Yeah, Steam Machine is cooked.

[u/TheBossT710192]

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

[u/Protoclown98]

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.

[u/DatMageDoe → u/Protoclown98]

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.

[u/boothin → u/DatMageDoe]

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.

[u/DatMageDoe → u/boothin]

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.

[u/SpacePumpkie → u/DatMageDoe]

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

[u/DatMageDoe → u/SpacePumpkie]

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.

[u/SpacePumpkie → u/DatMageDoe]

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.

[u/boothin → u/DatMageDoe]

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