*** Valve Steam Machine ***

[49er]

Finally got around to setting it up which was as easy as expected. Decent length power and hdmi cables supplied - both uk and 2 pin plugs were in the box. I plugged her into my lg 42 c3.

Seriously slick and gorgeous piece of kit - everything screams quality from the packaging to the little black box of wonders itself. The steam controller is comfortable and a really nice design. The UI is about as idiot proof as you can get and very smooth too.

On startup had to do a few updates and then logged into my steam account using my steam app.

There's just under 450gb free before I installed anything. I may switch the ssd with a spare 2tb one that's currently in my old, unused ps5 which I kept after getting the ps5 pro. Before doing that I'll try using an external nvme enclosure to see how fast games load and play from external drives.

The first thing I tried was RE9 which I got free with an msi oled monitor a while back. I cranked all the settings to high, 1440p, fsr 4.1.1 balanced and got a smooth, locked 60fps. On 4k this drops down to around 40fps or less but it looks great at 1440p and I sit probably less than 5 feet from my tv when gaming.

It's whisper quiet but does eject a lot of heat from the rear exhausts so will make a good foot heater in winter! I'll have to get a longer hdmi lead to give it some more breathing space.

It's not quite as quick to switch between the home screen and games as the ps5 - maybe if it had more cores / ram it would be faster. But I expect Valve will optimise it further and iron out some of the kinks.

Overall 9/10 so far! Worth the price imho but I'm amazed how many Steam games I've accumulated that I don't even remember buying let alone playing! Time to start making a tiny dent in that huge backlog...

 

[Hedge]

Finally got around to setting it up which was as easy as expected. Decent length power and hdmi cables supplied - both uk and 2 pin plugs were in the box. I plugged her into my lg 42 c3.

Seriously slick and gorgeous piece of kit - everything screams quality from the packaging to the little black box of wonders itself. The steam controller is comfortable and a really nice design. The UI is about as idiot proof as you can get and very smooth too.

On startup had to do a few updates and then logged into my steam account using my steam app.

There's just under 450gb free before I installed anything. I may switch the ssd with a spare 2tb one that's currently in my old, unused ps5 which I kept after getting the ps5 pro. Before doing that I'll try using an external nvme enclosure to see how fast games load and play from external drives.

The first thing I tried was RE9 which I got free with an msi oled monitor a while back. I cranked all the settings to high, 1440p, fsr 4.1.1 balanced and got a smooth, locked 60fps. On 4k this drops down to around 40fps or less but it looks great at 1440p and I sit probably less than 5 feet from my tv when gaming.

It's whisper quiet but does eject a lot of heat from the rear exhausts so will make a good foot heater in winter! I'll have to get a longer hdmi lead to give it some more breathing space.

It's not quite as quick to switch between the home screen and games as the ps5 - maybe if it had more cores / ram it would be faster. But I expect Valve will optimise it further and iron out some of the kinks.

Overall 9/10 so far! Worth the price imho but I'm amazed how many Steam games I've accumulated that I don't even remember buying let alone playing! Time to start making a tiny dent in that huge backlog...

It's good you like it. But 9/10 and well worth the price certainly sounds a bit OTT.

The fact you're having to salvage an old SSD to make up for the lack of storage on a £1000 machine that is playing resi evil at about the same level as your ps5 doesn't sound like 9/10 to me.

 

[Noxia]

It's good you like it. But 9/10 and well worth the price certainly sounds a bit OTT.

The fact you're having to salvage an old SSD to make up for the lack of storage on a £1000 machine that is playing resi evil at about the same level as your ps5 doesn't sound like 9/10 to me.

Worth is subjective so what he said is perfectly reasonable.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

You also can’t criticise pricing on storage based on prices which are not obtainable in the market today.

 

[49er]

It's good you like it. But 9/10 and well worth the price certainly sounds a bit OTT.

The fact you're having to salvage an old SSD to make up for the lack of storage on a £1000 machine that is playing resi evil at about the same level as your ps5 doesn't sound like 9/10 to me.

You have to look at it in terms of its size, power consumption, ease of use and availability of steam games all in one package. That's what makes it worth it for me - and not to be too pedantic but it was 938 not 1000 or 879 without the controller - still expensive but consider the cost of a decent pc gpu these days and I think it's pretty good value.

