• Costing…how much?

    I can compare a city car with a super car.
    Obviously has no merit but hey: Who cares ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • 10 hours

    It is impossible to have better performance than the Steam Machine, because the Steam Machine doesn’t even exist yet !

    • Yeah, I mean… This is just “company releases Linux gaming pc” and just noting that it has a better graphics card than the Steam Machine.

    • 8 hours

      Ackshually there have been a few Steam Machines sold back when they were introduced. They should be horribly outdated by now.

  • 11 hours
    • AMD Ryzen 5 - 6 CPU cores, 65 W TDP
    • AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB
    • 16 GB DDR4-3600 RAM single-channel
    • 512 GB M.2 SSD with spare M.2 2280 slot
    • 600 W PSU
    • 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless

    $1,139

    I haven’t kept up with hardware prices but this seems fair to me.

    • You can do way more performance than that for not much more money, if you’re willing to try something unorthodox in a different way:


      AOOSTAR Gem 12 Max Mini PC

      $580 ($550 for Amazon simps)

      CPU: Ryzen 7 8745HS ( 8C / 16T / base 3.8 Ghz / max 5.10 Ghz)

      (approximately multi thread performance equivalent to a Ryzen 5 9600 AM5 socket)

      RAM: 24 GB DDR5

      SSD: 1TB

      Power: Max draw 70w (on its own)

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GGB5L9P7/?psc=0


      XFX RX 9070 OC (16 GB GDDR6)

      $640

      Power: ~220w

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXLBTL4B/?psc=1


      EG01 OCulink eGPU Dock

      $100

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1STZM7H/?psc=1


      ASRock PRO-650 G PSU

      $50

      Power: 650w (way more than what you need)

      Gold Rated

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FSTL4VDZ/?psc=1


      Total pretax cost: ~$1370

      Cost %: +~17% compared to Playnix

      50% more RAM, also its DDR5

      100% more SSD capacity

      GPU 3DBenchmark = +~60%

      OCuLink is at worst gonna knock 5%-10% off of performance/fps, compared to similar hardware just connected directly via PCIe 16.

      … should basically crush almost anything at 1440p, if you turn off RT when you want higher fps.

      Or you can maybe find a cheaper 9070, or perhaps go with a 500w PSU, which is still more than enough, to lower that total cost a bit.

    • Do feel like 512GB isn’t a lot these days. Especially with bigger libraries.

      • My minimum for a games drive is 1TB.
        I don’t have a Gbit in download speeds. So I don’r want to download games every 5 days just so I can play something else.

      • 11 hours

        Probably not a solution for everyone but the steam deck really got me on SD Cards. An external reader would still suck, but I love how cheap you can find 512gb - 1tb sd cards. Very easy to travel with as well.

        • Do you run them from the SD cards or just install them onto the main machine from there?

          Sorry for the Starter questions but ive been out of the non-console game for about 20 years.

          • 8 hours

            For my deck specifically i keep em all on the SD Card, somehow valve made it so that I personally don’t see a difference between nvme and sdcard.

            For my pc yes, I just use it to transfer to my gaming ssd/nvme storage, but thats primarily because my internet is slowerthan the transfer rates.

            I probably wouldn’t try running helldivers on my pc through an external card for instance, but it would work perfectly on my deck in that form.

      • 11 hours

        There’s another slot for storage and you might be able to replace the primary drive, like I did with my Legion Go. You should be able to do 4 TB, even more if there’s a SD card slot.

    • 9 hours

      Is there an option to order it without the 8BitDo controller?

  • Just sayin, Steam Machine hasnt been released yet, the specs might change and the software also makes a big difference.

  • 11 hours

    I mean, you will almost certainly be able to build machines that outperform the Steam Machine 2 in bang-for-buck if Valve isn’t subsidizing it, which they said that they won’t. If not at release, then a few years in, because a console-style periodic hardware release model will lag whatever’s at the bleeding edge.

    The desktop I’m typing this on isn’t gonna be cheaper than the Steam Machine 2, but it is unquestionably going to be more powerful.

    But that’s not gonna be what the Steam Machine is for — you could always build a DIY gaming PC, unlike with consoles. It’s an open platform. I had a media PC plugged into my TV with a TV interface card a quarter-century back. What Valve is gonna be aiming for is going to be ease of use, the “you plug it into your TV, plug it into power, turn on gamepad, play games that target Steam Machine 2” thing. That’s where consoles have been able to pick up users that haven’t done the PC.

    • 9 hours

      Also the real goal with it, like with the Deck, is to set a standard for what hardware games should run well on for the next several years, and to give PC manufacturers a target for what to match or improve on.

      And I definitely hope that wake from controller can get standardized as a result from this (Bluetooth LE 5.5 extension anyone?) because you’ll see other manufacturers try to build it into their machines too

      Also just generally revamp Bluetooth HID profiles for latency

    • Also, I am pretty sure the steam machine is smaller than I was able to achieve in my efforts to make a tiny gaming PC for the living room. That kind of thing can only be done at great effort.

  • 10 hours

    Good photo. Was wondering how much space it would take. While the 9060xt is significantly better than the 7600m and FSR4, that Steam Machine is beautifully compact. No rush. Still hard to decide this or that. Also the SM coming with the Steam controller is a major plus even though 8bitdo gamepads are great

  • This is interesting; specs look pretty solid for the price. Notably this uses DDR4 ram vs. the DDR5 in the Steam Machine which, given the current… situation… probably contributes a lot to the price point seeming reasonable.

    • Also 600W is likely several times more power draw than the Steam Machine is aiming for, however much that might matter to someone.

      • 11 hours

        600W with that form factor? This thing is gonna be louder than a PS4

        • 10 hours

          No Ryzen 5 is more than 95W, and the 9060 is a 200W card.

          They could easily get away with a 400W PSU, similar to a PS5.

  • If it can outperform the steam machine, nice The question is, is it gonna be a console-like experience? Just plug and play?

    Having the most powerful hardware won’t matter at all if we can’t figure out a way to make people who aren’t tech savy be able to just sit down and play on it, without needing to know what Proton is.

    The appear (AFAIK) of the Steam Machine, is this, you plug it in, grab the controller and go play, even if it doesn’t have the most top-of-the-line hardware, being hassle free is a huge win over any other. Specially given how now, the Xbox, the PlayStation and the Switch 2 are direct competition. And they’re simple for a end-user who isn’t tech savy (well… Subjective, I find the Xbox UI to be a convoluted mess)

    • 4 hours

      If you install SteamOS on it, wouldn’t it be as plug-and-play as the Steam Deck?