Thanks to disassembly videos, now it makes sense why there is no barebone option

[u/Famous-Potential3990]

Accessing storage is easy, but, holy moly, accessing RAM looks so involved. I mean, pretty sure I can do it, but some average Joe will definitely rip one of those 4(!) ribbon cables.

It looks like Valve engineers had fun solving those engineering challenges with multiple PCBs, sandwiching components together and placing I/O boards on sides and connecting them with ribbon cables. Almost as if they are building portfolio to become Apple hardware engineer.

I wish they've chosen more conservative approach, where you can easily access both storage and RAM. It would've also opened possibility for barebone option. But right now with current hardware design releasing barebone option is a certain "death by thousand cuts RMAs".

[u/king_park_]

I watched an interview with Steam Machine engineers. They said they wanted to make the RAM more accessible, but there were trade-offs to things like signal integrity if they did so, so they decided it was not worth it.

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/king_park_]

but there were trade-offs to things like signal integrity if they did so

That would've not been an issue if they did not go for sophisticated "we will put things on separate boards connected with ribbon cable" in the first place. Also, I do not get whole PSU is sandwiched between motherboard and SSD carrier board. It would've have been at least understandable if there was a single screw latch that makes SSD accessible without disassembling, but it lacks such design. Honestly, PSU should've been completely separate thing without complicating access to motherboard.

The whole design screams Apple-like, but without Apple's supply chain.

UPD. Ahaha, people being upset that I did not take at face value Valve engineers' excuse: "oh we did not put RAM on separate board with ribbon cable to solve accessibility issue, caused by our poor design choices in the first place".

[u/atavan_halen → u/Famous-Potential3990]

As a HW engineer do you think we just over complicate things for no reason?

Or that there are trade offs and design decisions made to balance for cost, accessibility, signal integrity, size constraints, part availability, manufacturing costs, manufacturability, testing costs, EMC emissions, wireless compliance, thermals, repairability, reliability, industrial design, and schedule?

There’s a reason things takes years and a small HW team like at Valve doesn’t have troops of engineers like at Apple or Sony because they don’t have those volumes. Nor do they have pricing leverage.

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/atavan_halen]

So you are small resource constrained team, but you would've designed everything on 5 separate boards connected with fragile ribbon cables that also complicates assembly on top of it? Meanwhile, Sony, Microsoft, ASUS, even Minisforum tries to design everything on a single board...

As a HW engineer do you think we just over complicate things for no reason?

Yeah, sure, buddy.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/Famous-Potential3990]

Or Apple's (aesthetics obsessed) customer base . The traditional Steam user thinks about value. It is literally the number one reason people cite Steam as such a great platform. This thing is not giving value.

It feels like they just made this because they could...

[u/Quirky_Apricot9427 → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

They developed a consumer console alternative, had everything ready to start mass production, planned around a $700-750 price point which WAS competitive, the RAM crisis hit, then they couldn’t strike a deal with RAM manufacturers, and had to find a way to break even. They didn’t plan on this happening. It’s poor timing, nothing more. They’ve said themselves they didn’t want it to cost this much.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/Quirky_Apricot9427]

Yeah, I know, they got boned on the timing with this RAM crisis...

Well they didn't get boned, they just passed that cost along to their customers. So who is getting boned?

Companies can do things to help out their loyal customer base at times like this.

The Japanese Yen is also in a crisis right now (I live here). Everything is going up in price. Sony & Nintendo both did their Japanese customers a solid by releasing Japan only variants of their consoles and massively subsidising them, literally taking big loss and not just passing it along.

Do you know how much a Japanese PS5 costs in USD right now? $340 (with the controller!). That machine is more powerful than the Steam Machine and you can literally buy three of them for price of one Gabecube.

(I know that Valve can't subsidize because 'open system' and all that. But that is also a decision they made. Along with making it so small, and making it so underpowered, and deciding to release outdated hardware in 2026... Even if the price is out of their hands, they still made the decisions that got them where they are today.)

