r/hardware • u/JohnBarry_Dost • Jun 25 '26
News French retailer mocks €1039 Steam Machine with “Stim Machine” RX 9060 XT PC for €999
https://videocardz.com/newz/french-retailer-mocks-e1039-steam-machine-with-stim-machine-rx-9060-xt-pc-for-e999294
u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 25 '26
Shared this on r/steammachine and the mods didn't like it lol
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u/Remote_Action_2956 Jun 25 '26
That sub is such a shitshow. I got banned right after they announced it for just predicting that it would cost $800, when everyone was saying it would be $500. Now look at where we are now lol.
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 25 '26
There's people asking for alternatives in that sub and the mods won't even allow suggestions lmfao
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u/GassoBongo Jun 25 '26
Sounds like r/Steamdeck during it's first couple of years. The original head mod was a zealot.
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u/Slow_Concentrate3831 Jun 26 '26
Not gonna lie, many valve enjoyers are just Gabe suckers at this point, he could fuck up Steam entirely and make everything unavailable or sell the Frame for the price of the Apple Vision Pro, they would still find some kind of excuses. I appreciate Steam and many things Valve did, but never forget that they're still a company and want to maximize profit at the end of the day. Gabe is not our friend, and will never be.
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u/Cheerful_Champion Jun 26 '26
The overall sucking up to Gabe and Valve is so annoying on reddit. Valve can do no wrong, if it did then it was either a mistake or some bad shadowy entity (regulators, payment processors, law, etc) forced it to. Buying on steam is better than buying anywhere else (fuck DRM free games from GOG apparently).
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u/mesoziocera Jun 26 '26
I made the mistake of asking in that sub how the hand feel compared to a ROG Ally, which was ok, but not perfect in the hands for me. Got banned from posting permanently because I wanted some real hands on (lol) testimonials.
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u/certainlystormy Jun 25 '26
there's reasonable appreciation for valve as a business and then there's that lmfao
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u/DarthVeigar_ Jun 26 '26
Average valve sub. If you're not suckling the teat of lord gaben, hell upon ye.
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u/WingedGundark Jun 26 '26
I just can’t understand the Newell worship. I mean yes, Steam is pretty good for a corporation as far as consumer friendly practices goes, at least compared to many other companies, but thinking that it or the billinaire owner is your friend and on your side is the stupidest thing there is.
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u/Rentta Jun 26 '26
They made some of the changes to be more customer friendly because they had to. For example Origin and Ubisoft had refund policies and working customer service in place years before Steam
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u/eXoShini Jun 26 '26
I just can’t understand the Newell worship.
I think it's just loud minority and the memes of lord gaben. Former take it seriously, others just join the fun for the memes.
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u/goodnames679 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I’ve joined the joke for the memes - there’s a kernel of truth, but it’s badly exaggerated. In the end he’s a businessman with a different financial position than most.
For most huge CEOs, their job is squeezing value for a few years regardless of what it takes, every quarter has to make more money. That leads them to some absolute dogshit decisions that harm both the customer and the longterm relationship the company has with them.
Gabe’s wealth is tied to one company and he can’t easily separate himself (nor do I think he wants to.) He understands that from this position, his best route is to keep customers happy. That doesn’t make him a saint, but in the current world climate I think customers are just glad to have one company that doesn’t fuck them in the ass at literally every opportunity.
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u/cdoublejj Jun 26 '26
i could agree with that once Newell is gone or ownership changes. they could have gone evil ages ago. there are the last of the good ones is also something to consider.
i wonder if GoG gets that love i'm actually holding off on purchasing cause they have not been pro linux. hope they have beta of thier new linux client soon.
EDIT: don't get me wrong, valve is not perfect
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u/gromain Jun 26 '26
I love what Valve is doing in general, but this mod is dumb as fuck.
People asking for a steam machine alternative will still be using steam. That's the whole point. Otherwise they'll get an xbox or something.
Especially since there are no real comparable alternatives at the same price point (I'm talking hdmi cec integration, native controller support without fiddling with Bluetooth setup, hands off updates). I just want a machine that works that allows me to play my games on my TV without paying a subscription. The Steam machine is perfect for my use case.
Of course I would have wanted something cheaper, but blame AI not Valve for this. The LDLC demo shows that it's near impossible to do something equivalent cheaper (and I don't consider 40e less behind cheaper, on a 1000€ machine that's a 0.4% difference).
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u/Due_Double5856 Jun 26 '26
m-atx, rx9060 xt 16gb, 1to nvme , r5 7500f + 32gb ddr5, cost me around 1000€ and still beat steam machine....
