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Steam Machine |OT| There Are Dozens of Us. Dozens!
- Thread starter DarkShadowXI
- Start date
- Featured
- |OT|
Boo Who?
Gold Member
Is way too late like 7:15 PM?I received this:
Guardian Monkey
Member
you can check by going to steam itself. it will say there.Just want to remind everyone that I remain deeply unhappy for anyone who got into the reservation queue when I didn't. I can only hope they somehow fucked up the email process and forward one of those reservations to me on accident.
near
Gold Member
near
Gold Member
I would've advised you to click the cancel button if it was the 2TB
I'm sure you'll get your email soon.
hououinkyouma00
Member
I was looking at reddit and there was another round of emails around 3pm so I lost both rounds today lol
It was not a very nice experience to be honest. I'll preface it with I have a RTX 4070S and Nvidia support even on Bazzite isn't perfect but I did this like 6 months ago and didn't have any issues at all. I'll just put my experience in bullet points so it's easier to read. I downloaded the Bazzite + Steam gaming for Nvidia image so it's the correct image for my hardware and the one that's set to auto boot into SteamOS gaming mode.
Maybe you would have a perfectly fine experience but I will continue to wait for my Steam Machine for what is almost guaranteed to be a much better experience.
So after not getting my email today and having the day off I was like well I'm bored and impatient so I'm gonna install Bazzite on my secondary NVMe drive.
It was not a very nice experience to be honest. I'll preface it with I have a RTX 4070S and Nvidia support even on Bazzite isn't perfect but I did this like 6 months ago and didn't have any issues at all. I'll just put my experience in bullet points so it's easier to read. I downloaded the Bazzite + Steam gaming for Nvidia image so it's the correct image for my hardware and the one that's set to auto boot into SteamOS gaming mode.
- Extremely laggy experience. Even just going through settings was slow.
- Slow downloads. I usually get download speeds through Steam at like 300-600 down according to steam but I couldn't get above 160.
- LOOOOOOONG boot times. I could restart my computer on windows twice before it booted into Bazzite (maybe this is because it boots directly into gaming mode?)
- I also somehow formatted both of my drives as when I went back into my BIOS to choose Windows I only had a Fedora drive and Bazzite drive but no windows.. so now I've got my girl making me a windows boot drive so I can go back lol
- Also couldn't get dual screens to work. My desk is in the living room and I run a long active HDMI 2.1 cable to my tv for tv play.
Maybe you would have a perfectly fine experience but I will continue to wait for my Steam Machine for what is almost guaranteed to be a much better experience.
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i know I'm not and I'm on the 2 TB no controller waitlistI would've advised you to click the cancel button if it was the 2TB
I'm sure you'll get your email soon.
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ThisIsMyDog
Member
I didint care about Steamdeck, i dont care about Steam Machine, but what i care about is linux gaming to be 100% compatible with every released game, and SteamOS to have perfect console-like experience, and here Valve has my axe.
DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
Appreciate you sharing! Wow, that sounds like a rough experience.
If I built a Steam Machine sorta thing myself, I would go with an AMD CPU and GPU, but that would be completely uncharted territory for me. Same with a small form factor build. There are just too many factors that would probably get me quite frustrated. And honestly, it probably still won't match what the Steam Machine offers (e.g. seamless sleep/wake with the controller).
You just talked me out of the rabbit hole I was going down. I'm going to continue waiting, too, and just keep using my docked Legion Go S.
Sigh. If times were normal, we'd all be excited about receiving our orders later this week
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Thanks for the impressions. The "bro just build your own PC" crowd is in shambles.
Seriously, this kind of stuff takes quite a bit of work to set up correctly and even then it's no guarantee that it'll work properly (or continue working properly, once set up). I'm a Linux sysadmin and use Linux exclusively at work, but my home gaming PC stays on Windows because it's honestly just less of a hassle overall to get games working - and this comes from someone who loves to tinker with shit like this.
near
Gold Member
We'll suffer together. But if you get that email before me, we're no longer friends.
DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
*Aggressively closes all PC Parts internet browser tabs*
hououinkyouma00
Member
I knew you were going back and forth on wanting to build one so I wanted to share with you. You very well could have a way better experience then me however.Appreciate you sharing! Wow, that sounds like a rough experience.