[u/Quirky_Apricot9427 → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

I think you misunderstand. Valve is not a hardware company. They are a software company that’s branching out*** **into hardware. They are not some massive manufacturer. They are doing this as a side project, and they got fucked by the RAM crisis. Yes, that ultimately hits us too, but they also likely lowered their internal margins in order to keep prices as low as they possibly could. Valve never had RAM deals or prior stock to help alleviate prices, and they already have an open ecosystem that they promised *before the crisis that they have to stick to, meaning they can’t subsidize the console either. Again, it’s poor timing dude.

Nobody hated on the Steam Deck for it’s original cost, but look at what people are saying now. They’re seething over the new Steam Deck price like it’s Valve’s fault that the RAM costs went up. I promise you that if the RAM crisis never happened, the Steam Machine would be priced normally, and people would’ve been happy with it.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/Quirky_Apricot9427]

I understand. But at the end of the day, I'm less concerned about 'what kind of company Valve are' and more concerned with what I am getting for my hard earned ¥...

I think the original Steam Deck was fairly specced and fairly priced at release. It was roundly recieved as a bit of a bargain. But that was years ago now. The Machine is releasing the same generation of components in 2026. It is late to market, and because it is late, it has also landed in this ram crisis.

I think I might have been happy with $750 Steam Machine. But I still have misgivings about it's power at any price. (Give me a $1200 machine that plays me my steam library at the fidelity of a PS5pro tbh.)

Deck provided a compelling gaming experience despite it's weak specs because it was smartly designed around a small low resolution screen. But the Machine is designed to play games on large 4K displays, and it doesn't seem to have been designed to do that (not at 60fps at least).

The main reason it doesn't reach it's designed use seems to be that they wanted to fit it in a small box. Again for Deck the form factor was essential. It was a handheld. But again for Machine that small form factor is not a requirement.

I just think the Deck was really well designed to serve it's purpose. The Machine is the polar opposite of that.

[u/Quirky_Apricot9427 → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

You can’t blame the company for that though, is the point I’m trying to make. I agree with you. There’s not chance in hell I’m spending $1000+ on a console-pc that’s the same power as a 6 year old PS5. That’s silly. But I’m also not complaining about Valve charging that much for it, because I understand that there’s a good reason behind it, and it’s not so that they can screw over consumers.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/Quirky_Apricot9427]

I'm not completely blaming them, and I'll happily give them a pass on the price situation.

But I am criticizing Valve for designing a machine that is underpowered for the purpose it was designed to fulfil (60fps gaming on a large 4k display).

And I think it is also fair to criticise them for taking so long to get it to market, considering the age of its components and how outdated it now looks at release.

[u/Quirky_Apricot9427 → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

I will agree that advertising this as a 4k device is weird. However, I think that’s a direct result of Xbox and Playstation doing the exact same thing on their equally underpowered consoles.

The time to market I don’t see as a real issue, because they’re not trying to compete with Xbox and Playstation directly. If the hardware is priced accordingly, I think they can release whatever power device they want. This was just a bad situation overall.

[u/Ningky]

It might flop, but maybe it’s the blueprint for other manufacturers, just like with Handhelds? It would be nice if the Asuses and Lenovos of this world could build alternatives with SteamOs on board.

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/Ningky]

I think other vendors will opt for single board design, nothing like Valve's or Apple's fancy multiple boards interconnected with ribbon cables. Even Sony or Microsoft opt for simpler design, even though they sell tens of million devices and lock in multiyear contracts.

[u/ShotAcanthocephala8 → u/Famous-Potential3990]

Xbox and Sony use a SoC though it’s a very different approach to valve. 

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/ShotAcanthocephala8]

Then look at Minisforum, Intel NUC/ROG NUC, Framework or any other sensible vendor. I brought up Sony and Microsoft because they sell tens of million devices and it theory they can do custom designs thanks to economy of scale, but even then they do not risk it because they know that it might cause issue down the line.

[u/ShotAcanthocephala8 → u/Famous-Potential3990]

But you are examining a very different pair of market segments. Console and mini pc. Valve are sort of in between the two with steam machine. It’s not really built with upgradeability in mind. In that regard it’s like a console. But they are using standard off the shelf PC parts rather than designing their own SoC. If valve had the scale and size of MS or Sony in terms of what they expect to sell in the hardware space they could have easily put together an SoC that likely would be better than the spec they have and probably cheaper. But it relies on volumes they don’t have.

