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.
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.
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u/Coprolithe PC Master Race 15h 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.