If I built a Steam Machine sorta thing myself, I would go with an AMD CPU and GPU, but that would be completely uncharted territory for me. Same with a small form factor build. There are just too many factors that would probably get me quite frustrated. And honestly, it probably still won't match what the Steam Machine offers (e.g. seamless sleep/wake with the controller).
You just talked me out of the rabbit hole I was going down. I'm going to continue waiting, too, and just keep using my docked Legion Go S.
Sigh. If times were normal, we'd all be excited about receiving our orders later this week
Yeah, I think it's just down to what is important to you. Building your own obviously will get you better performance for the money, but you aren't going to get as seamless of an experience.
I also like to mess with stuff and I even work in tech but it just wasn't a good enough experience for me and nowhere close to the experiences I've heard with the SM.
For me the Steam Machine is about an overall package (size, HDMI CEC, sleep from wake, etc). I have a ITX pc but it's still 3x the volume of the Steam machine (Fractal Terra).
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DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
Reading your impressions sealed the deal on waiting for a Steam Machine for me.
I've built a few computers, including my 4090 setup, but I was pretty comfortable with what I had going on. I recently picked up some portable retro consoles with aspirations to customize the OS for them and organize my library, but I haven't touched any of them. I have a feeling I'm going to get overwhelmed trying to set up a new SteamOS machine. I also read that Small Form Factor brings its own challenges.
Whenever I bring up the idea of building another computer, my wife is like "...are you sure you wanna go through all that again?" lol. She knows me better than I do.
I think my tinkering days are over. Plug and play sounds so much nicer, especially for a secondary bedroom gaming setup.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
The operating system is always going to be a bit of a shifting target anyway with this kind of stuff - until devs ship native Linux / SteamOS versions of their games. You've got devs updating games not made for Linux, Valve updating Proton, Linux maintainers updating the kernel, hardware manufacturers updating Linux drivers, and a group of people (maybe a company) updating your distro, and it's all really cool when it all comes together and works.
But then maybe something changes that's outside your control, and now you can't boot the game you were playing. Or your drivers updated, and now you're getting 10fps. Or your OS pushed out a package update that made it so you can no longer connect to Steam for some reason, and now you've gotta troubleshoot that. Admittedly, it happens a lot less nowadays with Proton getting more and more mature, but it has still happened to me often enough that it ruins my free time with troubleshooting. I get enough of that shit at work. It's the same reason my gaming PC is a pre-built I got from Costco, I just didn't wanna hassle with piecing it all out and putting it together even though I know I easily could.
Literally the only Linux gaming system I've enjoyed as a trouble free experience has been the Steam Deck. I think since Valve themselves were handling the proton, operating system, and hardware drivers all in tandem it kind of alleviates most of the issues I've had playing on my own hardware. I did install Windows on my Steam Deck at one point, just to play around with it, but eventually just re-installed SteamOS because it's so easy and trouble-free. And I suspect the Machine will be the same way. There is definitely some value in that which can offset the system's high cost.
hououinkyouma00
Member
Happy to be of help.
I will say that I've had a great experience with ITX/SFF. I've owned multiple different cases and never really had any issues building in them. In fact building in my current case (Fractal Terra) was amazing. It's 100% more expensive though as ITX boards are more expensive on average, and you need SFX power supplies and with many cases you are limited in choice of components. What I love most about the Terra is how customizable it is. The "ridge" in the middle moved so if I have a 2 slot card I can move it to give more space on the CPU cooler or vice versa. I believe even a 4090 can fit in the Terra.
I'm 100% with you on the tinkering thing. I've always played on both PC and consoles since I was a little kid in the late 90s and I've gone back and forth between what I play on more but as I get older I definitely prefer consoles just from a simplicity standpoint. I simply turn it on and play my games which is part of the reason I want a Steam Machine in the first place.
DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
As if I wasn't already sold on the Steam Machine lol
Yeah dude, I definitely don't want to be dealing with all that. No way. Maybe if I was 5-10 years younger, but I'd rather be gaming than messing around with that stuff.
If SteamOS builds become hassle-free, then I'll reconsider, for sure. The last thing I want to ever do is troubleshoot.
I've had my eye on that Fractal Terra! That thing looks amazing. If I decide to build a Windows PC for the bedroom (unlikely at this point, but I'm definitely not building a SteamOS machine), that'll most likely be the case I go with.
