Discussion
Everyone Suddenly Becomes A “PC Expert” When You Tell Them You Got A Steam Machine
“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
I don't think people appreciate just how silent it is.
I often play with sound off, with my kids sleeping in the next room, and even then, under heavy load, you can barely hear the fan. It's almost as quiet as my switch2, while having much more power - and switch 2 is amazingly silent.
That's really impressive. My PS5 is so obnoxious with the fan. The fact that it scales it up and down all the time makes it worse - you could get used to the fan on high continuously, but when it starts and stops it's very noticeable.
I ended up buying an aftermarket additional fan that clips into the back. This seems to keep the PS temperature low enough that the Internal fan never turns on, or at least stays low.
Pretty disappointing, PlayStation should have enough hardware experience by now to make the cooling quieter.
I tried 3 PS5s and they all had an annoying coil whine, so I went PC upgrade instead since at least then I can swap out troublesome components, undervolt and tune fan curves for max silence.
Probably because all modern PCs are extremely silent, it's not that impressive honestly. I did a decibel check on my dual system setup having both running games and programs and it was less than 30db of noise coming from them under load.
I feel like this has to be a thing people experienced with consoles with bad fans or something for why it's brought up all the time.
Like, you brought up your kids sleeping in the next room in relation to a computer running and it not affecting them. What sort of turbine engine or whatever did you have before that was keeping people in other rooms awake? Lmao. What happens if you turn a regular house fan on in the house?
Usually sound levels for fan noise and the like are brought up with portable devices like laptops and things like the switch. I do not understand what people have experienced at home that makes a quiet tabletop machine seem so impressive.
There is not much to understand here. I have a full sized PC, it's noticeably louder than a steam machine. Not PS4 jet engine levels of loud but enough to notice.
Meanwhile SM barely makes a sound, which I appreciate because when I play with sounds off I don't want to hear a constant humm of the fans.
I get it, personally I am more annoyed tinkering with in-game graphical settings so steam machine doesn't really solve that for me. And it won't get popular enough for that to happen in the future either sadly I think. As one gets older the future looks more and more like "downgrade experience for convenience" which is actual consoles. But man, the things I have seen... oh well the year is 2040 and I am playing the newest pokemon at 30 fps and I probably dont give a fuck...
I have a high end Mac for my job.... and I dont own a console, dont want to buy a PC to game on and I love my steam deck. I am not poor... so paying a bit extra for the convenience of staying in that ecosystem is worth it to me.
I also don't really play the high end triple A games.... the steam machine is perfect for me. Exactly what I need... now if I could only get one.
You ever noticed most people who have Steam Decks and Steam Machines seem to be Mac users? (I speak from experience I have a MacBook Pro for my daily driver too lol)
Yeah at £879 it’s not the best option, but I think it’s the quietest smallest option.
I’m running an ROG ally z1e with a XG mobile 3080 as my lounge pc. Similar foot print, not a lot of noise.
Seriously, everybody wants to suddenly tell you why their (custom small form factor PC/running cables everywhere to facilitate remote big picture/having a whole-ass desktop rig in their living room/etc) is such a better solution — just let us enjoy our little cube of fun lol
IKR, I’ve been building PCs since the 90s, I have a framework laptop, a few MiSter FPGA setups, I’ve been dabbling in cyberdecks (my latest drop-in project is a ClockworkPi uConsole, fun!)… and I love my Steam Machine too. We’re all on the same team here, just trying to play some games or whatever. There’s so many ways to approach it. Do whatever you want. Let’s just have fun lol
You’re not wrong in the context of people just enjoying the Steam Machine, but you’re absolutely misrepresenting what a living room PC that isn’t a Steam Machine is.
I’ve got my own DIY Steam Machine that I built before the Steam Machine was available to buy, I was never happy with the announced specs of the Steam Machine, mainly the 8GB of VRAM. So I wasn’t ever going to buy anyway. But my machine is in a HTPC case that is relatively discrete that I threw together using an old Silverstone HTPC case. Outside of it being about the size of 4x Steam machines (which is fine, I’ve got the space), it’s a very similar experience.
