Steam Hardware

I will not call it overpriced because the current PC market is crazy because of AI. Even Valve isn't happy with the price.

Overpriced would mean that Valve would be making a significant profit. They will not.

I got mine yesterday. Copying my thoughts from a comment in another thread:

Don't mind my essay here. TLDR: I love this thing.

I got mine yesterday. It's the 512GB with no controller since I already got the controller separately and the 2TB version felt like an especially bad deal.

I was initially on the fence about the price and reserved just to get into the queue to make the actual buy decision later. I was expecting more people to have thoughts on it out before my spot in the queue came up, but I ended up getting my purchase email very quickly on 6/30. I let the email sit for a day but ended up deciding to pull the trigger for a few reasons:

One, I've owned every first-party Valve device so far, and all of them have been more than the sum of their parts. Two, I wanted a HTPC, travel, and LAN party PC that's a bit less restraining than a laptop. Three, being a bit of a performance snob has been distracting me away from actually gaming and I wanted to get back into the no nonsense side of PC gaming again. And four, I don't mind spending a little extra money advancing Linux, repairable hardware, etc.

I feel like I have to acknowledge reviews from the PC space have been largely negative, but they seem to be undervaluing a lot: the form factor (a 6" cube is still tiny compared to almost all other SFF builds), performance per volume (almost the entire cube is a heat sink), and the benefits of more standard performance targets we've already seen with the Deck.

As for first impressions, the device is packaged well, and unboxing was very satisfying. I did have some trouble getting my controller paired since it was already paired to my existing desktop PC and plugging it in directly wasn't enough to get around that like I expected, but looking up how to pair it to multiple PCs got me past that.

I spent a few hours testing a mix of light to demanding games, and I'm more than happy with what it can do. I haven't tried gaming beyond 1080p yet, but I'm going to be very selective about when and how I do that. 512GB is proving to be plenty of space for what I'm playing at any one time, and I think that would still be true if I didn't have other devices acting as additional storage.

I feel like all my expectations above have been validated, and now I'm really looking forward to getting the Frame. I want to make a travel backpack or suitcase with foam cutouts for the whole set.

At this point I’d be surprised if they are doing better than breaking even.

Skip avocado toast.
Haven't they told you?

Door to door RAM salesman.

Make a lot of money and don't spend it

Easy, actually

This was mine:

You're officially in the reservation queue for Steam Machine 2TB

I assume if you do not put the 2TB, you'll hit any of the variations you have selected... unless they change it.

I passed on the reservation. 2TB is the worst variation because you're paying the $300 extra for a 2TB nvme drive, and you don't get the controller for $80 that retails for $100 and ebays for $300 (not that i've ever sold anything on ebay.. but if i'm getting f'd by memory prices I want my purchase to be worth it vs the value. 2TB nvme drive for $300 more than a 512gb one is absolutely not worth it even with modern prices.

edit: another one you should probably look for is the 72 hour timer email

Please confirm your Purchase Information for Steam Machine 2TB

is the second email I got letting me know I had the 3 days remaining.

I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3, as it crashes my desktop so I've not been able to play it for the last year or two.

It's got to be a cozy game that doesn't stress the hardware. Probably Stardew Valley or similar :p

One (wo)man one machine.

Just put a bowl of water on top, run cyberpunk and you've got one.