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Steam Machine Price Announced - Starting at $1049 / £879

I expect a lot (most?) people buying Steam Machine will already be PC gamers in the Steam ecosystem, so there may not be much of a case to be made for subsidising it anyway.
 
Pricing aside, it's a neat little device.

If it was maybe 600 or less, I'd be more excited but for those that want a tightly packed PC experience with the great Steam OS, this fits the bill.
 
TheSHEEEP said:
It's not, though?
I mean, try to assemble a PC of comparable performance at the same price.
You'll end up in the very same price region (or higher) and not have a neat cube.
Click to expand...

How about worse than 6-year old consoles for double the price*

*no controller in the box

LOL
 
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Sometimes there is time to join collective beating
jojo-jojo-part5.gif

giphy.gif
 
Three said:
I think they mean in terms of hardware/performance. So no power, path tracing, high framerates, and not upgradeable either.
Click to expand...
In terms of non sense as every other PC advantage other than upgrades are all there. Performance, PCs range from 386s to Ryzen 9950x3D. Nothing changed. The only crap is price because RAM and NAND for AI fucked things...
 
Midn1ght said:
What's terrible about it is that even at 500 with these specs in 2026, it wouldn't be an exciting deal.
Click to expand...
The idea that "AI is the reason" is just wrong cause that reason is affecting everything on the market, not just the Deck/Machine.
So if there wouldn't be any RAM pricing issues we would still have the same relative underperformance, it would just be at cheaper comparative prices.
Blaming the AI for the Steam Machine pricing is stupid.
 
TheSHEEEP said:
It's not, though?
I mean, try to assemble a PC of comparable performance at the same price.
You'll end up in the very same price region (or higher) and not have a neat cube.
Click to expand...
Ofc not, even without trying to assemble a PC by pieces which would be cheaper, on my country for example there's stuff like this that costs 50€ more than a Steam Machine with 2TB:

1b6fb697c9f8de02a8f3cdbd014d30dd.png


A 5070 has over 2x performance of the Steam Machine's GPU based on Benchmarks, it also has twice the RAM and 50% more VRAM and a better CPU ofc, and for 1000-1100€ you can get one with 32GB DDR4, 1 TB SSD and some 5060ti or 9060XT which are around 70% more performance, more on the NVidia's case if you add RT.
dgrdsv said:
The idea that "AI is the reason" is just wrong cause that reason is affecting everything on the market, not just the Deck/Machine.
So if there wouldn't be any RAM pricing issues we would still have the same relative underperformance, it would just be at cheaper comparative prices.
Blaming the AI for the Steam Machine pricing is stupid.
Click to expand...
Yep, it was never going to be good, even with that 750-800€ price that it was going to have last year, back then there were PC's with 5070's for 1000-1100€.

We're talking about a machine that performs worse than a 3060 GPU in RT scenarios
 
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MisterXDTV said:
How about worse than 6-year old consoles for double the price*

*no controller in the box

LOL
Click to expand...
Bit ignorant of you to compare prices of consoles that have been produced long before any shortage, AND that are subsidized to something that doesn't even try to be a console.
If anything, compare it to other PCs at the price range.

owandeseis said:
Ofc not, even without trying to assemble a PC by pieces which would be cheaper, on my country for example there's stuff like this that costs 50€ more than a Steam Machine with 2TB:
Click to expand...
Not really, that's more like 1600 in $, not 1350. € > $.

Steam Machine is at the higher price end of its performance range, I'd say.
But you add to that the form factor, the quietness, maybe a bit of a Valve tax, so... again, I wouldn't buy it myself, but I can see it being worth it to some.
It's not like it is grossly overpriced.

It is either a more expensive entry level machine with a bit of a coolness factor (I guess? Not really much a fan of the cubeness), or something for enthusiasts to play around with.
 
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TheSHEEEP said:
Bit ignorant of you to compare prices of consoles that have been produced long before any shortage, AND that are subsidized to something that doesn't even try to be a console.
If anything, compare it to other PCs at the price range.
Click to expand...

