Steam machine prices are live
(store.steampowered.com)
Steam Hardware$1050 for 512gb no controller
Fuck genAI.
I’m surprised people think $1,100 is expensive for a gaming PC, even outside the crazy memory market now.
Same with the $500 Commodore phone.
These are not the 2000s. The dollar has inflated. Technology is expensive. I think cheap junk has desensitized folks to that, but you pay an externalized cost for that stuff.
And of course salaries haven’t gone up so anyone can actually afford it, but… that’s a distinctly separate problem. They should have, as corporate revenue and profit per worker has certainly gone up.
Valve directly stated that they had to reconsider their pricing for the steam machine (i.e. increase it substantially more than originally intended) because of the obscenely inflated costs of components. This isn’t just about the steam machine being “too expensive,” the prices for it are quite literally far higher than they should be, albeit with it being for the most part out of Valve’s hands. It’s far more complicated than consumers being greedy and desensitized.
Source for Valve’s statement: https://www.pcmag.com/news/valve-confirms-steam-machine-will-cost-over-1000-heres-how-to-buy-one
Valve notes that the RAM crunch has impacted pricing. "The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of [the] Steam Machine is no longer viable," it says. "So the prices we're sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing. Or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as we've secured them over the past six months."
I wonder why they never named it the radiator?
Hol, hol, hol up... Commodore Phone? 🤔
Huh, I'll be damned!
https://commodore.net/callback/
Wow, my prediction was pretty close. 7 months ago, I predicted that the Steam Machine prices would be $800-$900 for the 512GB model, and $1,000-$1,200 for the 2TB model.
That was in the middle of memory prices going vertical, and I still got down voted to hell by people claiming that they were expecting $600-$800 tops...
Honestly, with how bad memory has become even over the last 6 months, and the increased brutality to the market done by tariffs and the oil supply shock, I'm actually surprised they were able to hit $1,049 for the base model.
The hard truth: It's an acceptable price within a piss-poor market. The harder truth: It will sell out extremely fast and won't restock likely for months.
When Framework announced their new Framework 13 Pro line laptops last month, a lot of people balked at the price. $1,500 was the cheapest pre-built model, and DIY was basically the same price, unless you already had some components. The pricing for higher tier specs easily climbed to $2,000+
Still, they sold out of every model for the first 6-8 batches in a few days, and barely 2 months later, they are sold out to batch 15, with an expected delivery in October.
The K-shaped market is further becoming a reality. The people that have the money to drop on stuff like this, are happily dropping it. And the people who can't afford it are getting left in the dust.
The scumbag oligarchs have created the cyberpunk dystopia, and most of us aren't going to be living up in the shiny skyscrapers...
That was in the middle of memory prices going vertical, and I still got down voted to hell by people claiming that they were expecting $600-$800 tops...
I was getting really tired of the people that kept insisting that Valve would take a loss on the Steam Machine despite their repeated statements that they weren't going to do so.
At least now they'll shut up about it, though a lot of them are probably the ones getting mad about the actual release price. But that's their fault for convincing themselves.
Nice accuracy and precision on those estimates dude. It's hard to get that shit right
I wonder how much it would've cost if we didn't have a dumb mother fucker in charge and greedy rich bastards weren't hoarding all the supplies
Let's pick Oct 2025 as our 'pre RAMpocalypse' time frame.
Data source: pangoly.com
(I removed BestBuy from the visuals because it is an extremely erratic dataset that basically bounces around the average of others, but makes the graph nearly unreadable)
16GB DDR5 Crucial RAM
Oct 2025: ~$50
Jun 2026: ~$275
2TB NVME M.2 Crucial SSD
Oct 2025: ~$140
Jun 2026: ~$300 (if you remove Adorama)
512GB NVME M.2 Kingston SSD
Oct 2025: ~$50
Jun 2026: ~$200
$275 - $50 = $225
$300 - $140 = $160
$225 + $160 = $385
Thus, the 2TB variant has an effective ~$385 upcharge due to the RAMpocalypse.
2TB variant MSRP is $1349, thus it would be ~$964 pre-RAMpocalypse, meaning that the RAMpocalypse % upcharge is ~39.9%
Do the same with the 512GB variant:
$275 - $50 = $225
$200 - $50 = $150
$225 + $150 = $375
$375 effective RAMpocalypse upcharge.
MSRP of 512GB variant is $1050, thus it would be ~$675 pre-RAMpocalypse, % upcharge of ~55.5%
Obviously this methodology is not perfectly correct, but I'd argue its quite reasonable 'napkin math'... you could maybe make a more exhaustive index of all prices of all brands of RAM/SSD in exact performance spec matches to be slightly more accurate, but yeah, roughly, the RAMpocalypse made the Steam Machine, about $380, or 40% to 55% more expensive than it otherwise would have been, depending on 2TB vs 512GB.