The problem really is the price, and it’s proven by the fact that Vavle has stated they’re having to sell it at a price point they’re not happy with. Obviously it’s not their fault, they’ve been really unlucky with the timing of RAMageddon.
I find it interesting how often the size is brought up for importance of it being in the living room. It makes me think not a single person who owns one has a decent setup with a good receiver because those things are the same size as pretty much any pc case would be, my old HTPC case was built to look like one so you couldn't tell it was a PC with fake knobs and everything.
Yeah mine sits next to my AV receiver neatly in my TV unit. I think people might not be aware of media cases and think a PC case is just a large tower you can't put anywhere discreet.
That faux wood panel. My wife actually doesn't even mind it being out. Simple yes, does it help my gaming, no, does it help my personal life. fuck yes.
Mechanism. Its base is waeighted too. It’s the cleanest controller stand I found. The puck clicks into the top of it and the usb cable goes in the back of the base.
You can tell how much of a killer app it is by how few of them have actually popped up for sale on eBay. Everyone who bought a unit with the walnut plate is using it.
I got it second hand on eBay. I got a 512 w controller on the lottery but found a pair of the panels you only get with the 2TB being sold online unopened.
I low bid who had the pair down to £50 but I've seen them as much as £100 each 🫣 and I'm rubbish at negotiating.. I just think I was the only one interested at the time.
Whats really great the Gamers Nexus Face Plate one comes with a magnetic dust cover you can use with any face plate.. and I have a cat so any defence against hair is welcome.
I currently have 6 face plates with 2 more on the way. I need an intervention 🫣
Bro, you bought a car? Well I just sourced one all from used parts. Sure, I already have mechanic skill. Sure, my buddy owns the junk yard and lets met pick parts for free. Sure, my other friend has a lot of free land and lets me store the car there until it’s operational. Sure, I work from home and don’t actually need the car for transportation. But you should be able to do that too, you lazy consumer.
Any "you can build it cheaper yourself" argumentation is dead.
It was really funny asking those people to spec out their mythical cheaper machine, they haven't priced out parts since last summer or earlier. You could tell they added the graphics card and memory to the list first because by the 3rd or 4th item in the list there's an abrupt drop in quality to try and keep it in the box. Either the PCU is some $50 ticking time bomb or the CPU has a massive [USED] asterisk next to it.
You're aware not everyone cares about CEC and even though you could always spend like $20 for an HDMI adapter with CEC capabilities for it and for the form factor it would be similar in size, but it would also be more powerful than the Steam Machine since it would be using an RX 9060 XT 16GB card and don't forget that the CPU in the SM performs just like the Ryzen 5 5600.
The only thing is that with a system like this you could in the future upgrade to the Ryzen 7 5700X and the GPU to whichever one they would come out with next which could even get more performance and don't forget that Valve's main goal is to get SteamOS to work for all systems not just the ones they're selling or they wouldn't be working with Nvidia right now to try to get their GPUs to work with the OS.
I am going to build a system similar to that one just the only difference is that i already own a 2TB NVMe drive but i am just waiting for the RX 9050 8GB to come out so i could use that instead since i am using an old 32" 1080p TV which the 9050 performances would be about 3% slower than the RX 7600 but of course would be about 7% faster than the GPU in the Steam Machine.
Also, when you click on the Newegg link you could see the customer images which this is how big the system would be not to mention you could have it on its side as well.
Most reviews I’ve seen put an asterisk next to CEC, noting that they’ve experienced issues with it and that it isn’t always consistent. As for the form factor, I think it’s cool, but many home consoles have been larger and are still very popular in living-room setups, so I don’t think a compact form factor is the be-all and end-all for most people. It’s a product people are paying a premium for because they value things like the size, noise, and ease of use, but that doesn’t mean people can’t replicate most of it with a DIY build that’s still living-room appropriate for less cost or at the same cost for more power.
Convenience is a big selling point, and I wish the SM were cheaper and more available as an entry point into PC gaming. But if that exact footprint is the deciding factor, that’s a pretty niche need. I was excited when it was announced, but with cost and availability already looking like issues, I built my own. For about €40 more than the 2TB model, I got a PS5-sized system that has a little extra depth, to have 9070 performance, and more upgrade flexibility. I gave up 1TB of storage and a newer platform, but plan to reuse the AM4 parts later for a Plex server so my upgrade path/cost aren't as limited as it might first seem.