The only thing ignorant here is suggesting this product is a good deal when it's probably the worst on the market

This turd has a RTX 3050 equvalent GPU
 
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diffusionx said:
What do you need this "package" for? Do you stare at your PC tower all day? The trade-off is a much, much worse actual gaming experience because it's so weak. And whatever ease of use you're getting, you are losing in capability with SteamOS - and not just in general applications but some games too. Some of the most popular games don't run on it.

If you are seeking justification for being a retard and wasting money on this, don't look to me.
Click to expand...
It's almost like non retards recognize that different people value different things and recognize that others may not value the things they do.

Hard concept, I know.
 
Midn1ght said:
What's terrible about it is that even at 500 with these specs in 2026, it wouldn't be an exciting deal.
Click to expand...
considering the performance level, at $500 it would actually be interesting.

It's not as powerful as a ps5 but also cheaper, free online, etc.

hououinkyouma00 said:
It's almost like non retards recognize that different people value different things and recognize that others may not value the things they do.

Hard concept, I know.
Click to expand...

Just consooooooom and wait for the next thing to consooooooooooom
 
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TheSHEEEP said:
Not really, that's more like 1600 in $, not 1350. € > $.

Steam Machine is at the higher price end of its performance range, I'd say.
But you add to that the form factor, the quietness, maybe a bit of a Valve tax, so... again, I wouldn't buy it myself, but I can see it being worth it to some.
It's not like it is grossly overpriced.

It is either a more expensive entry level machine with a bit of a coolness factor (I guess? Not really much a fan of the cubeness), or something for enthusiasts to play around with.
Click to expand...
The Steam Machine is 1360€ here with 2TB, so pretty much the same price as the PC i listed.

No clue about the US but i saw stuff like this:

f3baf9882af035c923942cfbaa822206.png


With expensive small form case too, add 60-70 dollars for a 1TB SSD instead and you've got a machine that performs at least 70% faster than the Steam Machine, sure it's still not as small, and probably it's noisier or the power consumption is higher but again we're not talking about some small performance gap but about massive ones

Steam Machine's fine for people who don't really care about performance and want some decorative machine that can run games or to even use it as a PC, but not much else
 
MisterXDTV said:
It's not decent by any possible metric

It's actually INdecent
Click to expand...
How so?
You could probably build something comparable to the performance from new parts for about $800 - 900 I'd wager (just looking at the 512GB)... IF you find some good deals.
That leaves ~250 room for the form factor (if you're into that), for the Valve tax, the SteamOS ootb and I guess just the novelty of it.

You can say that extra 250 - 350 is a waste for you, because you don't care about any of those things.
And, honestly, I'd agree - I wouldn't buy it, either.

But INdecent? Come on.
:pie_roffles:

INdecent is Valve still selling their ancient Index at full price when there are much better devices, unsubsidized, at almost half that.
 
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owandeseis said:
Steam Machine's fine for people who don't really care about performance and want some decorative machine that can run games or to even use it as a PC, but not much else
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
It's ... fine. Decent. On the more expensive end if you only look at the performance.

But not some crazy ripoff like some here seem to pretend.
 
TheSHEEEP said:
How so?
Click to expand...

Very simple: any hardware is judged by the price to performance ratio AKA VALUE

Or put in other words: "There are no bad products, only bad prices"

There's no worse deal than this.

Either you can buy a much better PC for around the same money or you can spend less than HALF the price for a 2020 console that is still better than this in performance

Want a middle ground? PS5 Pro will give you a huge performance upgrade even at the current retail price that is STILL much less than the 2TB Steam Machine
 
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People who want console prices are not going to like it. And people who already build PCs have no use for it. Both of them have legit reasons to not buy it.

But for a prebuild PC it is what it is. A prebuild. And it seems overpriced if you still are stuck in last year's hardware price. But it is exactly what it costs for what it has. It is a PC, not a console. And people who build their own PC are not the market for this. The price might go down over time but this is what it costs now.

Either you can buy a much better PC for around the same money
Click to expand...
CAN you? Without ending up building your own?
 
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rodrigolfp said:
Suggest us a decent PC with SteamOS booting directly into Big Picture mode out of the box...
Click to expand...