Also I guess we are here just assuming Valve is just selling these things basically at cost, neither subsidizing nor gouging the price, in all scenarios, which I am also confident is and always was basically the plan.
Also also, economist brain says:
~50% inflation in less than a year for pretty much an entire segment of the CPI is uh... pretty fucking bad, to use the 'formal' terminology.
it's not just the one dumb motherfucker in charge, it's practically the entire goddamn government. anyone who isn't vocally outspoken against AI companies and aiming to put a hard stop to their data centers is fully responsible for any and all harm they're currently causing (and the hardware inflation is such a minor part of said harm).
anyway abolish capitalism and send techbros to the guillotines
abolish capitalism
What does this mean, exactly?
you take capitalism
you place under guillotine
you manœuver guillotine
done
Reorganize our economic system into one in which the means of production, ie factories, farms, utilities etc, are collectively owned by the people instead of being owned by the rich elite who take all profit for themselves.
So, no mom and pop shops? No lemonade stands? No independent book stores? No family farms? Nobody allowed to sell homemade quilts or paintings?
How did you get that from what he said? Your example would still be the people who make the product owning the profits.
So, you're in favour of private ownership of the means of production?
I'm not sure, but let's live a little, try something new and see where it goes.
I play music and grow some mean artichokes. Like they have thorns and everything they're delicious. Willing to trade sass for butter
it’s practically the entire goddamn government.
Why don't you draw the logical conclusion, and realize it's the American population that elected the dumb motherfucker that is responsible for the entire administration. And the American population that also elected a congress that doesn't do anything!
For fucks sake, Americans elected an obvious psychopath for president, with an equally psychopathic vice president!!!
Edit:
I'm guessing the downvotes are Americans that are in denial, because the above claims are undeniable facts, except the motherfucker part, which is rhetoric I borrowed from the previous posts.
Yeah it’s 100% on the people and not the constant onslaught of propaganda; the fake checks and balances that were actually escape hatches for the wealthy; the terrible propped up candidates, like the time the US population very much wanted Bernie, and instead got Hillary; AIPAC and other lobbyists permeating the government; nepotism; the ramping up of police funding; the capture of all media by the right; manipulation via companies like Meta, who have been involved in regime change and genocide before…
This is simple cause and effect which seems to be lost on a lot of people. Trump and his dipshit admin are losing traction daily when it comes to voter support because they can no longer uphold the lies. We’re now at the point where they’re telling us the pond is clear when it’s green.
But the people are 100% to blame for this one. We only had a metric fuckton of literature and predictions dating back over a hundred years telling us this would happen and that capitalism would absolutely collapse and corrupt in this way.
Yeah it’s 100% on the people
Ultimately the responsibility is on the people. Who else would it be?
It’s on the people to break free of their chains and revolt, but they have to stop blaming each other first, and stop misidentifying symptoms as causes.
On that we agree.
Careful, lemmings hate it when you point out that voters and non voters are responsible for the government we have, or that it's largely a reflection of the culture and society we propagate.
Absolutely, Trump is a symptom not the disease, American society is sick. That doesn't mean all Americans are sick, there are good Americans. But enough Americans see psychopathy as an expression of freedom. So they are willing to vote for a clear psychopath. The disease in American society is like a cancer, it's not all cells in the body that are cancerous, but it's enough to make the society very very sick.
"American society" is sick. Which Dreamland country where oligarchs don't control the decisions are you from again?
The whole world is sick my guy.
Electoral politics means nothing when the entire issue is rooted in the very foundations of the country and capitalism as a whole. One dumbass being elected isn't an anomaly, he's an inevitable symptom of the problems that have been there for ages.
So are you one of those that claim that Republicans and Democrats are the same?
That having a Republican controlled congress with a Republican president is the same as if they were both Democrat?
because if you answer that with a yes, I think I'm just gonna block you.
Edit:
Really downvoted for saying the truth? Americans sure like their delusions and false equivalences. 🤮🤮🤮
Your comment assumes the people have real power. The parties are not the same but they also are in ways. This is the manufactured fight they shove us all into because it’s beneficial for maintaining their power and keeping us distracted. Both roads lead to a genocide continuing and they both allow the same people to maintain wealth. It’s not a blue vs red issue; it’s an us vs them one. It’s class war among the wealthy and the poor working class. You can vote blue if it helps you sleep at night, but just understand that it’s the equivalent of Maggie’s steering wheel in the Simpsons intro. The illusion changes on the surface but continues the same behind the scenes at the root, because they will never allow us to vote away their power.
