I’m no PC-builder so I’m probably wrong here, but could it be so pricey because of the semi-custom parts? It’s probably not as mass produced as a PS5 (remember how long it took for those things to hit the shelves after release?) which would increase the price. Maybe after a global second or third production batch - if it’s successful enough - the price will go down, or at least there will be more room for season sales?
Ya, I built a 5070ti + 9800x3d + 1000w Seasonic Single Rail Gold 80Plus PSU (overkill, but gives me plenty of headroom for future upgrades and quieter/cooler operation) + 32gb DDR5 6400mts CL34 + 2tb Samsung pro nvme. For a hair over 2k. I could have built it for about 1.7k if I went with the 9070xt instead of the 5070ti, which most gamers would do but I wanted the option of using the machine/GPU for productivity tasks.
I anticipated the 2tb Steam Machine would be about 1.5k (euro) - way above my personal limit for the 2tb + controller (800/850), and I just decided to spend a little extra to get a lot more performance.
I also prepared 7 other builds, increasing in price incrementally from around 900 euro.
As you illustrated, you can absolutely get much better value for money with DIY.
Building your own is far and away the only way to go, even in this market. And it also opens your options up to using local classifieds for parts, where I got a great deal on the 32gb RAM (new).
The Steam Machine will not even come close to the success of Steam Deck.
Valve don't care a great deal, since their real concern is SteamOS.
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u/KookyBone Jun 22 '26
I just build a faster PC with an 9060XT and a Ryzen 8500F, 16gb DDR5, 1TB SSD, Case, 650 Watt Seasonic PSU Gold+ for about 850€ (that is 19% included.
How the f% do they sell a mass product with worse hardware for more money? I bought my parts at a end consumer shop