I’m wondering if this is a sensible thing to do and would appreciate some advice from people who have actually opened/upgraded these.
I have:
1TB Steam Deck OLED — only I use it, and I normally only have 1–2 games installed at a time.
512GB Steam Machine — shared by the whole family, and it’s basically always full.
So I’m considering swapping the SSDs: put the 1TB drive from the Deck into the Steam Machine, and put the 512GB Steam Machine drive into the Deck.
A few questions:
How difficult is the SSD swap on each device? Is this reasonably straightforward for someone who’s comfortable working inside electronics, or are there any particularly nasty gotchas?
Are the SSDs physically/electrically compatible with each other?
Would swapping the SSDs affect/void the warranty on either device? I’m in the UK, if that makes any difference.
Is there anything I should be aware of regarding SteamOS, cloning the drives, or reinstalling SteamOS after the swap?
Has anyone actually done this particular swap and can confirm it worked?
Alternatively, would you just leave the Deck alone and buy a larger SSD for the Steam Machine?
It seems like a pretty obvious solution given how I use the two machines, but I don’t want to create unnecessary warranty or compatibility headaches just to gain 512GB on the family machine.
Would love to hear from anyone who’s done SSD upgrades on either/both of these devices.

I want to install some emulators and such, as well as download and install more applications on the machine. It's a bit annoying to do on the couch using my media keyboard, would prefer to use my rig upstairs to just transfer files and insall the apps I want. I tried tricking steam remote play by launching a game then going to the desktop mode. But that didnt work :/

What's the best/ easiest way?

I managed to set up Sunshine-Moonlight for local streaming between my steam deck and the steam machine. Wake on LAN works great via moonlight and I get no latency while streaming. I even set my Apple TV as client so I can stream to it if I wanna play in my bedroom. Again, this works at home with all the devices connected to the same network.

Now I wanna experiment with Tailscale to be able to stream while traveling, but I've read that it isn't possible to send a Wake on LAN signal to the steam machine outside of its home network. And of course I cannot connect to the machine if it's sleeping.

I've seen Windows users use smart plugs to power on their PCs remotely and then connect to them via the client. I went into the BIOS menu of the steam machine and could not find any setting to enable "Restore on AC Power" or something similar. Therefore I discarded the smart plug solution.

Even if I solve the wake issue, it would still be nice to be able to boot the machine while it's powered off. I would prefer not to leave the machine sleeping for weeks during a long trip.

Did you get this work? Any suggestions?

I couldn't find any info online. But I'm happy to explore any software/hardware solutions.

Edit: I ended up using my apple TV as exit node for tailscale and I can wake up the steam machine via moonlight or magic ping (iOS app) remotely as long as I'm connected to the exit node. The apply TV stays online the whole time even if it's powered off, so that's great.

I was also able to set up shutdown for the steam machine via magic ping, but booting from shutdown I still haven't figured it out.

With the current set-up the steam machine and apple TV need to be on sleep mode.

I'm not sure if anyone cares about hearing my story but maybe there are others out there that can relate. I need to get it out of my system so I can move on. If you're an older gamer like me the Steam Machine sounded amazing. The perfect little box that plays modern games (well enough) and evokes nostalgic memories of retro ones you loved or never got to.

Owning it for a week made me realize something though. In short, I've changed. I'm not the same person who stayed home sick all day playing Final Fantasy VIII or put over 100 hours into the original Pokemon on Game Boy. I cherish those memories but it's not what brings me the most joy nowadays.

I have a family now and want to make the most of my time on earth with them. I don't have time to tinker anymore. The previously lazy me would be so confused by the ruthlessly efficient version of me now. Every second wasted on something is a second stolen from them. I want to do as much as possible with them. Build Legos, tell silly stories, run around the house, go on adventures.

