Steam Machine PC build

[MBH38]

Hi Guys

I am looking for small factor PC alternate to the steam machine which hasn't set the world on fire with it's cost vrs performance reviews.

I will be running steam OS so it would need to be an AMD GPU (preferably with 16gb vram) and I do have 64gb of DDR4 ram that has never been used so would be nice for MOBO to support that.

I am looking at Max £1k for parts/case etc.

Thanks in advance and look forwards to seeing so great build ideas =)

 

[Brackish]

You are quite limited to B550 and X570 It's boards. Might be an idea to sell the DDR4 and pickup 32gb DDR5 on AM5 with something like a Ryzen 9600 and a RX 9060XT, the case is down to you and what floats your boat.
Dont forget most GPU sizes need to be considered if going SFF.

 

[Gray2233]

What sort of size limitations are we talking about here?

Are you willing to go second hand?

What is the configuration of the RAM and specs, is 4x16 or 2x32? Either way, selling it and getting 32gb of DDR5 is probably the better route overall.

How stringent is your budget? If you were willing to go with M-ATX rather than ITX you could build a hugely more powerful machine for around the £1100 mark assuming your RAM costs are covered.

If you sold the DDR4 and bought 32gb of DDR5, you could potentially be looking at a 9070XT/32gb DDR5/Ryzen 7500X3D for in the region of £1100-1200 which is an order of magnitude more powerful than the Steam Machine but will be a larger form factor.

See here for a quick throw together (this assumes you've already covered RAM costs, but it would require you to sell your DDR4):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Extreme CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-06823) = £24.95
• 1 x Lian Li A3 mATX White (SKU: CAS-LIA-02353) = £54.95
• 1 x Sapphire B650M-E (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05695) = £79.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A750GL ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 750W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-013-MS) = £74.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D Six Core 4.5GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-06394) = £199.99
• 1 x Asus Radeon RX 9070 XT Prime OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ASU-04155) = £555.00
• 1 x ADATA 860 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-ADA-07787) = £124.99

Total: £1,127.86 (includes delivery: £12.99)​

There is some cost cutting, but nothing in a way that would see you running cheap/bad components, more a case of a little more money goes a long way (2tb NvME vs 1tb etc).

If you drop down to a 9060XT 16GB you'd comfortably be under the £1000 mark.

The Lian Li A3 is a lovely case (there's a bunch of different colours and setups) and on the smaller side as most M-ATX's go, but if you really want a super small form factor you'd be looking at ITX and that might be a struggle for a grand. A smaller system commands a higher price, it's one of the main things the Steam Machine has going for it despite its price tag in all honesty.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

Agreed, the lianli A3 is a great case. That build should decimate the performance of the steam machine.

Strange really as on one of the video reviews of a steam machine they said that if you build a system it would be around the same price/performance. Well you wont get the nice little form factor of the Steam Machine but you will get a significant uplift in performance for similar price. Even reducing to 9060XT 16Gb would perform a lot better.

 

[will13]

Strange really as on one of the video reviews of a steam machine they said that if you build a system it would be around the same price/performance.

Yeah it's a bit fishy really considering even prebuilts you can get a 5060 one for similar price

 

[TheVoice]

Yeah it's a bit fishy really considering even prebuilts you can get a 5060 one for similar price

What size case though? As much as I think the Steam Machine might be too small and potentially drove up Valve's costs as a result, there's a lot of "I built a Steam Machine beater for less!" claims going about which unfortunately miss the point of a compact, console-sized system to fit on a shelf of a TV unit.

 

[jigger]

What configuration is the memory you have?

 

[MBH38]

What configuration is the memory you have?

