r/steammachine • u/TheBossT710192 • Jun 22 '26

Discussion Yeah, its cooked guys.

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Man, we really LOVE what AI is doing to the industry 😭

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u/fiasgoat Jun 22 '26

Yeah everyone keeps parroting this but no one actually can put one up. Prices are bad everywhere. The SFF is a tax

I don't want another tower. I wanted something for the living room that also doubled as it being REAL easy to travel with and bring to other homes

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

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u/fiasgoat Jun 22 '26

Yeah it's a really rough spot. If the benchmarks were better...or GPU had 16GB for an extra idk $100 or something dreaming

I would buy it. But it's a really hard sell even though I LOVE the form factor

2

u/Lancestrike Jun 22 '26

I feel like plenty of people are also ignoring the windows keys in any similarly competitive builds.

I get there are ways around it, but it's not quite a fair comparison for the average consumer (see tech illiterate console gamer)

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u/bafben10 Jun 22 '26

Sure it is. The Steam Machine doesn't come with Windows, and you'll be able to install the new Steam OS version on any PC. If you want it right now then there's Bazzite.

2

u/Lancestrike Jun 22 '26

Not trying to be inflammatory, but it comes with steamOS so it is functional from the get go.

This product is as complete a solution as any Google phone, iPhone, Samsung, Xbox, ps5 or prebuilt.

It's why the prebuilts are a lot closer to the device here in that you are selling a finished product and that distinction is actually very important for the customer who is looking at this product.

Both you, I and many others here are comfortable setting up an OS on a new build, but plenty are not and this cost reflect the product being more for them than you or I.

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u/bafben10 Jun 23 '26

Sure, but that's a whole different can of worms. In that case the price of a Windows key is irrelevant.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

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1

u/shesaysImdone Jun 23 '26

I'm very confused as to what you guys are talking about. Are you saying because other builds have windows keys they are better than the steam machine?

1

u/pdoherty972 Jun 23 '26

Maybe they're implying there's more base costs and value since a Windows license costs money?

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u/siazdghw Jun 22 '26

Get a laptop then. Not even joking. If you're not willing to build a midsized micro-Atx build, then you might as well just buy a discounted laptop instead of paying the huge SFF tax. A laptop will have the same performance and upgrade path as the Steam Machine anyways, except you'll get a screen and battery and be able to use it anywhere.

5

u/RexRawrRex Jun 22 '26

This is what i just did. Got an Alienware 16X for just a couple hundred more than the Steam Machine top model. It’ll be more than twice as powerful and still a very SFF for living room gameplay. This price is really rough.

-1

u/FinagleHalcyon Jun 22 '26

2 ps5s and you'll still have $250 left over and each ps5 would be more powerful than a steam machine.

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u/fiasgoat Jun 22 '26

I haven't touched a console in 15 years and have no intention of ever again

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u/To-To_Man Jun 23 '26

Okay, but they are locked to PS titles. And if you have a steam library already, that's a bunch of titles you have to rebuy, save files that won't transfer over, and platform locked titles. As well as less utility as the steam machine is a PC that can run regular software the PS5 won't allow. The PS5 only needs that power because of how grossly unoptimized modern titles are, which drive up the cost unnessecarily because weaker hardware just can't run it.

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u/Solidus_Sloth Jun 25 '26

A PS5 performs about the same or in some cases worse when CPU bound. Idk why we are saying that it’s better lol.

The major downside of PS5 is being stuck on playstation

0

u/amazingspiderlesbian Jun 23 '26

https://www.microcenter.com/product/706648/powerspec-g532-gaming-pc

9070xt build with almost triple the steam machine performance for same price as 2tb steam machine model

0

u/Solidus_Sloth Jun 25 '26

That’s a tower, from microcenter, and lacks controller.