The storage is not really an issue - I don't plan to download and keep loads of big games and most of the space I use up on the ps5 pro is on ps plus games which I won't have access to on the sm. It's just good to have the option of increasing the storage fairly easily especially if you already have a spare nvme lying around.

The price is really a reflection of the times we live in - not much any company can do about it. Of course it would have been nice to get it for a few hundred less or if they managed to squeeze in more ram or vram but I think it's good enough to handle the vast majority of games out there.

 

[Vestas]

You have to look at it in terms of its size, power consumption, ease of use and availability of steam games all in one package.

Spot on.

Windows11 is a chore at the best of times and is a sub-optimal OS for gaming. SteamOS just works & doesn't subject you to 20-30 minutes of cpu chuntering, multiple reboots & more cpu chuntering like Windows does when an update is required.

The SM h/w is what it is. The fact you can buy one & sell it to CEX for more than you paid suggests the prices aren't going down anytime soon.

Nostalgia for pre-AI pricing is all very well, but it won't change a thing.

 

[Hedge]

You have to look at it in terms of its size, power consumption, ease of use and availability of steam games all in one package. That's what makes it worth it for me - and not to be too pedantic but it was 938 not 1000 or 879 without the controller - still expensive but consider the cost of a decent pc gpu these days and I think it's pretty good value.

The storage is not really an issue - I don't plan to download and keep loads of big games and most of the space I use up on the ps5 pro is on ps plus games which I won't have access to on the sm. It's just good to have the option of increasing the storage fairly easily especially if you already have a spare nvme lying around.

The price is really a reflection of the times we live in - not much any company can do about it. Of course it would have been nice to get it for a few hundred less or if they managed to squeeze in more ram or vram but I think it's good enough to handle the vast majority of games out there.

I understand the points your making but I do stand by my feelings that there is no way this is a 9/10 product.

It's way too compromised for that score. A 9/10 product would be almost irresistible. Instead the steam machine is a product that seems to require mental gymnastics by most people to justify.

Size.. I mean.. Do we live in hobbit houses? It has the same footprint as an Xbox series x.

Power consumption.. Well... It's as slow as 6yr old consoles.. So yeah.. And anyone who can spend £879 certainly isn't struggling to pay the electric.

Availability of steam games on one package.. Well... If you've got a steam library then you've probably always had the availability on one package... Your PC.

It's a good product at £500. At almost £1000 it's missed the mark.

 

[49er]

I understand the points your making but I do stand by my feelings that there is no way this is a 9/10 product.

It's way too compromised for that score. A 9/10 product would be almost irresistible. Instead the steam machine is a product that seems to require mental gymnastics by most people to justify.

It is irresistible to me - hence the score I gave it. It's not for everyone - anymore than a 5090 is. I did my research and concluded it was better value than paying 700 quid for a 9070xt upgrade which may also have required a new psu and would have drawn more power and run hotter.

Similarly when I bought the ps5 pro at launch the number of people dismissing it as an expensive doorstop are now mostly eating their words. And now they're selling like hotcakes and not just because of gta6.

I'm confident it's performance will improve over time. It's much easier optimising for a fixed system than the plethora of pc configurations out there.

Size.. I mean.. Do we live in hobbit houses? It has the same footprint as an Xbox series x.

It's less than half the size of a series x! And being that small it can fit in smaller spaces and is easy to move anywhere - I can put it in my rucksack and take it anywhere. I live in a small 2 bed flat so I appreciate the small size and silent operation too.

Power consumption.. Well... It's as slow as 6yr old consoles.. So yeah.. And anyone who can spend £879 certainly isn't struggling to pay the electric.

And the reason I'm not struggling to pay the electric is because I use very little and don't want to use 500w or more on a gaming session. Playing RE9 the combined power draw of the sm and my 43 lg c3 was 180w. And less power means less heat which is a big plus these days.

Availability of steam games on one package.. Well... If you've got a steam library then you've probably always had the availability on one package... Your PC.

I don't like gaming on a pc which consumes more than twice the energy and generates a lot more heat. Plus the cost of upgrading gpus, memory and pretty much anything is ridiculously expensive. And not to mention the problems of getting a pc to work well with a tv - even if you can fit a regular pc in your living room. The sm just works without any of these hassles.

It's a good product at £500. At almost £1000 it's missed the mark.