Spoken like a true lib lmao
The American people are some of the most propagandised on Earth. Our education has been eroded over decades and we are steeped in a media sphere almost entirely owned by the wealthy which constantly discredits anything remotely socialist and tells almost nothing but lies about the outside world. People can't even usually protest in a serious way without losing their jobs, and therefore their healthcare and housing. When protesters burned down the police station in Minneapolis in 2020, that was ranked with a higher approval rating than nearly any politician elected at the time.
Even if a good candidate is elected, the power comes from the wealthy, they will subvert any thing progressive using their trillions of dollars and surveillance panopticon.
So a lot of Americans did vote for this horrific administration, but most people don't even know what they are voting for, and voter turnout is egregiously bad because most people don't feel they can even trust what they are told about politics.
So a lot of Americans did vote for this horrific administration, but most people don’t even know what they are voting for
And the second time around?
Even if a good candidate is elected, the power comes from the wealthy,
Exactly, taking your country back, should start with taxing the rich heavily, not with giving them even lower taxes. That would be a good start for Americans.
speculation says 750ish. which really would have been perfect
https://steamdeckhq.com/news/valve-steam-machine-original-price/
Yeah, this was my guess as well in a pre-ram crisis era.
Apparently Valve said to look at the Steam Deck price hike for a clue. So probably around $750 for the base model.
999 for 1 tb with controller.
*2TB, there's no 1TB model.
My guess would be like 600 or so for the base model.
LTT got a bit of a guess from Valve, the estimate is that the price was adjusted roughly in line with the recent Steam Deck increase.
Puts it about 850 or so for the base model if I'm estimating properly, but that is going from announcement to now, not all the way back to the beginning of all this mess.
Honestly surprised that they hit that price point with the way things are going. Still don't need one so I won't buy one, but about 1000 was what I was expecting
Same for me. I was expecting like $1200 for the base model which nobody should pay that much for such middling specs.
But still $1k is way more than I'd pay for an HTPC. I'd much rather the steam link approach and use streaming to my already nice and powerful desktop. I guess this is a nice thing to point newbies who want a box that should "just work" and don't already have something and don't want to build.
This is for people who don't have a nice and powerful desktop.
They didn't stop development of the link explicitly for people like you?
The steam link software is still being updated. It’s also open to a wider range of devices.
My wife uses it with our Apple TV and the gaming PCs on a different floor. Works flawlessly even at 4k over WiFi.
Yes I said that. I am glad it works for you I haven't used it for Apply TV but I do use it from my phone, and on my Deck to play Windows games that are incompatible.
Works great for both
I'm convinced hardly anybody on Lemmy has a functioning theory of mind.
I couldn’t put a finger on it for the longest time, thank you for verbalizing it. It really does read like “me” and there’s all there is. A universe of one
I feel seen :3
Obviously, no shit. I never meant to imply that this was targeted at me. But I know multiple people who already have a high end computer who would also like this for their living room.
If it was $600 like I'd originally hoped I'd be interested. I wasn't going to get one day 1, but I'd have picked one up once they're consistently in stock. But $1000 for mid specs is rough for anyone. Just like the steam controller, Valve has made another hyper niche device.
The price for everything went up. That "mix spec" PC you were going to build? That went up by the same amount, if not more by the time this is all over
You're still paying the premium for getting a low power parts in a small form factor. At half the price it's a lot easier to justify to someone who doesn't really care. But at almost twice the price that FPS per dollar difference is a lot higher.
This random ass power spec computer is going to kick the shit out of the steam machine. Again if size isn't a concern. And I'm sure actual oems have smaller pcs with less compromised performance.
I was thinking more like $1500
Good(?) news! You can spend almost that much for the 2TB with a controller.
reasonable given the current situation but not reasonable in general. I'll wait for prices to go down or my income to go up.
I didn't get a PS5 when it came out for the same reason. Now it's more expensive than it was at launch and my wages haven't changed.
Yeah, we saved for a week, maybe two I don't remember. I finally saved enough money and my wife bought it as a birthday present for me last year how long was that since release? A couple weeks right. Doesn't really matter, my friendly local public library has enough cool shit in it to do that I wasn't wanting for fun. Unless there's something specific that's ps5 exclusive you want to play, just get a ps4 and a library card. It kind of feels like blockbuster.
It's obviously not Valve's fault but man, that's expensive. Wasn't planning on getting one anyway, but it certainly makes me worried about what the Frame may cost.