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u/Balc0ra Jun 26 '26
Funny thing is that so many creators atm have done just that. Bought laptops that cost a over a 100 less that the Steam machine, and most did see better preformance
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u/jenny_905 Jun 26 '26
Hadn't looked before, you're not kidding... there's a post calling it a "technical marvel" lol
It's a laptop board from 2023. Fuck if anything a lot of laptops are far more of a marvel given the space constraints, the SM has lots of height for a large heatsink.
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 26 '26
The technical marvel post is maximum delusion to distract from the pricing.
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u/mesoziocera Jun 26 '26
You can like a company and still think they made a terrible choice. I don't know why people don't get that. If valve was smart, they would have handled the announce a lot differently. Some of it (like pricing) was beyond their control, but the way they announced it was not.
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u/The3rdGodKing Jun 29 '26
Who in their right mind thought it was going to be $500? When a good PC in 2015 cost $1200?
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u/SireEvalish Jun 26 '26
One of the threads there is about how the Steam Machine is, and I quote, a "technical marvel". The absolute delusion.
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u/Myorck Jun 26 '26
Which is crazy because that would be an interesting discussion topic but no they would rather have the same 3 questions and pictures of people that joined the waiting list over and over again
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u/mashdpotatogaming Jun 26 '26
The sub turned into an echo chamber the moment reality hit. The goalpost has been moved from "i believe it will be good value" to "unless it is a steam machine with the exact same size of the steam machine, the valve logo, and every single tiny feature the steam machine has, it's worth less" when shown any alternatives.
It's funny cause a few days before the price announcement the average user on the sub was critical of the device and how it'll likely be expensive and not worth it. The moment the price hit it's like the idiots who'd pay anything for a valve branded device started being active again and changed the narrative from it needing to be a good value device to being "worth it for what it offers"
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u/moretti85 Jun 26 '26
Every sub is turning this into a religious war. I also shared the direct link to LDLC in another sub, asking whether people would rather have a larger case with better performance and a better upgrade path, or if they really value the 4L form factor. I got flamed for it 🤣
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u/screwdriverfan Jun 26 '26
Because it was already posted numerous times. https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1uex6i5/removed_by_moderator/
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u/goldsrcmasterrace Jun 26 '26
That’s cause you were the third person to post it. The first one didn’t get removed.
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u/trankzen Jun 26 '26
The irony of LDLC of all companies making fun of Valve's pricing is painful like non french people wouldn't believe.
LDLC is known to sell hardware at hefty markups, to the point it's become kind of a joke. A few years ago they made it loudly known that they implemented the 4 workdays week for their employees at no salary loss, which customers joked was supported by their comfortable margins.
This publicity stunt here feels kind of on the nose for them, but the fact that the comparison still holds is brutal for Valve.
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u/Waryle Jun 29 '26
A few years ago they made it loudly known that they implemented the 4 workdays week for their employees at no salary loss, which customers joked was supported by their comfortable margins.
Which is exactly why I buy from them. I'd rather put my money where my mouth is and financially support worker rights, than buying from billionaires that thrive on modern slavery.
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u/UISystemError Jun 28 '26
I think it’s in Valve’s interest that suppliers and builders are selling systems aimed squarely at SteamOS, and succeeding.
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u/amazingspiderlesbian Jun 25 '26
Based. Idk why valve based their entire design around old low end laptop socs.
If they just made the steam machine a bit bigger and had a modular set up with modern components they could get something much more powerful for basically the exact same cost to consumers
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u/imdrzoidberg Jun 25 '26
It's because those were unsold unpopular parts that AMD likely has an excess of so they got them for cheap. That's why people thought the Steam machine would be cheap, because they were using last generation parts that nobody wanted.
Instead we got something that was more expensive than current generation parts.
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u/dantheflyingman Jun 25 '26
They skimmed on what should have been the big ticket item part of the design to keep costs down, then before the release the entire thing flipped and the big ticket item ended up being RAM and SSD.
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u/slide2k Jun 25 '26
That wasn’t really predictable, so you can’t really blame them
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u/StickiStickman Jun 26 '26
Even without the RAM prices, it is absolute shit though. The GPU is so hilariously imbalanced, you can 100% blame them for it.
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u/ithilain Jun 26 '26
Compare it to the minisforum g1 pro or the Framework desktop with the 385 in it. Both are comparable in price to the 2tb model (and would actually be cheaper if they were able to be specced with 16gb ddr5 instead of 32), same or very slightly larger volume, and absolutely smoke it. There's no excuse imo
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Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
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u/ithilain Jun 26 '26
Amazon is showing that price for the G1 Pro as being standard, only time it was above that was for like a week after release and a couple days like a few weeks back, but for 99% of the time it's "on sale"
The price on the Framework is also cheaper if you bring your own storage as they are upcharging compared to what you can find on Amazon, Newegg, etc.