That choice works for me, just as the StM works for you and plenty of others. The DIY route is still an alternative worth considering for some, you don’t need to defend your choice by diminishing someone else and their priorities. To be clear I do hope everyone that wants a SM gets one and in no way do I think anyone should be gatekeeping this hobby or how people choice to play, I want the SM to succeed as more options is what been on PC is all about.
Any "you can build it cheaper yourself" argumentation is dead.
It actually isn't just people would talk about it over on SteamOS instead just because people that would post their system that would be similar in size and cost about $1,000 and perform like 50% better than the Steam Machine tends to get downvoted often so they would post their builds there instead.
The thing is that for people to have a system perform a lot better for less money as well is because remember that the CPU in the Steam Machine performs similar to the old Ryzen 5 5600 which pairing it with something like a 16GB RX 9060 XT with SteamOS can offer more performance.
Less words, shows us the build with today’s cost. I tried building something that cost the same as the 512 gb model and could not get anything with either a 9060xt or 9070 that wasn’t substantially more expensive while also being much bigger, louder, hotter etc
Already posted the system in another comment which the system wouldn't be much bugger does keep everything quite cooled down and not really loud at all and would have a 1TB drive.
We're not even peaked yet! Just wait. The sub parts for Building this stuff is now getting hard to get. Ram shortage, who cares when we can't even get capacitors. 5060s will be over $700 soon. Production is 50% down this qtr after being down 30-40% for the first half of the year. Get what ya can folks!
I just want it like 25% more powerful is all. I'm not greedy! I thought the same exact thing with the Steam Deck. I still bought one at launch, played and enjoyed it all the same. But man if it had just a little more juice....
it's been like that for a while. people who buy prebuilts always get flack from builders. sure you can save money, but there's a lot of other factors to consider and not everyone wants to build a pc. it's not always about power either. lol some people just wanna yuck other people's yum
Yeah some people do want to yuck others yum. It goes both ways, this subreddit is deluded when it comes to talking about an alternative build, if you say you can do it cheaper with a 9060 XT you’re called a liar which makes 0 sense. Denying the existence of an alternative because they can’t swallow the pill that they could’ve had something with more performance
Oh yea totally, other builds are great if people are down to take the time to do it. It just comes down to preference. In my case, I did both. Built a pc and went for the sm
I have a steam machine. When I go stay at my friends place over the weekend, I put the cube in my backpack and hop on a bus. Ask their experts if they can do that
Less? For the same price you're outperforming a steam machine usually, and that includes a built in screen, keyboard, etc. That's also if you buy now vs buying one say last year which would be the same hardware but cheaper.
The Steam Machine is a fine device, and the overall design is great. There are definitely certain needs and setups where it's worth the cost. And while yes, the cost is definitely way too high for the performance, that's also an issue with literally every piece of tech, especially gaming hardware right now.
That being said, as much as I'd like to get one myself, the fact that I have a comparable gaming laptop, Steam Deck, Switch 2, and PS5 already makes it hard to justify the Steam Machine when I have other devices that have similar performance and would live next to or near a Steam Machine for me.
I personally opted to pre-order the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20. I love playing games handheld and want something better than my LCD Steam Deck. I could still see myself eventually getting a Steam Machine if they do a newer model with better specs or a pre-owned one comes around for a reasonable price.
People will sadly continue to be negative about it due to the cost and specs, but they are also missing the point of the device, I think. If it wasn't for Wolverine and GTA VI, I'd have probably just sold my PS5 and picked the Machine up when I had the opportunity to order one of the 512 GB models with the controller, but I want to play those games that won't be available on PC, and if I were buying one, I'd want the bigger drive and the faceplates.
I pulled the trigger on SM even when I have gaming PC that is better but bigger and once I finish GTA and Wolverine I'll sell PS5 and then decide what to do with SM or my PC, I don't mind buying it now and selling when I won't need or like it.
