I got a place on the 512GB with Controller list, and got an email a few days after they started. I ordered it on Friday the 3rd and got it today on Thursday the 9th. The tracking codes were all over the place and gave different estimates depending which branch of each company I used. Steam claimed it was shipped when the courier said they hadn’t got it so I was worried for a few days. But this morning Royal Mail (UK customer) sent me an email saying it would arrive today, while GLS said it would arrive tomorrow.

Safe to say I’m happy to have it now and be playing games!

  • 45 minutes

    Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. Tell me what’s the first game you’re going to play! :)

  • Congratulations! Even though they are overpriced, they are the right size and wife approved aesthetically. They are also more functional than a console. I still want one. But I got waitlisted hardcore. I hope you enjoy yours. Do write up your first impressions and a detailed review after you’ve had some runtime with it. It’ll help us less fortunate souls decide to wait out the waitlist, or go build something on our own cheaper but less slick looking :)

    • I got mine yesterday. Copying my thoughts from a comment in another thread:

      Don’t mind my essay here. TLDR: I love this thing.

      I got mine yesterday. It’s the 512GB with no controller since I already got the controller separately and the 2TB version felt like an especially bad deal.

      I was initially on the fence about the price and reserved just to get into the queue to make the actual buy decision later. I was expecting more people to have thoughts on it out before my spot in the queue came up, but I ended up getting my purchase email very quickly on 6/30. I let the email sit for a day but ended up deciding to pull the trigger for a few reasons:

      One, I’ve owned every first-party Valve device so far, and all of them have been more than the sum of their parts. Two, I wanted a HTPC, travel, and LAN party PC that’s a bit less restraining than a laptop. Three, being a bit of a performance snob has been distracting me away from actually gaming and I wanted to get back into the no nonsense side of PC gaming again. And four, I don’t mind spending a little extra money advancing Linux, repairable hardware, etc.

      I feel like I have to acknowledge reviews from the PC space have been largely negative, but they seem to be undervaluing a lot: the form factor (a 6" cube is still tiny compared to almost all other SFF builds), performance per volume (almost the entire cube is a heat sink), and the benefits of more standard performance targets we’ve already seen with the Deck.

      As for first impressions, the device is packaged well, and unboxing was very satisfying. I did have some trouble getting my controller paired since it was already paired to my existing desktop PC and plugging it in directly wasn’t enough to get around that like I expected, but looking up how to pair it to multiple PCs got me past that.

      I spent a few hours testing a mix of light to demanding games, and I’m more than happy with what it can do. I haven’t tried gaming beyond 1080p yet, but I’m going to be very selective about when and how I do that. 512GB is proving to be plenty of space for what I’m playing at any one time, and I think that would still be true if I didn’t have other devices acting as additional storage.

      I feel like all my expectations above have been validated, and now I’m really looking forward to getting the Frame. I want to make a travel backpack or suitcase with foam cutouts for the whole set.

    • 3 hours

      I will not call it overpriced because the current PC market is crazy because of AI. Even Valve isn’t happy with the price.

      Overpriced would mean that Valve would be making a significant profit. They will not.

      • Yeah, the fact that they are using bespoke parts, but still barely come in above the independent build cost tells me that they aren’t raking billions off of this. I’m fine with the price. Expensive, yes, but so is everything else.

        • 29 minutes

          My main issue with it is that’s it’s not upgradable and does not support eGPUs.

        • It is ‘overpriced’ compared to a desktop in the same way laptops are ‘overpriced’ compared to desktops. Making things smaller increases cost, especially when there is a lot of heat dissipation needed.

        • Yeah the real money is on the backend when people can now impulse buy games from their couch

      • They are overpriced and the current PC market is also overpriced.

      • I want to see what Sony and Microsoft price theirs at and how much of a loss it will be for them.

        • Sony can afford to discount on the promise of online sales and planned cost reduction. I’m not sure Microsoft are going to manage another Xbox.

  • What was the email subject line, if you’d be so kind as to share? I’m in the queue too and wanted to add an email rule to flag when that email eventually shows up.

    • This was mine:

      You’re officially in the reservation queue for Steam Machine 2TB

      I assume if you do not put the 2TB, you’ll hit any of the variations you have selected… unless they change it.

      I passed on the reservation. 2TB is the worst variation because you’re paying the $300 extra for a 2TB nvme drive, and you don’t get the controller for $80 that retails for $100 and ebays for $300 (not that i’ve ever sold anything on ebay… but if i’m getting f’d by memory prices I want my purchase to be worth it vs the value. 2TB nvme drive for $300 more than a 512gb one is absolutely not worth it even with modern prices.

      edit: another one you should probably look for is the 72 hour timer email

      Please confirm your Purchase Information for Steam Machine 2TB

      is the second email I got letting me know I had the 3 days remaining.

      • That looks like the email you get when you initially reserve it. I think we’re looking for the email subject line for the “Its time to buy it” email so we don’t miss it. I’m interested in that one too.

        On the initial Steam Deck, there was a popup in Steam itself as well when it was time to buy, i’d be curious if that’s still the case.

        • Please confirm your Purchase Information for Steam Machine 2TB

          that was the subject line for the “you have 72 hours” email.

          Additionally it shows up in your steam cart until you buy it or remove it. I had a game in my cart and went into the cart a day later and they were both in there.

      • I got my controller and I really like it

        For whatever most games map the Nintendo controller wrong. Steam Controller pretty much just works, and it’s so much more reliable than Bluetooth.

  • Congrats! I purchased mine the 3rd (also a 512 + controller) and am expecting delivery today. Currently shows as “Loaded on delivery vehicle”. Happy unboxing!!