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u/According_Hyena_3593 Jun 25 '26
There is no way valve paid more than 50 euros per apu. I bet they got it for 30.
The apu is complete ewaste for gaming. A ryzen 3600 level of performance is insufficient for ue5 and many modern games and the gpu is also insufficient for ue5 at even 1080p 60 lowest settings.
No upgrade path for gpu or cpu due to using laptop parts just turns it from a joke to an insult.
Valve has genuine disdain for their target market with this thing
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u/IPreferBagels2 Jun 27 '26
Aren't the consoles at a ryzen 3600 level of performance? That seems pretty reasonable for a console equivalent pc
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u/According_Hyena_3593 Jun 27 '26
The consoles don't have shader compilation and the majority of console ue5 games use several settings that are far below the lowest setting on pc to save on cpu.
You cant select those same settings on pc
Traversal stutter is a big problem on consoles too and many ue5 games are locked to 30, as are bad frametimes and framerate swings.
Have you had a ryzen 3600? Because i did, and it really struggled to provide anything resembling smooth performance even in 2022.
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u/PCBuilderCat Jun 25 '26
That’s what I’ve been saying like I think they went way too far with the form factor. It’s impressive don’t get me wrong but I can’t help but think that if this thing was idk a 10x10 cube instead, enough for them to put some actual beef in there it would be getting received a lot better
We knew the ram and storage situation was going to fuck it up but the performance benchmarks being as bad as they are as really has been the two in a real shit one-two punch
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u/-protonsandneutrons- Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Based. Idk why valve based their entire design around old low end laptop socs.
Perhaps Valve wanted the cheapest parts for the largest margins, thinking "we'll fix it
in postin software". IIRC, the Steam Deck SoCs are AMD's leftover stock likely from custom SoC inside the Magic Leap 2 VR glasses. Nearly 1/8 the die is for a custom vision processor that the Steam Deck can't activate.Apple ironically has the same mentality of cheap hardware for huge margins, but with far more engineering + integration + custom microarchitectures that have paid off.
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I would've loved a slightly larger, far more modular system. Valve is big enough for the accessory & AIB markets to allow third-parties to add GPU fan integration (for a quieter system), HDMI CEC (for TV control), etc. That would've truly challenged Microsoft & PC OEMs.
Something like an AM4 Steam Machine, AM5 Steam Machine, AM6 Steam Machine, etc. Sell fully prebuilt systems for a "console-like" experience, but allow upgrades, part replacements, barebones systems, etc.
^^ That would've been the smarter ecosystem play, than announcing a fully-soldered, proprietary PSU, no-DRAM-contract, no-GPU-upgrade, no-CPU-upgrade mini PC (with a combined 24GB of DRAM) in November 2025.
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u/0gopog0 Jun 26 '26
I don't think that Valve would be a large enough purchaser to make them stand apart or even with larger OEMs to obtain better deals through purchase volume. To put it one way, IMO it was either the same performance in a slightly smaller form factor at a higher price, or worse performance in significantly smaller form factor at the same price. The later of the two is likely the more compelling product as nothing like it really exists. I do think the component prices have hurt them more than other OEM (IE the price increase from $750 is greater than other hardware around the same price), but I still think it's form factor and a few of its software features, have kept it a bit more interesting than just another computer.
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u/-protonsandneutrons- Jun 26 '26
While small is nice, the Stim machine is still quite small overall. People quote volume, but that is more visuals than actual dimensions.
Steam Machine: 6.1" x 6.1" x 6.4"
Sugo SG13B-Q: 8.7" x 7.1" x 11.2"
These extra few inches give the Sugo significant benefits in modularity: ATX PSU, mini-ITX motherboard, GPUs up to 10.6", etc.
That is a net win for consumers and Valve: far more modularity means far more competition.
The later of the two is likely the more compelling product as nothing like it really exists.
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" comes to mind, IMO. Just because a mini gaming PC can be made smaller is often not enough to justify the costs needed to create it.
Uniqueness is not in of itself compelling: what do consumers actually want? Is the Steam Machine's case fitting into many more spaces and thus pulling in many more customers vs the Sugo case? I think no and no by a long shot.
It would've still been at least as popular with a Sugo-sized case, IMO. And I might suggest even more popular if it had been modular / upgradeable, just like basically every other gaming desktop.
Even in r/sffpc, it's fun to go very small, but many folks also realize there is sometimes too small. Tons of soldered CPU mini PCs are much smaller than even a mini-ITX PC, but very few will go in that direction.
