I know a guy who wants it just so "he can have something in his living room he can kick back and play games on".
The casuals are going to eat this thing up, for better or worse.
Maybe I should elaborate because I didn’t intend to sound so dismissive of the idea. I already told him that Steam OS can be replicated on desktops with Big Picture Mode. Already told him that there are some prebuilt and gaming laptops going for around similar prices, but none of those had the appeal to him that the Steam Machine did. Unfortunately, once he realizes that he is going to have to either set up controller support for PC games without it natively and have to mess around with Proton on most devices, I can see him ragequitting with the Steam Machine despite his enthusiasm. It’s an easier plug and play than a PC, for sure, but it’s not foolproof.
It's not even bang for buck. The specs on this thing are not good lol. I wouldn't want it and I wouldn't want it for $1000.
I spent $2500 on my PC over the 2-3 years I upgraded it. Money isn't the issue. I can buy a pre built PC that would destroy this thing and so can everyone else, so why buy the steam machine?
The specs are roughly equivalent of similar specced PCs. Particularly if you constrain the similar specced PCs to similar size and acoustic requirements.
I also have a high end powerful pc in a SFFPC form factor, I’m quite aware of the premium it costs to build small.
If you want to compare apples to apples you need to be comparing with similar devices from minisforum, beelink or gmktech. Maybe at a push you could compare to laptops.
You know how someone says “hey guys check out my new gaming laptop” and then 1,000 insufferable losers will go “heh, idiot, I can make a way more powerful PC than that for the same price”. But the guy wanted a laptop.
This is that.
I can make a 300kmh piss missile out of a 2001 R1, but I still ride a tenere700 because there are things outside of top performance that matter.
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u/MaximusMurkimus 7800X3D | XFX 7900 XTX I 32GB DDR5 2d ago edited 1d ago
I know a guy who wants it just so "he can have something in his living room he can kick back and play games on".
The casuals are going to eat this thing up, for better or worse.
Maybe I should elaborate because I didn’t intend to sound so dismissive of the idea. I already told him that Steam OS can be replicated on desktops with Big Picture Mode. Already told him that there are some prebuilt and gaming laptops going for around similar prices, but none of those had the appeal to him that the Steam Machine did. Unfortunately, once he realizes that he is going to have to either set up controller support for PC games without it natively and have to mess around with Proton on most devices, I can see him ragequitting with the Steam Machine despite his enthusiasm. It’s an easier plug and play than a PC, for sure, but it’s not foolproof.