Anyone here planning on getting one? I do wonder how much of a market there is for it at this price.
I'm considering getting one. I currently have a nearly silent computer working as a HTPC but I can't play games on it. I can get around that with Steam Link, but that isn't ideal. So, it would be an upgrade that would let me play games on my living room TV without needing to tie up the gaming computer.
The other thing it looks ideal for is a travel computer. Gaming laptops suck. Often they're absurdly expensive. When they're decently powerful, they're almost always obscenely loud. That fan whine really bothers me. Plus, they almost always have major Linux compatibility issues. The current laptop I'm using with Linux has weird driver quirks. Like, for example, to re-enable WiFi after it goes to sleep I need to wake it up from sleep, turn on airplane mode and then turn it off again. Only then will the WiFi work again. And getting an external monitor to work after sleep... ugh.
Also, I think it's easy to underestimate the value of what is effectively a Linux gaming console. I'm almost exclusively a PC gamer these days, but one thing I always appreciated about consoles is that you never had to ask "will this game run well on my console?" 99.9% of the time, if a game was released for a console, it was optimized for that console. Even when a game was multi-platform like say FIFA, each console got a build that was as good as possible for that console. For PC games, I think that means most developers will have a Gabecube and ensure all their games run as well as possible on it. The fact that it's Linux-first is also important to me. It means any drivers or software updates will be tested and optimized on Linux. It won't be an afterthought like it is most of the time.
So, this machine is nearly silent, runs Linux, and plays most of the games in my Steam library. It's expensive, but maybe it's worth it?
Is the frame more expensive hardware? Can we make any sort of reasonable determination on frame price now that we know the gabecubes cost?
At announcement I was hoping $700, which I don't see happening. Are we still expecting index pricing or is that not happening?
... Well the quest 3 is $600. They can't be too far from that can they? I mean I'd pay $1000 on the frame before I gave meta $600, but most people don't have the same hate for meta that I do.
The frame sure aint gonna be cheap hardware. 0% chance it can match the quest in price. But since it doesn't need as much storage I'm hoping it'll be 700-800. But I wouldn't blink if it's $1000. Valve just doesn't have the economies of scale Meta will.
I think that $600 is a subsidized price and not really useful for comparison. I would expect the Frame to be at least $1000. The hardware likely is more expensive overall since it also includes displays. They aren't high end screens but they still add significant cost. It is probably more expensive to assemble each Frame compared to the Steam Machine also. I wouldn't be surprised if the low end model is $1500+
That would absolutely kill it, at least for me. $700-800 sold. 1k, harder to justify to the wife, but probably still getting it. 1500, well my rift-s is still pretty good I guess.
I doubt $700-$800 was going to happen even before prices went crazy. Some time ago, someone at Valve stated they were trying to beat the Index's $1000 launch price in a way that implied that if the Frame had beaten that price, it wouldn't have done so by much. The Frame probably won't see the 40% price jump of the Steam Machine, but it won't be 0% either. I'm guessing it'll be somewhere around $1200, but that's just a hunch.
It's hard to say, but at least before the component shortages, I would have expected the Frame to be the more expensive device. After all, it has 2 included controllers, displays, batteries, tracking cameras etc. But maybe the lower memory and storage (if you go for the 256GB) along with its mobile SoC might help reduce the effects of the component crisis somewhat. I don't expect it to be below 1k€ though, personally.
Anyone here planning on getting one?
I might get a 2tb. If I don't game on it, I might swap the Linux version and use it for work. We have standardized in fully decked out System76 Meerkats with Proxmox VE serving jump hosts to manage different clients, so I can use it for that, or I can leverage the GPU and use it for datadump and log analysis. The point is, that it wouldn't be money wasted. Ideally, I'd like to play games on it though.
EDIT: Looking at the Gamer's Nexus review they state upfront that performance is limited, so I honestly don't see why I should get this over a Meerkat.
EDIT 2: Nevermind. The Meerkat has almost doubled in price and is Intel only now. So the Steam Machine is back on the menu.
That was a rollercoaster! lol
I really wanted one, but now it's an easy wait for at least some kind of sale.
Edited to add, just finished reading and watching a round of reviews and honestly don't think I even want one anymore.
I don't think they've ever had any sales for hardware. The only discounted hardware I've seen was the refurbished Deck. If you don't want specifically Valve-branded hardware, you're probably better off building a proper PC from comparable second-hand parts.
They have absolutely had sales on their hardware. I am pretty sure they've put deck on sale every year since it came out.
