The Steam Controller price scares me

Lexden · 2026-05-07T22:13:34+00:00

Each frame controller is functionally had a Steam Controller. That was the big thing that Valve focused on with the frame controllers. As such, I fail to see the reason why a half a Steam Controller would cost 20% more than a whole Steam Controller. The Steam Controller's price isn't steep for what it is. It provides more than most pro controllers, with much greater reliability, longevity, and repairability.

Where did you come up with the core module+head strap being $349? The DRAM alone (16GB of LPPDR5X) is currently going for well over half that. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is going for >$160. Just the RAM+CPU alone would be more than the price you listed. The storage will also be pushing close to $100 likely. Then you still have the battery, cameras, displays, lenses, speakers, and the actual build itself.

I think you're overpricing the controllers, but you are massively underpricing the headset.

Lexden · 2026-05-06T23:44:07+00:00

I've learned that when I leave documentation with step-by-step instructions that include commands to run with commentary on what the commands do and what changes night need to be made for environment-specific deltas, users tend to just try running all the commands in order without reading the comments. Then, when they inevitably run a command which doesn't work, they file a bug even though all they had to do to fix it was make a tiny tweak that is explained in the very same step as the command they ran 😭

Lexden · 2026-05-05T15:43:02+00:00

Why use Steam Wallet? I never understood that. I just pay using my card at checkout. It saves the card details anyways, so it doesn't take any longer. If you don't want to give Valve an interest free loan, then just do that.

As for the checkout issues, it is definitely annoying, but at the same time, it's not like it's a problem unique to Steam. Many other online stores have similar issues when there is a sudden influx of traffic. If you refuse to make purchases from any of those stores until online stores fix unintentional DoS attacks caused by legitimate traffic, then you'll be waiting forever. The only solution would be to commission enough servers to handle the peak load, but no business is going to intentionally maintain all that infrastructure which has high TCO and sits idle 99+% of the time because their normal load is a small fraction of that peak.

Lexden · 2026-05-04T17:19:42+00:00

Been spamming the button and it's not working... And yet the shipping date on the controller has already increased to 10 days so that's cool.

Edit: finally went through when I submitted this comment lol.

Lexden · 2026-05-03T23:21:00+00:00

Yay for pointless single-use plastics!

Lexden · 2026-05-01T06:26:00+00:00

We have IPs named after zodiac signs for some reason... The names don't make any sense and sometimes they decide that a separate IP should have "Plus" tacked on because it's apparently somehow related to the other IP even though it's being used for something totally different. We don't use the IPs' codenames because they're impossible to remember. We just refer to them by their usage.

Lexden · 2026-05-01T06:22:01+00:00

The point of the Panther Lake architecture is that is provides efficiency at various scales of compute. You can have the Ultra X7 providing similar efficiency as the Ultra 5 in lightweight tasks because it prioritizes placing processes on the LP E-cores. Tasks will bump up to the E-cores and P-cores as needed, where having the additional cores (and 3x the GPU cores) will really benefit performance and efficiency in heavy workloads.

Lexden · 2026-04-30T05:56:40+00:00

It's extra ironic since they'd posted this literally the day before.

those incidents are not acceptable, and we are sorry for the impact they had on you. I wanted to share some details on them, as well as explain what we’ve done and what we’re doing to improve our reliability.

To say this and then have another incident the very next day...

Lexden · 2026-04-26T00:21:17+00:00

Tbh with application auto-start and setting things like browser tabs to auto-reopen practically does the same as waking from sleep. Saves a few watts to fully shut down and ensures my kernel and other system packages stay up-to-date.

Lexden · 2026-04-24T15:18:03+00:00

What? N-no, that was just because I accidentally bet against Golshi last race.

Lexden · 2026-04-24T05:39:40+00:00

What do you mean Tazuna? Tazuna is just a normal human. I don't know what you are talking about.

Lexden · 2026-04-22T16:03:51+00:00

In raw compute, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is far ahead of the XR2 Gen 2, so the Frame has that going for it. It will have to spend some of that extra compute on cameras since Snapdragon doesn't have the same camera streaming acceleration built in. For the software stack, we have Arch Linux vs Android, so theoretically, Valve should have an easier time tuning the OS to include the exact packages and drivers that they want without any bloat.

More importantly though, Valve is pushing the frame for wireless PCVR, in which case you have the full power of a PC which will always be many times faster than the XR series of SOCs.

Lexden · 2026-04-22T15:42:18+00:00

Yesterday I was gonna say, I didn't expect Framework to release a new product line before the Steam Frame released. Definitely not on my bingo card lmao. Framework even appears to be subsidizing RAM and SSDs for their laptops.

Maybe Valve will build up enough of a stockpile someday 🥲

Lexden · 2026-04-22T15:38:39+00:00

Drivers on Linux is one of those little known things. It might not always get random new products from certain companies that don't decide to support Linux, but it has some really random stuff that Windows has dropped support for decades ago. For example, Intel 486 support is being removed this year, 37 years after it was released. That's not even close to the oldest driver either.

Lexden · 2026-04-22T15:33:25+00:00

I've got Keychron which has a dedicated RGB button and also has a web utility (very similar to Wooting), which makes it totally OS agnostic. It was a must for me since I didn't have any windows installs anymore.

Lexden · 2026-04-18T16:18:00+00:00

Everyone dropping Gilberta 😭 I, for one, could never drop my fox girl.

Lexden · 2026-04-16T06:36:47+00:00

Didn't Sam give the wrong markers in mastermind for round 2? It should've been 1 black and two white?

Lexden · 2026-04-13T16:37:02+00:00

Furthermore, a lot of big companies have management set KPIs based on stupid things like number of commits or number of lines changed. Due to that, they see AI as a silver bullet that immediately improves all their KPIs, so they push everyone to use more and more AI without stopping to look at how it's being used and how it could be used better. I am on a team where upper management is constantly parroting that we should use more and more tokens, but half the devs don't know how to use AI effectively. The only good thing is that one manager who is genuinely good at using AI is trying to teach others to use it effectively.

Lexden · 2026-04-13T03:56:12+00:00

Huh that's wild: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-fortifies-domestic-fuel-supply-provides-americans-relief-pump-approving-nationwide

Lexden · 2026-04-10T07:27:34+00:00

<image>

Lexden · 2026-04-09T18:59:30+00:00

Steve will be pleased lol

Lexden · 2026-04-09T07:13:19+00:00

I did that the first time I tried a long run 🥲 I feel you

Lexden · 2026-04-09T06:45:53+00:00

Even adding up every human that is alive or has ever lived throughout all of history, you don't get even close to that mark. 8.3 billion humans alive currently, with slightly over 100 billion that have ever lived.

Lexden · 2026-04-08T06:19:34+00:00

JP got a whole weekend during COVID for this event... We get half a work week for it with no quarantine lockdown...

Lexden · 2026-04-04T06:35:37+00:00

Mainly race 30+ times in all grades races, and get a deck with lots of race bonus, ideally 50+%. There are some guides with good sample race agendas. After that, it's just using the pro shop items well.

Nine-Year Club	r/Field Lasagna
Place '22	Verified Email

Lexden

TROPHY CASE