I'd love to see how anyone could build a product with the sm's specs, in that small form factor, with that power draw for 500. And that's without considering how well built and integrated the sm is. It works out of the box like a console but with the ability to change settings like a pc. Plus if anything goes wrong with the hardware there's only one company to deal with - Valve - and they have a good record of supporting their hardware.

Yes it could have been cheaper but that's largely down to current market conditions. Maybe Valve could have sold it for a loss but unlike Sony or MS they can't make the money back on selling games alone since you can buy games on the pc from multiple stores.

If the higher price enables Valve to keep building and selling the sm to a larger market it's worth it in the long run.

I hope it succeeds because the current pc market is looking very grim for buyers and upgrades and there isn't much light at the end of the tunnel!

 

[Timber]

Similarly when I bought the ps5 pro at launch the number of people dismissing it as an expensive doorstop are now mostly eating their words. And now they're selling like hotcakes and not just because of gta6.

I know you didn't quote me, but I agree with your points, although I'm not a Steam Machine owner. I recently repurposed a 4yr old+ AM4 PC as my lounge 'Steam Box'. It has benefits, but also negative overs a SM, so I don't have a need for the SM.

That same 'noise' that was so wrong about the PS5 Pro, was similarly spouted ad-infinitum about the Switch 2 last-year too. I think some of it is parroting influencers and other social media. The Switch 2 also brought so many upgrades to it (essentially the Switch Pro so many had longed for). And the cost difference between running a console or SM is not to be understated - it does add up.

With regard to the last sentence I feel most of the videogame market is in a bad place. But one of the nice things about the Valve solution is that there is nothing stopping you spinning up your own dream PC, consolised PC, or handheld PC - they are pushing many areas of open-source software by design (albeit next-up - can they work on 3D audio for Steam OS/ALSA/Pipewire please).

 

[Hedge]

It is irresistible to me - hence the score I gave it. It's not for everyone - anymore than a 5090 is. I did my research and concluded it was better value than paying 700 quid for a 9070xt upgrade which may also have required a new psu and would have drawn more power and run hotter.

Similarly when I bought the ps5 pro at launch the number of people dismissing it as an expensive doorstop are now mostly eating their words. And now they're selling like hotcakes and not just because of gta6.

I'm confident it's performance will improve over time. It's much easier optimising for a fixed system than the plethora of pc configurations out there.



It's less than half the size of a series x! And being that small it can fit in smaller spaces and is easy to move anywhere - I can put it in my rucksack and take it anywhere. I live in a small 2 bed flat so I appreciate the small size and silent operation too.



And the reason I'm not struggling to pay the electric is because I use very little and don't want to use 500w or more on a gaming session. Playing RE9 the combined power draw of the sm and my 43 lg c3 was 180w. And less power means less heat which is a big plus these days.



I don't like gaming on a pc which consumes more than twice the energy and generates a lot more heat. Plus the cost of upgrading gpus, memory and pretty much anything is ridiculously expensive. And not to mention the problems of getting a pc to work well with a tv - even if you can fit a regular pc in your living room. The sm just works without any of these hassles.



I'd love to see how anyone could build a product with the sm's specs, in that small form factor, with that power draw for 500. And that's without considering how well built and integrated the sm is. It works out of the box like a console but with the ability to change settings like a pc. Plus if anything goes wrong with the hardware there's only one company to deal with - Valve - and they have a good record of supporting their hardware.

Yes it could have been cheaper but that's largely down to current market conditions. Maybe Valve could have sold it for a loss but unlike Sony or MS they can't make the money back on selling games alone since you can buy games on the pc from multiple stores.

If the higher price enables Valve to keep building and selling the sm to a larger market it's worth it in the long run.

I hope it succeeds because the current pc market is looking very grim for buyers and upgrades and there isn't much light at the end of the tunnel!

The ps5 pro is a way better piece of hardware than the steam machine. The fact that you own one yet choose to play resident evil on a steam machine seems bonkers to me.

The steam machine foot print is same as a series x when the series x is stood vertical.

It's price can't be ignored.

A £100,000 Mclaren car would absolutely crap on a £30000 Ford and therefor could be considered a 9/10 machine. However if the £100,000 car performed like a £30,000 car. Then it wouldn't deserve a 9/10.

Steam machine is a nice bit of kit... But at £1000 price its nothing more than an underpowered and overpriced bit of nice kit.

I'm fully aware they have been stiffed by ram prices which is unfortunate. But that doesn't detract from it being a crap buy at the price they now demand.