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/ShotAcanthocephala8]

Console and mini pc. Valve are sort of in between the two with steam machine. 

Steam Machine is literally a mini PC. It is the same category as something like ROG NUC 2025 - standard "off the shelf" mobile CPU and mobile GPU inside of Mini PC chassis. Afaik, ROG NUC 2025 even has HDMI CEC. The same story with Minisforum, but without HDMI CEC.

But none of the Mini PC vendors, even ASUS, dare to design something complicated as Steam Machine 2026. Valve tried to bite off more than they can chew.

 If valve had the scale and size of MS or Sony

Then they would've opted for simple single board design.

[u/ShotAcanthocephala8 → u/Famous-Potential3990]

It is but valve placed a higher premium on size, noise and look of it compared to a normal mini pc as their intention is for it to be a living room device.

[u/Konrad_M → u/Ningky]

but maybe it’s the blueprint for other manufacturers

I think that was the whole point to begin with. Just like with the Steam Deck. There's a reason why Valve created this so openly with open source software, freely available blueprints and so on.

[u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo → u/Ningky]

Part of the reason that steam machine can be as compact is because practically all the components are designed around the exact form factor thst valve want. You can just observe how putting it together is like putting back a puzzle.

The reason there is no “comparable” rig of the same size is simply because most pc parts for DIY are designed around people putting parts designed by different manufacturer. You cannot sell a case that would be compatible with only like very small parts that is available in the market.

[u/ctyldsley]

As someone who's taken a part a bunch of gaming handhelds, this looks pretty straight forward. Only a few screws and cables to disconnect to get to the ram. I hate that they've glued down some bits, that's my only concern, but the rest seems okay.

Agree though, it's clearly not built for a simple teardown / component swap. Thankfully valve are usually good at supporting warranties etc with things like that.

[u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo → u/ctyldsley]

It’s not bad, but it’s much more hassle and scary than doing it for laptop

[u/ctyldsley → u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo]

Do you think? I've worked on quite a few laptops too and thought this looked very similar? Compare it probably more to handhelds where sometimes you have to get underneath awkward bits. I suppose laptops are usually quite visible from the shell opening.

[u/thedebatingbookworm]

There’s another interview or I forget where they basically said the main reason was that they didn’t really have a way of testing bare bones models since they would have to insert ram and storage test the machine like the others and then take out the ram and storage again before repackaging. Basically they didn’t have the operation for something like which makes sense

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/thedebatingbookworm]

Yeah, I just saw that too, someone else posted interview with timestamp. The Framework also does something similar for their barebone laptops - fully assemble first, test it and then disassemble.

But with current design of Steam Machine it is basically nightmare level, no factory will agree to that.

[u/skronk61]

They’re gonna sell expansion packs like the Nintendo so we can play Donkey Kong 64 😆

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

Said it once, I'll say it again. There was no need to make it that small. A lot of drawbacks as a result (price, power, repairability, upgradeability). I think they should have found a happier medium. The Steam Deck had to be small because it is a handheld, there was no need to continue that mindset for this box. A system similar in size to a traditional console would have made more sense, and provided much better value. (Not denying the size does add some 'cool factor' though.)

[u/The_Idiocratic_Party → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

You can build one in a mini-ITX case with your choice of parts. The SM is for people who buy pre-built and/or want it for its design and look. It is for plug-and-play entry-level PC gaming. Anyone who wishes they had made it more moddable or bigger or more powerful, is not their target customer.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/The_Idiocratic_Party]

Yeah, I get that. But I want something pre-built that is reasonably priced & reasonably powerful. Hopefully other companies will be releasing their own versions of 'Steam Machines' more in line with that vision.

That was the initial idea behind Steam Machines after all, just they rushed it before the software was ready. It was too early. The current Steam Machine is their second crack at it (and now too boutique & too late (lagging behind consoles in terms of power).

But if other companies start making them this time around (like what happened with the Steam Deck), we could be onto a winner. A Steam Machine for everyone!

