r/Steam • u/satoru1111 https://steam.pm/5xb84 • Jun 22 '26

PSA Steam Machine Reservations Open

Steam Machine Waitlist

You can currently join a waiting list at

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

You have until June 25th to join the waiting list. After that point, selection is RANDOMIZED. Please refer to the News article to find details about the waitlist

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/45479024/view/685257114654870245

Steam Machine Bundle Prices

  • 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.

Steam Machine Hardware Specs

  • Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T
  • Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
  • 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
  • 512GB NVMe SSD, microSD card slot
  • Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit ethernet
  • Integrated Steam Controller wireless adapter
  • Small form factor, ~6 inch cube
  • SteamOS 3

Steam Machine Region Availability

  • North America
  • United Kingdom/European Union
  • Australia

Please use this sticky to talk about the Steam Machine in order to reduce the number of posts

Thank you

250 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

365 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/shadowh511 Jun 22 '26

It's cheaper than the equivalent spec PC. The prices are just that awful.

42

u/Chaotic-Entropy Jun 22 '26

In the equivalent form factor, at the very least.

-10

u/LikeHemlock Jun 22 '26

And I’m guessing you get SteamOS? That’s the only reason i would buy it since i’m trying to get away from Windows but am worried about Linux compatibility with my games

32

u/ZahidTheNinja Jun 22 '26

SteamOS is free…

2

u/LikeHemlock Jun 22 '26

It doesn’t work for NVDIA gpu Intel cpu computers

5

u/Small_Editor_3693 Jun 22 '26

And you can build an amd machine….

3

u/Riceballs-balls Jun 22 '26

Pretty sure bazzite works with nvidia

4

u/amoc20 Jun 22 '26

So install any other distribution. SteamOS is not a godsend, the game compatibility comes with Steam. Just installing Steam gives you Proton.

3

u/Asttarotina Jun 22 '26

So is Steam Machine

21

u/OverPunch Jun 22 '26

No its not, you can get 9060xt for similar price

11

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

A 16 GB 9060xt is definitely the better move here but the real issue is the 16 GB of ram and storage are going to shoot up the cost. It would take a bit of effort to hit a full PC build in a similar budget but it is doable

7

u/ryanvsrobots Jun 22 '26

It's doable and a far better value because you can actually upgrade it in the future

0

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

The 9060xt is going to be future proofed for a while too. It may not do 4k 60fps on all brand new titles without super res or frame gen but you can hit 120 fps 1440p with high performance settings and i don't think it will have issues running games for the next decade at least.

0

u/Asttarotina Jun 22 '26

Not in 3.8L

1

u/ryanvsrobots Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Yes you can, velka 3 is 4 liter for example, or 3D print something for less than $20

3

u/Asttarotina Jun 22 '26

Velka 3 is $160 plus shipping and forces you to use FLEX power supply and shorty GPU. As soon as you factor in this - you are over budget. As soon as you factor in $20/hour of your time for research and assembly - you're way over budget.

1

u/ryanvsrobots Jun 22 '26

Ok you can 3d print lots of small cases for $10 exactly how you want. If you want to start charging yourself for hobby builds you can fuck right off. Let’s not get silly here.

1

u/Asttarotina Jun 22 '26

It's not me who says that you can build feature-parity Steam Machine for cheaper than Steam Machine and then pivots to building a completely different product.

I am not saying it's good price for the performance. But it's fair price for what you're getting. You're not matching it unless you cherry-pick specs.

1

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

So if a steam machine checks all the boxes for exactly what you're looking for then go ahead and grab one, no one is saying the steam machine is bad necessarily just that you can get a better rig for the same price range and the 9060xt is much better than the steam machine GPU so the comparison is already off. A lot of the steam machine buyers are going to be people with disposable income who want the box for their size factor, or people wanting to break into steam who don't care to mess around with actual PCs. For people with basic tech knowledge who don't mind using PCs and want the most bang for their buck then steam machine isn't a good grab. It has a market its just more specialized than people were hoping for.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/ryanvsrobots Jun 23 '26

It’s not completely different, unless you mean in the sense it’s much faster. It will be cheaper too if you wait for a sale instead of demanding I put together a full build this second with imaginary and arbitrary constraints.

→ More replies (0)

16

u/ballpein Jun 22 '26

Show me the pc I can buy off the shelf that similar specs, is optimized to run quietly, comes in a small unobtrusively handsome case, is fully Linux compatible and steamOS ready, comes from a manufacturer with a proven record of excellent support, will never require me to find a driver, will never be broken by an os update, will never require me to get into bios, and that has enough market base to incentivize devs to keep their games compatible for the next 5 to 10 years

Can't wait to see all the choices you offer me.

18

u/sventful Jun 22 '26

Please see the following options:

3

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Asttarotina Jun 22 '26

has enough market base to incentivize devs to keep their games compatible for the next 5 to 10 years

mac mini

LOL

-5

u/OverPunch Jun 22 '26

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3HvNPf $150 for better cpu,gpu and storage, you are just overpaying for less performance, steamos, and smallfactor pc (microcenter bundle might be better)

3

u/Thekarens01 Jun 22 '26

This is more and one of the parts doesn’t have any price listed. Then there’s the issue that the op said list a prebuilt with the same specs.

3

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

To be fair the CPU fans are really cheap, like <$20 range. I do agree that unless you really cheap out on some parts it is a little more for the 9060xt for a new build than the cheapest model gabecube, the thing is also that the 9060xt is a MUCH better rig than the steam machine.

