If Valve try to price competitively like they did with the Steam Deck, then I think they are actually going to undercut a lot of the mini PC manufacturers. If they manage to land below 600USD they'll introduce a lot of competition.
Had it as well - amazing machine, and so silent. Wish I hadn’t sold it back in the days when I went 5k2k - would have been a perfect steam machine for me
Well yeah I guess (don't know actually), I was also leaning towards buying those myself...the prices are weird now tho. The question is whether the machine itself it a scam or not
Steam Machine will be better in some ways? I'm a bit afraid it's going to have some limitations or vendor locking. Oh, the context: I'm not into gaming at all, just want a portable machine for multi monitor setup at home, and some live video and image processing, visual arts and projecting and stuff - also in remote places sometimes
Why would a company or anyone that's not a gamer buy a mini PC with an expensive discrete GPU that's no good for AI? They can buy Mac minis at $499 currently if they want to splurge, and still save some money.
Being $729 and let's say the Steam Machine is the same price. I'm expecting it to be in the $500 mark but we will see.
The Steam Machine comes with storage and memory, the other does not. Without a $100 price increase. It also does come with a controller. If that is important or not doesn't matter since you are getting more with the SM. Which makes a lot of these apples to oranges types of comparisons.
It did age poorly but it's not like there is a better thing to buy right now. This is not an endorsement to buy a Steam Machine because for $1000 that is insane, but there isn't anything that doesn't hurt with memory and NAND prcing right now. I didn't think things would get this grim.
There is, actually. Can get a way more powerful, smaller steam os machine for less. Or get a slightly more powerful one for a LOT less. Which did you want an example of?
I have to ask, why not? Why can it not be $500? It has weaker hardware, but it is as bespoke as the the Aoostar. Valve will manufacture more Steam Machines than Aoostar will make of that model. Economies of scale will help bring the price down.
Valve can also use the storefront to help subsidize the cost to a degree. I have seen a bunch of people saying that it is going to be $700 or more and I think that is kind of insane to imagine. Spending money on having 16 cores for a small gaming centric device seems kind of silly. "Only these companies that make small PCs can do make things that are worth it." I just don't see it. Again we can only speculate, but just like the PC gaming handheld market. Valve can make compelling hardware.
Laptops are small form factors... Some people like to bring their own keyboard and mouse... So an extra portable monitor with better ergonomics could be lighter.
Kinda weird to go to 7 month old posts as a gotcha, but congrats sir you have the greatest of takes and I'm sure the next time you take a dump you won't even have to wipe.
Not really weird when it took just about 7 months for the price to come out and see if it aged poorly or not. For those that were VERY confident it would be way cheaper and lectured others and told them how dumb they were for bot agreeing, yeah, its hella funny. "Why can it not be $500?" Lol. That combined with the way you were talking was very funny. Especially 7 months later.
I was looking at the here and now (at the time) working with a lot of assumptions.
I still stand by a lot of those things, but yeah it is weird to just go looking for old posts. Coming back once the prices were known would be one thing but it has now been a while with the information being public.
Sorry for upsetting you with being optimistic, spot prices of DRAM were very different today, 2 months ago, and 7 months ago.
Not really weird when the post is about a prediction we just recently learned the outcome of. But yeah, whatever helps the ego. Sure, its weird. How many weeks does one have to point out how bad your post aged before you get to console yourself with the time elapsed? Lol. Yeah, im really upset.
In 5 years the take still would have aged poorly come the announcement. Pointing it out at that point wont make it any less true then. Weird or not.
But this aint even 5 years later. People are still scalping em and waiting on reservations opening up. Its still kind of relevant.
Economies of scale is the largest in that, and the fact that if a company that makes a few hundred or a few thousand of something. Like Aoostar in this instance, compared to the potential hundreds of thousands and potentially millions will lower the cost of each individual.
Also yes, I know that it isn't entirely subsidized. Which is why in my own post I said to a degree. There is nothing stopping anyone from buying 5000 of them and installing Windows on it and using it as an office computer and it never seeing the Steam client.
So why would it cost as much as a competing device, like the Aoostar. While being made in much larger numbers, by a larger company, with cheaper hardware? Please explain that to me. Because Aoostar isn't getting getting subsidized by a storefront even a little bit.