By this logic Steam Machine could be $2k and still fit this argument because nothing else boots into Steam out of the box.

I get it, some people really value that feature, but it's not like infinity armor either. Eventually, it gets weird how many extra hundreds of dollars a person is willing to pay just to not spend an afternoon setting up their computer.
 
BlackTron said:
By this logic Steam Machine could be $2k and still fit this argument because nothing else boots into Steam out of the box.

I get it, some people really value that feature, but it's not like infinity armor either. Eventually, it gets weird how many extra hundreds of dollars a person is willing to pay just to not spend an afternoon setting up their computer.
Click to expand...
I am not talking for myself. I could not care less. But I discussed with people on GAF that said the reason to buy this is the out of the box Big Picture mode. 🤷‍♂️
 
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What are they thinking? The PS5 already has an advantage over it. And when the PS6 comes next year or the following, it'll probably launch at $799 and be way more powerful.
 
I was expecting it, but Valve messed up again. Cyberpunk and Wukong run at less than 30 fps...

And it's weaker than the PS5.

And it doesn't have a controller.

And it doesn't have a disc drive.

And the storage is limited.

It's completely killed my desire to buy it.
 
This is going to be the second time Valve tried Steam Machines and failed big.

Some companies dont know how to stay in their own lane. All they got to do is sit back ride out big PC software sales where Steam dominates. But they got that itch every 10 years to dive into hardware to carve out their own PC rig sales. Hardware isnt even a big margin business either unless youre a chip company. You got to sell a lot of gear and be willing mess with inventory and R&D.
 
Like this machine is just the spiritual successor to the Alienware Alpha this generation can't end fast enough
png___scooby_doo___shaggy_s_face_by_supercaptainn_dce5isk-fullview.png
 
Heimdall_Xtreme said:
Format that was previously used in PC editions.
Click to expand...

Previously. Lots of tower cases don't even have the bay to put one anymore.

It's ultimately moot because on PC you can just plug in an external USB drive. It's not something that I think is worth adding to the size of the box everyone gets, most of whom will never use an optical disc.

I agree with all your other points being a big deal which is why this one kind of stood out as funny amongst them.
 
nightfly said:
What kind of discounts?
Click to expand...
They negotiate with the suppliers of the parts they need.
We're going to buy that amount of CPU's, that amount of RAM, etc for this period. So the suppliers know they will sell a certain amount of stock. In return they negotiate discounts.

It doesn't cost Apple a 1000$ to manufacture the iPhone Pro. According to google it's around 600$.
 
Cr1ptkeeper said:
They negotiate with the suppliers of the parts they need.
We're going to buy that amount of CPU's, that amount of RAM, etc for this period. So the suppliers know they will sell a certain amount of stock. In return they negotiate discounts.

It doesn't cost Apple a 1000$ to manufacture the iPhone Pro. According to google it's around 600$.
Click to expand...
Pending the product and value chain, the costs to make a sell stuff can be insane cheap. Way back at one of my old jobs, I worked with purchasing dept to source new orders from Chinese factories. These werent even factories owned by the company but businesses that worked with the company. So at making and selling them at about $1 each they were still making profit.

Coffee mugs

Retail price at store: $10-12

Wholesale price to stores: $5-6

Cost per unit from factory: $0.80 to $1.20 (must buy in big batches of like 1,440 mugs per batch I think)

Of course this is just the product cost and doesnt include all the overhead and warehousing costs etc.... But just the raw material COGs part can be stupidly cheap.
 
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May as well market this to hipsters who want to show the latest thing, don't know what they're buying beyond a faceplate, can't set up their computer alone and have already taken all the money.
 
BlackTron said:
Previously. Lots of tower cases don't even have the bay to put one anymore.

It's ultimately moot because on PC you can just plug in an external USB drive. It's not something that I think is worth adding to the size of the box everyone gets, most of whom will never use an optical disc.

I agree with all your other points being a big deal which is why this one kind of stood out as funny amongst them.
Click to expand...
Guardians of the galaxy was launch in physical edition on pc.

Now that I see older PC editions, I like those boxes and large contents.
 
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