 

[49er]

The ps5 pro is a way better piece of hardware than the steam machine. The fact that you own one yet choose to play resident evil on a steam machine seems bonkers to me.

But it isn't way better hardware - it's got a better gpu and worse cpu - zen 2 vs zen 4. The pro has more vram due to shared memory but there are advantages to having separate vram too. Ideally 10 - 12 gb of vram would have been better for the steam machine but would have cost even more and reduced availability further.

At the risk of repeating myself - I chose to play RE9 on the sm because it is quiet, consumes far less power and I got it "free" when I bought an oled monitor. And it performs very well and looks great.

The steam machine foot print is same as a series x when the series x is stood vertical.

Ignoring the fact that the x is twice as high though!

It's price can't be ignored.

A £100,000 Mclaren car would absolutely crap on a £30000 Ford and therefor could be considered a 9/10 machine. However if the £100,000 car performed like a £30,000 car. Then it wouldn't deserve a 9/10.

I think you're stuck on the price and not on it's value and advantages. That's fine but for me it's value is worth the price and I think it will only increase over time.

Steam machine is a nice bit of kit... But at £1000 price its nothing more than an underpowered and overpriced bit of nice kit.

That's your opinion and it's equally valid as my opinion which is the opposite.

I'm fully aware they have been stiffed by ram prices which is unfortunate. But that doesn't detract from it being a crap buy at the price they now demand.

It may not be a steal at this price but it's far from being a crap buy as you put it.

I think it's best we just agree to disagree here and move on.

 

[49er]

I know you didn't quote me, but I agree with your points, although I'm not a Steam Machine owner. I recently repurposed a 4yr old+ AM4 PC as my lounge 'Steam Box'. It has benefits, but also negative overs a SM, so I don't have a need for the SM.

That same 'noise' that was so wrong about the PS5 Pro, was similarly spouted ad-infinitum about the Switch 2 last-year too. I think some of it is parroting influencers and other social media. The Switch 2 also brought so many upgrades to it (essentially the Switch Pro so many had longed for). And the cost difference between running a console or SM is not to be understated - it does add up.

Yeah especially if you've invested in the switch ecosystem - just like I had with the PS5 - an upgraded system that could run all the existing games you'd already bought better is very appealing. It's almost PC like in that regard and keeps you occupied whilst new games take advantage of the hardware.

And yeah price of games is so much better on Steam. I bought this Steam game (Astalon) yesterday for 69p from Loaded - the same cost on the PS store was around 17 quid! Over a year I should save 100's easily.

With regard to the last sentence I feel most of the videogame market is in a bad place. But one of the nice things about the Valve solution is that there is nothing stopping you spinning up your own dream PC, consolised PC, or handheld PC - they are pushing many areas of open-source software by design (albeit next-up - can they work on 3D audio for Steam OS/ALSA/Pipewire please).

Absolutely. It's a big plus compared to the windows ecosystem.

I've been gaming on Linux for years and haven't touched windows in probably a decade now. I don't miss it one bit and hopefully more people will switch to Linux once they see how well it works and the cost benefits.

 

[Timber]

Yeah especially if you've invested in the switch ecosystem - just like I had with the PS5 - an upgraded system that could run all the existing games you'd already bought better is very appealing. It's almost PC like in that regard and keeps you occupied whilst new games take advantage of the hardware.

And yeah price of games is so much better on Steam. I bought this Steam game (Astalon) yesterday for 69p from Loaded - the same cost on the PS store was around 17 quid! Over a year I should save 100's easily.

It's more of an observation as online interaction isn't anything new, but during the PS5 Pro & Switch 2 there was a lot of this influencer-led, badly informed criticism to both launches; i.e. 'you can build a PC for less', 'the switch 2 is too expensive' - stuff that wasn't really factually true, or missed the mark. That's not to say there were any valid criticisms at the time, but they can get lost in this 'noise'. It may be my view being wrong and representative of the algorithm and the websites I view. But it's fair to say both systems have delivered surprise benefits that people couldn't have known about at the time (i.e. PSSR2 etc.).

I've been gaming on Linux for years and haven't touched windows in probably a decade now. I don't miss it one bit and hopefully more people will switch to Linux once they see how well it works and the cost benefits.

You're ahead of me. It was really the Steam Deck that made me realise that Linux was ready for daily gaming, but it still took until this year to fully commit to Linux on my main gaming PCs. I agreed and hopefully more ditch Windows so Linux can't be ignored anymore.

