this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 57 points 1 month ago (50 children)

Facts people forget:

  • Assembling your own Steam Machine with similar parts will cost around 800
  • Even if you assembled it yourself you would be missing features, such as cec, wake by controller, sleep mid game, etc. LTT will try to build one, it will be interesting to see what they come up with, but I'm 90% it won't have feature parity.
  • There's lots of engineering gone into this machine, they're way more compact, less power hungry and more quiet than anything you can build yourself.
  • Buying the same build as a prebuilt brings a premium and costs around 1000
  • Valve purchases stuff in scale so they can diminish their margin and could potentially sell it cheaper than prebuilts, and possibly cheaper than building it yourself.
  • Consoles are sold at a loss, and they recover it with games because the platform is closed.
  • The Steam Machine is not closed, they can't be sure they're getting game purchases, because people might be buying this to be their work computer. So they have to price it as a PC, with margin on hardware, not promise of future returns.
  • Price might fluctuate between now and announcement, RAM prices are going crazy nowadays.

With all of that being said, it seems to me it's very likely it will be around 800 but less than 1000. For people saying you can build one for that price yourself, sure, go ahead, you'll have a huge, power hungry loud box, without the same features and you would have saved only a small fraction of the value by having to assemble everything yourself.

[–] coriza@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Also people who like to DIY seem to forget that a lot of people want a turn-key solution, I even dare to say that most people prefer a ready made solution. Even a lot of people who work in tech when they get home want a just work solution.

[–] ours@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And a lot of the prebuilts have a ton of cut corners. A well put-together machine that people can trust to play their games at a base performance could be great for those who don't want or can't DIY.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

PCs suffer from massive hardware fragmentation. It's about time someone made a standardized PC.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Eh, I dont want steam machine becoming a standardized PC.

having CPU and GPU baked into the board and unchangable will just increase e-waste cause it will age out much faster than a PC which you could, 3-4 years down the line, max out the CPU in, throw more ram into, or upgrade teh GPU, to keep it relevant for another 4+ years

It serves its niche purpose, but it should not become standard.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago

A good APU solution like in the consoles would be a nice option though. Especially now with RAM prices through the roof again.

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Nail On The Head.

I work in tech. I also have terrible dexterity. While I love my gaming PC, I dread upgrades or things going wrong. I hate applying thermal paste, replacing a motherboard, etc. I’d gladly pay “prebuilt” prices for something from a company I can “trust” (as far as corporations can be trusted).

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Yup, I love DIY, had tons of fun building my wife's mini-itx gaming rig, my NAS and even my desktop (although it was the boring one of the three since it's just standard). I love poking on my system, trying out stuff, etc. But I bought a Deck and my only mod was getting EmuDeck in it, it just works for what I want it to, and that's worth a lot to me, it allows me to pour my time on stuff I want to be building and just game on my gaming boxes.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

A thousand dollars seems fantastically reasonable for a well-engineered home-gaming machine that can play current gen PC games at high quality. I spend that much every several years on upgrading or building a new PC.

My complaint is not the price, I think the price is fair. Let's talk wages.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Let's talk wages.

Absolutely agreed, if every company had wages at the level Valve does it would be very good.

[–] Ricaz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago (12 children)

LTT will try to build one

Time for another video of Linus failing to follow basic instructions and going out of his way to break the OS because Linux gaming bad

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah, but to be fair that was a shitty thing the system did, anyone with experience would know not to do it, but honestly it should have never happened. On the other hand, Linus is a bit daft and lots of stuff blows over his head monumentally, in the same video where he said he would be building a Steam Machine he also couldn't seem to grasp that this is just a computer and people would see it as a prevuilt. In short I don't think he will acknowledge lots of the killer features in the Steam Machine just so he can claim his thing does the same. But at least it will be an interesting watch.

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[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

failing to follow basic instructions and going out of his way to break the OS

Otherwise known as a typical behaviour of majority of users

[–] Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

Good thing his team has a few linux nerds. So unlike that challenge where he was alone, here his team would work on it.

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[–] Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Buying the same build as a prebuilt brings a premium and costs around 1000

For 1k you can get a 9600 9060XT 16gb system, which is waaaaaay more powerful, so this is quite an exaggeration.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (7 children)

A prebuilt plug-and-play device? Can you share a link to that?

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[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Consoles are sold at a loss, and they recover it with games because the platform is closed.

Sometimes, but evidently not currently. Sources seem to indicate that only Microsoft seems to say they are selling at a loss, though it seems odd since their bill of materials looks like it should be pretty comparable to PS5...

I'll agree with the guess of around $800, but like you say, the supply pressure on RAM and storage as well as the tariff situation all over the place, hard to say.

[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

...LTT will try to build one...

Jay already tried. It was bigger, didn't have the custom OS, and cost $1700. He could have done better except he was part limited to what rhe Microcenter he was at had on hand. Doing a bunch or research and getting different parts would probably bring down the price.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

With all of that being said, it seems to me it’s very likely it will be around 800 but less than 1000

maybe more with the way ram prices are skyrocketing.. because even though it comes out next year, they are probably being manufactured and stockpiled right now.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yup, like I said, it depends on how prices will fluctuate, my guess is what the price would be if it was being sold now, if RAM increases they would have to compensate for it.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Yep, and since it has both system ram AND dedicated gddr graphics ram.. its gonna be double dipped in the price gouging by the memory manufacturers

[–] PhAzE@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago
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