$1050 for 512gb no controller
I’m surprised people think $1,100 is expensive for a gaming PC, even outside the crazy memory market now.
Same with the $500 Commodore phone.
These are not the 2000s. The dollar has inflated. Technology is expensive. I think cheap junk has desensitized folks to that, but you pay an externalized cost for that stuff.
And of course salaries haven’t gone up so anyone can actually afford it, but… that’s a distinctly separate problem. They should have, as corporate revenue and profit per worker has certainly gone up.
I’m surprised people think $1,100 is expensive for a gaming PC, even outside the crazy memory market now.
$1100 isn’t expensive for a gaming PC. It is, however, expensive for this gaming PC because it’s so incredibly underpowered and non upgradeable that it may as well not even be called a gaming PC. This thing struggles hard to hit playable framerates in current gen games. Even at 720p they’re struggling to hit 30fps. For “next gen” games it’s basically going to just be left in the dark, won’t even be able to play them. The memory bandwidth is terrible, the 8GB VRAM is terrible, the CPU is terrible, and the GPU is literally scraping the bottom of the barrel.
At this exorbitant price it’s DOA. It’ll no doubt sell out because of the steam fangirls buying anything valve throws at them, but they’ll be producing so few of this thing that selling out will mean nothing. They should have cancelled this as soon as they couldn’t launch it for $500.
Wow, my prediction was pretty close. 7 months ago, I predicted that the Steam Machine prices would be $800-$900 for the 512GB model, and $1,000-$1,200 for the 2TB model.
That was in the middle of memory prices going vertical, and I still got down voted to hell by people claiming that they were expecting $600-$800 tops…
Honestly, with how bad memory has become even over the last 6 months, and the increased brutality to the market done by tariffs and the oil supply shock, I’m actually surprised they were able to hit $1,049 for the base model.
The hard truth: It’s an acceptable price within a piss-poor market. The harder truth: It will sell out extremely fast and won’t restock likely for months.
When Framework announced their new Framework 13 Pro line laptops last month, a lot of people balked at the price. $1,500 was the cheapest pre-built model, and DIY was basically the same price, unless you already had some components. The pricing for higher tier specs easily climbed to $2,000+
Still, they sold out of every model for the first 6-8 batches in a few days, and barely 2 months later, they are sold out to batch 15, with an expected delivery in October.
The K-shaped market is further becoming a reality. The people that have the money to drop on stuff like this, are happily dropping it. And the people who can’t afford it are getting left in the dust.
The scumbag oligarchs have created the cyberpunk dystopia, and most of us aren’t going to be living up in the shiny skyscrapers…
Nice accuracy and precision on those estimates dude. It’s hard to get that shit right
I tried telling people it will be over $1000 on all the forums and discussion sites I’m on, and no-one would believe me lol.
reasonable given the current situation but not reasonable in general. I’ll wait for prices to go down or my income to go up.
I didn’t get a PS5 when it came out for the same reason. Now it’s more expensive than it was at launch and my wages haven’t changed.
Yeah, we saved for a week, maybe two I don’t remember. I finally saved enough money and my wife bought it as a birthday present for me last year how long was that since release? A couple weeks right. Doesn’t really matter, my friendly local public library has enough cool shit in it to do that I wasn’t wanting for fun. Unless there’s something specific that’s ps5 exclusive you want to play, just get a ps4 and a library card. It kind of feels like blockbuster.
as a not that big a gamer, i was thinking of the Steamdeck to replace my aging Minisforum “desktop”.
I had originally thought of the Framework
with 64GB/2TB
and then move move the Minisforum to some LAN self hosting work (Jellyfin etc) but it has nothing for HDDs aside from external USB3, (and 1x internal NVME and 2x internal SSD) which i am led to believe is problematic
i currently just run a HDD on the router and use Kodi via a Nvidia box to a dumb TV.
I’d love to hear opinions from those with more insight
I run Linux mint on the Minisforum
I wonder how much it would’ve cost if we didn’t have a dumb mother fucker in charge and greedy rich bastards weren’t hoarding all the supplies
speculation says 750ish. which really would have been perfect
https://steamdeckhq.com/news/valve-steam-machine-original-price/
$750 is still about $250 too expensive for what it is and the performance it has.
