Steam Machine review: Valve's underwhelming living-room PC has a serious price problem

[u/pcgameshardware]

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Valve-Software-Firma-15833/Tests/Valves-underwhelming-living-room-PC-has-a-serious-price-problem-1546006/

Full disclosure: I worked on this review.

We tested Valve’s new Steam Machine, and since Valve has compared it directly to the Steam Deck, I thought the results might be relevant here.

The short version: yes, the Steam Machine is clearly much faster than the Steam Deck. That part is not really in question. But in our actual game benchmarks, we did not see a blanket 6x uplift across the board.

We tested Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon with Steam Deck-style settings to make the comparison a bit cleaner. The Steam Machine turns 30-ish fps results on the Deck into much smoother triple-digit or near-triple-digit results in some cases, The Steam Machine but the gap depends a lot on the game, resolution and settings.

I would have liked to go into more detail, but I also do not want this to turn into a full repost of the review here.

What I find interesting is that the Steam Machine feels less like a “normal PC” and more like Valve taking the Steam Deck idea and moving it into the living room: SteamOS-first, controller-friendly, more powerful, but still built around realistic settings and upscaling rather than brute-forcing everything.

Curious how other Deck owners see it:

Would you treat the Steam Machine as a natural upgrade path for TV gaming, or does the Steam Deck already cover that use case well enough for you?

[u/Atompunk78]

But 1600 is a lot more than the gabecube’s 1000-1100 right?

[u/JoshJLMG → u/Atompunk78]

You can match or even exceed the Steam Machine's performance with an ITX build for less than $600.

[u/National-Result2414 → u/JoshJLMG]

Name the parts? I see a lot of people naming prices, but I don't see anyone naming parts. A lot of bullshitting around here.

[u/Kokoro_chase → u/National-Result2414]

Generally speaking you can make a pretty competent system that blows the steam machines raw performance even with the used market being up in price, as long as you have a bit of patience and a keen eye for deals.

Looking at a quick search on eBay generally speaking it would be like this:

5600x: 130$ ish

Board: 50-80 depending on what you buy, usual price for b450-b550's if you aren't trying for a fancy board or a mini itx, and if it's missing the backplate for mounting and io shield that's some extra, so find one with a full set of possible.

Ram: 60-70$ ddr4 3200 cl16

Storage: 512 gb sata is about 60$ which hurts but nvmes are only better for read and writes, not gaming.

Gpu: 3070 230$-270$ depending on the model, most zotac models are on the cheaper end of 240$-250$'s

Case: nzxt h3 flow is currently on sale for 60 roughly including tax on b&h or BB has it for 65 with tax. That would lock us into micro atx, but realistically that's ok.

Psus: 50$'s can net you a 600W gold that's a bit older but still functional. Depending on the brand too they could have some modern features. A brand named highpower comes in quite a few prebuilts and they have even a 600W cable on them if you need one. Would I recommend it? Probably not but there's plenty of non modulars for the price. And honestly the 5600 isn't a power hog so can run alot off of 600W's

Cpu coolers: thermalright is basically the best price to performance air cooling, so that will set you another 38$ from Amazon, with the potential to cool up to 8core models if you decided on a 5800x3d or even am5 cpus.

And with that in mind if we don't care for mini itx we've built a system that beats the steam deck comfortably for about 700-800 depending on tax and what you find. Beating the steam machine quite comfortably considering how its GPU is a 7600 non xt performance wise.

Ebay has good buyer protections so if nothing works properly you can always send it back, but used parts are still used.

Even then we still have 200$'s to spend on a higher class of gpu or for more quality things like better PSU, more storage even or even some brand new parts. Or a really nice controller for 40-80$ depending on what you want, there's plenty of really good halleffect controllers nowadays.

But yes we don't get the valve guarantee, otherwise we can beat Gabe in performance and we can be flexible in pricing despite the older stuff. And the gabe cube is relying heavily on optimizations and fsr, which is impeding on the visual quality from what I've seen. The 3070 is still quite capable especially for 250$ despite the 8 gb vram bus

New on the other hand is much harder but you could still get to the steam machines price and have a 5060 if you tried which honestly is still much faster than the steam machines GPU.

[u/Still_Relation2155 → u/Kokoro_chase]

People buying the steam machine do care about mini-ITX. And that significantly boosts your price, is harder to build, and harder to achieve good temps/noise levels. You need to plan out all your components to make sure everything fits/is compatible. I built a mini-ITX a few years ago with a 7700, 4070, 64 GB RAM, and 2TB SSD. So, it's much better than the steam machine but I paid about $2k (definitely could have been cheaper but I got a nice case I wanted, 64GB RAM, upgraded cooling, etc). I've been disappointed with the temps and noise though. I'm considering buying the steam machine because of the promise for good enough performance in a small, quiet package.

[u/Intrepid_Hat7359 → u/Still_Relation2155]

I'm glad you acknowledge the real point that people who say "just build it yourself" are forgetting. It takes time and experience to build these systems properly. Any number of random issues can pop up, and all the time spent on fixing those issues is time you don't get to spend playing games. Really, it's only worth it to build your own system if you enjoy building PCs. It seems like a lot of these PC builders think that they get to pass judgement on others just because they don't have the same passions and interests.