I couldn't agree with you more when it comes to the simplicity of consoles. I've been wanting that experience for my Steam library for forever.
I'm pretty close to that experience with my 4090 PC. I can wake it up with the Steam Controller. I do need to sometimes use my air-mouse for things, so it's not perfect, but I've been gaming on it a lot more lately. I do sometimes get distracted with drivers, pop-ups, things not working correctly, etc. It's so annoying.
Sometimes I just wanna boot up my PS5 or Switch 2 and not have to worry about messing around with anything
DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
I don't think anyone knows, unfortunately.
I kinda wish they told us what place we were in for the lottery and still let us pick which model we wanted before shoehorning us in.
Like...if I was in place #100,000 for the 2TB w/controller, and #90,000 for the 512GB, maybe I would've chosen the 2TB one?
Perhaps some priority loyalty for being on Steam for so many years and buying hundreds of games would've been nice, too!
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
No email for me today.
hououinkyouma00
Member
Yeah, seems like we've gotten 3 separate waves of emails so I'm not losing hope yet.
I've had my eye on that Fractal Terra! That thing looks amazing. If I decide to build a Windows PC for the bedroom (unlikely at this point, but I'm definitely not building a SteamOS machine), that'll most likely be the case I go with.
I couldn't agree with you more when it comes to the simplicity of consoles. I've been wanting that experience for my Steam library for forever.
I'm pretty close to that experience with my 4090 PC. I can wake it up with the Steam Controller. I do need to sometimes use my air-mouse for things, so it's not perfect, but I've been gaming on it a lot more lately. I do sometimes get distracted with drivers, pop-ups, things not working correctly, etc. It's so annoying.
Sometimes I just wanna boot up my PS5 or Switch 2 and not have to worry about messing around with anything
I remember you saying you were looking to play lighter games. You won't have HDMI-CEC like the Steam Machine. But this is Zen 4 and RDNA 3, versus your Z2 Go's Zen 3+ and RDNA 2.
You also aren't power constrained. I'm running the same chip, for indie it's great. AAA, it's more powerful than the Deck, but about 1/3rd the GPU performance of the Steam Machine.
Decent option at $437 price as it has 16GB of DDR5 and 512GB of NVME. That's $300 of the price right there. https://www.amazon.com/Bmax-B8A-Pro-Display-Windows/dp/B0FY5M9NCZ
You will be able to run the official Steam OS on it without needing to mod. Just flash the installer image to a USB drive, then boot off it to install on the mini PC.
MrCunningham
Member
According to GamersNexus, the Steam Machine has roughly a 20% performance penalty for the units that only have one stick of RAM and not two. All machines have one stick of RAM for now. But Valve will mark units that have two sticks of RAM in later batches, if they can source two sticks per unit.
Also, about the memory sticks:
Also, about the memory sticks:
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DownLikeBCPowder
Member
So it's kind of a gamble as to what you get?
MrCunningham
Member
Scan to 2:20 in the video to hear it right from the Valve engineers. This should come with no surprise, because obviously having two 8GB RAM sticks would increase the amount of memory bandwidth in the machine.
EDIT:
OK, so the easiest and most sure fire way to find out without tearing apart your machine, is to go into the SteamOS desktop mode. Open a terminal (komand) and type:
Code:
sudo dmidecode --type memory | grep -EIt should give you an instant readout on how many RAM sticks your system as installed.
EDIT 2: Forgot about the fact that SUDO requires a password. The admin password on a standard Linux distro is the same as the user log-in password. But on the Steam Machine and SteamOS, there is no password by default. I don't own a SteamDeck or Steam Machine. But it is an easy fix.
How to set, change and reset your SteamOS / Steam Deck desktop sudo password
Here's how to set, change and reset your sudo password in SteamOS / Steam Deck Desktop Mode.
www.gamingonlinux.com
Gaming On Linux has been around for a long time. They are reliable, and this is some basic shit.
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DownLikeBCPowder
Member
But then sometime after 2 minutes and 20 seconds it says that all of them that are being ordered now will have one stick?
MrCunningham
Member
yeah, I think what they mean is that the first batch of units that Valve built have either one stick or two sticks. But every following batch of units will just one one stick?