Yeah, this was my guess as well in a pre-ram crisis era.
it’s not just the one dumb motherfucker in charge, it’s practically the entire goddamn government. anyone who isn’t vocally outspoken against AI companies and aiming to put a hard stop to their data centers is fully responsible for any and all harm they’re currently causing (and the hardware inflation is such a minor part of said harm).
anyway abolish capitalism and send techbros to the guillotines
abolish capitalism
What does this mean, exactly?
you take capitalism
you place under guillotine
you manœuver guillotine
done
Reorganize our economic system into one in which the means of production, ie factories, farms, utilities etc, are collectively owned by the people instead of being owned by the rich elite who take all profit for themselves.
I’m not sure, but let’s live a little, try something new and see where it goes.
I play music and grow some mean artichokes. Like they have thorns and everything they’re delicious. Willing to trade sass for butter
it’s practically the entire goddamn government.
Why don’t you draw the logical conclusion, and realize it’s the American population that elected the dumb motherfucker that is responsible for the entire administration. And the American population that also elected a congress that doesn’t do anything!
For fucks sake, Americans elected an obvious psychopath for president, with an equally psychopathic vice president!!!
Edit:
I’m guessing the downvotes are Americans that are in denial, because the above claims are undeniable facts, except the motherfucker part, which is rhetoric I borrowed from the previous posts.Careful, lemmings hate it when you point out that voters and non voters are responsible for the government we have, or that it’s largely a reflection of the culture and society we propagate.
Electoral politics means nothing when the entire issue is rooted in the very foundations of the country and capitalism as a whole. One dumbass being elected isn’t an anomaly, he’s an inevitable symptom of the problems that have been there for ages.
So are you one of those that claim that Republicans and Democrats are the same?
That having a Republican controlled congress with a Republican president is the same as if they were both Democrat?because if you answer that with a yes, I think I’m just gonna block you.
Edit:
Really downvoted for saying the truth? Americans sure like their delusions and false equivalences. 🤮🤮🤮
Spoken like a true lib lmao
The American people are some of the most propagandised on Earth. Our education has been eroded over decades and we are steeped in a media sphere almost entirely owned by the wealthy which constantly discredits anything remotely socialist and tells almost nothing but lies about the outside world. People can’t even usually protest in a serious way without losing their jobs, and therefore their healthcare and housing. When protesters burned down the police station in Minneapolis in 2020, that was ranked with a higher approval rating than nearly any politician elected at the time.
Even if a good candidate is elected, the power comes from the wealthy, they will subvert any thing progressive using their trillions of dollars and surveillance panopticon.
So a lot of Americans did vote for this horrific administration, but most people don’t even know what they are voting for, and voter turnout is egregiously bad because most people don’t feel they can even trust what they are told about politics.
So a lot of Americans did vote for this horrific administration, but most people don’t even know what they are voting for
And the second time around?
Even if a good candidate is elected, the power comes from the wealthy,
Exactly, taking your country back, should start with taxing the rich heavily, not with giving them even lower taxes. That would be a good start for Americans.
Apparently Valve said to look at the Steam Deck price hike for a clue. So probably around $750 for the base model.
999 for 1 tb with controller.
My guess would be like 600 or so for the base model.
LTT got a bit of a guess from Valve, the estimate is that the price was adjusted roughly in line with the recent Steam Deck increase.
Puts it about 850 or so for the base model if I’m estimating properly, but that is going from announcement to now, not all the way back to the beginning of all this mess.
Honestly surprised that they hit that price point with the way things are going. Still don’t need one so I won’t buy one, but about 1000 was what I was expecting
Same for me. I was expecting like $1200 for the base model which nobody should pay that much for such middling specs.
But still $1k is way more than I’d pay for an HTPC. I’d much rather the steam link approach and use streaming to my already nice and powerful desktop. I guess this is a nice thing to point newbies who want a box that should “just work” and don’t already have something and don’t want to build.
This is for people who don’t have a nice and powerful desktop.
They didn’t stop development of the link explicitly for people like you?
This is for people who don’t have a nice and powerful desktop.
You can build a significantly more powerful desktop that is also upgradable for less than this. This price renders it absolutely useless and no one should buy it.
I’m convinced hardly anybody on Lemmy has a functioning theory of mind.
I feel seen :3
Obviously, no shit. I never meant to imply that this was targeted at me. But I know multiple people who already have a high end computer who would also like this for their living room.
If it was $600 like I’d originally hoped I’d be interested. I wasn’t going to get one day 1, but I’d have picked one up once they’re consistently in stock. But $1000 for mid specs is rough for anyone. Just like the steam controller, Valve has made another hyper niche device.
But I know multiple people who already have a high end computer who would also like this for their living room.
Why? High end computers can also go in the living room. You can also simply stream your high end computer to other devices if you don’t want to do that, or put HDMI cables in the walls.
