Well, basically, I wrote out a whole brainstorming session, but it boils down to this:

The Steam Machine case is way too small to be a general PC case.

Its smaller and more compact than even most small form factor, ITX, homebuilt or custom built PCs, that have actual inbuilt, like fullsize desktop GPU graphics capability.

But!

If Valve, or somebody, reworked the internal MoBo to have more of a pure CPU type onboard chip, with SODIMM sys RAM, not an APU with LPDDR RAMlike what we see here... and then also gave it a Thunderbolt port, or hell, maybe just a second SSD slot, which you could then use an OcuLink with...

Well, now you have roughly a system box, that shunts off the GPU part into an eGPU box, sitting next to it.

That would/could allow you to basically plug in any fullsize desktop GPU you want, down to a a less expensive, laptop grade or whatever.

So thats basically a laptop + eGPU setup, and would allow you to, within the main system, upgrade RAM and storage mem as you please, and that should, theoretically, be able to fit into the Steam Machine case, or something very close to it.

Then you just have a second box next to it with a second power supply, that seats some kind of GPU, and connects via thunder bolt or oculink, which can do data transfer at speeds/bandwidths that you'd normally only see within/on the motherboard itself.

You can see that each face is about the size an adult male's hand, so it's about 6" per edge

You know what's fucking funny? I went to search for that on Tumblr and found this fucking post from ELEVEN YEARS AGO.

Bro was not given the dodgeball of prophecy nicely, he got straight up sniped in the dome by Apollo with a 90 MPH shot LMAO

Some are estimating around $800, but Steam has commented that affordability is a primary focus.

I feel like they've got to beat console prices. I'm hoping we see prices similar to steam deck at launch complete with varying tiers.

Me too. I'm not really into VR but I definitely want the GabeCube.

All hail to the GabeCube!

100% confirmed

Imagine. Product is released, people buy the Steam Machine, and Half-Life 3 is just... there. Preinstalled on some of the units. The buyers post it on the internet and get called bullshitters. Then Half-Life 3 is officially announced the next day. The internet loses it. Gaben ascends to godhood. He. Has. Cooked.

Not myself no, but, you may have some luck with Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, which is available at... well, you know where.

The Machine, the desktop/living room console... It has a 300W PSU. GN has the Valve designer saying its generally just a tad over 200W of draw.

So uh... that's practically nothing, you could probably actually power that out of a homebuilt steam turbine + power station (like for solar panels, home backup power unit type thing).

For reference, an Nvidia 5090 needs 575W... just by itself.

An AMD 9070, non XT, on its own, uses 220W, approximately what the entire Steam Machines uses.

The Steam Machine does not even have a 3 prong connector.

Its just two, like a power brick for a console.

So we have SolarPunk gaming now, I guess?