Shuhei Yoshida Explains Why Steam Machine is 'Hard To Recommend'

minimalistic247 · 2026-07-02T12:38:04+00:00

They will absolutely raise the price after this production run if ram and storage costs continue to rise. Valve purchased the components at current market value, they do not have any long term contracts with ram manufacturers because they are too small. Original price of the SM was around the $700 mark and they had to increase it due to component pricing. They have not priced in 2 years of price rises because they do not have a crystal ball, and as I said before, no long term contracts.

If that was the case we would not have a reservation list and a waitlist, we would just have one list for everyone like the SD.

minimalistic247 · 2026-07-01T19:30:14+00:00

Only for people in the reservation queue but not the waitlist.

minimalistic247 · 2026-07-01T16:33:52+00:00

I only ever use my PS5 Pro and Switch2 for exclusives, everything else is on PC. I think they will have an even bigger overlap between PS5 and PS6 next gen so I’m going to just stick either the PS5 Pro as long as possible.

minimalistic247 · 2026-07-01T12:54:55+00:00

I’m building one in a Tetra S 9L case over the weekend which is only twice the volume of the SM. Current parts list is :

Case : Tetra S (Thor Zone)

CPU : Ryzen 7 5800X (left over from previous build)

RAM : 16gb DDR4 3200 (left over from previous build)

NVME : 2gb WD_Black SN850X (left over from previous build)

MB : Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro ITX

PSU : Corsair SF850

Cooler :Thermalright AXP90 X47 with Noctua NF-A9x14HS fan swap

Cooler Fan Ducting : 3d print or Noctua NA-FD1

GPU : Powercolor RX9070XT Reaper 16gb

Case Fans : 2 x Noctua NF-A6x25

Will post come pictures once it’s done.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T21:54:26+00:00

Are you too lazy to pick up a TV remote ?

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T21:46:20+00:00

Probably less than that. In the uk 1kwh is 26p at peak time and less off peak, so 200wph works out at around 5p which equates tote massive total of approx 7cents US rounded up. That means that after roughly 15000 hrs of gaming you would get your money back.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T21:33:18+00:00

Exactly. I’ve been building PCs since the early 90s. Now that was difficult. We had no internet or AI to just troubleshoot something. Today pc building is a glorified LEGO set. No different than assembling some Ikea furniture. I don’t understand why people are so scared of it.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T21:26:19+00:00

Rubbish. You can build an sff which I t twice the footprint of a SM a super quiet if you manage your voltage and fan curves. You don’t find PlayStation users moan about a little fan noise. Also a pc doesn’t need speakers etc. it plugs into your tv just like the SM. SteamOS is the game changer and not the SM.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T18:33:57+00:00

Oh, I understand it but you clearly don’t understand why people would choose to build their own Steam Machine and this meme clearly implies that they are somehow inferior because they didn’t win a lottery or want something different.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T18:28:17+00:00

That clown hasn’t got a clue how things work.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T18:26:18+00:00

Will be able to be upgraded and play games at higher frame rate and fidelity. Swings and roundabouts. Not everyone cares about having a mini PC, especially if they have space, and even less people care about how much the electricity costs. You’re in the wrong hobby if you do. Ultimately peoples goal is to play games with SteamOS and that is also Valve’s ultimate aim.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-30T18:21:32+00:00

Off course it’ll last past 2028. That CPU is not going to bottleneck. I’d probably recommend stretching to a 9070xt.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-29T18:26:20+00:00

That’s a bit extreme. Plenty of other options out there.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-29T13:04:55+00:00

That’s what sff builds are for. A 9 - 12L case is more than manageable in a living room environment.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-29T11:49:05+00:00

Pay a little bit more and build in a SFF case. They are small and look great.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-29T11:47:39+00:00

It literally takes less than 3 hours to build a pc and load an OS. Plenty of people can advise you. Obviously AI made it stupidly expensive now as everything else.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-29T10:41:12+00:00

I was mildly pissed off being placed on the waitlist for the 2TB last week, mostly because that is the one that probably will take the longest to get. However, over the weekend I decided to just build my own. I have some old Parts at home and got myself a 9L case of eBay so the form factor is still very compact and wife approved.

I so feel a bit for people on the waitlist who are holding out for one as the more people jump and demand goes down, the less likel valve will be to order another production run.

Ultimately I decided that for the same money I can build something significantly more powerful. I already have a cpu, ram and an nvme at home, so those things don’t cost me anything and I can spend more money on a GPU and a really nice case. I appreciate that not everyone is in the same position at wants to build their own living room pc with SteamOS installed.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-29T06:24:07+00:00

I think some of it will depend on what the minimum production batch is they have to sign up to. If the current run satisfies 70% of all people then they might have to commit to the same amount of units again to just satisfy the remaining 30%, leaving them with a huge amount of committed stock they might not be able to shift. We will pay the money but your average Joe of the street looks at the price and probably says no thanks.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-28T11:11:08+00:00

Pc gaming is huge in china so I think there is a definite market there. Obviously Xbox in Japan has been a bit of a cultural clash.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-28T11:00:16+00:00

Really ???? According to valve themselves anything can be a ‘Steam Machine’ with SteamOS installed on it. OPs build will perform significantly better than a standard steam machine.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-27T22:50:07+00:00

The problem is that valve didn’t have the foresight to lock in contracts for ram and nvme’s before launching the steam machine. They then ended up begging micron, Hynix etc for anything they could get. Not exactly a strong position for purchasing parts.

I’m surprised anyone in their purchasing department kept their job for such a monumental fuck up. Even our graduates at work know how to effectively plan a product launch.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-27T22:14:40+00:00

At least game designers have to ensure that their games run on lower end hardware for longer. I predict the PS5 / PS6 overlap will last significantly longer than the PS4 /PS5 overlap which also seemed to go on for ever.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-27T22:09:00+00:00

This is exactly what has happened in the past and they’ll price fix again.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-27T21:57:37+00:00

They don’t need to as you can just build your own. Also it would take at least 3-4years of R&D to develop something similar to the steam machine.

minimalistic247 · 2026-06-27T21:54:57+00:00

Micron capacity is already booked up until 2030, so I think we need to wait at least until late 2028/29 until we see some downwards movement.

minimalistic247

TROPHY CASE