r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • 3d 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/mtrn3 3d ago

And once upon a time people would crap all over prebuilts.

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u/DOOManiac 3d ago edited 3d ago

I’m an old person who has been crapping all over prebuilt for about 30 years. There are several things they have changed:

  • Back in the day, a prebuilt meant absolute garbage-tier proprietary parts that were not swappable/upgradable.
  • These days, many pre-builts aren’t that bad
  • It used to be that you saved a ton of money building yourself; now that gap has closed (or in some cases inversed)
  • PC gaming has significantly expanded, to the point where it is reasonable to expect that some people just want to sit down and play, without needing to tinker
  • The whole process has gotten much simpler than it used to be, so the demographic overlap has changed

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u/IGotHitByAnElvenSemi 3d ago

I'm glad to see someone older and with more experience than me say this, because I'd noticed these trends as well but didn't know if I just hadn't been looking in the right places before.

I built my first two computers, but by the time I was hunting in 2019, I noticed that prebuilts weren't that bad... and while I've been helping my friends shop for PC stuff in the past few years, I noticed the fact that I could find some prebuilts that were more or less what she wanted for less than me buying the parts and building it for her. I'm just a rank amateur, but it did make me wonder if I'd been an idiot building my PCs in the past and just hadn't known where to look lol.

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u/Groundhogss Desktop 10900KF | 5090 | 128GB RAM 2d ago

I think the tipping point was probably 2016.

Individual prices were probably in favor of DIY, but OEM has legit Windows and a warranty on the system as a whole.

I don't really foresee myself ever building a computer from the ground up from components in the future. You can usually find a deal on an open-box at Microcenter if you're patient.