As for building my own, yeah I know, and I've considered it many times. But I absolutely dread working in small form factor, and this thing's size was one of the main appeals for me.
They've definitely had new steam decks on sale before. Mine was 20% off just last year.
That was before the RAM shortage. It's going to be at least 1 full year before RAM price start going down and they can offer discounts. Unless the AI bubble pops. And that'll have huge economic consequences.
The original Steam Controller and Steam Link went on sale for about 5€ each just before they were phased out. OG Steam Deck also had some smaller discounts.
I signed up to get one the moment I heard about the price. I like gaming on my PC, but I much prefer playing certain games on the big screen in the living room. Likewise, my partner has gotten used to the Steam Deck's UI so it'll be great to get her more into gaming.
The Steam Deck + Dock is what I currently use, but playing everything in 720p upscaled to 1080 (or just playing indie games) is pretty frustrating.
And I've used moonlight/steam streaming/even Nvidia gamestream (I have an Nvidia shield) - while they're fine solutions, I don't like the compression artifacts of streaming. Also annoys me that the game physically renders on my computer.
So, yeah, TL;DR I want a Steam Machine. I'm also excited to use desktop mode on occasion. And when the machine finally runs its course, it'll be a nice looking server for the closet!
I was going to but only existing steam accounts can pre order. I get it, but trying to go from console as a poor just feels impossible at this point.
Just take solace in your local library
Much as I would love an upgrade to my Steam Deck (which I mostly used docked), I can't justify more than $500, much less $1000. Glad I snagged the $400 LCD Steam Deck when I did. The Steam Deck price hikes prompted me to get a Switch 2, as I don't see any other new sub-$500 consoles coming out for a long, long time.
I genuinely can't see any reason to get one. Like... if you're a PC gamer with enough spare cash to get one, you can probably get a better gaming PC for the same money. If you're a console gamer, there's no reason to switch because the 512gb with no controller is almost double the cost of a five year old PS5, which has better specs and a controller, plus you'd have to buy all your games again, if they're even available on Steam (and also if they even work in Linux.) The only thing I think it could be be good for is as a budget gaming PC, but it's wildly over-priced for that.
Not Valve's fault of course, but yeah there's no way for me personally.
I did the promise with witnesses and all to get one at least in year 2 if it launches with Half life 3 just cause the memes I haven'teven player HL ever. If it drops to 600 or so I'm getting it.
I have been waiting for the price to see about replacing my Xbox series S as I degoogling/M$ as much as possible. I just want a streaming box that I can play light games on.
Steep as shit but still somehow cheaper than expected. We love AI bullshit destroying the entire hardware market hell yeah
Not Valve fault, but at this point i just feel lucky to have brought the Deck Oled before of all this ram shitshow.
410 CAD to go from 512GB to 2TB, and sadly that's pretty much just what a 2TB drive costs these days.
Yep. Storage prices are insane.
price shown in USD not including tax/vat
2 Years ago I got a cheap 2TB SATA SSD for 106euro. The same listing today stands at 230.
In January this year I got 12TB WD hdd off manufacturer site for 230 (25% discount off an official price of 330 or so). Today it is 560 and 25% discount would end up being higher than the cost of that HDD pre-AI bullshit. Thanks, ChatGPT...
If not for AI bros, we'd have Steam Machine around 700.
I think it does include two additional faceplates, including the walnut veneer
Steam Machine, like our other hardware products, is made up of many components that we source from manufacturers around the world. The price at which we sell our hardware is a direct result of the cost of these components. We felt like we had a good understanding of how those costs might change over time when we first started sourcing them for Steam Machine back in 2023. That understanding was born from the many years of data we all have about the evolution of PC hardware prices – primarily, that it tends to get cheaper over time as new technology arrives.
Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components. There are a variety of reasons, all of which are affecting hardware products everywhere. The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we're sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as we've secured them over the past 6 months.
Price wasn't the only thing impacted by all of this: availability was as well. There were periods where we found we couldn't source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this has impacted the number of units we've been able to produce for launch.
Also:
If I don't get a Steam Machine right away, is there anything else I can do?
Thanks to the openness of the PC platform, there are lots of options for devices that will allow you to run games natively or streamed to your TV. There are many PC sites and communities out there that can help you with that. For our part, we are continuing to work toward enabling SteamOS to be used on more hardware than just ours. In fact, with the newly-released SteamOS 3.8, you can run the same code and operating system as Steam Machine on your own living-room PC using whatever PC parts you want:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227 . Right now, only AMD GPUs are supported, but we're working on expanding support for the future.
It's hard to hold the steep price point against Valve when their communication looks like this.
The common Gabe W.