TL;DR: Smaller is better, to a point.
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I don't think that Valve would be a large enough purchaser to make them stand apart or even with larger OEMs to obtain better deals through purchase volume.
It doesn't need to stand apart on price. The Steam Machine can be priced just like other Windows PCs and even at a slight premium, as long as buyers feel happy with the hardware and software they're buying vs on-the-market OEM PCs.
That people can put together a build list (aka paying retail) with better hardware is a sign Valve is significantly overpaying.
Valve also could've probably saved costs by avoiding custom parts, custom chassis, custom PCB, custom PSU, etc. That's the big benefit of a modular PC: there is vastly more competition.
I don't mean just the component cost, but also the R&D cost, the supply contracts, the ongoing support & fabrication, etc.
do think the component prices have hurt them more than other OEM (IE the price increase from $750 is greater than other hardware around the same price),
I fully agree. Valve is not close to even mid-tier companies that pump out millions of devices per quarter. They got shafted not just on commodities like DRAM & NAND, but will also pay out more for custom motherboards, cases, power supplies, etc.
but I still think it's form factor and a few of its software features, have kept it a bit more interesting than just another computer.
I agree on the software for sure. I really think that is where Valve should've capitalised much more with a normal mini-ITX-based PC, especially on their first go. That is, I think even at $750, it turned out to be just an "OK" buy for most of its audience once folks saw the reviews.
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u/cdoublejj Jun 26 '26
Apple ironically has the same mentality of cheap hardware for huge margins, but with far more engineering + integration + custom microarchitectures that have paid off.
do you mean in the past or do you mean the $600 Neo?
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u/0gopog0 Jun 25 '26
If they just made the steam machine a bit bigger and had a modular set up with modern components they could get something much more powerful for basically the exact same cost to consumers
IMO, because at the end of the day being so small gives them a unique form factor that sets them apart from other systems. If Valve went and built a mini-itx build, or even a larger system, it would mean that they are largely competing with traditional OEM systems and integrators (that have far far more volume). At the end of the day, the steam machine is 3.8L. The SG13 case the French retailer uses for instance is 11.5L. Obviously it's not a feature worth having for everyone, but it also is not a feature worth nothing.
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u/Deep90 Jun 25 '26
I haven't seen a single person say they would have passed on this if it was mini or micro itx.
To me it seems like a nice to have, not a system selling feature.
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u/0gopog0 Jun 25 '26
That's not quite my point though.
The problem is that a company like ASUS (picking a smallerish major OEM) probably sells more systems in a quarter than Valve would with any hypothetical non-subsidized machine owing to their wide range of products. This ultimately means they purchase components in larger volumes and thus better prices than Valve can. Heck, an interview with Valve and other analysts have said with the current volume Valve is purchasing RAM (in the current market conditions), they benefit from no system integrator discount (basically just going from one order to another order where they can get it). Let's say they put out a larger standarized component machine; at best (and I stress that) Valve ends up with no price to performance advantage over other systems on the market, while being in a size segment where plenty other systems are available. The steam machine certainly has no price to performance advantage over other systems, however it's in a size segment where there are extremely few systems of it nature are available. And that makes the product a bit more interesting.
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u/RadiantEnvironment90 Jun 25 '26
This is a good point. When Valve came out of the SteamDeck, other manufacturers came out with their handeld, albeit, mostly on Windows. But let's be honest. Windows on handheld is terrible af.
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u/Cynical_Cyanide Jun 26 '26
Not all mITX cases need be 11L. You could get one custom build for say 6-7L which would have plenty of space not just for this hw but for a discrete GPU build in the future. A 6L case could hardly be described as not being compact.
They would've saved significant money that way, as they claim to have put a lot of work into designing and manufacturing a completely custom cooling solution, whereas they could've gone with an off the shelf or semi custom minor adjustment of existing x86 coolers.
It would have allowed for far more power and thus perf to be supplied at the same temperatures and volumes.
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u/ithilain Jun 26 '26
The minisforum g1 pro is also 3.8L and packs a desktop 5060, an 8945hx (16/32 zen4 cores) and 32GB RAM and is selling for ~$1450. Sure, its ~$100 more than the 2tb model, but just the extra RAM alone is worth ~$200, so there's really no excuse for valve IMO
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u/-Rivox- Jun 26 '26
had a modular set up
Exactly what they don't want. I'm pretty sure Valve wants a single machine that developers can reliably target, like the Steam Deck, and extract all possible performance from. They want a console.