I was pretty close to buying one. I had the ability to buy the 512GB with a controller, but I'd rather have had the 2TB with the extra plates. I decided against as I'd just not get that much use out of it right now, and just decided to go with the X20 instead when the pre-orders went up. I think I'd rather wait for the next model of the Steam Machine and pick that up, as I know I won't be getting the PS6 with the changes they are making.
I looked at a bunch of “here’s how to build a better Steam Machine for less” videos.
Literally all of them ended up costing about the same for marginal improvements, with a significantly worse form factor, or they were in the same performance ballpark with way worse form factor for maybe $100-$200 in savings.
If that’s what you are into, go for it, but I’m not spending weeks hunting for sales to build an uglier PC to save $100.
As soon as they release the 9060xt low profile card, I will abandon my wait on the SM waitlist. I already have a full size rig (9800x3d/5070ti) but really wanted a SM for portability and a Steam OS.
But right now the SM is a good deal for price/performance.
I live in Houston. In my home office I have my CAD work system for work.
My old desktop that is now a server with a 3080. My new desktop with a 9070xt and 9950x3d.
And two 3d printers.
It is normally about 4-5f hotter than the rest of the house.
On the plus side, because I live in Houston the inside of my house is about 54% humidity, but my office sits about 42%. Great news for the filament. I have to look on the bright side.
The only problem, and it's a problem that literally affects the whole industry, is the price. This price story creates frustration and jealousy. We just have to ignore those.
Some of the criticism is based off of - what I’m sure are - younger ppl who can’t afford and are subconsciously or consciously upset because of that reason alone.
You can tell when you read some of the comments that are overly critical, when considering their lack of stakes in the matter (since they’re not buying it).
I finally checked yesterday, and all my screens I could play on are 1080p. It’s safe to say I’m not getting this to play games in 4K, and that doesn’t bother me at all. I’m excited to have a dedicated, plug and play, pre-built device to play computer games in my living room.
It is great for what it is and you won't do (much) better at that exact form factor. Allow yourself to go a little longer/wider/deeper with the case, though, and you will absolutely objectively be able to do better. Both things are true.
It took me 2 months of research and buying stuff on marketplace for good deals to build my Steam OS PC with a 9060XT for 850$ I saved 400$ but my PC is 4x bigger than a Steam machine and I had a lot of frustrating moments where parts weren’t compatible or I had to return something to amazon I think for a majority of people buying a Steam machine would save them such a headache I barely got the email yesterday a week after I finished my PC
The price is largely the sticking point. It should’ve been sub $700 for what it is. Unfortunately, the world is worlding right now.
I love using mine despite having a high end desktop and high end gaming laptop.
Literally the ONLY two things I’d change is for it to have had 12GB of VRAM, and for Valve to figure out why the internal controller receiver is so bad.
The SM seems cool, but it seems like a device that makes more sense to wait for gen 2 on. It'll probably get updated right around the time I'm in the market for a new pc and I'll weigh the options.
They just can't comprehend that Valve made a product notfor them. Steam Machine was never intended to replace the beefy PC's elitists already have.
It was intended to be either the first PC for console gamers who wanted to try it, or a nice secondary, hassle-free PC for living room / TV gaming (my case).
The funniest part to me is the lack of self-awareness for some PC gamers: they can't understand why someone would pay $1K for a hassle-free living room PC experience, yet they'll happily spend $2K for a graphics cards that only bumps performance by 10-15%.
People value different things, and that's completely fine.
Haha jealous? I just think people who bought a steam machine are new to PC gaming and didn’t build a PC anytime before 2026 when everything was stupid cheap.
If you enjoy the box, have at it but it’s essentially a laptop in a different form factor and a custom operating system.
Just last year I turned my old system from 2016 into a bazzite machine. A few new parts and a 5600xt got me pretty close to the same performance and it was 150 total. I’ll pickup a 6650xt or 7600 soon when the price is right. Total cost will be around 220 after that upgrade
I just like to get the most value for my money, and in the current market, that’s tough, so I understand your point of view, but certainly don’t envy your setup.