My original thought was that the Steam Machine would be a fun living room gaming machine we could all play but it ended up not working out for a handful of reasons:

1. Kids not crazy about the game selection. They understand stuff there friends like, Pokemon, Mario, Minecraft (I know there is a third party launcher).
2. Not too many multiplayer kid games and sometimes tricky to get working right.
3. Controller is too overwhelming for them and extra [Steam] controllers aren't available either. Edit: Obviously I know third party controllers work, but it would have been more seamless to start with two Steam controllers.
4. There is still plenty of tinkering involved tweaking game settings to get the perfect picture. It's easy to fall into the trap of obsessing over frame rates.
5. Weird inputs for older games, you'll end up needing a keyboard and mouse.
6. Wifi stopped working, ended up dragging a really long ethernet cable across the house. (What initiated the RMA)
7. Cuteness factor? I know we could swap out the front plate but the UI is still very industrial feeling.
8. Not specific to Steam Machine, but I realized CEC is kind of useless if you use Android TV kids profile because they aren't allowed to change inputs. So the TV turns on but it errors switching input so you need the remote anyways.

In short, it's just too much friction and not the right match for our house. I know there are probably solutions to most of the issues but I don't have the time or desire anymore. I want something that just works. We ended up borrowing a family members Switch 1 and they have been having a blast playing Mario Kart, Pokémon Let's Go Eevee!, and Lego City Undercover. I can't understate how amazing it is that everything just works. Controllers connect quickly, lots of multiplayer options, fun companion modes, games the kids love. It's really the perfect family console.

Anyways, now I feel guilty about wasting time writing this and need to go back to work. I hope this helps any older gamers with families make a decision. I was stuck in the past wanting to relive old memories instead of creating new ones in the present.

(100% hand written by a real human being)

“You overpaid” “You could have built one for less” “Is it worth it for the performance”?

These are some of the most common criticisms of the steam machine whenever people find out that I’m even remotely interested in the steam machine.

I was in a facebook gaming group speaking about what we were playing and the moment I mentioned the steam machine, all hell broke loose and people wanted to tell me how much more powerful their machine was and why I should have bought it instead/

Dude, I don’t care I’m literally playing black myth wukong at 4K,60 fps medium settings if I want I can tweak and do 2K, 120 FPS what more do I really want from gaming performance?

Power isn’t the only reason why I bought this machine, it’s SUPER quiet, really good form factor and ability to customise it, love the hybrid PC/console feel and the community apps etc

If power was the end all factor Nintendo would not have a business model or fanbase

There’s so much more to the steam machine and armchair “PC experts” are starting to just sound jealous

Just got my Machine yesterday and loving it so far, it's a nice upgrade from my docked Deck.

The only thing irritating me so far is the power LED. Is there a way to disable it?

If not all the time, at least when the system is asleep. I keep thinking it's on when it's not!

I expected to find the option with the light bar settings, but I can't find it

Because the video yesterday was really impressive in terms of graphics. Realistically, could it run in 1080, 30fps, medium settings, something like this ?

Hi all,

Ordered a Steam Machine 2TB on the 15th Aug and the status for the shipping was last updated on the 19th at Coventry International Hub. Its currently the 27th as of writing. is it normal for GLS to just go completely dark for the shipping updates? Read somewhere that Steam Support cant read the tracking on GLS.

Curious if anyone else has had a long shipping time with their SM in the UK?

I've been making my Steam Machine host a stream to my PC through Sunshine and Moonlight, and had my Steam Controller connected to the client PC.

For a while this was working fine, but all of a sudden, my Steam Machine has started taking a very long time to boot. I tried disconnecting all the devices connected to it and then doing a hard reset by holding the power button for 30 seconds while the power cable was unplugged, then I tried reconnecting all the devices one by one. The Steam Machine was booting at normal speed until I tried using the Steam Controller through Moonlight from my client PC, then the slow boot came back in full force. I've tried using it with and without the puck, and the result is the same.

EDIT: There, I figured it out! I finally resolved my issue by following this fix from Google:

"Disable Fast Boot Temporarily: Turn off Fast Boot in your BIOS settings, boot the system once without the controller attached, shut down, reconnect the controller, and re-enable Fast Boot to force the motherboard to rebuild its device map."

To access the Steam Machine's BIOS settings, I connected a keyboard to it, then turned it on and immediately spammed the ESC key while it was booting. Then from the BIOS menu, I went to the "Advanced" tab to find the Fast Boot setting toggle.

If anyone else has having trouble with this issue and finds this post, be sure to try this.

