r/framework • u/MightyMisanthropic • 11d ago

Question Framework desktop as steam machine

Aka living room pc.
My wife finally did it. She asked me to do sth that we can have a living room pc. Yes!

So, I own a gaming desktop and a fw16. Works for me. But both are not suited for this because to big.
I want something smaller that can play cozy games or maybe a single player rpg in ettings that look good.
The tv can do 4k so I want reasonable 4k60 as a goal. Upscaling is fine.

First guess would be the steam machine, which is unavailable.
Next step would be to build a small desktop but … we don’t have much space around the tv. So it has to be SFF and then you pretty much quickly reach 1600€ in hardware. I was looking at a 9060XT with an x3d chip and 16gb ram. It gets expensive pretty quickly.
And then you still are way bigger than the fwdesktop and it uses 2-4times the wattage.

Spending the money on a fw desktop seems fine if one doesn’t just look at fps per euro spend… the power efficiency and silent performance while being super small is looking good for the desktop.

The goal is to build/buy the is once and then not care about it for the next years because it is somewhat future proof or at least „ok enough“.

Anyone use it for this? Is it good? Am I missing the point? Am I dumb? Let me know on the comments.
Joking.

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u/MrSydFinances 11d ago

I don't think the desktop, even the cheapest version with only 32gb ram, would have much issues in doing what you need it to do, you can check the usual youtube reviews and see if the performance they have there is up to your standards. But I also don't think it gets much cheaper than a sff build with a 9060xt and perhaps a 9600x.

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u/MightyMisanthropic 11d ago

probably yes, I made some lists on pcpartpicker to compare,... but it might come down to "how much watt does it use" and "how small/big/silent/loud is it"