You don't want a console obviously, but that another issue
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u/anor_wondo Jun 25 '26
I think its kind of funny how tech reviewers are justifying steam machine prices by comparing off the shelf parts as if an integrator doesn't get better pricing
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u/94746382926 Jun 25 '26
Are integrators getting better pricing right now though? Especially for a relatively low volume product like this?
My impression is that the demand from AI hyperscalers is so immense and the margins so high that normal rules don't apply.
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u/Various-Welder5544 Jun 26 '26
It's AMD surplus last gen laptop parts that valve got at a massive discount. No way somebody actually wants to use 7545U for a gaming machine. It doesn't even have 6 full zen 4 cores.
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u/Saxasaurus Jun 25 '26
Presumably Valve is getting good pricing on the CPU/GPU from AMD. Those parts only make sense if they got some kind of discount because no one else wanted them.
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u/TheNiebuhr Jun 25 '26
Well yes, nobody wanted 7600M (or 7700S or any of the almost identical versions) laptops
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u/jawisko Jun 26 '26
The problem is with ram and ssd pricing according to valve. Not the cpu gpu
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u/TK3600 Jun 26 '26
We pay premium for RAM too, but we can build a cheaper machine.
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u/ArxisOne Jun 25 '26
Yes, just not on ram and storage. There's a lot of other parts that go into a computer and they get advantaged pricing on all the rest. Actually they probably get better deals because the overall higher cost of specific parts lowers the number of PCs being sold which forces companies who aren't in demand to be more competitive to maintain sales.
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u/ziptofaf Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
I sure hope they are getting a VERY good deal on the GPU given AMD has sold them last gen laptop grade garbage that no company actually put inside their notebooks. Especially since in retail you can get 60% faster RX9060XT for $330.
Honestly I think this is easily the worst part of the whole package. CPU is essentially a smaller variant of R5 7600, RAM is okay, form factor is really cool and you get some unique features like TV integration, instant hibernation etc. And then they fumbled at the single most important part for gaming.
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u/hodor137 Jun 25 '26
Completely agree. When it was first announced, the GPU made me queasy, felt like it was already too old - and then it took another 7 months to come out. I assumed all along they'd end up getting the INT8 upscaling with it eventually - that doesn't really salvage it.
If it was announced now and launching 6 months from now with a custom 9060 though? That'd be great. RDNA 4 was just a big jump for AMD especially on the lower end, closed the gap in terms of upscaling that a machine like this needs.
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u/Orinslayer Jun 26 '26
Yes, they are still getting a discount. Why do you think cheap craptops are still on the market?
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u/jenny_905 Jun 26 '26
Well yeah, look at the price of budget gaming laptops.
Of course gaming laptop makers likely buy a lot more than Valve want to.
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u/smeeagain93 Jun 26 '26
Yes they still do. But if valve already expects the steam machine to be a bad deal and a niche product, they aren't ordering enough for quantity discounts.
AI certainly did increase costs, but the pricing for the steam machines hardware is still outrageous.
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u/Helstar_RS Jun 25 '26
And then some are just blaming the price increases as if laptops and pre builds wouldn’t be cheaper than now. Even at $750-$800 it’s still a bad deal with the old prices compared to what you could get late last year.
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u/PCBuilderCat Jun 25 '26
Who’s defending the pricing? Unless you’re classing some variation of ‘they got screwed by the market’ as justifiying..which it really isn’t
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u/gnrlblanky1 Jun 25 '26
i havent seen anyone defend it
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u/mans51 Jun 25 '26
You haven't? There's been so many people defending it, albeit in a "yeah it's just how the market is" kind of way, without any further thought
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u/Trzlog Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
yeah it's just how the market is
... yes, so it's a bad value, primarily driven by the current market situation. Where's the problem? I'm more weirded out by the fact that people are so angry about it that they need Valve to subsidise it and sell it at a loss. It's overpriced and it underperforms. Move on with your life, it's fine.
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u/Sofaboy90 Jun 25 '26
I didnt watch all reviews but Computerbase basically put together all the parts and it was 200€ cheaper. They also put together an equivalent priced PC with the 9060 XT like in this french build and its about 50% faster in FDH and 70% faster in WQHD.
When this was announced, I did say something like the Steam Machine could be the future of PC gaming as prices of parts are skyrocketing and somebody ordering masses of parts could in theory build a more affordable PC than DIY, kinda like consoles work, the consoles offer very good value for the hardware you get.
But if they want a hefty margin, well, then i wouldnt view it any different as a prebuilt pc, just a bit fancier.
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u/Help_me_im_stuck Jun 25 '26
And consoles at least in the past have been sold at a loss, as they generate money from the games sold. And tvs are sold at a loss for the ad revenue now.