 

[49er]

It's more of an observation as online interaction isn't anything new, but during the PS5 Pro & Switch 2 there was a lot of this influencer-led, badly informed criticism to both launches; i.e. 'you can build a PC for less', 'the switch 2 is too expensive' - stuff that wasn't really factually true, or missed the mark. That's not to say there were any valid criticisms at the time, but they can get lost in this 'noise'. It may be my view being wrong and representative of the algorithm and the websites I view. But it's fair to say both systems have delivered surprise benefits that people couldn't have known about at the time (i.e. PSSR2 etc.).

Yes same with the steam machine. Every criticism is based on the price and specs and not the form factor, build quality, software integration, ease of use and taking into account the current cost of everything. Every time a new console, or console-like system is released there's a concerted attempt to rubbish it and laugh at people who buy them. Most of this comes from the pcmr crowd who can be quite insecure despite boasting about the superiority of their systems - naturally for significantly more money!

The "I built a steam machine killer for less than the sm" videos all over YT are really sad - they completely gloss over the form factor, power draw, noise and cool running of the sm. It's just clickbait to get more views and I wouldn't trust any of those builds to run smoothly for long. There's a good reason why the sm components are custom built to run in a small case with low power consumption and without overheating much like other consoles. Besides, I've already got a pc that keeps me warm in winter even though I don't game on it!

You're ahead of me. It was really the Steam Deck that made me realise that Linux was ready for daily gaming, but it still took until this year to fully commit to Linux on my main gaming PCs. I agreed and hopefully more ditch Windows so Linux can't be ignored anymore.

I was lucky - I was working for an ISP over 20 years ago and all the sys admins were into BSD and Linux and I slowly converted to it. I can remember the early days of gaming on Linux and it's come a long way since then. If you consider all the mobile phones run basically linux (android) or bsd (ios) based systems and the ps5 is bsd based too then it's only desktops that have been slow to embrace linux and that's largely down to them being sold with windows pre installed. Windows is too entrenched now to be dethroned but with every mess Microsoft makes it's only going to make more people look for alternatives.

 

[Noxia]

You get those at every console launch too "we built a PS5 levle PC for $zzz", brain rot content.

 

[Ravenger]

Same with the SteamDeck - 'it can't run recent AAA games', but that's not really its use-case. It's a fantastic machine for playing PC games from a decade or so or older, and modern indie games. I imagine it's similar with the SteamMachine.

I like the Deck because I now have a portable game system that runs hundreds of games that I already own and don't need to re-buy.

 

[Vestas]

I get it, people think its overpriced but frankly its getting a bit boring now.

You're not adding anything new by criticising the same things people did long LONG ago in the thread, when people couldn't believe the (potential) pricing.

I wasn't far off the actual pricing IIRC, but underestimated the SSD inflation.

Also the reason people with RDNA3 cards are getting FSR4.1 is probably due to Valve/Sony and their AMD APUs.

Late last year I was "wtf is the point of this?" and that was mainly due to FSR3/upscaling which would be required. FSR4.1 works and you get the same frame rate with better graphics.

Its a perfectly acceptable livingroom gaming box which has a "desktop mode" that provides the ability to do all the same emulation that the deck could do, just faster.

Yes you can build something else with SteamOS but that's apples and oranges.

 

[Bumhug]

Got an email from Valve last night about confirming my purchase information for Ste...... and that's where the notification cut off, got excited but it was only the controller, which was good as my Xbox Elite Controller is falling apart and they had said wouldn't be until 2027. I am still on the fence about getting one, I want one but at the moment can think of more important things I need to buy. And I dont think that will ever change, it ticks all the boxes for my needs but so do other products that I already own and even if it was half the price it is now I would still struggle to justify it

 

[Grim5]

.

 

[Loki]

Was in the queue for the 2TB version then switched to the 512GB version. Yep it's a bit pricey but I'd freely admit im a sucker for new tech, eco systems etc.

For me the ability to literally just hit the steam button and I am into my game from sleep mode makes it really good for casual couch gaming. Like the SteamDeck, I am more than likely going to be using it for older games that I bought and never started or need to finish. If it's 10 minutes gaming cool, 30 minutes no problem.

Steam controller is a very nice user experience as well. Not as big or as light as what I thought it would be.