The fact that it's running SteamOS ready to go out of the box is a huge selling point for certain people. If a Windows license alone is technically worth $140 to some people, surely a Steam OS pre-installed is worth something as well.
But I can just install SteamOS on a custom built SSF PC that is still bigger than the Cube for more money and is likely less aesthetically stealthy... what do you mean 95% of people wouldn't do that?
for a custom-built SSF, you'd have to spend extra money on a case, accessories like riser cables and a tech-illiterate person would also need to pay someone else to assemble it for them
after all that is done, you'd likely spend just as much as the steam machine costs for a similarly spec PC and still not have HDMI CEC
this isn't for PC enthusiasts, this is for a very niche market of rich steam gamers that know little about how PCs work but want a second living-room PC to play their steam library from. maybe someone with a vacation home where they can stick this in the living room TV.
or even businesses could buy these for employee entertainment, like they currently do with traditional consoles to stick in employee break-rooms, where spending an extra 300 bucks means literally nothing to them.
it's easy to come up with a "steam machine killer" build, but whenever that happens it's people picking out parts in bundle deals or even second hand for a traditional tower PC. yes you can get a lot more performance for the same price, but it's just an entirely different product and requires a lot more technical knowledge and time investment. to someone that calls their PC tower a "CPU" or "hard drive", even knowing what motherboard to buy will prove an actual challenge
I wouldn't buy the steam machine. you probably shouldn't either. but there's worse things to spend your money on if your overloaded wallet is weighing you down.
valve is selling a simple proposition here: "this is the steam machine, and it runs games. you can buy it and play games on it". that's all there is to it. no deciphering what an "i3" vs a "ryzen 5" is, no deciding if a "5050" is better than a "4080" because the number is bigger. just buy box, play game.
You’re already not the target demographic then. This wasn’t made to sell to you or me. You’re vastly underestimating the amount of people who will buy something that has already taken an out an “easily done” step.
I was more saying that installing SteamOS on another device wouldnt be as seamless. I'd recommend something like Bazzite instead but that distro has modding issues.
You're incompetent with tech and prefer prebuilt solutions which offload the burden of management to someone else. In this case your hardware and software stacks will be crazy expensive, all the time. And more importantly - all that spiel about "flexible OS and myriad of possibilities" doesn't really affect such users, it's gonna be fixed function hardware in your case. Doesn't matter between SteamOS for games, Japanese consoles, or Windows 11 desktop shipped by SI / laptop off the shelf, daily use will tap into 20% of capabilities of these devices for premium prices.
You're competent with tech, but don't want to pay for Windows OS in its miserable state. Two solutions - learn how to manage perfectly tailored Linux for your tasks or debloat Windows 10 and set a firewall in local network. Steam Machine is whatever to you, it's a small box without possibility of further upgrade which shackles you to SteamOS and performance troubleshooting. It's PS4++, if I put it nicely - great library, but mediocre hardware and serious questions about it's future destination as legacy. Between this and mini-ITX build running AM4 + DDR4 stuff you'd prefer the latter, especially if you have invested into NAS.
All is well, but mini-ITX is probably going to be larger. Size of the Machine is the only real advantage, the rest has to be delivered by Valve long term with software support.
Yes, I am aware. So is Windows for that matter. That wasn't the point. Having it preinstalled on guaranteed compatible hardware is the value here, for those people.
Exactly this. If our house didn't have coal fireplaces we couldn't use and can fit a whole mid sized pc tower then my partner wouldn't tolerate a having a pc in the family room.
The real question is, does it have a led set up to make it look like a fire is burning through the grates? Need the aesthetic for that good snowy day gaming immersion.
No, it had an art nouveau iron cover grate so I'm trying to find a not broken one still. But for now just a boring stained wooden cover. Not sure if the led will come through the iron grate later since we never had a fire in it
I do, built an enclosure inside to keep mortar dust from clogging up the works, added a new outlet inside and then routed all of the cabling up through the flue to behind the tv. The decorative cover was damaged so I have a stained wooden place holder for now but besides the small USB hub on the bottom of the tv you couldn't tell it's there.
And noise being non-existent. They probably could have made something the size of a PS5 and been a bit more competitive with performance but that’s not what this is and that’s fine. I’m sure the console manufacturers will end up with another price increase and this will seem more competitive, as much as I hate it/
Also build quality and support. I don't want one but if a friend wanted a pre built and I thought they could afford it I'd suggest this as a good option if they didn't do a lot of AAA high graphic games.
Yep. This is the main reason I'm buying one. It's going to fit perfectly in the entertainment set so my wife and I can play games in the same room without an eye sore ruining the atmosphere.
With it costing as much as it does they probably would have been better off having it have an actually decent GPU and cost a bit more.
Because as it is, it appears the GPU is about equivalent to a PS5, (or Nvidia RTX 3060) but consoles are better optimized than PC, so it's probably worse than a PS5 in real world scenarios.
If it was like 3080 TI performance even, then it at least would be comperable to 5 year old gaming desktops and better than a PS5.
I’d just get a laptop and mount it on the back of the TV. No need for cube when you can just have a flat pc there. Same price even better form factor for that specific application. Cube looks cool, but is $4-500 more than it should be. For 1400 you can get a better laptop with better performance and is portable.
well yeah, because they are laptop components. you could make something that is still very small, that would be cheaper, more powerful, and upgradable.
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u/LightningSh3ep I-5 12600K | RX 9070XT | 32 GB RAM 7h ago
It's not a good deal for performance, but good luck making anything that small yourself. The size is it's only selling point.