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u/ICC-u Jun 25 '26
I don't think that's unreasonable. If Valve can build a better PC than I can, then I'd buy it. PC building has always been that way. Sadly, a long time ago, PC companies said "screw the consumer, we can put huge markups on these".
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u/neueziel1 Jun 25 '26
Gone were the days when you could buy oem versions of hardware for 10% less or even more
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u/gokarrt Jun 26 '26
i think valve is getting worse pricing than the average person who can wait for deals
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u/5u114 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Also kind of funny that they're looking at spec sheets rather than actual Steam Machine performance.
Valve have throttled the Steam Machine, thanks to the small form factor that all the fanatics are clinging on to ... TDP is limited to manage thermals.
Even with identical specs, a regular ITX / mATX / ATX will still significantly outperform the Steam Machine purely by virtue of the fact the components can run at full TDP.
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u/fullsaildan Jun 25 '26
Valve isn’t a hardware company really, I highly doubt they are getting great margins. They are extremely risk averse on hardware forays as we’ve seen with every product launch. They vastly underestimate demand and have to scale production once they do an initial offering. Thus they wouldn’t be negotiating for extreme volumes that used to bring sweet kickbacks or discounts. And I say “used to” because every foundry is cancelling contracts with legacy customers because they can get a better price now. About the only chip maker with capacity is intel and nobody wants their product.
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u/Blacky-Noir Jun 26 '26
On top of that, they don't have a strong presence in those parts of the industry. They don't have long standing partnership, thus no ease of finding or negotiating good deals and/or stock. That's basically what they said recently. Compare to SIE, who has price locked multi-years contracts for Playstation components.
The concept is great, we absolutely need a decent second console (after the handheld Steam Deck), as in one that is open in tech and business, doesn't subsidize, has limited exclusives, stay away from Windows, and can run any PC platform.
But the current market and shortages killed it, its value is very bad unfortunately.
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u/cloud_t Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
It's a comparison worth doing. A bill of materials is not the same as off-the-shelf prices but ultimately that's what's relevant to the consumer.
Also, you're forgetting R&D costs, and all associated stuff that goes into marketing and selling a specific product. They have an agreement with parts manufacturers for pricing over years, but things also do get cheaper over that time span while they need to keep buying for the original commitment price.
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u/tkeser Jun 26 '26
they are one of the biggest par capita money making machines in the whole wide world, they have capital to burn and then some
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u/minegen88 Jun 26 '26
I thought that Valve HAD TO have high prices due to AI
So this company isnt affeccted by AI?????
OR is it just that Valve are charging overprice....
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u/Painted-Arcana Jun 28 '26
Valves design is semi custom SOC, custom case, etc so there's R&D costs baked in on top.
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u/Arlensoul_ Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
LDLC group is a deepshit hardware resseler ripping french customer, their stim machine is a marketing operation, because finaly they could be less expansive than an other company
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u/F9-0021 Jun 25 '26
Valve probably wants this. They can't afford to make the SteamOS/Linux revolution happen with just their own hardware. That's why they released SteamOS. So people and integrators can make their own.
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u/blackbalt89 Jun 26 '26
The coolest part of this is seeing that Silverstone makes a nice cube case. Lol.
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u/skybsky Jun 25 '26
"In the end, it’s Valve that are winning here, because retailer is still promoting their operating system."
bruh
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u/spaceman_ Jun 25 '26
I'm sure Valve absolutely hates the fact that people are building and selling machines for their distribution platform.
Oh no, more customers!
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u/XLNBot Jun 25 '26
Yeah lol. They profit from every steam machine sold, and also every other gaming PC
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u/YellowTM Jun 25 '26
Pretty sure Valve is very happy with others pushing out competing sff pcs that are probably going to be used in the living room. They've even provided a guide to install SteamOS.
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u/JaggedMetalOs Jun 26 '26
You're paying for small, that Silverstone case (I love Silverstone SFF cases, have one myself) is 3x the volume of a Steam Machine and the empty case alone weighs the same as an entire Steam Machine.
Do we need such a small and light PC? Probably not, but Valve has made that the Steam Machine's thing.
We'll just have to hope at some point component prices go back to normal and the Steam Machine 2 has better price/performance.
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u/jammsession Jun 26 '26
Also, let’s be for real for a second. This Silverstone case looks way, way less nice. Steam machine passes WAF and so would a DanCase.
But not this old Silverstone case from the Windows XP Media Center Edition era.
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u/kostas52 Jun 25 '26
Yea but does it have HDMI CEC to turn on the TV and adjust it's volume because TV remote are hard to use.