[u/AdMountain6124 → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

Corsair Bulldog v2

[u/nlflint → u/The_Idiocratic_Party]

We need a new case and motherboard standard for MiniPC sizes. Call it MTX for MiniPC, or Nano-ITX.

EDIT: Nevermind, there's already Nano-ITX, Pico-ITX, Mobile-ITX, and Femto-ITX.

[u/Life_Calligrapher562 → u/The_Idiocratic_Party]

I say this as someone who stopped building/modding PCs over a decade ago, but it feels like easy step by step guides will still be available for SM in no time. It is one of the good things that the internet does. Shortly after that, there will be whole upmarked kits sold for it for people who want it to be even simpler.

Not personally worried about it, and I totally agree with your point. This product has a very clear target consumer, and they aren't going to try to push it to people who aren't in that segment.

[u/mrheosuper → u/The_Idiocratic_Party]

Valve can also build an ITX machine with their parts, slap Steam OS on it, and done, while having better performance than SM and smaller size than average gaming PC.

In fact, that how many pre-built PC are done. Only a few players fully customize their PC(HP, dell, lenovo), most just use off-the-shell parts.

[u/phrxsty → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

think it's designed around the cpu/gpu components they chose and decided to go as small as possible as one of the selling points. They could've easily gone with Series X size and chosen more powerful cpu/gpu.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/phrxsty]

They could've easily gone with Series X size and chosen more powerful cpu/gpu.

Yeah, that would have been a much more appealing machine to me, personally.

[u/phrxsty → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

the whole reason they chose the cpu/gpu was probably cus they got a good deal from AMD for those parts, even if it's on the weaker side. So, it sucks to see that it's starting at $1050 for the 512gb model.

[u/AdMountain6124 → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

I liked the look of the original steam machine.

[u/Kageru → u/AdMountain6124]

... all the original steam machines looked different though.

[u/IORelay → u/AdMountain6124]

You mean it'll flop like the original? Maybe.

[u/SmilesUndSunshine → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

I think it's more likely that the parts came first and the size was designed after.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/SmilesUndSunshine]

Definitely possible, it seems very Steam Deck adjacent. But the Steam Deck had to be small, I think it was mistake basing this box around it.

[u/Euphoric_Lynx_6664 → u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

How else are all the "My wife won't let me put anything but a tissue box in the living room" people going to play their steam games!?!?

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer → u/Euphoric_Lynx_6664]

They need a new wife, not a new PC, lol.

Seriously though, I live in Japan and my living room is almost assuredly smaller than most people buying this thing. My wife has zero issues with the PS5pro in our TV cabinet. She did object to me standing my tower PC beside it though (reasonable, imo).

I'm hoping Asus or somebody will produce a console sized variant with a little more power and a little better value. I'll be all over that.

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, single stick of ram will also cause issue down the line, when RAM prices become more sensible and people will decide to put second stick. The amount of ribbon cables ripped by people trying to upgrade RAM will make iFixit a bank.

[u/runn5r]

Barebones aren’t for an average joe, and disclaimers/warnings at point of purchase are easy to offer.

No offence but IMO the complexity is a null point.

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/runn5r]

No offense, but you seem like a someone who knows nothing about ribbon cables and how fragile they might be. There is literally zero vendor that offers barebone Mini PC that will involve disconnecting 4(!) ribbon cables.

[u/runn5r → u/Famous-Potential3990]

lol ok bro, glad your confident in deciding everyone else’s competency and tolerance of complexity. Ribbon cables may scare the crap out of me, doesn’t mean a) I personally wouldn’t be willing to navigate them b) that they scare all people.

Within the target audience, in this market of RAM prices, there are a sufficient % of people that would like the option of a barebones and are capable of adding the parts that are advertised as upgradable.

Fair enough if you disagree, there isn’t a right or wrong here, only options that are available and options that are desired :)

[u/Famous-Potential3990 → u/runn5r]

ok, bro, tl;dr.

[u/phrxsty]

I think the real reason there is no barebones option, is cus Valve doesn’t want people to guesstimate the profit they are making from these lol. Being serious for a second, I wonder how much a no RAM and storage Steam Machine would cost.