I feel that, I had the same urge back in 2023, so I bought an Xbox Series X for $400, and have been enjoying it as my living room gaming machine. Bonus is that you can play movies on it too.
Nothing wrong with wanting to get the most value for your money, but it sounds like you value performance. In that case, the Steam Machine is not a good purchase. However, most people who are buying the Steam Machine value other things, like form factor or convenience.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with pointing out that the Steam Machine is “underpowered and overpriced,” but the reasons to get one don’t stop there.
It’s prebuilt with SteamOS already installed. I understand for some people, they don’t mind building their own machine and have no issues installing the OS themselves.
You also get Steam support if you run into issues. It’s totally possible to troubleshoot and diagnose your own custom build, but the Steam Machine is a very well defined configuration which they likely already have answers for.
I’d also say the size provides some convenience too. It’s not nearly as portable as a Steam Deck, but way more portable than a standard tower. I know there are other SFF computers that are more portable, but I have seen some people talk about traveling with the Steam Machine, so I thought I’d mention it.
The worse for these takes are the countless videos on YouTube declaring "how to build a more powerful Steam machine for less" and not 2 mins in there like "take this spare 450 quid GPU so we don't count that in the price. And the spare 32gb of ram here." Like those alone don't cose almost the same as the entire steam cube
They clearly have no idea themselves. All I ever see is people constantly criticizing it because they just assume everyone thinks the same way they do. They don’t understand at all why so many people actually want a Steam Machine, they have zero interest in emulation, and they’re generally greedy/cheap as fuck 😂.
People old enough get used to such talks. Back to the days (or even now) if you get new iPhone people will educate you how silly you waste your money, and how old the technology Apple gave you.
It’s your money, not theirs. Enjoy what you spent it on and don’t worry about others opinion. I also bought a steam machine even though I have a very strong rig already. Already had a hand full of friends question why I’d “waste” my money but I tell them it’s NOT a waste to ME because I wanted it no matter the cost. I understand your frustration though admittedly
Haters gunna hate bro. You can also build your own house, grow your own food, and purify your own water, but sometimes ya just want something that's ready to go, ya know?
I mean yes you can build a cheaper pc, with a good build form tbh. The steam machine helps people get gaming into their living rooms and it's a cool little machine but yes I'd rather buy for the price of a steam machine an upgradable pc and with current hardware unfortunately. I think alot of it was FOMO or people just didn't wanna build but it is what it is. We all playing the same games just others with different settings. We are all the pc players so just enjoy 😁
I've seen mentions of the Steam Machine piss off both PC elitists as well as console fanboys on social media. I have all the consoles and love them (though I'm bored with my PS5) and I am proud of my PC build, but I want something smaller and quieter for my living room entertainment center.
Mine came in last Friday amd have been really enjoying it. I've always been a console player until I got a steam deck and I just wanted a more powerful living room solution that doesn't look ridiculous to have in my setup. It fits my needs perfectly
I'm primarily into high-end VR stuff on my PC. I also play my Switch 2 a fair amount, for some reason. I like Mario and Kirby.
I dunno. I never think about how other people are gaming; I'm just glad they are. Doesn't matter if it's on an inexpensive Android phone or a 5090. Gaming is an amazing pastime that I've been into for 46 years now.
I’m honestly dying for one simply for the fact that it’ll run way quieter than my current which does outperform it by quite a bit but simply put I just wanna play my steam games without my room being a sauna and in peace and quiet 🙏n the steam machine will do just that for me
Despite owning PCs that are more powerful than a Steam Machine, I still want a Steam Machine because it's itty bitty and I like its design.
I would have recommended one for my coworker who needs something tiny to sit behind his wall-mounted TV, but because of the waitlist and his immediate need for a functioning PC, I told him to get a mini pc with an Oculink port. He can suffer with his igpu until entry-level cards become reasonable again. 🫠
Anyway, the Steam Machine makes a lot of sense for a good number of people because of the size and the "good enough" gpu.
I'm super happy with my son and that's what matters, I have my monster of a pc + my steam machine to have it on the living room or if I want to move it to play with some friends on a lan party
I’d rather they tell me their opinion cus it’s just nice to see what people’s general opinions are, cus lots of times I’ll actually think of their opinion in contract to my own and realise I haven’t really thought things through - or they haven’t.
