So at long last, we're getting the real details on Valve's living-room
PC "Steam Machine": more precisely, what hardware it uses, and how
much it costs.
So at long last, we're getting the real details on Valve's living-room
PC "Steam Machine": more precisely, what hardware it uses, and how
much it costs.
Specs-wise, it's not that surprising. It's basically an up-specced
SteamDeck, using an AMD Zen4CPU (6 core, up to 4.8GHz), 16GB DDR 5
RAM, 8GB VRAM, and M.2 SSD storage (512 or 2TB options available). Not
a weak machine but not all that powerful either; just a tad over entry
level, but still you can get reasonable framerates on most games if
you tune the graphics setting a bit.
The 512GB model costs $1049 USD, and the 2TB model ups that to $1349.
The controller costs extra too (add another $79 to each price if you
get it bundled with the controller).
Is it worth it? Honestly, I'd say no. It's hard to do
apples-to-oranges comparisons, and the current fucked up hardware
prices make that difficult to do anyway, but the SteamMachine seems to
be $200 more expensive than similarly specced rigs. More, its much
more custom, lacks easy upgradability, and isn't running Windows. And
while the latter is in some respects an advantage (you can quite
easily get by with just Linux), for a lot of people they want or need
the Microsoft OS, and that lack is a concern.
[You can probably get Windows running on Steam Machine, but
you'd need to pay for the license separately... and source
all the drivers on your own. Easy for probably everybody
here, but most people want a more turn-key solution.]
Valve has been positioning this as a living-room PC, a device you hook
up to your TV and play games on the couch. E.g., as a console.
Certainly it outperforms modern competitors (it's estimated it's
roughly 20% faster than a Playstation 5) but only marginally... and
for all SteamOS/Linux is great, it's still a PC (and all the technical headaches that entails). When compared to a console, it's still more expensive and more trouble to use.
So I'm not really sure who this machine is designed for. I mean, Valve fan-boys and tech-enthusiasts, sure. But I can't see this flying off
the shelves and taking the market by storm. It's just not fast enough
or better enough than its competitors --be it more traditional PCs or consoles-- that it would seem a reasonable purchase. If it were
cheaper, then maybe... but $1200 is a bit steep for what you get.
[And all that ignores the fact that, if the Steam Machine
follows the course set by other Valve hardware offerings,
good luck actually getting your hands on one. It may be
months before you can actually buy it. Meanwhile, regular
PCs are on store shelves.]
If you were in the market for a new gaming PC, would the SteamMachine
attract you, or would you go with a more traditional setup?
* more details https://www.digitalfoundry.net/reviews/steam-machine-beautiful-hardware-console-performance-at-a-price
So at long last, we're getting the real details on Valve's living-room
PC "Steam Machine": more precisely, what hardware it uses, and how
much it costs.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/starting-with-the-steamos-3-8-release-you-can-put-together-your-own-steam-machine-using-whatever-pc-parts-you-want.1557589/page-2
At Mon, 22 Jun 2026 14:26:19 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
So at long last, we're getting the real details on Valve's living-room
PC "Steam Machine": more precisely, what hardware it uses, and how
much it costs.
Specs-wise, it's not that surprising. It's basically an up-specced
SteamDeck, using an AMD Zen4CPU (6 core, up to 4.8GHz), 16GB DDR 5
RAM, 8GB VRAM, and M.2 SSD storage (512 or 2TB options available). Not
a weak machine but not all that powerful either; just a tad over entry
level, but still you can get reasonable framerates on most games if
you tune the graphics setting a bit.
The 512GB model costs $1049 USD, and the 2TB model ups that to $1349.
The controller costs extra too (add another $79 to each price if you
get it bundled with the controller).
Is it worth it? Honestly, I'd say no. It's hard to do
apples-to-oranges comparisons, and the current fucked up hardware
prices make that difficult to do anyway, but the SteamMachine seems to
be $200 more expensive than similarly specced rigs. More, its much
more custom, lacks easy upgradability, and isn't running Windows. And
while the latter is in some respects an advantage (you can quite
easily get by with just Linux), for a lot of people they want or need
the Microsoft OS, and that lack is a concern.
[You can probably get Windows running on Steam Machine, but
you'd need to pay for the license separately... and source
all the drivers on your own. Easy for probably everybody
here, but most people want a more turn-key solution.]
Valve has been positioning this as a living-room PC, a device you hook
up to your TV and play games on the couch. E.g., as a console.
Certainly it outperforms modern competitors (it's estimated it's
roughly 20% faster than a Playstation 5) but only marginally... and
for all SteamOS/Linux is great, it's still a PC (and all the technical
headaches that entails). When compared to a console, it's still more
expensive and more trouble to use.
So I'm not really sure who this machine is designed for. I mean, Valve
fan-boys and tech-enthusiasts, sure. But I can't see this flying off
the shelves and taking the market by storm. It's just not fast enough
or better enough than its competitors --be it more traditional PCs or
consoles-- that it would seem a reasonable purchase. If it were
cheaper, then maybe... but $1200 is a bit steep for what you get.
[And all that ignores the fact that, if the Steam Machine
follows the course set by other Valve hardware offerings,
good luck actually getting your hands on one. It may be
months before you can actually buy it. Meanwhile, regular
PCs are on store shelves.]
If you were in the market for a new gaming PC, would the SteamMachine
attract you, or would you go with a more traditional setup?
* more details
https://www.digitalfoundry.net/reviews/steam-machine-beautiful-hardware-console-performance-at-a-price
Yet: For people who are sick-and-tired of dealing with Windows,
this is a turnkey Linux solution that will run a lot of Windows
games.
(I could say more about it, but I don't want to get evangelical...)
Valve is making some inroads; after mostly being AMD-only (what with
that being the chipset used on their SteamDeck platform), they are
finally adding better support for Intel chipsets to SteamOS. It's
possible they may one day convince nvidia to write decent native
drivers for Linux too. But we aren't there yet.
vallor wrote:[ regarding the Steam Machine ]
Yet: For people who are sick-and-tired of dealing with Windows,
this is a turnkey Linux solution that will run a lot of Windows
games.
(I could say more about it, but I don't want to get evangelical...)
Go ahead and try it out and get back to me, ok?
At Tue, 23 Jun 2026 10:47:43 -0600, phoenix <j63840576@gmail.com> wrote:
vallor wrote:[ regarding the Steam Machine ]
Yet: For people who are sick-and-tired of dealing with Windows,Go ahead and try it out and get back to me, ok?
this is a turnkey Linux solution that will run a lot of Windows
games.
(I could say more about it, but I don't want to get evangelical...)
But I already have a turnkey Linux system.
When you buy from System76, they don't abandon you -- you can
email them with troubles.
I had an issue with the TOSLink on this box until I
realized it was served by their special daughterboard,
via (I think, not sure, a USB link.)
So I switched to the USB input on my bookshelf speaker AMP,
and that worked fine.
All that equipment is sitting in the corner now, because my
new monitor has speakers that sound quite good, and I can talk
to it through SPDIF-ish audio on the DisplayPort connection.
I'll append the output of pw-top at the end of this message,
so that replies don't quote it.
| Sysop: | DaiTengu |
|---|---|
| Location: | Appleton, WI |
| Users: | 1,124 |
| Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
| Uptime: | 20:42:05 |
| Calls: | 14,391 |
| Files: | 186,389 |
| D/L today: |
2,606 files (568M bytes) |
| Messages: | 2,544,878 |
| Posted today: | 1 |