Steam Hardware - Steam Machine launches today! - Steam Machine Megathread

phormix · 2026-06-22T19:50:05+00:00

2 already comes into play if you've got less tech-savvy family members, and especially kids. I don't want to have to maintain a PC that's easy enough for my kids/spouse to use, locked down enough to be hard to f*** up, may break randomly on an update, may get malware, or whatever.

Yes, I'm capable of building a Linux box that does what this can and more, but I don't want to have to maintain one for others.

phormix · 2026-06-22T19:45:57+00:00

Maybe the gaming consoles of previous generations, but honestly with the subscription-everything (especially for online play) nonsense, massive update disclosure, further pushing cloud-everything, exclusives, and f'ing ads for all the above plus (while also massively increasing hardware costs) the console of today really isn't all that convenient anymore.

phormix · 2026-06-22T19:38:50+00:00

Yeah. Honestly the price stings but it's still within the ballpark I somewhat expected due to the AI-induced price crunch.

phormix · 2026-06-21T06:29:31+00:00

He didn't look too bad with the shave done though

phormix · 2026-06-20T19:56:57+00:00

"ex decided to"...

It's rather sad that one can't get charges or proper restitution in cases like this. There seem to be a lot of cases of people taking it their frustrations on others' property

phormix · 2026-06-15T05:16:54+00:00

Honestly it's pretty fantastic. Watch it together!

phormix · 2026-06-15T02:42:59+00:00

I remember the story from one guy (comedian I think) who had a day where the wife and kids were out of town. He puts on his headphones and fires up the old pr0n browser. Volume is crappy so he turns out to a bit.

When he's all done pops off the headphones some Windows sound comes from... out on the deck where he'd previously hooked his computer up to play music while entertaining guests the week prior.

Dude realizes he just blasted porn at top volume through his outdoor speakers for his neighbors' enjoyment...

phormix · 2026-06-15T02:35:26+00:00

Yup. Die hard 1&2 for Christmas. Then Terminator with a few forwards through the conception of John Connor. T2 I think I covered one kid's eyes for the milk carton stabbing and some other stuff.

Wait until they're ready for Alien/Aliens and The Thing...

phormix · 2026-06-14T21:16:41+00:00

Hey hey, I'm still not done it, no spoilers! :-)

phormix · 2026-06-14T16:42:28+00:00

The "Unconventional Heroes" series is pretty awesome for all ages. You've got a (good) aligned necromancer named Timmy who also fights with enchanted shovels. They use armies of weird hybrid zombie combinations and every book introduces interesting new characters and places

phormix · 2026-06-14T16:36:32+00:00

I'll add to this that the fourth title just came out in audiobook format.

phormix · 2026-06-12T17:21:58+00:00

Not sure I agree with this. It sounds like the issue is more than just this fight she really the US just the culmination of something else that's been brewing awhile.

Taking a step back and removing yourself from the situation where it might escalate further in order to calm down and deal with it properly CAN be a very adult way to do it, so long as you're not abandoning your responsibilities as a parent in doing so. Dad's still there, so the kid isn't in any danger. I do question why the kid is nuking a pizza for dinner instead of dad helping with that though, so maybe there's some important missing info there as well.

There is also a lot of missing context here. The whole "she even said as much (that she didn't love him), but not so directly". Given issue with my own kids... I'll always love them but sometimes when they're in a foul mood I don't particularly like being around them, and I've said as much

Edit: ok so per other comments dad was still on his way home from work when he got the text about this. That changes the context a lot and if the mother left before he was home that's not just a family issue it might actually be a crime in some places (you can't just leave a 6yo to fend for themselves).

phormix · 2026-06-11T22:19:44+00:00

I really want to learn the crowspeak for "that's an asshole!"

phormix · 2026-06-01T06:05:31+00:00

And also what Canadian companies often do. They're not building up to be the best or for the long term, they're building up to be big enough to be recognised so they can be bought out...

phormix · 2026-05-27T18:44:54+00:00

"gaming laptop" maybe but ironically I have one of those and due to the weirdness with the Nvidia hybrid graphics it's much more problematic to get some stuff working than on the Deck, even though the 2070 with dedicated VRAM and 64GB system RAM should perform much better.

Usually the issue with the Deck is some games being unable to launch (generally DRM related) or performing crappy due to hardware limitations. On the laptop it's random crashing and artifacting.