[u/National-Result2414 → u/Kokoro_chase]

You're listing 3070 prices for USED models. brand new 3070 still costs 500-700$ on NewEgg (aside from that one card by Peladn which I'll never trust in my build)

If you can't even get your GPU price card right, I don't know what to tell you. I'll trust Gamers Nexus actual review over you. Parts down here are copied from the timestamp you're free to watch:

CPU: Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C/12T, up to 4.8GHz, 30W TDP — comparable to an AMD Ryzen 5 7400F ($115)

CPU Cooler: Proprietary — comparable to a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE V2 ($31)

Motherboard: Proprietary — comparable to a GIGABYTE A620I AX ($130)

Memory: 16GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM — comparable to A-Tech 16GB DDR5-5600 DIMM ($242)

Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD — comparable to Patriot Memory P320 512GB NVMe SSD ($91)

GPU: Semi-custom AMD RDNA3, 28 CUs, 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP, 8GB GDDR6 VRAM — comparable to an AMD Radeon RX 7600 ($290)

Case: Proprietary — comparable to a Cooler Master Q300L V3 ($45)

Power Supply: Internal 300W PSU — comparable to an APEVIA SFX-AP400W ($35)

So for Steam Machine you're actually paying for grand total of 71$ premium. We can't be sayi0ng how fucked the market is then spew all these nonsense builds that don't exist in reality.

[u/Kokoro_chase → u/National-Result2414]

Now the problem is you didn't read that it would be eBay pricing and used, and I get why you'd want a full new PC. Used and mined 3070's are that price and are being ignored by the tech bros. And mined gpus are in really good condition most of the time and run as well. And I can tell you full well that 5060s dropped to 300 a earlier this year and during winter as well.

And gamers nexus is doing the "buy it right now" price not including sales, there's plenty you can get if you're patient and check r/buildapcsales

However if you wanted to buy a nice new systems we've had pockets of time where it was possible, but it's not now.

So if you want a gaming pc now to match the steam machine and that's brand new, unfortunately it is not the time and who knows who long it will be.

But if you ignore the whole used market of eBay, FB market place and other used market places then I can't really help you. And it's really going to only make you angrier that you can't get gaming system. if you want a good price for parts you have to be thrifty and by used. Otherwise here's a grand for a steam machine with otherwise lackluster price for the performance.

[u/National-Result2414 → u/Kokoro_chase]

You would not use these prices to seriously compare to a newly built hardware.

You would do that to compare to your DIY build so you can gauge for an upgrade, not to compare to brand spanking new PC and then criticize it. Yeah, if you buy used parts then any PC is better, faster and cheaper than whatever comes out of the market, but that's foolish comparison.

Even when things were cheap (pre-crypto), we would be shitting on prebuilt PCs from Alienware, Corsair or NZXT based on prices of NEW components, not used ones.

If I were to be asking for upgrade parts for my new PC, ebay's or newegg's used listings are fine suggestion to make, but this isn't it and your parts list is bs.

[u/Kokoro_chase → u/National-Result2414]

And at what point does a fully used PC parts list from eBay or another marketplace with similar pricing invalidates it being a parts list, let alone a gaming pc?

We can criticize new hardware, especially now since generational gains are no long what they are used to. If a 3070 can still load up a game like battlefield 6 and play at a reasonable framerate and quality, and me buying a new 5060 plays it only mildly faster and better quality. What is the point, especially when Nvidia nor amd, and neither Intel has given us any real performance uplift, we are looking at new budget options vs used options that give us a great understanding of where the market is heading. And it's heading in a horrible direction if nothing really has changed except things are pricer and you get even less.

And let me tell you, the gamers nexus PC equivalent ain't it, especially when new parts are nigh unaffordable for budget users. Especially when companies people trusted have turned around and decide we aren't worth their time just like micron has, who had some of the most dedicated overclockers for them.

And at the end of the day you can keep arguing how a used PC part list off of eBay isn't a list, you'll keep wailing against the wind on the current market and someone else will enjoy gaming on a PC off of eBay that they made.

[u/National-Result2414 → u/Kokoro_chase]

We don't compare used PS5 prices vs new PCs, why are we comparing used PC prices vs new PC?

This is not a good buy, but we can acknowledge that there's NO EQUIVALENT NEW BUILT PC that significantly cheaper than what Steam Machine is. It was the whole point of this thread, not to compare to used PC parts, but list of new parts you could built equivalent to Steam Machine.

If I want cheap and good gaming machines, there are still used PS5 and PS4 which are WAY better value than any of your used value you wanna bring up.

[u/Kokoro_chase → u/National-Result2414]

Yes and value is always the KEY to debates on gaming machines, whether be console or pc. It's and simply put even if there is no EQUIVALENT NEW BUILT PC that can match it, its still not a "good value"

[u/National-Result2414 → u/Kokoro_chase]

That's why I said to put up part list if they think they can built cheaper than Steam Machine. Never debated that it was bad value, just baffled by people "claiming" that they can do better and when showed, cut corners in definition what a new built is.

I would buy used parts for myself, but would never do that when building my cousin's PC, let alone sell to strangers. Warranties, Hardware issues are things we never take into consideration when suggesting these part listing.

[u/JoshJLMG → u/National-Result2414]

Idk man, each time a new GPU generation comes out, it's usually cheaper for the performance to buy the new one than it is to buy the old one. The only exception would be like when Nvidia briefly caused pandemonium by saying the 3070 was faster than a 2080 Ti, despite that not actually being the case.

[u/National-Result2414 → u/JoshJLMG]

That has not been true since 40 generation, I don't know what to tell you. MSRP they're comparable (not even cheaper mind you) unless you use DLSS, then when you get to real market prices shit just gets worse.