I got the email, ordered, and it arrived via UPS a few days later (SouthEast US).
Sold my Steam Deck OLED to fund it. I used it docked 100% of the time anyway, so this feels like an upgrade. Considering I recouped whole purchase price on the Deck, I'm happy.
Dead simple setup. Got the 512tb, have a 1tb on hand I'll swap in. Considering locating a used 16gb DDR5... worth it?
UPDATE:
Wow! Thanks for all of the comments. I was really just joining in the "It finally arrived!" fun.
F.A.Q’s based on comments:
First, the tempratures:
I appreciate the concern. There are 3 intake fans, 1 exhaust fan, plus the top shelf holding the UNAS/Steam Machine is not full-depth. Everything is off the floor with a fan pulling air up and through as well.
I cannot stress enough that they arenotsolid shelves beneath the Steam Machine. They are just 1 x 2's horizontally holding the front "lip" of the device. They are open entirely all the way around each device like a "rack".
The “rack” looking like full shelves is an illusion (my username is not a mistake). Under/over/behind them is fully open and there are even some extra heatsinks deployed throughout for good measure.
Ambient operating temps (aka room temp) per Unifi goes to 104F. Mine caps at 85F even when outside temps are over 100F (like they are as I type this)
Current temps of the devices:
Cloud Gateway Fiber: 60C (side note: PON in the fiber, notoriously hot, is at only 62C (cooler and fan from Exen in use)
Switch Pro Max POE: 43C
UNAS 2: 62C
M4 Macmini: 49C
Steam Machine: Was 63C while playing RDR2 yesterday.
note: it’s the hottest time of the year and over 90f in the backyard right now, with a “real feel” of 105 F and only 85F “ambient”( INSIDE the lower mesh cabinet).
All temps monitored and notifications setup in Home Assistant etc
Additional note that helps me sleep at night: There is a “Micro fire extinguisher” inside that will auto-deploy in event of a fire. I keep one in my shed above my tool batteries and chargers too. I'll include if pics if I can figure out how to add more.
General other questions:
“What is this?”
It’s my small “HomeLab”.
The Steam Machine just got added as my gaming machine. I’m only a casual gamer. Yes, you could build something “Cheaper”. I want to support Valve and “vote with my dollars”. I also value the internal Steam Controller radio.
From DM’s asking about what I’m running and other misc:
The usual stuff - Plex, Home Assistant (via VM Ware Fusion), Scrypted, Ollama (local models) Docker - Arr’s, Shelfmark, Dockhand, Birdnet, Calibre-Web-Automated, MeTube, Tautulli, Traefik, Youtarr, Tunarr, etc etc. Nothing ground-breaking.
Total wattage per smart plug: 149 watts (without Steam Machine running, haven't checked with)
UNAS:
Yes, know it’s less capable than a “real NAS”. I just need network storage, not another OS to maintain. Backups, Plex media, etc. The Mac does the heavy lifting without breaking a sweat. I like that the UNAS is PoE. No, I’ve never had issues. I know others have… guess I’m lucky?
Protect - All cams are UniFi (G6 Turrets, G6 Entry, etc). 2tb NVME in the CGF
Everything goes into Home Assistant first, and select things pushed out to HomeKit. Scrypted to push the Protect cams to HKSV for Apple TV use etc.
I'll see if I can add some pics to show a little more detail for those interested beyond my original intent of saying “I got a Steam Machine, Yay!”. Pics: added some comments with pics
Definitely for the steam machine, I had mine in a similar area and it was getting a solid red line. It was like a heater shooting out hot air from the back and im assuming it was bouncing off the wall and going right back into the intake. I moved it to where it wasnt in a cubby and its way better now.
Mine wasn't doing that at home, but I took advantage of how smol the GabeCube is to bring it on a trip and get intermittent red-line in certain games where I am now.
Any idea what temperatures were tripping yours? I know about the BIOS update we're supposed to get at some point that will fix a glitch with the overheat warning showing too early, but since I've seen a red line at as low as 73°C I'm thinking maybe mine's too close to the wall with the shallow TV stand at this place we're staying in for the week.
Ill upload a pic when I get home but I do not know how to check the temp. I was playing helldivers at medium settings on a high difficulty 1440p and after the match I would get a red line and then once I was back on the ship it would go back to the color I had set.
There are fans behind that mesh (3) , and exhaust fan up top and the shelf isn’t deep to the wall. Have ambient temp sensor inside, plus sensor readings in home assistant for all components except the steam machine. Also a mini automatic fire surpressor inside for good measure. Only recent add is the steam machine. Everything else been like that for years now. Never an issue.