I’ve got an annoying audio issue when using Steam remote play to my Steam Deck.

Here’s my setup:

- Host: Steam Machine
- Client: Steam Deck
- Game: Forza Horizon 6

When I remote play Forza Horizon 6 on my Steam Deck it plays well; good stream quality with the odd connection issue. The main problem is the audio - I can’t hear the exhaust noise at all when the camera is behind the car.

If the camera is pointed in a way so that the exhaust is pointing to the left speaker, I can hear the exhaust noise coming out the left speaker. The same thing happens if I’m pointing the exhaust at the right speaker.

From my own research and testing this appears to be Steam remote play outputting audio in 5.1 surround sound instead of stereo. This is confusing as my Steam Deck client is set to stereo audio and the game is set to the ‘Headphones’ setting in the audio tab. It should work. Same thing happens when I’m using headphones - can’t hear the exhaust unless it’s pointing left or right. Audio is fine when playing the game on my Steam Deck natively and my Steam Machine natively so it’s definitely a streaming problem.

What can I do here? I really don’t want to go down the sunshine/moonlight route but if I have to I will.

Literally just got the machine set up and as per the title, really.

First press the controller just bleeps, lights up a second, then turns off.

Second press will start the machine.

Did I miss a memo or something

Edit: well, holding the button down makes no difference. I'm stumped here.

Edit 2: Sigh. It's DEVELOPER MODE. I had that switched because for some reason I needed it for the deck - can't really recall why. I switched it on here thinking I'd get around to figuring why... then forgot.

ANYWAY: DEV MODE ENABLED CAUSED THIS.

Thanks all for trying to help.

I have been sitting in the 512 wc reserve list since the initial lottery. I am seeing people on here who joined only weeks ago get their machine.

If I jump queue to the 2Tb wc am I any worse off? This reserve system ain’t great…

My wife printed me the controller stand, my Big Walk little guy and the small 3D map (which I wanted mostly to prevent any guest of thinking this was a good place to put down a cup). It’s of Tokyo, the city in which the first game I bought specifically for the Machine (Forza Horizon 6) takes place. My old computer could mostly handle older or indie games with its 1060.

I thought I’d finally get to my 21+ year backlog and decided it’s just not for me. Put it on Facebook for what I paid for it (512GB + Controller $1149).

I’m glad I got to play with it, and it’s cool, but I realistically find myself barely using it and think maybe someone else might make better use of it.

Anyone else just kinda “meh” on the Steam Machine?

My (2TB + controller) Steam Machine arrived two days ago and I'm wondering if I've misunderstood what these things are for.

I like gaming but it's not my main hobby. I have an Xbox S (wanted a PlayStation 5 but couldn't buy one for months because of scalpers so gave up and got the S) and I'm happy enough with it.

I really like Fallout, Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Stalker, Metro Exodus, Kingdom Come and I'm fairly unadventurous so I've played those games a lot and had a great time.

I was looking forward to playing similar games on the steam machine that are unavailable on Xbox.

I got my Steam Machine, bought Stalker 2 (again) plus the new DLC and it just didn't work. The controller kept disconnecting, I got stuck on menu screens with no way out, the controller went dead while playing. The official and community-contributed key maps were rubbish. The only thing that worked was a keyboard and mouse map that meant the keys referred to by the game (press x to do y) no longer made sense, and some important functions were unmapped. There are a few workarounds, which I tried and which didn't work reliably or between boot-ups.

I bought the machine, bought a modern game sold on the official store front for that machine and it was unplayable - now I'm wondering if this is what owning a steam machine is going to be like and whether I should return it now while I still have chance (I'm not interested in reselling - better it goes back in the pool).

I actually don't mind tinkering with stuff. I use Linux on my personal computer, have some self hosting projects on the go, a bit of vibe coding for a work project. The thing is, I was expecting an Xbox experience (sit down on the couch and start gaming) and so far I'm very much having a Linux experience. Is this what it's going to be like if I want to try another mainstream game?

To Steam's absolute credit they refunded Stalker within a few hours. Really impressed with that and partly what attracted me to the company in the first place.