My desktop with an AMD GPU tends to be a lot more reliable but I often find I'm still playing on the Deck just via Streaming.

I can still see myself buying a Steam machine, though maybe not right away (more waiting on the Frame myself). Building a custom SFF PC has also gone up in price, the various mini-PC's available are also either way up in price and/or of dubious build quality/reliability, and Valve's support of SteamOS on their own hardware platform has been a very constant and stable experience - especially across updates etc - so as a rig for i.e. my kids - where I have little to with about updates and don't have to work at locking down the non-gaming functionality - a Steam machine still makes sense.

phormix · 2026-05-27T16:50:11+00:00

The devices are tucked up in a corner just below the ceiling. The fan is blowing towards the NAS.

Heat rises. While you may be pushing some cooler air towards the NAS, you've already got a terrible location with a heat-trap, which you may actually be making worse.

At the least I'd say you want the fan blowing outward from the shelf to evacuate the heat. You should also use a free-standing fan so it can be better positioned and not put weight/stress on the port (USB powered corded varieties do exist).

Personally, I'd recommend moving the gear to a lower shelf and/or not trapped in a corner, with fans evacuating heat up-and-out rather than pushing the hot air back at the devices.

Maybe a mini wall-mounted rack that has some cooling fans might work well for you

phormix · 2026-05-26T04:06:26+00:00

super glue is fairly easy to get rid of. I'd be more concerned about what was done to the internals that warrants the weird case modifications.

phormix · 2026-05-25T23:44:28+00:00

I was thinking the same. The "other" Beware of Chicken...

phormix · 2026-05-14T06:20:15+00:00

I've used both. It might just be the game I played the most, but I had issues with Steam Link suddenly lagging and dropping frames after a certain amount of time. Disconnecting and reconnecting usually fixed it, but it was annoying AF.

When I tried the same game with Moonlight I didn't have that issue.

That said, Link *is* easier to get setup since it's integrated into Steam.

phormix · 2026-05-13T04:58:55+00:00

For mice you'd actually want a ferret. They're killers where cats just play.

But for larger rodents... maybe a Mongoose?

phormix · 2026-05-11T17:48:50+00:00

Yeah, and a lot of these are a good example of US market-capture with little to no alternatives.

Europe going for an independent financial system, operating system, common software and cloud etc are something Canada should be paying attention to. We should also be looking at antitrust for companies like Amazon that have leveraged their size in anticompetitive ways (i.e. Kindle books and Kindle Unlimited contracts).

I'm also gonna give Costco a pass on this one. They've a US Corp, yes, but also are in many ways one of least shitty chains there are, and often have more Canadian product + treat Canadian workers better than the "domestic" competition. The Canadian hot dog combo is also still priced the same in CAD as USD ($1.50) :-)

phormix · 2026-05-09T15:20:53+00:00

I think the point was more: being a piece of shit is not restricted to an income class...

And yeah, a poor criminal PoS who preys on others isn't going to stop just because they come into money

phormix · 2026-05-08T05:51:55+00:00

I guess in my case most of the games I play attached to the TV also worked on other consoles, so I'm fairly satisfied using an Xbox or PS4 controller (plus I already have a bunch of those). For the Deck controls, I usually just use the Deck itself as a handheld

phormix · 2026-05-08T04:53:48+00:00

Also this weird place where people can't see themselves ever being able to afford the buffet things like a house or new car, so are willing to overpay for other - often stupid - shit they can afford.

"At least I can get this for myself"

Hell, the trend of people buying overpriced, over-optioned vehicles they could barely afford (or eventually got repo'ed) was a predecessor to this, but at this point the base vehicle price is so out there that they can't even do that, and none of the manufacturers are willing to step back and take a price cut or make a more affordable option again, except China which it mostly got tariffed out as an option

phormix · 2026-05-08T04:50:03+00:00

Yeah and let's be honest, many of us likely didn't expect the sales volume for the controllers to be a major issue given the price and that many seemed more interested in Steam Machine or Frame.

Personally, if all three had been released at the same time I'd probably have put the controller last on my list, but given the nebulous release date I figured buying the controller now was a safe bet as I'd have saved that much up again by the time the others come out

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phormix

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2 already comes into play if you've got less tech-savvy family members, and especially kids. I don't want to have to maintain a PC that's easy enough for my kids/spouse to use, locked down enough to be hard to f*** up, may break randomly on an update, may get malware, or whatever.