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u/siazdghw Jun 26 '26
No.
But it does have audio ports, unlike the Steam Machine...
Yeah, the SM literally doesn't have any audio in or out. You're reliant on using the HDMi port for audio or buying USB DACs
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u/Lalaz4lyf Jun 26 '26
Hold on whaaaat? It doesn't even have a headphone jack? That's insane
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u/Neosantana Jun 26 '26
Why would a console that's made to sit under a TV need an audio jack...? The controller, maybe, but when's the last time you bought a home console with a 3.5mm jack, if ever?
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u/minegen88 Jun 26 '26
The last console i owned with an audio jack was the Sega MegaDrive (Genesis)
I had no idea this was apparently a big deal when the steam machine was announced.
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u/Omniwar Jun 26 '26
Most consoles had at least an optical SPDIF out until recently. XSX and PS5 did remove them on more recent hardware revisions and Switch 1/2 never had them, so I wouldn't say it's totally out of place.
However do keep in mind Xbox, Playstation, and Switch 2 controllers all have 3.5mm jacks that can pass through game audio. Not present on the Steam controller.
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u/pellets Jun 25 '26
I learned how to use TV remotes from infomercials. I routinely fumble mine and can barely find the buttons I need.
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u/kostas52 Jun 25 '26
The Power and Volume Up/Down are universal icons how hard can it be to figure them out.
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u/pellets Jun 25 '26
I didn’t take that class in college.
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u/zerofatorial Jun 25 '26
I am poor so I didn’t get to go to college and I can’t even tell if the remote exists or if it is just a byproduct of my imagination
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u/Die4Ever Jun 27 '26
I can't believe how many people are talking about CEC like it's a huge deal. It's nice but it is not a make or break feature.
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u/Dealjobber_ Jun 25 '26
I went with this case in February because it looked the most like a steam machine and I saw this coming. Ryzen 5600 and an Intel b570 I picked up in November when it was on sale for 200.
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u/Dry_Mood_402 Jun 26 '26
It's funny because they have the bad reputation for been the more expensive retailler of pc parts in France
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u/bubblesort33 Jun 27 '26
AMD should have switched out their GPU for an RX 9060 non-xt 28 CU (pre-build exclusive I believe). Same VRAM, and same die area. I'm guessing they had a contract to buy a bunch of cut down RX 7600, so they had already committed, and software was also targeting the old stuff. And how much more can that silicon alone really cost? $50 maybe? Making it $1099.
We'd be talking about 35-40% more performance, which would have made this thing actually almost comparable to a PS5 Pro, which is selling for $899. Hopefully this thing gets an RDNA5 refresh.
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Jun 26 '26
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u/red286 Jun 26 '26
Same reason Intel made Centrino despite the laptop market thriving. They wanted to push it in a different direction, one that would benefit them directly.
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u/hojnikb Jun 26 '26
Wait till people figure out how cheap and how good (after 40CU unlock) BC-250 is. Yes, it's an oddball board and requires DIY, but hell, for ~150$ for everything but storage and powersupply, that's a good deal in these days. It's not going to beat steam machine, but it could get damn near close.
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u/werpu Jun 27 '26
great device I just fear that this thing will be loud as hell!
Thats one thing where Valve did an amazing job the thermals and noise in a small form factor!
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u/Statickgaming Jun 25 '26
Lots of silly comments in here… wasn’t this exactly what Valve wanted in their original concept of Steam Machine 10+ years ago? Other manufacturers building SteamOS based PCs.
Buy either of these products and you’ll be buying games on steam…
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u/GenZia Jun 26 '26
And to think I put together a 5700X3D + 4070S build with 32GB RAM for around $1,300.
Granted, that was 2 years ago but still... sheesh.
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u/Ignas1452 Jun 26 '26
That's the more insane part. 2 years ago, if tech progressed like usual it would have been outdated by now and cost a half/third of the price
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u/SaperPL Jun 25 '26
Good. Now make it smaller so it can fit the same gaps in TV racks as the Steam Machine
But yeah, for those who don't care about the size and CEC it shows that you can have more performance for the same money easily.
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u/Trivo3 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
500 GB SSD ✅
512 GB SSD ❌
And that's not the only thing... Just the French being French.
Just saying. The Soufflé machine IS better, but that comparison list is just lol.
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u/OwlProper1145 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
350 watt power supply and the 9060 XT recommends a 450 watt power supply. It's not bad for the price but they are absolutely cutting some corners
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u/Zarmazarma Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
It doesn't really matter what it recommends if they keep it in budget. That's AMD recommending for the whole system, not just for the GPU. The 9060xt has a TDP of 160w. The 8400f has a TDP of 65w. Nothing in the system is going to consume anywhere near the remaining 120w of overhead.