Steam Machine 512GB: $1,049 USD / 1,509 CAD / 1,039 EUR / 879 GBP / 1,609 AUD / 4,389 PLN
Bundle: Steam Machine 512GB + Steam Controller: $1,128 USD / 1,628 CAD / 1,108 EUR / 938 GBP / 1,728 AUD / 4,698 PLN
Steam Machine 2TB: $1,349 USD / 1,919 CAD / 1,359 EUR / 1,149 GBP / 2,109 AUD / 5,739 PLN
Bundle: Steam Machine 2TB + Steam Controller: $1,428 USD / 2,038 CAD / 1,428 EUR / 1,208 GBP / 2,228 AUD / 6,048 PLN
Both the Steam Machine 2TB and 2TB bundle options come with two additional faceplates: red fabric, and solid walnut.
To me, at this point it makes no sense to go with 512gb model, if you pay already that much money. The limitations of 512 is too extreme in my opinion.
You can always replace the storage yourself. A 2TB NVMe doesnt even cost $300 (most are around $250), and if you swapped it yourself, you'd have a 512 GB one to stick into an enclosure and use as a portable hard drive.
And you don't even have to do that immediately. 512 GB is plenty to start. Especially since not everyone plays enormous AAA games with hundreds of mods. You can upgrade at any time.
And if you get the controller bundle, you save $20 over buying it separately.
You also save 9 months of waiting on the pre-order list but neither is a good selling point.
My guess is part of the reason for the controller shortages is they reserved a bunch to do these bundles.
💯
as a not that big a gamer, i was thinking of the Steamdeck to replace my aging Minisforum "desktop".
I had originally thought of the Framework
https://frame.work/desktop
with 64GB/2TB
and then move move the Minisforum to some LAN self hosting work (Jellyfin etc) but it has nothing for HDDs aside from external USB3, (and 1x internal NVME and 2x internal SSD) which i am led to believe is problematic
i currently just run a HDD on the router and use Kodi via a Nvidia box to a dumb TV.
I'd love to hear opinions from those with more insight
I run Linux mint on the Minisforum
Eeesh too rich for me, but happy for anyone that gets one!
It's more expensive than we all would hope, but not unreasonably so given the economic situation.
That's gonna be a no for me dawg.
I blame the AI bubble memory shortage for making this over $1,000 USD.
That's surprisingly reasonable
Although we now live in a world where hardware can be reasonably priced and still too fucking expensive for what it is at the same time.
Yup, the times are a changing.
I'm hunkering down with the hardware I have (midrange 2021 PC, Steam Deck, base PS5, Switch 2) and hoping I'll be able play the games I really want to for the next 10 years.
Now tell me what I care about....the Steam Frame!!
I look forward to see this reviewed, 28 Compute Units on the GPU is below the Radeon RX 9060 XT that has 32.
Hopefully it isn't too limited in other aspects like RAM bandwidth.
But on the other hand an RX 9060 XT alone is almost half the price of this entire unit (EU price). So if it can perform about as fast as that, it seems like a pretty good deal.
Edit:
Saw the Gamers Nexus review, and I'm impressed with how small it is, it's also very power efficient. But those are not the things I'm looking for in a gaming system. And I am not impressed with the performance/price ratio.
The steam machine is based on RDNA 3 aka the RX 7000 series, and we knew it was heavily underclocked. Even thinking about the 9060 xt was a lofty expectation.
The problem is that you can build a way faster system yourself for the same money. And that can be easily upgraded later.
These things are supposed to be relatively cheap for the hardware when they come out.
And this only performs like an RX 6600XT at best. Which is a 5 year old lower mid range GPU.
It's not that it doesn't have its merits, it's a cool little box, and probably good enough for most games at 1080p.
But IMO it is a bit under-powered for the price.
Expensive, but cheaper than I expected. Even at its original price point it probably would have been more than I was willing to pay.
They lost me at that price point, sadly. And I was really looking forward to this thing launching.
Valve makes damn good products, I'm rocking a Steam Deck and a SC in my personal collection, and love them both.
But my next PC upgrade was looking to be just that... a power upgrade. That was the main focus.
The small form factor, the excellent presentation, and the Valve quality that we all know this is going to have... they would have been nice. But right now I'm looking for equal or better than SM performance regardless of form factor, and I have my sights set on several possible options to get that, all of which are at least a couple of hundred dollars cheaper. Sorry Gabe.
Yeah I was thinking of just grabbing a steam machine for my next box instead of a framework or something. If this pricing isn't stable for the next, idk, decade? Probably not.