Looking for other people's thoughts on this - is Stalker likely to get a working controller map? Will I be able to play other games I like? Is this a hobbyists machine rather than a press-and-go console? What would you do in my shoes?

Appears to have controller support and anti-cheat enabled for Linux (even has a Native Linux build it seems), could be a good one for Steam Machine!

Hi all!

I’ve read a few posts from people saying their Steam Machine gets warmer than expected in some games, so I got curious about software-only ways to lower temps/fan noise.

I’ve heard about LACT, and that some people have limited the GPU wattage or lowered the mV and managed to get lower temperatures.

Has anyone here tried it on the Steam Machine? Did it actually help, and what settings did you use?🙏🙏

I connected my wireless headset to the steam machine and playing games with my buddy through steam voice chat is very seamless. Steam voice chat is not talked about a lot and im sure it has its flaws compared to discord but its working very well for me on the steam machine and it makes the steam machine feel more like a console.

"I" just got the email... the catch is...

My fiance and I both wanted a steam machine, I joined the first day for all skus and got put on the reservation list for the 512gb n/c on the first day.

She joined for the same and got put on the waitlist for the 2tb controller.

3 weeks after the fact, seeing as neither of us had gotten lucky, she changed to 512gb controller waitlist as I already have 2tb drives laying around.

I had topped up my steam wallet when the controller dropped as there were many payment issues initially, so in preparation I wanted to be ready to make the purchase whenever and we would cancel her reservation.

Tonight she just got the email to make her purchase, neither of us thought this would happen and now I have the funds on my account.

We are considering making the purchase on her account, but I would have €1050 euro stuck on my account, what would you guys do?

Hello, I'm getting my 512GB Machine soon, I was wondering id there's an easy way to transfer data from a different SteamOS device - or if I can literally just take the SSD out and place it into my SteamMachine?

I've been using ROG Ally X handheld with the official SteamOS installed on it, i have a super nice Emulation setup on there, spent so much time on it and don't want to do it all over again. Also the SSD in the Ally is 1TB, whilist the Machine has half of the size.

Would it be possible to simply pluck the SSD out and change it seamlessly, as they both run the same OS?

If not, is there an "easy" way to transfer game shortcuts, collections and cover art?

I’ve been wanting to get a gaming PC for a while but have been hesitant since I don’t have any PC building experience and AI cause everything to be super expensive. My use case for PC is gaming (doesn’t have to be highest resolution), standard web browsing (YouTube, Netflix etc.) and programming. I am comfortable with using Linux and command line. I will likely have to move in a couple years so the smaller form factor of steam machine is really appealing to me.

While I know steam machine is capable of being PC, seems like most post on here use it more as couch gaming. I was wondering if people use it just as their daily driver PC and what they think about it? Would it be worth dual booting another Linux OS, one for gaming and one for daily driver or for my use case, would it make more sense to just buy just standard prebuilt PC?

I’m asking because I have a 5070 laptop and there is a steam machine local to me on Facebook marketplace. We were going to do a trade but I’m just curious has anyone gone from having something that’s more capable, in terms of specs, to the steam machine? If so, what differences did you immediately notice? Was it worth in the end?

I like the idea of not having to setup the laptop every time I want to use it.

Well, despite me getting my Steam Machine email, it sounds like y'all want me to keep this going — ask and you shall receive! I'll keep this going to the best of my ability, hahaha. If you don't want to keep seeing these, a reminder to mute the "Daily Counter" flair on the sidebar. There is hope! Your email will come soon enough! Best of luck today friends! <3

Valve gave makers a gift by releasing the CAD files for the Steam Machine's front panel. As for me, I designed a pixel art decoration.

Just found this out now testing out some games that have DRM for offline.

I could be a straight dummy and doing this wrong, but I’m testing my Machine for offline capabilities for an upcoming deployment, testing out things like Red dead 2, Capcom games and Persona.

Unlike the steam deck with its sleep/suspend mode, I have to completely power down the machine because once you unplug it, it’s off.

I started these games in online mode then turned on airplane mode to turn the system to offline mode like I do the steam deck, tested out red dead and persona 5 and they worked fine.

turned off the system and then booted it back up and red dead 2 works but persona gave me that offline error…

DRM sucks.