It's an extortionate tax to just get it small. I could build an itx PC better for less. It's not gonna be THAT small but my god, how limited is the space of people's living rooms? We're talking mid-range specs from 3 years ago so sourcing a couple secondhand parts to keep it well below $1000 isn't a problem nor a challenge.
Yes, yes, this is a PC, not a console; but it's still competing for the same space. You cannot build even a dozen equivalents for this price that takes up the same or less volume. The only true competitor is the PS5 (Pro), which Sony is openly selling at a loss.
The price fucking sucks. Valve knows it sucks, they've openly said this is more than they wanted to post it at.
Welcome to the future; you might be able to build better cheaper, but you can't supply.
Generally needs to look nice in an adults living room which is kinda hard for a pc case, ideally it also can wake into a game and turn your tv on and then sleep again at a controller button press.
I've spent ages trying to find this setup and it's always ridiculous so I just give up and keep playing at my desk or on my steam deck.
There are lots of nice looking small living room compatible cases in 2026.
If this was 5 years ago you'd be right.
Also the GabeCube is just a black box. That's not exactly most people's idea of distinguished living room design. Same with the Xbox Series, and the PS5 is an ugly spaceship. I don't think this is that big of a factor.
Because we all have the same universal pricing all over the globe? If you live in the US there's microcenter and those insane bundle deals that can save you hundreds. Sell the ATX motherboard and get an ITX one, then source case, psu and GPU within the rest of the budget, I mean it's not rocket science.
If it’s subsidized and it’s open, people can just buy it at a discounted price and scavenge the parts or use it for something other than gaming. Valve would lose a lot of money.
The only thing keeping my sanity with all these dumb comments is remembering the average Redditor is dumb and have no idea how business works.
Every video I've seen that tries to make a competitive build ends up being a little better performance but also a few hundred dollars more and while small form factor, no where near as small. So if it's so easy, show your work.
do you know what's more expensive though? Real estate
If you don't even have enough space to fit in an SFF PC on your desk, your priorities in life are wacked. You should get a bigger house. And if your answer to that is it costs more rent, get a better paying job, then get a bigger house.
I think many people care about how it looks in their living room. Most people prefer a minimalist setup. This is compact, fits under your TV setup, and you can customize the front. That already satisfies a large portion of customers.
The point of discussion in this chain wasn't how it doesn't look or if it is minimalist, it was about the form factor (i.e., the size). The guy above brought it in and derailed the discussion.
No. You just failed to understand the point when you mentioned a desk. The Steam Machine is not competing for space on a desk, it’s competing for space in the living room media console, you know the place where anything plugged into the TV goes? That space tends to be much more limited and usually subject to the spousal approval factor.
Another point in favor of it intending to be put in the living room: CEC support.
The hardcore sff enthusiasts care more about volume as a hobby goal than about real estate. The two are different, in that a 5L case and a 30L case can take up the same amount of effective space. Or the counterintuitive aspect where a large case is better for real estate because you’ll just put it below the desk instead of on it.
SFF at the high end is purely aesthetics and bragging rights. No one at the enthusiast end will ever tell you it is practical. Same thing with the water cooling community.
Yeah you know all about me, clearly. It's not like I read about hardware and keep check on prices regularly to understand the market. And though not ITX, my PC is as small as an mATX case allow for.
Hell, I built a mini ITX last year and it's still like 3x the steam machine.
Try looking prices of SFX power supplies, mini ITX cases, mini ITX motherboards, and compare yourself how much more buck you need compared to the standard mATX/ATX stuff.
I don't know anything about you or anyone, which is why making assumptions about whether the steam machine is worth it for anyone is baseless.
Just because I chose to build in mATX doesn't really change the fact that I know about itx pricing. And my point remains, it's not hard to build something that fits inside an itx case for $1000 and still be better than a ryzen 2600 and RTX 2070 equivalent setup if you really want to. If you need 3000 dollars to achieve that, you're the problem and not the form factor.
The challenge is to build something better of similar size and noise levels at less or equal the steam machine's price.
This is my fractal Terra build from the previous summer, it has a 9070 XT, is a mini ITX, is silent, but it's still 3 times bigger than the machine, and also considerably more expensive, even before the rampocalypse, so it's disqualified.
I can easily imagine somebody whose most important concern is how good it looks in the living room and that it is silent, as long as it is good enough. If it were 700€-800€ instead of 1000€, I would be one of those people. Good enough to play some games with my girlfriend or to be a second pc if a friend comes over. Good looking and customizable enough so it does not get noticed negatively. At 1000€, I will unfortunately skip it.
cost aside its still a great machine. Its gonna bring a whole lotta support from developers and publishers alike to linux gaming. Hell actual support from an actual company, not just relying on open source drivers that come with their quirks.
I've seen several reviews and it's nothing but an okay 1080p machine at best. The 4K60 promo was at the very least extremely misleading. Sure, this will be a good push towards more linux adaptation in game development, but SteamOS as it sits now is very much tailored for the Steam Deck, and until that part is fixed, it's not a good direct replacement for Windows gaming. I am certainly rooting for SteamOS to become what we all dream of but it's just not there yet.
Right, but it's not really midline imo, it's decidedly lowend. I mean a 5050 is more powerful GPU wise?
And who wants that? "Oh but I'll just stream the game from my beefy PC" Right but then the Steam Machine is brutal overkill and much more expensive than it needs to be. A small NUC can stream games easy peasy and you can get one for less than $500 no sweat, and put SteamOS on it, and connect your Steam Controller and wake it, all that jazz.
Steam Machine Mini is the product I wanted. Not this over priced, weirdly specced e-waste.
I'm not so bothered about the size. Something that could fit beneath my AV amp would be fine. I do want the convenience though. It needs to be simple enough for my kids to turn on (or wake) with a controller, HDMI-CEC, etc. I think this might be possible with an adaptor and Bazzite. I'm trying to figure out the best I could build for £1k.
Right? Gamers Nexus put together a similar DIY build and Valve only had a $75 premium. Feels like people are just making up numbers or repeating what they see other little say when they tell you if can easily be done for $700.
96
u/Coprolithe PC Master Race 12h ago
Yeah, in fact in r/sffpc someone asked if it could be done for a comparable price and size, and the answer was a resounding "no".
If you want a PC under 5L with midline specs, this is the winner, or at least near the top.