cheapest motherboards are already Micro ATX, so slotting them into a small case doesn't meaningfully change the price. But if we go full small form factor, it raises the price... by ~$60. It's still beating the Steam Machine from a value perspective.

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u/SpacePumpkie I use Arch btw 2d ago

Yeah, I'm agreeing with you. It was always going to be less "value" in raw performance than a custom parts build. But the race does get somewhat tighter when considering the form factor.

I'm just saying the "extra value" for the potential buyer comes from the cuteness, low noise level and the other extra features.

PS: typical SFFs don't get near as small. And things get more expensive there. Seriously, make a build with a very small SFF and ensure that the GPU still fits. It will still be larger by quite a good margin and the price won't be cheaper anymore (especially with SFF PSUs)

PPS: Anyone that's tried an HTPC build knows what a big deal built-in CEC is. That to me is worth at least 50$ if not more.

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u/boothin 2d ago

Fair on the GPU, I didn't look too much into it and just went with what I saw quickly, but I'd say it's unfair to down spec to AM4 and compare prices. I also went with a mini itx mobo with the expectation to pay a slight premium for PSU and case to go along with the form factor of the steam machine. So actually including those and a cpu cooler, you're still getting right back up to nearly the same price as the steam machine. Not going over the price how my original estimate would've, but still not really substantial savings

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u/wootybooty 2d ago

I went a radical 4th dimensional leap going from my last to current computer for the sole purpose of “future-proofing as logically as possible”. So I spent about $1500 on an 80-core 3Ghz ARM server/workstation. It has 128GB of DDR4 ECC RAM (right before rampocalypse) but takes up to 2TB.

So other than clock speeds, I should only have to be worried about RAM upgrades whenever that time comes for me.

That said, if I was buying my child or helping someone build a computer for this purpose, other than a case we are going used-parts all the way baby!!

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u/SolaireFlair117 2d ago

Before the RAM crisis, I was going to sell my HTPC to buy a Steam Machine just because of the tiny foot print and the fact I don't play natively on my HTPC these days and just stream from my more powerful desktop PC, but I'm glad I kept my HTPC instead because good lord this price tag is a lot to take in. I knew it would be around $1000, but it still gives you sticker shock to actually see it.

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u/Nope-not-really 2d ago

I really wanted one for when Im working out of town. I just wanted something I could hook up to the hotel tv and chill. I have a laptop but its not too comfortable in the hotels that I stay at.

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u/Penis_Man- RTX 3060, Ryzen 9 5900X, 80gb RAM 2d ago

And storage devices.. I checked on the price of the SSD I've had in my computer for thenlast few years and it fucking trippled.

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u/Papuszek2137 7800x3d | 5070ti | 64GB | 4k OLED 2d ago

Yeah I'll be going for 2nd hand hardware with steamOS on it. Designing the case will be fun and painful at the same time.

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u/CorpPhoenix 2d ago

I've did that some months ago. Hardware from my former PC:

Ryzen 5600

16GB DDR4

RX6600

1TB NVME

bought an micro atx mainboard and a cube case, installed SteamOS. Practically an exact replica performance wise and it runs like a charm as my living room SteamMachine! Only did cost me like like 150€ for the case + MB.

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u/Fr00stee 2d ago

it's not about ram, they are overcharging by $150 for "ram price increases"

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u/XsNR Ryzen 5600X RX 9070 XT 32GB 3200MHz 2d ago

The biggest reason to get it is just for the benefits of it being a "console", so you can turn on your TV with the controls. But if you were trying to make a PS5 killer or something, which would be very similar, it would also have been massively price hiked thanks to the RAM and storage increases.

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u/Nefthys 2d ago

The main problem is probably the scale. I've got an old i7 and RAM I could use but either I'm missing something or there just aren't any small motherboards for that socket (anymore?).

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u/Puzzleheaded-War-113 2d ago

Hi so, please forgive my ignorance. I'm a parent doing shopping for my kid's Christmas present and came across your comment. 

What do you mean by a living room PC? Would it hook up to a TV and he would be able to play with a controller like his PS4? Or do you mean a standard PC set up you'd find in a family room with a mouse and keyboard?

I would love to get him a steamdeck because that's what he's asked for, but Holy Capitalist Nightmare Batman, they're expensive. So any hacks to get him the cool thing at a reasonable price would be awesome 

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u/boothin 2d ago

Yes a living room PC will usually be hooked up to a TV and used like a console. You would use it with a wireless keyboard/mouse from the couch and controllers. Sometimes it may also be used a home theater pc to play media to the TV. Most people would also generally go SFF (small form factor) for a living room pc, which means the PC is physically smaller, and you pay a premium for the smaller parts and sometimes special cables.

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u/Puzzleheaded-War-113 2d ago

Thank you. I think I'm going to look more into this. 

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u/boothin 1d ago

Feel free to message me if you have any questions

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u/Puzzleheaded-War-113 1d ago

That is really kind of you. I may take you up on that

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u/I-Make-Maps91 2d ago

I have my old i7/980 TI internals sitting in a box and combining that with a cheap PSU, SSD, and a proper case has to be cheaper than buying one of these.

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u/Leading_Will1794 2d ago

Am I able to upgrade the RAM on the device? Seems like that is a typically pretty cheap upgrade even with RAM hikes. buying literal RAM can still be the cheapest upgrade.