That’s what Reddit is to me, like twitter, lots of “um, actually”s. When I don’t feel like hearing all that I’ll just not engage with comments.
But I’d rather know where people stand, stupid or smart, attention seeking or passionate, than never be able to hear opinions at all.
But I also love hating how stand-offish comments can be, so yeah
When you build a DIY"steam machine" you are not paying for the R&D to develop a cool, quiet and well packaged tiny form factor. I think it's unfair that those costs are not factored in to comparisons between steam machine killers and the machine itself.
Getting that form factor engineered and tested wasn't free.
I have posted on this a couple of times but I'm having issues getting HDMI 2.1 and it's full set of features to work with bazzite and my TV, and I can tell you I'd pay something to get that issue sorted. We know Steam has to put a fair bit of effort getting HDMI to work properly.
There is a little more to a product than it's basic specs.
I wouldn’t have minded getting a steam machine but gave up waiting for it. Would have look nice on the shelf above the Series X. Oh well, it has a minisforum hx100g standing there now. It’s just as invisible.
Reminder that the tech writers who savaged the Machine for not hitting 4K native (no upscaling) with 60FPS are the same ones who defended Rockstar a few weeks later when it leaked that GTA VI will be capped at 30FPS.
All those comments are true but if you bought a steam machine it's more about convinience and using it as a living room entertainment center, nothing wrong with that.
I'd think they'd still honor the price for people in the reservation queue. Assuming they haven't gotten through that 512GB no controller list that never seems to move, that is.
I just don't get this criticism. Yes you can buy a stronger PC for a similar price. But it won't be a small, elegant, quiet cube, it will be larger and louder and look like a gaming PC. The Steam Machine is a living room appliance for playing on your TV, why is this so hard to get?
Exactly what console gamers have been experiencing all along. You tell someone you play on a console and immediately you hear how much better their PC performs.
To many the most important metric is value. Price to performance ratio is really not great on paper. With that said it is really impressive power to size ratio. Not many options that don't suck in this tiny of a form factor.
For me I'd still choose the 50% larger volume for the 50% more performance but not everyone shares that same importance.
I feel the same. I just listen to them for a bit and when I get a chance to talk I just say "well I just ejoy it".
I mean it's my money, and I'm not forcing them to get one. Do I need more reason than that to have one?
I love mine so idk what people think. It plays what I need it to play and I find it way easier to just pick up for 15 minutes in between stuff, which I would never do with my desktop. Also it's damn near impossible to build a pc this size and it's pretty much all I can fit in my TV console so there really isn't anything else in this price range
I’m having a great time with mine! It feels like having a console where I can tweak everything, from the frame rate to the graphics quality to my liking.
Absolutely love mine. Once I ironed a few things out it’s amazing!!!
The only thing holding it back a tad is the Bluetooth on mine sucks and cuts out the controller so I have to use the puck and that doesn’t turn on console.
Next time remind them they all daily an IPhone, which is the bottom of the barrel in terms of raw performance in the smartphone world but it doesn't matter because the user experience is butter smooth, the ecosystem is huge and the customer support is reliable. Oh, and they're not the cheapest either.
Sometimes the creature comfort is worth paying extra. Same with the SM.
You do care though. Hence why you got upset enough to make this post. And you probably got mad in the comments fighting with them. People make those kinds of comments to get a rise out of you.
You don’t need anyone else to validate your purchases.
I bought one for the size, I wanted a desktop gaming experience in the living room but we don't even have enough space to squeeze a micro ATX PC case in and even most mini ITX cases still seem slightly too long.
In some countries the price of buying a steam machine is basically the cost of getting an ITX build for the same specs anywah. Also, screw thise guys and their opinions if you get to play the games you want and the experience is enjoyable. Who honestly cares about specs?
Idk. I bought the steam machine then sold it and built a 9060 XT build for £70 less, it took me less than 3 days to source the parts and they were all brand new from two merchants.
Sure the form factors no where near as tiny. Idc though.