EDIT: Nope just incorrect PR from Valve. Read my next post down.
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DownLikeBCPowder
Member
That's what I thought at first but then they say to clarify the units people are signing up for right now have one stick. So what first batch would they really be referring to then? The ones they sent out to reviewers?
MrCunningham
Member
never mind... I missed this part of the video...
So I guess all units just have the one stick? but what they mean is that later units might have two sticks? depending on what inventory they can get their hands on... sorry for the confusion. But I missed the redaction from Valve.
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DownLikeBCPowder
Member
Yeah just weird overall the phrasing and corrections and etc. That's the just I'm getting is that in the future randomly they might have one or two. But there is some kind of initial run that had two (maybe proto/reviewer) but not to be confused with the current run people are about to get.never mind... I missed this part of the video...
So I guess all units just have the one stick? but what they mean is that later units might have two sticks? depending on what inventory they can get their hands on... sorry for the confusion. But I missed the redaction from Valve.
DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
I'd take one with no RAM sticks at this point lol
I'm sure I can melt down some things around the house and MacGyver a solution.
MrCunningham
Member
It was some bad miscommunication from Valves engineers during their interview with GamersNexus. GamersNexus has show that interview clip in various different videos, so I was under the impression that there were units with one stick and two sticks. The email that the received from valve to correct this is something that they only posted in this video. I did skip to the benchmarks and missed that portion.
I corrected my above posts.
Not sure how well mixing and matching will be on this device. GamersNexus did find an additional stick with the same specs as the one in their device.
riko
Member
Yea man. I have been building my own PCs and using Linux since the 90s. Sometimes I love to tinker, sometimes I love to just game. That's what honestly kept me as a console gamer until the current gen where the Japanese games I play all basically came to PC first. The Steam Deck has been almost tinker free for 3 years for me, expecting much the same from the Steam Machine once they patch out the early jitters.
Guardian Monkey
Member
Bazzite isn't steam os and nvifia doesn't have support really yet. If you have a AMD gpu most people have had pretty good success.
DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
Guys, I'm tempted to buy a 512GB w/controller from eBay for a $500 markup.
But they don't have it in hand, just a screenshot of their reservation queue email. I'm afraid I'm gonna get screwed somehow.
I'm on the waitlist for a 512 without a controller. I do have a Steam Controller, but I'd want another one eventually. I'm on the waitlist for 2027 for another.
Ugh…I feel like this would be a bad financial move. But then again, the price can easily go up by the time I get the opportunity to buy one.
But they don't have it in hand, just a screenshot of their reservation queue email. I'm afraid I'm gonna get screwed somehow.
I'm on the waitlist for a 512 without a controller. I do have a Steam Controller, but I'd want another one eventually. I'm on the waitlist for 2027 for another.
Ugh…I feel like this would be a bad financial move. But then again, the price can easily go up by the time I get the opportunity to buy one.
Chudah
Neo Member
Don't do it. I know waiting is hard, but you can take that extra $500 and put it towards upgraded RAM or SSD when your number finally comes around.
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DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
That's an excellent point! $500 is such a high markup for something that is already expensive in this market
If it was $100-200 and they had it in hand with a reputable selling history, then maybe I guess...but locking in something this expensive with only a "reservation queue" email backing it up is too tough to swallow.
FOMO is hitting me hard with this thing. Being on the waitlist is a tough blow.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
A lot of these eBay listings are straight up scams, and a lot of them are "just for the reservation" (aka once they get the chance to purchase, they'll ask for another $1200 or whatever). Don't do it!
Themacabre
Member
Being in the reservation queue is its own form of waitlist now lol I'm going to try to not look at my email as often as I did yesterday, but likely I will fail at that.
DarkShadowXI
Gold Member
That's the exact gut feeling I had in the pit of my stomach browsing these. I'd be very concerned about that scenario.
It would be way different if they had it in hand. But yeah, the markup alone is still too high. Sigh
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
There will probably be plenty of scalpers on eBay when they start getting them in-hand. Just stay safe out there brother.That's the exact gut feeling I had in the pit of my stomach browsing these. I'd be very concerned about that scenario.
It would be way different if they had it in hand. But yeah, the markup alone is still too high. Sigh
Kupfer
Member
Couldn't live knowing I rode a scalpers dick