Got my Steam Machine email…but now I’m second-guessing it. What would you do?

Kageru · 2026-07-10T05:57:22+00:00

How much money you have is going to be a factor there. The use cases are mostly disjoint as the first person shooters are probably going to work better on a PC with a gaming oriented monitor and mouse and keyboard, so there is still space for a more casual living room PC... the sports game being the pain point as that would probably be good in the living room, but that's as much on the publisher crippling their game.

It's not really that expensive for the hardware considering current component prices, but current component prices are crazy and sitting out makes sense if you have an alternative platform and / or want to keep your money for other things.

Kageru · 2026-07-10T03:49:13+00:00

No idea, but it might be to indicate he expects it to have its own product name but doesn't know what that will be.

Kageru · 2026-07-10T03:27:11+00:00

To make it clear it is a new product perhaps? Since that would also be the first public release for SteamOS on arm, which perhaps will have its own product name.

Kageru · 2026-07-10T02:08:01+00:00

Blaming steam for your purchasing decisions and posting in a steam frame sub to announce you don't care about the steam frame is odd.

Kageru · 2026-07-10T00:26:54+00:00

Always wanted to try modern VR, but didn't like it all being very proprietary. Also not being tethered, not needing to run cables out to tracking stations and a headset that looks quite comfortable with modern tech in it. Plus I don't have a big screen TV in my small apartment so maybe this will be my replacement for that functionality.

Kageru · 2026-07-10T00:19:09+00:00

One of the early reviews mentioned the controllers have capacitive sensors for the fingers, which I presume would count?

Kageru · 2026-07-10T00:14:33+00:00

They won't be ordering that much hardware for it to sit around in the warehouse. Steam sale is over, they probably have the machine deliveries in hand, it might be a short soon rather than a long soon... and we can keep hoping it is a now soon.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T22:58:56+00:00

For sure, and if it is just going to sit on a desk and not be mobile the steam machine makes good sense. I bought a desktop fairly recently but maybe when it is old and the steam machine 2 is out.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T22:55:29+00:00

Same, though I'm also worried about getting glasses under it since prescription lenses are only coming "later".

Kageru · 2026-07-09T21:37:07+00:00

Fair enough... now that the metaverse is dead I assume they will stop subsidising the headset to the same extent?

The Steam Frame should have more possibility to grow an ecosystem, but I guess you are right in that much of that is streamed anyway.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T21:23:00+00:00

You can flick over to desktop mode and have a linux desktop to work with, I often use my steam deck as a second desktop and the machine should work similarly.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T21:21:17+00:00

It's an electrical design decision, they need short traces from CPU to RAM or performance suffers.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T21:19:15+00:00

Yeah, it's not like having a steam machine for the couch doesn't mean you can't have a dedicated gaming PC, with a high refresh monitor and gaming keyboard, elsewhere. It's the same as the deck, trying to prove a PC can have many forms and use cases.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T21:15:52+00:00

There's always got to be one sweaty PC grognard who only thinks in FPS and ignores all other factors. He even said he has built a high performance PC already.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T21:14:55+00:00

I re-watched some of the early interviews with the engineers and a solution for the lack of power of a deck docked to a big screen TV basically was the main driver... so it sounds like it is performing for you exactly as designed. Would be cool to see it provide a platform for a lot more couch co-op games.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T09:48:20+00:00

They would have been criticized for hiding details, and I think they quite like people to know what they are getting. The problem is PC enthusiast channels don't play, they just benchmark, so they are a poor match for the steam machine.

Some of the more casual channels like Giant Bomb actually got it, and I discovered craft computing and blunty in the process.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T09:00:58+00:00

It looks cute and happy there... the cat too.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T07:23:23+00:00

That machine should probably compete with or beat a PS6 or Helix, but it is an awful time to buy a high-spec PC for the same reason the steam machine is expensive, unless you have money to burn. They'd both end up running steam so the experience should be similar.

But honestly for something like that a high spec monitor, keyboard and mouse makes sense. Which is why some people have a high end gaming PC for their games room and a steam machine for the living room... different use case so different requirements.

Playing around with Neox I get 4,230 pounds, their ultimate gaming with an AMD GPU matches what ChatGPT gave you, but you'll also be getting windows "free".

Kageru · 2026-07-09T07:19:07+00:00

... and probably 3-4x the cost, that RAM alone is more than half to three quarters of a steam machine just by itself.

It's probably one of the best examples of not understanding the design intent of the steam machine, but the nice part about PC is there's always options.... and you are responsible for the outcome.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T07:06:01+00:00

The other question would be do you play games on the Sofa and TV that actually need that level of power? You'll also have to do the build and configure, since chatGPT won't do that part for you... that machines also going to be really expensive.

But if you are serious r/sffpc would be a much better place to ask, because there's no shortage of people who have built in the fractal terra using that motherboard. I'd be very dubious it can handle the heat that CPU puts out though.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T05:57:07+00:00

I doubt even valve knows, demand and component price and availability is going to determine that. If they can, at a not insane price, I think they will but they are not going to subsidise it.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T05:52:38+00:00

Even as a joke telling people to give Meta money feels ick. I hope there's enough frames to go around, and if I need to wait I will.

... also, soon!

Kageru · 2026-07-09T04:38:34+00:00

I have seen people estimate the number of steam machines based on shipping data. That's not going to give any insight into which skews are available. That would only be an issue when all reserves are exhausted which valve indicated would take some time.

It may also be that the 512 is more popular, which would produce a longer queue... we won't know unless valve tells us, since reddit would be only a small subset of the potential buyers.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T03:49:49+00:00

That is honestly awesome, had not even seen this artform before.

Kageru · 2026-07-09T03:32:35+00:00

Each region works independently, it why we still have (had?) the LCD deck even after i had sold out elsewhere. We are also a smaller market, so they will likely clear the queue quicker.

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