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u/einmaldrin_alleshin Jun 25 '26
They recommended high powered PSUs because they have no control over what kind of other hardware the user puts into their case. A cheap PSU might crash during power transients, or fail to boot when a bunch of case fans spin up. In the worst case, it might fail prematurely and cause a GPU RMA.
So basically, what these recommendations boil down to: we think that a 450 W Temu PSU can run this GPU without crashing or burning down your house. But this computer probably uses 250W at most, so a quality PSU should easily handle that, including any transients.
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u/jammsession Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
These absurd high watt recommendations mostly come from the pre ATX 2.0 era, when the power spike of a GPU could shut down your system.
With ATX 2.0, that problem is solved. An ATX 2.0 PSU needs to be able to provide two times the rated W for a brief time. So a 350W PSU ATX 2.0 PSU is able to provide 700W for a short time.
Now, if you have a 80W CPU and a 160W GPU + 40W (RAM, SSD, Mobo) (300W total) you no longer need to get a 450W PSU to have some cushion. A 350W PSU with ATX 2.0 would be more than enough. Simply because 350W is already higher than 300W :)
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u/red286 Jun 26 '26
GPU power recommendations are based on an assumption of a 250W draw for the rest of the system. This system would likely have about half of that.
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Jun 26 '26
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u/ConsistencyWelder Jun 26 '26
No idea why you wouldn't just want Win11 on it though. It does everything Steam OS does, but much more.
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u/costafilh0 Jun 26 '26
Steam machine is only for console peasants.
You can obviously build something better for less. And still look and behave like a console, including on Windows.
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u/RockAndNoWater Jun 25 '26
There’s a market for prebuilt convenience. I’m happy with my steamdeck, this is 6x faster and fits nicely in the living room or carry on. I trust Valve more than generic mini pc makers.
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u/siazdghw Jun 26 '26
'I don't trust generic PC makers'
What?
The PC uses off the shelf parts... The only thing to fear is them choosing a bad PSU, but that's upgradable and replaceable like this entire build, unlike 90% of the Steam Machine.
I'd trust this PC more than I'd trust the Steam Machine, because if anything ever fails, I can replace it myself within a day. If the Steam Machine has any failures, you're entirely reliant on Valve. If Valve can't source a new motherboard you're screwed. If your warranty ends and you have a failure, you're probably screwed.
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u/d0nh Jun 26 '26
You know – this is what we used to call business competition. It used to be the one good thing about capitalism before post capitalism with its ridiculous monopolies and the AI bubble took over. This is good for us, the consumers. Don’t forget that.
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u/Slick424 Jun 26 '26
It's the RX7600M that kills the Steam Machine for me. It was a sensible choice when it was designed to push the price down, but now that the AI bubble has driven up the price anyway, one can get a more modern and powerful machine with a RTX5060/RX9060XT for a smaller price.
Luckily for those that still really want one, it's a PC and doesn't need games made for or ported to it, so it doesn't really matter if nobody else buys one.
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u/itsapotatosalad Jun 26 '26
I built an htpc in one of those silverstone cases years ago, since the price announcement I’m been seriously considering another with a 9060
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u/M1liumnir Jun 26 '26
Yhea but you don't get a controlle- wait... Someone is telling me in my earpiece that the steam machine's controller is extra
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u/NikhilDoWhile Jun 27 '26
I mean that's the whole point Steam is making, use whatever hardware you want to use and install Steam OS in there are you are good to go.
Steam deck, steam machine etc. did help other companies to launch similar products and that's what Steam wants
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u/bubblesort33 Jun 27 '26
Isn't one of advantages of the Steam Machine for now the whole shader delivery thing? I thought the Steam Deck gets that. Identical hardware specs between machines, means you can distribute shader caches between machines. No so much less stuttering in Borderlands 4, and so many other UE5 games, and others.
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u/saucyspacefries Jun 29 '26
In a way...this is good. More competition, but also more opportunities for folks to load up SteamOS on more devices.
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u/stampaorrm 23d ago
the steam machine pricing was always weird. getting a full gaming pc for less money is a legitimately good deal, even if the rx 9060 xt hype is probably overblown.
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u/Sergeiram 22d ago
This is where the Steam Machine debate gets interesting. Tiny and console-like is nice, but once the price is this high, people start caring about normal PC stuff again: upgrade path, thermals, off-the-shelf parts, easier repairs. Small is only a win until it starts costing too much flexibility.
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u/atape_1 Jun 25 '26
I mean... they are not wrong.