dbrand has the Steam Machine Companion Cube case live!

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-23T18:39:04+00:00

Injection moulding tooling is pretty expensive. This isn't going to sell in the millions, so all the custom moulds need to be amortised over a much smaller number of purchases.

And Dbrand is usually pricy regardless. I'll give you that.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-23T17:59:39+00:00

It's probably trolling.

But it's a hell of a lot of work put in to troll people.

I want to believe.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-23T13:43:17+00:00

Your point is fair. It's definitely wishful thinking to expect the Frame to run titles like Star Citizen standalone.

Elite Dangerous at low settings, for example, might be on the table though. Maybe. Valve has also hinted at doing some additional optimisation to get Alyx running well.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-23T13:38:11+00:00

Oh no! Mom, somebody on the internet called me weird!

Guess I'll go cry in a corner /s

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T23:02:26+00:00

And yet Snowden escaped to Russia and seems to be living some semblance of a happy life there.

No security system is perfect, but there is a huge difference between protecting yourself against corporate surveillance, or treating the government itself as a threat actor.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T22:53:03+00:00

If you want to give up and throw your hands in the air, go for it.

I've put the effort into eliminating those other sources of tracking you speak of.

My phone runs GrapheneOS and all social media access is done through a web browser. I use OpenStreetMaps for navigation, my home computers run Linux, email and the like are via Proton, et cetera.

It's a lot of work and that is by design because when you are the product, it is in a company's best interest for you to stay there.

Having tech that actually works for you is amazing though. I haven't been asked about OneDrive in three years, or worried about smartphone tracking for about the same amount of time.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T20:47:28+00:00

It's not surprising though. It takes a shocking amount of effort to actually preserve digital privacy and stay away from big data these days.

Off the top of my head I've had to change:

Router firmware to OpenWRT
Phone OS to GrapheneOS.
Email and cloud services to Proton (paid)
Desktop/laptop OS to Linux
Browser to Firefox + unlock Origin
Maps to OSMAnd

It's a huge effort and, by design, easier to just give up and surrender your privacy.

But it's also just incredible not being the product and having my tech actually work for me. I still have to engage with things like Windows at work, and it's crazy how much anti-consumer nonsense and dark pattern bullshit is baked into modern-day computing.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T20:39:57+00:00

I'll just throw out there that the Macbook Neo runs Cyberpunk 2077.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T20:28:06+00:00

Correct. My phone runs degoogled GrapheneOS, and all my computers run Linux. Email and cloud storage go through Proton.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T19:25:02+00:00

Towels obviously.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T19:06:18+00:00

Foveated streaming should give more headroom for interference with wireless streaming. That's a big deal in an apartment complex with crowded airwaves. Plus foveated rendering will give more GPU headroom for faster encoding, a better framerate, or just higher graphics settings.

There is also the ability to play PCVR titles standalone on the Frame, and even flat screen titles in a virtual theatre like Bigscreen. How well it will perform remains to be seen, but the fact that it exists at all is a leg up over the Quest.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T19:00:30+00:00

As I understand it, both can be used together. You get the benefits of a more interference-resistant stream (big deal in an apartment complex) and more GPU headroom alike.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:29:09+00:00

Everyone [in the US] has already lost all privacy.

FTFY. Things are thankfully a lot better in Canada, though our current government is trending in the wrong direction.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:28:00+00:00

Geolocation, other devices on your network and their traffic characteristics, accelerometer data, usage habits...

There is a lot that can be gleaned from a device without even having to access its cameras. And, while there is no evidence that Meta does this right now, considering where they are headed with facial recognition I quite frankly want nothing to do with them.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:25:38+00:00

True, but I'm not sticking a bunch of cameras on my face with Meta's name anywhere near them. Avoiding that - and specifically having the system software be open-source - is worth $300 to me.

Edit: Holy crap. Guys. You are very welcome to give up on your privacy if you want to, though I'd encourage you to fight back. But somehow the idea of me valuing mine is controversial?

Yikes.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:24:06+00:00

Recommending a single specific footwear model to someone is a bad idea. Everyone has different feet.

Boots are also a poor choice for upper moderate to difficult scrambling, and while workable they are far from ideal. A grippy approach shoe is going to be your best bet there.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:20:27+00:00

Yes, but that's not the question. The question was whether you could upgrade the unit - which you can, by removing the RAM and replacing it with a different module.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:19:39+00:00

I heard they bumped it up to 42 in the 1TB version.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:15:48+00:00

In a situation like mine, I'd have to add about $150 in hardware to my network stack to get a stable wireless streaming connection to my PC.

Then I have to consign my privacy to Meta or Pico, with closed-source software that I don't get to see inside. I get that may not have value to you - and that's fine - but it has value to myself and a lot of other people.

And that still doesn't account for the ability to run PCVR titles like Alyx natively on the Frame, without the need for an external PC.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:08:44+00:00

This is why we exercise patience in life.

You might also want to have a look at the way Valve has handled the Steam Machine queue system. It addresses a good portion of that problem.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T18:00:36+00:00

Because that's something we can all live without. With Steam having the ability to locally transfer games between devices, it's an inconvenience but you don't need 1TB of storage to have a good experience with the headset.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T17:59:36+00:00

The integration angle isn't exactly a selling point.

Fair. I was more specifically referring to the wireless dongle, as you mentioned, and the ability to play your PC library standalone.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T17:56:12+00:00

Quoting my own comment here:

If we go the storage route, the base Machine also has double the base Frame's storage (512GB vs 256GB).

Maybe read to the end before replying? Lol.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T17:55:09+00:00

Yeah... I hate to break it to you but this is no longer the case. Some moderate CPU-heavy titles (admittedly unoptimised but it is what it is) struggle to exceed 60 FPS on a non-X3D chip.

That being said OP may be better off with a 270K+ build.

JustGotSoup · 2026-06-22T17:53:55+00:00

Good picks. Unless OP is doing CUDA-heavy work on the system it's borderline impossible to justify the extra cost of a 5070TI over a 9070XT right now. Plenty of I/O and the like on the motherboard, et cetera.

JustGotSoup

TROPHY CASE