this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
412 points (99.3% liked)
Steam Hardware
22372 readers
1035 users here now
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Controller] - Steam Controller related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's obviously not Valve's fault but man, that's expensive. Wasn't planning on getting one anyway, but it certainly makes me worried about what the Frame may cost.
Anyone here planning on getting one? I do wonder how much of a market there is for it at this price.
I'm considering getting one. I currently have a nearly silent computer working as a HTPC but I can't play games on it. I can get around that with Steam Link, but that isn't ideal. So, it would be an upgrade that would let me play games on my living room TV without needing to tie up the gaming computer.
The other thing it looks ideal for is a travel computer. Gaming laptops suck. Often they're absurdly expensive. When they're decently powerful, they're almost always obscenely loud. That fan whine really bothers me. Plus, they almost always have major Linux compatibility issues. The current laptop I'm using with Linux has weird driver quirks. Like, for example, to re-enable WiFi after it goes to sleep I need to wake it up from sleep, turn on airplane mode and then turn it off again. Only then will the WiFi work again. And getting an external monitor to work after sleep... ugh.
Also, I think it's easy to underestimate the value of what is effectively a Linux gaming console. I'm almost exclusively a PC gamer these days, but one thing I always appreciated about consoles is that you never had to ask "will this game run well on my console?" 99.9% of the time, if a game was released for a console, it was optimized for that console. Even when a game was multi-platform like say FIFA, each console got a build that was as good as possible for that console. For PC games, I think that means most developers will have a Gabecube and ensure all their games run as well as possible on it. The fact that it's Linux-first is also important to me. It means any drivers or software updates will be tested and optimized on Linux. It won't be an afterthought like it is most of the time.
So, this machine is nearly silent, runs Linux, and plays most of the games in my Steam library. It's expensive, but maybe it's worth it?
Is the frame more expensive hardware? Can we make any sort of reasonable determination on frame price now that we know the gabecubes cost?
At announcement I was hoping $700, which I don't see happening. Are we still expecting index pricing or is that not happening?
... Well the quest 3 is $600. They can't be too far from that can they? I mean I'd pay $1000 on the frame before I gave meta $600, but most people don't have the same hate for meta that I do.
The frame sure aint gonna be cheap hardware. 0% chance it can match the quest in price. But since it doesn't need as much storage I'm hoping it'll be 700-800. But I wouldn't blink if it's $1000. Valve just doesn't have the economies of scale Meta will.
I think that $600 is a subsidized price and not really useful for comparison. I would expect the Frame to be at least $1000. The hardware likely is more expensive overall since it also includes displays. They aren't high end screens but they still add significant cost. It is probably more expensive to assemble each Frame compared to the Steam Machine also. I wouldn't be surprised if the low end model is $1500+
That would absolutely kill it, at least for me. $700-800 sold. 1k, harder to justify to the wife, but probably still getting it. 1500, well my rift-s is still pretty good I guess.
I doubt $700-$800 was going to happen even before prices went crazy. Some time ago, someone at Valve stated they were trying to beat the Index's $1000 launch price in a way that implied that if the Frame had beaten that price, it wouldn't have done so by much. The Frame probably won't see the 40% price jump of the Steam Machine, but it won't be 0% either. I'm guessing it'll be somewhere around $1200, but that's just a hunch.
It's hard to say, but at least before the component shortages, I would have expected the Frame to be the more expensive device. After all, it has 2 included controllers, displays, batteries, tracking cameras etc. But maybe the lower memory and storage (if you go for the 256GB) along with its mobile SoC might help reduce the effects of the component crisis somewhat. I don't expect it to be below 1k€ though, personally.
I really wanted one, but now it's an easy wait for at least some kind of sale.
Edited to add, just finished reading and watching a round of reviews and honestly don't think I even want one anymore.
I don't think they've ever had any sales for hardware. The only discounted hardware I've seen was the refurbished Deck. If you don't want specifically Valve-branded hardware, you're probably better off building a proper PC from comparable second-hand parts.
They have absolutely had sales on their hardware. I am pretty sure they've put deck on sale every year since it came out.
As for building my own, yeah I know, and I've considered it many times. But I absolutely dread working in small form factor, and this thing's size was one of the main appeals for me.
They've definitely had new steam decks on sale before. Mine was 20% off just last year.
That was before the RAM shortage. It's going to be at least 1 full year before RAM price start going down and they can offer discounts. Unless the AI bubble pops. And that'll have huge economic consequences.
The original Steam Controller and Steam Link went on sale for about 5€ each just before they were phased out. OG Steam Deck also had some smaller discounts.
I signed up to get one the moment I heard about the price. I like gaming on my PC, but I much prefer playing certain games on the big screen in the living room. Likewise, my partner has gotten used to the Steam Deck's UI so it'll be great to get her more into gaming.
The Steam Deck + Dock is what I currently use, but playing everything in 720p upscaled to 1080 (or just playing indie games) is pretty frustrating.
And I've used moonlight/steam streaming/even Nvidia gamestream (I have an Nvidia shield) - while they're fine solutions, I don't like the compression artifacts of streaming. Also annoys me that the game physically renders on my computer.
So, yeah, TL;DR I want a Steam Machine. I'm also excited to use desktop mode on occasion. And when the machine finally runs its course, it'll be a nice looking server for the closet!
These things aren't mutually exclusive. My PC is hooked up to my 75" tv in the games room.
With the specs of this steam machine, the last thing you would want to do is play it on a big screen lol. It will look atrocious. To even hit barely playable framerates you have to run at basically ultra low settings at 720p and use FSR3 (vomits) to get it back up to 1440p.
Eh, I don't mind running the settings slightly lower for better performance. It really isn't possible on the steam deck. E.g. Can't even play a game like blue prince at 1080p without massive frame drops.
As far as hooking my proper pc up goes, I don't have cables long enough for that, and wheeling the damn thing over with a cart (which I actually do sometimes) has gotten pretty old.
Also, the reviews showed some good performance at 1440p. As I don't think I'll go above 1080p with upscaling, I'm excited.
You’d be much better off just using moonlight from your pc to any other device, but seems like you want to buy it no matter the pointlessness haha. I’ve been there, but not at this price.
I was going to but only existing steam accounts can pre order. I get it, but trying to go from console as a poor just feels impossible at this point.
Just take solace in your local library
Much as I would love an upgrade to my Steam Deck (which I mostly used docked), I can't justify more than $500, much less $1000. Glad I snagged the $400 LCD Steam Deck when I did. The Steam Deck price hikes prompted me to get a Switch 2, as I don't see any other new sub-$500 consoles coming out for a long, long time.
I did the promise with witnesses and all to get one at least in year 2 if it launches with Half life 3 just cause the memes I haven'teven player HL ever. If it drops to 600 or so I'm getting it.
I have been waiting for the price to see about replacing my Xbox series S as I degoogling/M$ as much as possible. I just want a streaming box that I can play light games on.
If that's what you want, get an apple tv or shield tv lol.