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I can build a better PC for less money
Can you?
First of all, Valve has not even announced a price yet. Everything is still pure speculation.
Second, have you seen the price of GPU’s, RAM, and SSD’s these days? Consumers for gaming PC parts are competing for supply with industrial buyers now. AI is hoovering all the supply up with the backing from private equity. The GPU market never fully recovered from the cryptocurrency era either.
I’ve been wanting to build a new mid-range gaming PC for years now. I’ve kept an eye on prices. I spent ~$1k on a machine in 2019, with the GPU costing a mere $175. Nowadays a comparable tier of GPU starts at $600, and the cost fo a mid-tier machine is over $1,500, getting closer to $2,000 with the RAM and SSD prices.
Valve can get better bulk pricing on components. Their primary profit center is software sales, and it’s really hard to sell software when no one can afford hardware. So Valve is incentivized to design these machines that are resistant to being scalped or scrapped for specific components, and to sell them for relatively low margin in order to drive game sales. We already saw this with the Steam Deck- it was hardware that could play games without mining crypto.
I do think the RAM and maybe SSS supply could throw a wrench into Valve’s plans though. Just because if the prices go high enough, people could start buying steam machines to rip out the RAam modules and sell them separately. But we are nowhere near that level of RAM pricing yet.
OK but who said that the RAM isnt firmly soldered?
Gamer’s Nexus has reported that it is upgradeable SO-DIMM modules, though they did not confirm whether it is 1 or 2 sticks.
Okay, thx for clarify.
I’ll repeat what others likely mentioned before:
Valve specifically chose to build a mid range PC, so more people can afford it.
Also they priced it in a way where it’s still affordable while offering the convenience of not having to build it yourself. The majority of people never built a PC themselves, nor do they want to.
i think i must be their target audience because i’m excited as hell for the steam machine. i have no desire to build my own, i just want to play my steam games on my big tv. that’s it. they’re making that easy.
Not disagreeing with any of this, but it’s not like people who don’t build PC’s dont have plenty of options of prebuilt ones from either high end 3rd party stores as well as low end ones. To me it’s just another option to add to a long list which due to the company name will definitely sell more than the others right off the bat.
The key difference is that the Steam Machine can be controlled 100% for the controller with a OS built to be controlled by the controller, and seen on a TV.
Windows doesn’t do that. It fuckin sucks to see on a TV because the UI is so small, and the controller only works in-game.
I am most excited for the OS progress. I will be putting whatever on my living room pc as soon as it’s released. I can’t stand using a mouse and keyboard in the living room and having to scoot close to the TV
Maybe its the games I have played but my last pc was connected to my tv exclusively for 5 years and never saw that UI issue. I definitely had issues that sometimes needed addressing, but that wasnt one. I thought it worked good enough, but yeah the keyboard and mouse was always annoying. I used the Logitech all in one which was pretty small and mouse pad on the right side from the couch. For the most part I used it more for video playback though so I was in Kodi a lot and I would then use my phone as the remote control.
The games are rarely the issue. It’s the OS in between the games, switching between games on Steam Big Picture and then to Jellyfin or similar for media, a web browser, and so on. You can do it with a wireless mouse or trackpad, but it’s a bit of a pain. SteamOS will presumably have a better UI for that.
Yeah I have 2 sound devices. And Windows chooses randomly every single time it resumes from Sleep, or Power Off.
My option if I don’t want to get a keyboard/mouse is to hold the Power button ot the controller for up to 10s and use the right analog to maneuver the mouse, and R1 to left click. There is no right -click best I can see.
If I hold the button for over 10s then the controller shuts off.
What a shit ass system. Who picks a key combo with the power button?
Choose: Big, bulky, shining with full RGB spectrum monster (low-end)
Or small funny box that Just Works.
Lol, I also hate the RGB as well. I built mine a few years ago and it was annoying how badly it is just integrated into most parts now. Some had options where I could buy the same part without it, but some it was either buy it with it or get something else that was either lower end or higher end and not what I wanted at all. In the end it has a low glow and I just face that open window at a wall. Why can’t everything have a boring option like noctua fans.
To me the Steam Machine looks more like it’s supposed to be a console type deal. Like what the Steam Link was supposed to be.
Especially if you mainly use it with the Big Picture mode of Steam OS
But the Steam Box comes with Linux so it must better :)
Options is the key word. Options means no “one” has a monopoly.
from my wife - we sit in front of a computer all damn day. we don’t want to sit in front of a computer all damn night too. we want to sit down in front of our TV and play games together in the evening. we just want it to work. we’ve built PCs and we have no interest in cobbling something together and supporting it for it’s lifetime. don’t act like that doesn’t come with a huge cost of time.
100% This, I work in IT all day. The last thing I want to do with my personal time is build and support a home built machine attached to my TV that my kids or wife will use to watch Netflix or play a few games. Especially if I am out of town and something stops working.
That’s why I own a PlayStation and pay a premium for their games on an inferior platform compared to PC. It generally just works with out me having to fuck with it all the time. I’d get a Steam box for the same reason.
…it doesn’t come with a huge cost of time. Literally no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. Where is the time cost?
You just buy a new PC every time you have a driver issue, huh?
That would necessitate doing things other than playing video games on your pc
Driver issue??
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You can literally just move the computer? I have a computer in my living room. In fact that is where it stays all day everyday.
But if you don’t want to physically move it. You can run a single fiber optic cable, or if you have Ethernet - connect a balun at the PC and at the TV…
It is so bizarre that even when something like this is announced, a unique phenomenon in gaming and modern pc history, which is sure to make a lot of pc linux converts because of its accessibility, the pc linux masterrace is still being gatekeeping about it.
I remember that guy on hacker news who said Dropbox would never take off because he could build something similar with rsync. He’s not wrong, people who looked for something rsync could solve continued just use rsync. Meaning, people who want to build a PC for less will continue to build a PC less. The Steam Box isn’t for people who want to build a pc for less, though.
Have they announced a price yet?
Nope, it’s fucking hilarious how they already go crazy about the price and the bad stats with nothing concrete being announced yet.
I’m not worried about the stats since it’s better than my rig lol, but with ram and other hardware prices increasing, it does worry me a little that it could flop due to the price.
How do you not get it? Didn’t you buy an eggs box when you were a kid? What was in it? Eggs. Now this is the same thing but with Steam. Your just pretending you don’t get it.
Seriously. I have like 3 egg boxes. Can’t wait for all the Steam I could be putting in boxes.
Funny meme, but I would genuinely worry for the people who don’t understand the value proposal of a pre-built, console-like PC for Steam gaming. We will see if it’s worth it based on price and specs later, but the logic is definitely there, especially with MS, Sony and Nintendo dropping the ball so much.
By the time it arrives you won’t even be able to buy the memory for whatever the Steam Machine ends up costing.
I like the idea that it’s a targetable hardware profile personally.
Quite a bit of speculation in these comments considering we don’t even have a price yet
I would pay any price just so I have a pc with games only on it. I haven’t gamed in years cuz my pc is just too full of hobbies, video editing, photography, personal items, backups, movies, albums. Can’t game with all of that in my space.
A steam console where I can just lay in my chaise lounge and play some Terraria? Gosh yes
Steam box
It’s got what nerds crave!
Meh. You can’t beat the economy of scale with boutique retail PC part prices. That said, you’re probably going to get the min quality for specified performance.
Bro have you seen the prices for storage, graphics cards, memory? I’ll take 2 Steam whatever shape it is.
Its a *gabecube*