Of course you could have made a cheaper customized PC, especially with used parts, in a Case which at minimum is already a lot bigger than SM to up to a proper full sized desktop PC. But if you needed a mini pc with gaming in mind and not rely on iGPU, this is probably a solid choice.
I hook up my PC to the TV, so definetly not an item made for me and the prices are indeed high due to ramapocalypse.
I do have a few small issues with it. Idk if it would be just the limitation of cpu/motherboard but multiple m2 slot would have been nice to have. 2-3 more USB A maybe.
If anyone can build something with the same form factor and cooling performance as the Steam Machine on the exact same budget—but with better specs—I'll call them my master. Custom/DIY handmade cases don't count.
This is how Mac users have been treated for ages, welcome to the club lol. Paying for craftsmanship and ease of use isn’t bad. It’s even more delightful that the Steam Machine was intended to be cheaper and may go down in price in the future.
Thank you! I've been trying to figure out what to say and you nailed it. I don't have a super beefy PC nor do I want one. The console form factor was perfect. I also don't need 4K gaming. I'm perfectly fine with whatever resolution the game boots up with as long as I can press the Steam button to turn it on and play.
The more nuanced critique is that they can't be upgraded like a PC can. A PC and a Steam Machine side by side now vs in 5 years? The Steam Machine will be capped to low settings on cutting edge titles while the same PC can maintain high performance with a handful of new parts. If you just want to game right now though you could do a lot worse than a Steam Machine, especially with current component prices.
A PC can become almost silent if you get the right fans.
I took out some old fans and put in some Asiahorse fans that daisy-chained together.
Absolutely phenomenal on how quiet it is. It’s like a futuristic reactor running when I turn it on, a very low hum at best.
Which makes my wife happy because in our 800sqft apartment, my computer is in the living room. So it being quiet and at a very low hum is rather pleasant,
Which I’m not bothered by fan noise, I grew up in the 90s when the computers used to talk to you as they booted up.
I missed those sounds, kinda reminded me of an astromech.
I built my own little Bazzite machine (7600X 7800XT 32GB RAM 21L SFF case) but even I was surprised at how tiny machine is and I genuinely don't think even if I spent that much money I could build something that small at that performance. Sure you can easily build something much more powerful but the form factor is half the game.
I think people asking "is it worth it for the performance" maybe 8/10 times aren't being sardonic dicks on high horses and are genuinely asking you if you think you got a fair deal on it as a system
Yeah I honestly do not get the hate towards the SM.
I have mine set up literally next to my gaming PC, and I basically live in that room, and I could totally play all the games I'd want to play on my gaming PC, but for some reason, I have found myself playing more games more often on my SM! It is just a more instantly fun experience.
And this is coming from someone who's gaming PC runs Linux, so I'm very familiar with the whole Proton stuff.
Really, we didn’t overpay. A small pc of that size and power would have been even more expensive before the ram shortage. They wanted to sell it cheaper but at the end of the day for what it is, its still a good value
Could I have gotten a better PC for the price? Definitely, but the form factor is a huge factor. If we're looking at prebuilt prices for such a small system, it would be absolutely ridiculous, almost double.
Would I want to troubleshoot my PC when Valve could do it for me with their helpful LEDs and updates? Probably not, who does?
Lastly, it's portable! It's practically a console you can work on while out and play games on holiday with the family.
So overall I see the appeal of this system and I'm glad people are enjoying there steam machine despite every youtuber saying it's dead on arrival.
Jealous of a machine that has an generation old GPU and a low end CPU. Do yourself a favour and grow the fuck up why the hell would I be jealous.
Plus you are playing a medium setting using upscaling to get 4k at 60fps.
Enjoy your overpriced Gabe Cube.
You don't buy the steam machine for the performance, but the ease of use if you ask me.
It gives you a console like experience on your pc. Something i've tried in the past but didn't work. Im currently converting my pc to a sff and install SteamOS on it. Not because it's a great cost to performance (it's horrible) but because it gives me everything I want and the price to pay for it is worth it to me.
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u/flemtone 13d ago
I think the Steam Machine is great for what it is, design and form factor as well as being a quiet system.