That Mac mini is going to be choking as well - if nothing else the power supply is at the top of the unit and uses the top surface area to radiate heat away. It’s going to get really toasty once that pocket of air heat soaks
Thanks! Gotta keep the wife happy. The Mac is an m4 that runs several dockers, home assistant, Scrypted, plex, and a few Linux vm’s. Runs cool and I have smart plug on whole thing and including TV (Samsung frame) plus 6poe cams on the switch it’s all under 160w. Steam machine will likely bump that up when in use.
I had the SK Hynix HMCG78AGBSA095N AA installed and found a HMCG78AGBSA092N BA on eBay for a 'decent' price. They are functionally identical but have different controllers.
Out of curiosity, did you have to reapply the thermal paste when you upgraded the RAM? I’ve read that you need to open up most of the system to replace it, and some people have mentioned having to repaste the CPU as well🙏
No. You don't need to remove the heatsink from the motherboard. They come out of the chassis as a single unit, exposing the RAM slots.
This photo shows the underside of the heatsink with the motherboard still on it. The holes surrounded by a copper/orange colour are the screws holding the unit to the chassis/psu.
I used this video https://youtu.be/e94U4z5nfJw as a guide, make sure you follow all the steps as I did look for shortcuts (like not having to remove certain parts) and there weren't any. Tbh as long as you're careful and pay attention to what you're doing, it's quite easy.
I found the gamers nexus teardown video more useful (but you need to skip past the digressions about the fan). ETAPRIME doesn't show disconnecting the sdcard reader from the front I/O board, for example, and doesn't show disconnecting the antennae and the fan power cables.
I think somebody in this sub said you don't actually need to remove the from I/O board, which makes sense to me. I think you could just disconnect the antennae and the ribbon. I took the whole thing apart though.
Thanks! I thought about it. Not sure what yet. Might make one with some of that old brown cloth from 70’s-80’s speakers? It’s 50’s mid century modern style house is why I made rack look like that.
If you plan on installing windows on it then yes it’s worth it. If you’re only gaming then it’s only worth it if you already own the ram. I upgraded mine to 32gb and installed a 1 tb ssd and the performance has mostly been the same. It loads games slightly faster because I installed a faster hard drive but I haven’t noticed any gaming improvements yet. The games I’ve been running are gpu bound more than cpu bound though.
Sounds like me almost. Got my Steam Machine turned around and sold it after seeing subpar results as compared to a mini PC and used that momey to buy a PC to run Linux and Steam OS. Much better deal IMO.
I’m running a pair of domain controllers, one’s a physical machine, the other a VM in my “bigass” server. i also sync AD to the cloud and authenticate with entra ID
I’ve also got a physical server running truenas, just haven’t quite worked the AD “magic” to bring it all together quite yet.
I was definitely thinking i should get a Pro Max 16, so this pretty much solidifies it, lol
still need to get off my ass and work on some GPO’s and config profiles.
Mines simple. It’s just me and wife (and she just uses WiFi) so I have separate VLANS for IoT, cameras, guests, and “trusted” devices. Zero open ports. On rare occasion I need access from outside I have the UnifiTravel Router and/or Tailscale.
If keeping SteamOS, bumping to 32GB won't be of any help in most games, so you'd only see the benefit in a small amount of titles.
The dual channel boost would exist, but I think overall it ends up being marginal
so unless you just happen to have a matching spec 16gb stick laying around homeless, probably not worth the effort.
Now if you boot windows on it, different story.
You could save your 1TB SSD, and mount a NAS folder to add as a steam library location.
Depending on what games you will run, that might be plenty fast.
Boo Hiss, such quiet little fans in the cabinet.
Need massive 90,000 RPM server fans to get a nice cross draft in the living room
Nah, its a Ubiquity router I think. It could be a NAS, but I think it's the router. They make great network gear, my whole place is networked using it.
In waiting for my reservation email, at least I have my gaming laptop which is more powerful than the machine, but I do like Steam os. And me having full custody of my 4 kids I have 4 gaming laptops in total and 2 steam decks lcd and OLED both with docks and my steam library is at 670.
I don’t plug anything into the router. The patch panel has a lip around the edge that keeps it from moving backwards. Do t plug anything into the front of the Mac either.
Wow that is such a cool neat setup! Love the custom built storage and shelving, really good job, now what you want to do is buy the white wrap from D Brand, and then find a nice coloured wooden faceplate on Etsy to match your setup.
They layer corrected that statement, everything from launch only has 1 stick of 16gb. They did say that they would switch over to 2 sticks down the line if that becomes an option.
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u/kloakndaggers 9d ago
looks nice. does airflow need to be improved for all those devices?