FURY BEAST DDR4 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 PC4-28800 Desktop DIMM Memory 288-pin

 

[MBH38]

Just remebered I have a 3080 TI in an old pc, so may use that and opt for an alternate O/S than Steam O/S. I should really look at what other gubbings are in that, know that is it only DDR Mobo as that's what I bought the memory for. . .I will update once I check it out (when it is a little cooler)

 

[tamzzy]

Just remebered I have a 3080 TI in an old pc

the 3080ti uses a lot of power, you could run it in a small form factor pc, but realistically you would probably want a well ventilated MATX case as a minimum

 

[dunno]

I went down the route if going full sff. I tried a 3080ti in a Lian li A4 H20. Had to undervolt it a fair bit for it not to be too loud. I had 2 fans extracting air out of the top. If doing sff you'll also need an sfx PSU. Corsair SF series are your best bet as the cables are easy to route. You'll also need to undervolt the CPU in an ssf build so it doesn't thermal throttle. You also have to keep an eye out for the height of the CPU cooler. A lot of people go for the thermalright axp90-x47 or x53. In terms of am4 itx motherboards there are options but the best you can get new is a Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX or the ASRock B550M-ITX.

Before the a4h20 I had a TU150 which meant I could use a tower cooler. Weirdly the A4 h20 was quieter as I think top exhaust fans helped the 3080ti cool better, as the tu150 only had one exhaust fan which I had to run at a high speed.

The sff forum here is pretty dead, Reddit has loads of people talking about sff builds and cases etc so it can lead you down some sff rabbit holes.

 

[dunno]

I have no idea how to make the pictures pop up

here is an overview of the smallest sff cases you can go for on OCUK plus the recommended psu and get your self a couple nice quiet 120mm fans. These are "sandwich" cases where the graphics card and motherboard are back to back.
My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Lian Li A4-H2O PCIe 5.0 Mini-ITX Case - Black (SKU: CAS-LIA-07337) = £129.95
• 1 x Lian Li A4-H2O PCIe 5.0 Mini-ITX Case - Silver (SKU: CAS-LIA-07338) = £129.95
• 1 x Jonsbo T9 Mini-ITX SFF Case - PCIe 5.0 - Silver (SKU: CAS-JON-07502) = £149.98
• 1 x Fractal Design Terra Mini-ITX Case - Jade (SKU: CA-0B0-FD) = £173.96
• 1 x Corsair SF Series SF750 750W ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 80 Plus Platinum Modular SFX Power Supply (SKU: POW-CRS-02468) = £119.95
• 1 x Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 Chromax Black PWM Fan - 120mm (SKU: COO-NOC-08425) = £30.95

​

plus you need a low profile cooler as mentioned before (AXP90 X47 or 53 "Full" version - its made of copper and cools better).

if you want more room to work with there are these:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Antec Performance 1 M Black M-ITX case - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-04167) = £129.95
• 1 x Lian Li PC-TU150WX Aluminium Mini-ITX Case - Black Window (SKU: CA-77J-LL) = £88.95
• 1 x Lian Li PC-TU150A Aluminium Mini-ITX Case - Silver (SKU: CA-783-LL) = £80.00

​

The antec is a sandwich style case with loads of room. TU150 can take full size cpu coolers - look at the litres spec of cases to get an idea of how much space there is to work with.

If you want to go more premium / fiddly then google ncase T1 or formd t1. That is sandwich case but you have to piece it together and really take into account the total of the gpu and cpu cooler. The formd website has a handy info graphic which show you the dimensions you can get away with depending on the height of the graphics card.

I recently down sized from a TU150 to a A4H20 and a T1. A4h20 was easier to work in as there is no fiddling about with a movable spine, I’m been constantly tinkering with the t1 as its really versatile but can be quite fiddly...

Since you are in the new to pc gaming and upgrade advice forum it would be easier to work with the larger cases but give yourself the option of down sizing by going for the sff psu.


So price overview

	Cheap AM4 itx	Expensive AM4 itx	AM5 cheap itx	AM5 expensive itx
case	90	180	90	180
psu	114	134	114	134
fans	10	60	10	60
motherboard	80	140	179	179
cpu	119(5600x)	300(5800x3d)	199 (7500x3d)	199 (7500x3d)
cpu cooler	0	30	0	30
ram			200 (16gb ddr5)	200 (16gb ddr5)
nvme	0 (assuming you have a spare one)	125	0 (assuming you have a spare one)	125
gpu
total	413	969	792	1107

and remember if you sell your ddr4 and 3080ti you can put towards stuff.