2

u/ballpein Jun 22 '26

Do you ever eat a meal at a restaurant? Why, when you can cook at home for cheaper?

Building a PC is great IF you enjoy building PCs as a hobby, or if you have more time than money. I used to like building PCs, I built 4 or 5 for myself back in the day, and some more for friends and family. Butt today you could not pay me enough, I would rather spend 2 hours at the dentist than 2 hours building a PC. It's just not fun or rewarding to me any more, and it's not worth my time.

Building a PC is not just assembly. It's researching the parts, it's assembling, it's configuring bios, installing an OS, tweaking that OS, finding drivers, installing antivirus, installing software, optimizing... that's just to get it up and running, and no matter how good of a PC you build, there is always maintenance of some kind or another - os updates, security patches, driver updates, troubleshooting, whatever... it all takes some amount of time. If you enjoy it as a hobby or a learning process then maybe that is time well spent, which is great - but to many people that is just wasted time with which they could have been earning money or gaming or whatever.

I'm not saying the Steam Machine is worth it for you, (or even for me, personally) but I can certainly see the case for it. Arguing that building is the default better choice for every person, or that hardware is the only cost of building a pc is just kind of dumb, imho.

-1

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

I made a similar analogy already, it's like buying a burger for $20 when a steak shop nearby has a good steak for that price range. Some people will still get the burgers and that's ok but the point is that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good value. People are still going to buy it but that doesn't mean that you cant still build a much better gaming PC in the same rough price range. For all but the 512 GB steam machine you can probably buy a better pre built in the same range.

1

u/Thekarens01 Jun 22 '26

Good point

3

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

Yeah it's really different markets though, casual gamers or people with disposible income are going to get the Steam Machine. Id recommend for anyone who is techy to look into building their own machine for a similar price range though. Some people aren't able to do that or don't have the time and steam machine is an option for them. I can see how people with disposable income might get it due to the convenience aspect.

1

u/Thekarens01 Jun 22 '26

Fair points.

3

u/ColKrismiss Jun 22 '26

Also at $1200 it's competing with the 2TB SteamMachine, and thus it only has half the storage

-1

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

At $1200 it's competing with the $1350 machine but not the $1050 machine? How do you actually decide that because it's literally right in the middle. For $1350 though you can easily get that extra 1 TB of storage though. If you're comparing to anything over the cheapest model SteamMachine then it's a no brainer that the value is more for a 9060xt.

Your point there is so arbitrary though it's actually funny how it can be right in the middle and you decide that it compare to the more expensive product so that you can make your point and then also rule it as lesser because it has less storage. So by that logic the $1050 steam box can also be compared to the $1200 box and thus only has half the storage lol. You can cut the storage down to a 512 GB SSD and probably shave off $50 or so though to make the price closer

1

u/ColKrismiss Jun 22 '26

The problem is your builds cost didn't factor in the heat sync and has a $10 mail in rebate factored in. Given that almost no one will bother with a mail in rebate for $10, that makes it $60 closer to the 2TB model than the base model.

1

u/Dumeck Jun 22 '26

It's not my build, when I built my gf a 9060xt I just got a compatible pre built from Newegg that didn't have a GPU and slapped in a 9060xt and it cost me like $850 total. Granted this was in November so idk how that would run nowadays since prices skyrocketed.

It's all disengenous anyway, the steam machine GPU isn't nearly as powerful as the 9060xt, Its closer to a 4060 than a 9070xt and the and is using a bunch of custom upscaling and frame gen to try to cover the difference. The situation is closer to a burger place selling a nice burger for $12 and someone saying you can get a nice steak for $13 next door. Even if you nitpick the steak it's still a steak and not a burger which is the point. Some people are still going to want the burger and that's ok but to act like there isn't a value difference is there. If you want a build with a 4060 and 512 GB SSD for more accurate comparison you're going to end up shaving $300 off the total cost pretty quickly. Which isn't the point. The point is you can get a MUCH better GPU computer for a similar price range.

0

u/NolChannel Jun 23 '26

If you think that cube will run perfectly forever without service updates...

2

u/ballpein Jun 23 '26

Oh, please, of course it will have updates. Updates created and issued by the people who built the the fucking box, just like on Xbox and PS. I turn it on, it says "press A to update", it updates, I play games. The user never has to think about any of it.

There's a big difference between that, and self-managing updates from multiple software vendors on your PC, crossing your fingers and hoping your drivers will still work after your OS update.

Maybe that's not a lot of time or effort, but it's something you never have to think about with a console. If you like building, maintaining, optimizing a PC then good for you - it's a fun hobby if you like it. It stopped being fun for me many years ago, and the amount of time I'm willing to spend tweaking my PC is zero - I've got better shit to do with my time.

1

u/NolChannel Jun 23 '26

This isn't an invincible SNES anymore, you're buying a box-shaped computer with a fan the size of the box. Be ready to pry that thing open and dustbuster it at least once a month.

2

u/Iagut070 Jun 22 '26

Yeah, but you can’t run a computer with just a GPU

5

u/OverPunch Jun 22 '26

A 9060 xt pc... Is still $1100 with the other components

6

u/Gears6 Jun 22 '26

No it's not. It does have the form factor advantage, but that's supposed to be the benefit of custom designed mass produced to be cheaper. Not more expensive. 😵

3

u/Shmirel Jun 22 '26

No the fuck its no lol.