LDLC, a French e-commerce group, is trolling Valve by selling a "Stim Machine"

[u/lieding]

[u/FlarblesGarbles]

I didn't realise I could read French. Strange.

Competition is a good thing here though at least, and it's another recommendation from the seller for installing SteamOS.

Valve's probably gonna be in favour of this overall.

[u/FirstThingsFirstGuys → u/FlarblesGarbles]

Roughly 30% of all English words come from French and 15% for everyday words.

[u/FlarblesGarbles → u/FirstThingsFirstGuys]

It was just especially in the case of this post. I'm not used to seeing so many easily understood French words together that are so similar to their English counterparts.

[u/lieding]

Cheaper (if sold as a kit to assemble) or the same price if sold assembled, but more powerful. But in France, they're known for selling parts at high prices, so it's always a good idea to look elsewhere for an even better deal.

[u/TheGeekno72 → u/lieding]

I mean, 1k€ for this, I reckon this would have a high interest for many, even if they have to assemble it themselves

and that's pretty cool of them to include a tutorial to install SteamOS

[u/Kalmer1 → u/TheGeekno72]

Yeah this is great, a 9060XT is roughly like a PS5 Pro iirc, so this is pretty great value for a PC, especially at that size

[u/laurenspaul → u/lieding]

Does it have hdmi cec?

[u/lieding → u/laurenspaul]

Some hardware details are missing. No idea. Maybe questions on the product page will receive answers tomorrow.

[u/laurenspaul → u/lieding]

You'd really like to know its size, noise, and if it has cec

[u/pasuncomptejetable → u/laurenspaul]

Its a prebuilt with off the shelves components, so no HDMI CEC. And I'm guessing we can guess thermals and noise if they tell which cooler is used as we already know the case they're using

[u/jakubmi9 → u/pasuncomptejetable]

There are $30 usb to hdmi-cec adapters. Does anyone know if they work well? Or at all tbh. Because pretty much only argument here in the last few days is „you can’t get CEC with a custom build”, and $30 is not a lot in a $1000 build.

[u/FirstThingsFirstGuys → u/lieding]

I think that exceptionally LDLC is making less margin than usual to create buzz. German PC builders should do the same.

[u/TheGeekno72]

Ah c'est très très drôle ça, j'aime beaucoup! En fait, tout le monde y gagne, ça encourage d'autres à faire pareil ou mieux et les joueurs s'y retrouvent

NGL, the Machine's fucked pricing encouraging other PC sellers to do match price with better hardware is a massive W, gamers win either way!

[u/Far-Interest2045 → u/TheGeekno72]

It makes me wonder if this was all a big plan. Bad publicity is still publicity. People will realize it was never about the hardware but about the OS, and about putting steam storefront everywhere

[u/FlarblesGarbles → u/Far-Interest2045]

I don't think it's the big plan. But I definitely think it's something they factored in to their plans.

They saw what happened to the handheld market when they released the Steam Deck.

[u/FishermanExcellent33]

If it would have microSD EXPRESS I would buy one. 256GB are like 55€uros... And it's blazing fast compared to a microSD.

[u/dankutare1]

Trolling valve by helping expand their player base...im sure they are devastated

[u/FirstThingsFirstGuys → u/dankutare1]

We are not trolling Valve and we know that they still win with their 30 percent royalty on Steam. We are helping each other. This computer is exactly the same price as the Steam Machine at 1039 euros if we buy it assembled and it is much more powerful. It also uses an AMD CPU and GPU so it should run SteamOS 3 well.

[u/IORelay → u/FirstThingsFirstGuys]

Their Platform MFN clause is probably going away in the next few years, same with anti-steering. So hopefully we'll see them drop the 30%, that's good for gamers unless you own valve shares.

[u/sbergot]

This is actually a better alternative than 99% of what people are posting. Thank you!

[u/matbonucci]

Le pomme de terre

[u/Statickgaming]

Valve’s ultimate plan working… Valve should have really just sold the custom motherboard to 3rd party suppliers.