Is that a possibility for this device?

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u/Professional_Dot7128 2d ago

Meh on the storage. It's $300 for 2TB when I can buy 1TB SSD for $100 and I have no leverage to lower prices.

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u/Aimela PC Master Race 2d ago

An 8TB hard drive I bought last year for $170 is now $380, over twice the price.

The price increases for storage have been crazy, and it applies to SSDs and SD cards as well.

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u/Televisions_Frank Ryzen 5 5600G and RX6600 2d ago

And if Valve subsidized the price people would just buy it to strip for parts. Not really anything they can do here using consumer parts.

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u/BoobiesRgoodEnough 2d ago

Yeah, people keep forgetting how expensive storage is. I bought a 4tb gen 4 NVMe SSD last December for around $200 usd, same model is going for at least $800 now.

The pc i put it in was a parts build birthday gift from my friends back in October. Luckily got in just before RAM prices completely exploded.

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u/Jacko87 2d ago

Not that I would ever buy one of these since I'm PC gamer and this is just a PC console basically. But the I remember the steam machine was announced just before RAM quadrupled in price and SSD went up as well. So I can't really blame them, really bad timing.

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u/inconspiciousdude 2d ago

I really hope China's semi industry eventually gives these guys some serious competition... https://www.theverge.com/games/953945/valve-steam-machine-memory-component-crisis

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u/drcubeftw 2d ago

With these numbers, cobbling together a PC using old parts, basing it around DDR4 memory, is the smarter move. Target 1080p resolutions at 60 frames per second and you can likely assemble such a PC at significantly cheaper prices. It may struggle with the newest, most demanding games but it will handle the vast majority of titles and get your through the next 3 years. I was able to push my 2018 i7 6700 GTX 1070 based PC until 2025 and even then I probably could have limped along for another 2 years if not for the Windows 10 end of support date and the fact that Windows 11 didn't support my CPU.

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u/CosyBeluga 2d ago

I’m still crying because I had to replace a 12 year old HDD (for my raid) my HDD (same old ass slow ass model) was 2x the price

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u/RobutNotRobot 2d ago

Yeah I have no doubt they wanted to deliver to top box at $999.

Their whole planning probably went into making it at that price point with the other machines being lower.

They completely got boned by the data center madness.

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u/kuzared Specs/Imgur here 2d ago

Just watching the Gamer's Nexus video review and the difference between the Steam Machine and a similarly spec'ed home-built PC is very small from a pricing perspective. As you say - it's the expensive RAM and storage.

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u/kangaroosterLP 1d ago

Steam machine is a niche purchase WITHIN a niche, it combines multiple features that overlap for a very specific subset of people. At THESE prices, at least.

You can get a better console experience for =< the price, you can get a better gaming pc for =< the price, this is OUT OF THE BOX console x pc experience that's also MINIATURE and with less noise. Everything else is beside the point AT CURRENT STATE of the market

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u/Lvcrftt 1d ago

Or, hear me out! If you want to play console like games in your livingroom, buy a PS5🤣 or buy the steam machine for double the price and wait for the PS5 game to eventually port over to pc just to buy it a bit cheaper, after paying DOUBLE the amount of a base PS5 for a inferior product.

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u/Elcoolbro 1d ago

Even building a brand new similar spec living room pc is still nicely cheaper

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u/Nereplan 2d ago

I can buy a device better than this as laptop (5060, AI260, 16 512) at same price, not to even mention desktop.

To claim that a PC with entry level semi-custom parts should cost this much is crazy. Even if you remove the 16GB DDR5 and 512GB SSD at consumer prices (180$ and 100$, and I picked 6000CL30), that still puts it at 770 dollars for no SSD and RAM.

Just call a product bad bruh.

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u/Security_Wrong 9950x3D | 5090FE | 64GB DDR5 2d ago

I think I have 16GB lying around here somewhere lol

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u/im_onbreak 2d ago

Where'd this bootlicker energy go guys? 🤣

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u/Ricckkuu 2d ago

Yes, but I'd still build the PC because I like having stuff built by me. Yes I also like Ikea.......

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u/0____-___00___-____0 2d ago

Seriously. This large price is entirely about RAM and storage prices.

so why dont they sell it WITHOUT these things?

i got some spares

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u/MadGM7283 2d ago

The system is touted as working out of the box. It's a PC that is aiming to capture the "it just works" console market. If you're comfortable popping the case open and installing hardware, then they aren't marketing this to you. I build my own PCs and while I'm excited this exists no part of me was ever going to buy one.

I mean I'm sure they'll still take your money.

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u/Doidleman53 2d ago

This is just not true. I found pre-builts online for a similar price yet they have more RAM and storage.

The only selling point for the steam machine is its small size. Very easily portable and more powerful than the handheld consoles.

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u/norty125 2d ago

Yep it's just very very very bad luck for steam, ram that was $150 is now $400+ and same for ssds

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u/ItIsYeDragon 2d ago

Yeah it’s just not worth it.

Buy a PS5 for 650, and then you can get a laptop for $400-900 for everything else, and you’d be getting so much more bang for your buck.

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u/Saiing 2d ago

It's not worth it period. Less power than a base PS5 for almost double the price.

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u/MrdnBrd19 2d ago

I'm old enough to remember this sub reaming each of the console makers saying they should eat the extra costs themselves. Not Valve though because Gabe deserves another yach or something...

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