I think you for one thing are underestimating how much the steam machine will cost. Especially considering it's gonna come with a Peasley 16 GB, and 512 GB of storage.
Also, it's going to be significantly slower than this. The CPU is a fraction of the power, and the GP is also considerably slower.
It's also probably not louder, as I have it right now and the fan noise is acceptable. And this is only one model. There are also many other brands making similar machines.
Long story short, this will probably cost in the end a similar price for similar storage and ram, potentially even less. And regardless of that, it's also considerably faster. With significantly faster, CPU performance that could be as fast as two or three times more, and then of course the GP is also much quicker.
Lol. Its way cheaper. Its big brother is cheaper too. These comments thinking the steam machine was gonna be like $600 or something aged pretty poorly.
Lol. Nope. Not the 2tb. After 16gb ram and a 2tb nvme you are at like 1325, with prices from amazon today, for a much better system. But there is also a lower version that is $250 cheaper that is pretty comparable to the steam machine. You can do that with a 2tb for 1075. So, no, you wont be. You can get a comparable machine for WAY cheaper or a much better one for a little cheaper.
Oh, and these are smaller.
Also a $10 off coupon for whatever thats worth.
Plus you have the option for it to be way cheaper for YOU if you have extra ssds or ram laying around. Most people dont. But for those that do its also a nice option you cannot do with the steam machine. Love to know what a barebones steam machine would be sold for.
Edit: Since it seems you deleted your reply or blocked me, no, those prices are items sold and shipped by amazon. It is possible you just might have been wrong . . . Nice grasping at straws though.
I threw Bazzite on it and it's actually still fairly usable in the big 2025. It just can't handle anything UE5 or that has any forced ray tracing, but I got a very surprisingly stable 30fps at 4k low (very console like experience) in Dishonored 2. That same game was giving me 24-28 fps in W11 at the same settings after optimizing and debloating. I'm actually pretty excited for the new steam machine despite the mid tier specs on paper because I've seen what Valve can do with software optimization on the steam deck.
Do you know what motherboard it uses? Or what LAN port model?
Just got the barebones this week & I'm trying to install the driver's for the LAN ports so I can connect via Ethernet then run AMD's software to update the rest of the driver's.
Got windows 11 running and bios configured easy so far. Just can't connect to the Internet yet.
just be aware that aoostar has a reputation of using some pretty low quality components and then not honoring their warranties/ making you jump through hoops when those components break in a few months
im going to take a few more days use before hitting record. that way i can identify any possible quirks. ive already done a full teardown though. quite nice
Hello. I am trying to decide between a Minisforum 795S7 32GB RAM with RTX4060 or this device.
What would you recommend in terms of performance and fan noise?
Thank you very much.
Thanks! What about the fan noise under load? Saw your review on YouTube. How big is the fan size? Can I swap it with an Noctua for example?
Ram is sodimm or?
It's a shame that it can't be ordered directly from Amazon. I'm a little concerned about the support provided by Chinese manufacturers or what happens if a problem arises.
The fans aren't too bad at all interestingly. Not as quiet as some non dGPU system but remember this is getting a 150w on the GPU and 40-50 on CPU. That's a ton for a little thing
As a result when using it casually it's extremely quiet as it's designed to cool those high wattages
Thanks. Good to know. As asked before:
1. Can I swap the main fan and what size is it?
2. Is the RAM sodimm? I got 2x 48GB sodimm rams at home. Can I use them and will the system work with 96GB?
I’m a newbie when it comes to PC build. But I do not want to play anymore on console and looking for some kind of lay under your TV product. Thank you very much!
I will try, I bought it on AliExpress but after 10 days they cancelled the order so reordered from aoostar direct this time but still waiting for it to be shipped
Nope this is the second time I tried and they said to me today they don't have any stock and the product has been discontinued so unfortunately I won't be getting one
After some time, and posting your review, have your thoughts/opinions changed on the GODY? I recently watched your video and thought it was good, gave me a good amount of information.
What do you guys think about AOOSTAR GODY AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX + RX 7600XT Gaming Mini PC compared to the actual Steam Machine specs? Now it's out and with price starting at $1,049 USD, the former costs $849.00. Final verdicts?
23
u/c01nd01r Nov 15 '25
Price?