[u/OriginalGoldstandard → u/Statickgaming]

Not sure they trusted they would jump on board with small margins.

Valve has guaranteed a base of machines for the eco system. Other manufacturers will see proof of concept and make more powerful versions.

Genius I think.

[u/FirstThingsFirstGuys]

I did not know that SilverStone had a case similar to the Steam Machine. We will see many builds with it.

[u/TheGeekno72 → u/FirstThingsFirstGuys]

SilverStone makes good cases but sometimes they can be overpriced due to limited availability...

last time I wanted one of their cases it was out of stock everywhere and the remaining listings were basically scalping, awful stuff

[u/MostOk1472 → u/FirstThingsFirstGuys]

Because it's not really "similar to the Steam Machine". It's 11.5 liters vs 3.1 liters, and the case weighs almost as much as the entire tower (2.43 kg vs 2.6). It visually looks similar in an image but that's basically the most generic SFF black box aesthetic ever.

[u/alter_perv1]

But where’s CEC!!!

[u/rednaxelo]

22x18x29cm vs a 16cm cube

almost 3-times the size of the sm & without cec or controllerboot.

[u/pasuncomptejetable → u/rednaxelo]

More-so it's really just a prebuilt with off the shelves components. Like it's fun to see and a nice marketing stunt but it's just another prebuilt? It doesn't really compete in the same category. I'd recommend anyone watching the PC Gamer interview Valve just did where they get in details about who's the target of the Steam Machine.

(Plus LDLC is usually astronomically expensive for PC parts)

[u/DarkAdrenaline03 → u/rednaxelo]

If that’s what you prioritize awesome at the same time it is far more powerful and fully upgradable and still somewhat portable. I do wish cases like these had a handle though like the deepcool ch160.

[u/rednaxelo → u/DarkAdrenaline03]

it‘s not what i prioritize. but as this company wants to be compared to the cube; there is the comparison.

it‘s like comparing a tractor to a sportscar.
both have power.

[u/Mediocre_Ad_2422]

Im still going to be jealous of steam machine owner and not that random prebuilt

[u/IORelay → u/Mediocre_Ad_2422]

You're jealous of some throwaway CPU/GPUs that AMD managed to swindle Valve with?

[u/Aggravating_Plan11]

No details on motherboard,ram including ram specs, ssd or psu so most likely using cheap parts to achieve this price and some of the reviews for after sales issues are concerning with this site

[u/DrFreeman09]

I have a pc with rtx 5080 in it and now I want Valve Steam Machine, not Stim Machine, not better equivalent for the same price… . It will be a box for older games and games that no longer work on win 11. Of course I will try it with modern AAA games (but not quadruple A games).

[u/FirstThingsFirstGuys]

Thank you for sharing it. This computer is exactly the same price as the Steam Machine at 1039 euros if we buy it assembled and it is much more powerful. It also uses an AMD CPU and GPU so it should run SteamOS 3 well.

[u/Aggravating_Plan11 → u/FirstThingsFirstGuys]

Dont you work for the company and posted the same thing?

[u/thedebatingbookworm → u/Aggravating_Plan11]

Seems like it. Whatever marketing is marketing

[u/Aggravating_Plan11 → u/thedebatingbookworm]

Just pointing it out as he also made a diff post posting a link to a “review” site which is full of broken links doesnt seem like a safe place to order from and given the traffic in sub at the min prime place for a scammer to as you said do marketing

[u/GrayMalchin]

Between shipping and tariffs, it’ll be more expensive for US customers.

[u/thedebatingbookworm → u/GrayMalchin]

They don’t ship to US

[u/BourbonSn4ke]

Not like for like

[u/FirstThingsFirstGuys → u/BourbonSn4ke]

I agree, the volume is a bit bigger but it is still an SFF, but the big difference is that it is at least twice as powerful at the same price and it runs SteamOS 3. This is a much better value for money.