I didn't even realize they launched today until I saw the GamersNexus review
It was a surprise drop, as far as I know. We knew it would be soon due to rumors.
I got the dBrand Companion Cube notification just after midnight.
https://dbrand.com/shop/limited-edition/companion-cube
So I was HOPING today!
Edit
dBrand just sent this video too...
https://youtu.be/-AAS1WH6GRk
(HL3 tease at the end)
I don't think it's "launched" yet since they're doing a raffle system:
Join the list any time before June 25th at 10 a.m. PT. On that date, the list will be closed and randomized, and you will receive an email with your results shortly after.
Launched in the sense that the review embargo is lifted, I suppose.
Even at double the cost of a normal console, once you factor in the cost of games it comes out ahead. And hopefully the RAMpocalypse will end eventually.
I don't think that's true anymore. Going all digital, even on Nintendo's eShop, most third party games are dirty cheap during sales which happen quite frequently. Most games I've looked at go on sale every other month. Of course, they are still stingy as fuck with their first party stuff.
Don't worry, if it doesnt, some other much worse *-pocalypse will make it all moot!
Yeah, but that ROI window is fairly long
Only if you've never bought a game on Steam before
Eh, even PSN has games on sale or bundled with their subscription. And Steam sales aren't as good as they used to be.
That's not to say that games aren't still cheaper on PC, just not as much as you'd thinj nowadays
Anyone know if I can upgrade the storage? I have a 1 TB nvme stick in on old laptop I could slap in there, not sure if I can though.
Apparently supports NVMe 2230 or 2280 sizes. You will have to remove the 512 though.
there's also a micro sd card slot, for less demanding storage needs
Could always just plug in an external drive via USB too, though I have no idea how slow that would be nowadays
Yup, yup, and a USB-C.
I grabbed one of these for the Steam Deck:
https://www.kingston.com/en/external-ssd/xs2000-external-usb-c-solid-state-drive?capacity=2tb
There's 2TB NVME drives on Amazon for less than the price delta. Worth it
Looks like one nvme slot
First - THANK YOU for the heads up! I was hoping when I got the dBrand Companion Cube notification just after midnight.
https://dbrand.com/shop/limited-edition/companion-cube
Second - Anyone notice the controller bundles save you $20 over buying the controller individually? Not so sad my controller reservation is AWOL.
When they priced the controller at $99 I immediately suspected it would be part of a bundle deal for "a $99 value!"
Also WOW that cube is so much more than just a dbrand skin. That's amazing.
dBrand just sent this video too...
https://youtu.be/-AAS1WH6GRk
(HL3 tease at the end)
"I am sure this overpriced plastic trinket will fill the meaningless void in your finite life" 🤣
Shit I think I may need to go play through the Portal games again.
(HL3 tease at the end)
ALSO WHAT
Pretty sure it's a troll, no way Valve would let a 3rd party announce that.
Oooooo that enclosure is sick
dBrand just sent this video too...
https://youtu.be/-AAS1WH6GRk
(HL3 tease at the end)
For that kind of money, I may end up building my own running on Bazzite. That's not to say I don't like it, it looks bad-ass, but 1K+ for that hardware is a bit much. I'm thinking I can build something a bit more powerful for 100 or 200 dollars less.
Or just run SteamOS directly, why bother with bazzite
Is it actually available in a form you can throw on any old PC yet?
Starting with 3.8+ you will be. Their latest blog post discusses it
Nice, I found the doc, thanks!
Sure, that would work too, I guess.
I really wanted one, but at this price point I can build a considerably more capable mATX PC. If I had a living room screen I might consider it, but as a pure gaming PC it doesn't work for me.
The problem is that it can still be used as a PC. In this case they cannot sell it at a loss and expect to make up for it with their 30% cut on steam games, because other people might buy it as their cheap office PC without ever using steam.
I'm sad (but not surprised) it's that expensive because I would have jumped on it at 700€, at the same time it encourages me to try and find individual parts for a custom build at the same price with greater theoretical performance
You can probably build a DDR4 system that is a bit cheaper with better performance. It will be even easier if you pick some used components.
Edit: See this screenshot from a gamernexus video on the steam machine. Pricing is pretty much on par, with just a $70 price difference.
Not arguing that you can get slightly better performance for a slightly lower price, but that's a substantially larger machine. The Steam Machine is little bigger than its controller in any dimension and easy to hide on a shelf; that Q300L is definitely a small desktop. It has niceties like HDMI CEC, so that it can wake your TV when you start it up from its controller. And it's whisper-quiet.
$70 extra for a really living-room ready games machine does not seem at all unreasonable to me, plus it turns up ready-assembled. If I had to replace my gaming desktop, it doesn't seem unreasonable. Replacing my gaming desktop would cost about twice what I originally paid for the damned thing as well, but that's a different matter.
$71 is honestly not that much of a premium once you consider your time putting this together, setting it up, and then constantly having to update becomes your problem
True. For example, not having to worry about drivers, UEFI updates and linux compatibility is a big win.
It's too expensive, it's just not a good idea for them to have released this. Honestly, they probably should have delayed it for 1-2 years or likely even cancelled it outright.
What they should have done is made a new Steam Link with more capable hardware for cheap. That would have sold like hotcakes.
People don't want to pay $1050 USD for 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. People can't afford to be casually dropping money like that in this economy.
I"m not sure where you are getting this from, but there's absolutely no demand, and I mean none at all, for another Steam Link hardware.
You can run some form of Steam Link on basically anything you can hook up to a TV (or the TV itself).
Sure, and how many of those devices that you hook up to a TV can handle Steam Link at 4K 120 FPS?
Your TV OS may or may not be able to, but if your TV can't then you have basically no other options. The original Steam Link can't, The NVIDIA Shield can't, the Fire TV Stick/Fire TV Cube can't, the Roku can't, the Apple TV 4K can't, none of them can do Steam Link at 4K 120 FPS. An HTPC can, but good luck with HDMI-CEC on that.
I'm not out of touch for thinking 4K at high refresh rates would be nice to have.
I don’t think the target was the same people that would buy a link, the link is for someone that already has a pc. Meanwhile I think the steam machine was meant to compete with the consoles and gather new users into the steam ecosystem and then the price got hammered and took it out of that position.
Sure, I didn't mean that it's a standalone console.
However, at $1050 USD, there's many people who won't be buying this standalone console either.
It would have made more sense to release both at the same time, that way people who are turned off by the $1050 USD (or more) price tag would at least have something they could buy from Valve instead.
Hell, I'd buy a new Steam Link that supports H265 and isn't capped to 1080p at 60 FPS.
I agree fully.
What they should have done is made a new Steam Link with more capable hardware for cheap. That would have sold like hotcakes.
The Steam Link was pretty much a dumb terminal for VNC. In what way does it need to have "more capable hardware?"
The Steam Link did not have H265 supported in streaming settings IIRC.
The Steam Link was capped to 1080p at 60 FPS.
Those are some serious hardware limitations.
They could have easily refreshed it at the time.
I'm not sure anybody really cares about the streaming codec as long as it works with good quality.
But fair enough: I agree it would be nice to have a "Steam Link 2" that could do 4K60 (or better) and (as pointed out in a Machine review video I just watched) support HDMI CEC.
(Maybe some third-party company should do it and name it the "Missing Link," LOL)
Wanted to switch from console but can't pre order because I haven't ordered anything from steam prior to April 27th. At this point I'm just going to stop gaming.
That's unfortunately in place to stop scalpers. Realistically, once demand dies down, you'll be able to order anonymously/with a new account like most pre-existing steam Hardware.
It really does make sense. I wish there could be a line for console ascenders but obviously that's not plausible without scalpers hopping in.
if you are a bit more flexible in the formfactor, you can build a small pc for the budget.
The biggest downside would be the missing HDMI CEC
Shit. Maybe try to find a free game to add to your library? That might do it, might not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sad, but expected
Market is so screwed right now anyway, but at that price you could just build a significantly beefier PC with used parts.
Buying used is cheaper than new?!
tbf you can build a more powerful version with new parts for about $100 less.
My point is that if you're gonna drop 1k anyway, you might as well get something much punchier.
The size of it could be a selling point for some people. I might have to move to Europe in the future and having a computer that can fit in my backpack would be hecking amazing. It would probably go in my suitcase though.
I also knew a guy that worked as an IT consultant and would stay in a city for no more than two years at a time for his work before packing everything up and moving on to the next one. Lots of moving around for him. I'm sure he's on the list rn.
I would really like to have one. But I own a XBOX Series X and realistically that's fine for me to use. hardware wise, the Steam Machine is not even a big update.
I'll wait 8 years for the next gen Steam Machine.
DOA
I was wrong. People told me weeks ago the cheapest options with smallest drive and without controller will be at least 1k priced. I really did not think this would happen... but here we are. Steam Machine is basically dead on arrival, this hurts.
Is there another option that’s cheaper for someone who wants this form factor and to not fuck around building a PC and wants to move away from consoles?
It’s not like it’s expensive in a vacuum. Gaming is just expensive these days.
I think you are forgetting what the goal is here.