Going from a high end gaming PC to this, which struggles to do 720p/30fps in AAA games, would be a nightmare.
The price for everything went up. That “mix spec” PC you were going to build? That went up by the same amount, if not more by the time this is all over
You’re still paying the premium for getting a low power parts in a small form factor. At half the price it’s a lot easier to justify to someone who doesn’t really care. But at almost twice the price that FPS per dollar difference is a lot higher.
This random ass power spec computer is going to kick the shit out of the steam machine. Again if size isn’t a concern. And I’m sure actual oems have smaller pcs with less compromised performance.
I was thinking more like $1500
Good(?) news! You can spend almost that much for the 2TB with a controller.
Not Valve fault, but at this point i just feel lucky to have brought the Deck Oled before of all this ram shitshow.
It’s obviously not Valve’s fault but man, that’s expensive. Wasn’t planning on getting one anyway, but it certainly makes me worried about what the Frame may cost.
Anyone here planning on getting one? I do wonder how much of a market there is for it at this price.
Is the frame more expensive hardware? Can we make any sort of reasonable determination on frame price now that we know the gabecubes cost?
At announcement I was hoping $700, which I don’t see happening. Are we still expecting index pricing or is that not happening?
… Well the quest 3 is $600. They can’t be too far from that can they? I mean I’d pay $1000 on the frame before I gave meta $600, but most people don’t have the same hate for meta that I do.
I think that $600 is a subsidized price and not really useful for comparison. I would expect the Frame to be at least $1000. The hardware likely is more expensive overall since it also includes displays. They aren’t high end screens but they still add significant cost. It is probably more expensive to assemble each Frame compared to the Steam Machine also. I wouldn’t be surprised if the low end model is $1500+
That would absolutely kill it, at least for me. $700-800 sold. 1k, harder to justify to the wife, but probably still getting it. 1500, well my rift-s is still pretty good I guess.
The frame sure aint gonna be cheap hardware. 0% chance it can match the quest in price. But since it doesn’t need as much storage I’m hoping it’ll be 700-800. But I wouldn’t blink if it’s $1000. Valve just doesn’t have the economies of scale Meta will.
It’s hard to say, but at least before the component shortages, I would have expected the Frame to be the more expensive device. After all, it has 2 included controllers, displays, batteries, tracking cameras etc. But maybe the lower memory and storage (if you go for the 256GB) along with its mobile SoC might help reduce the effects of the component crisis somewhat. I don’t expect it to be below 1k€ though, personally.
Anyone here planning on getting one?
I might get a 2tb. If I don’t game on it, I might swap the Linux version and use it for work. We have standardized in fully decked out System76 Meerkats with Proxmox VE serving jump hosts to manage different clients, so I can use it for that, or I can leverage the GPU and use it for datadump and log analysis. The point is, that it wouldn’t be money wasted. Ideally, I’d like to play games on it though.
EDIT: Looking at the Gamer’s Nexus review they state upfront that performance is limited, so I honestly don’t see why I should get this over a Meerkat.
EDIT 2: Nevermind. The Meerkat has almost doubled in price and is Intel only now. So the Steam Machine is back on the menu.
If I don’t game on it, I might swap the Linux version and use it for work.
But…why? There are much better small form factor PCs for significantly cheaper than this.
That was a rollercoaster! lol
I signed up to get one the moment I heard about the price. I like gaming on my PC, but I much prefer playing certain games on the big screen in the living room. Likewise, my partner has gotten used to the Steam Deck’s UI so it’ll be great to get her more into gaming.
The Steam Deck + Dock is what I currently use, but playing everything in 720p upscaled to 1080 (or just playing indie games) is pretty frustrating.
And I’ve used moonlight/steam streaming/even Nvidia gamestream (I have an Nvidia shield) - while they’re fine solutions, I don’t like the compression artifacts of streaming. Also annoys me that the game physically renders on my computer.
So, yeah, TL;DR I want a Steam Machine. I’m also excited to use desktop mode on occasion. And when the machine finally runs its course, it’ll be a nice looking server for the closet!
I like gaming on my PC, but I much prefer playing certain games on the big screen in the living room
These things aren’t mutually exclusive. My PC is hooked up to my 75" tv in the games room.
With the specs of this steam machine, the last thing you would want to do is play it on a big screen lol. It will look atrocious. To even hit barely playable framerates you have to run at basically ultra low settings at 720p and use FSR3 (vomits) to get it back up to 1440p.
Eh, I don’t mind running the settings slightly lower for better performance. It really isn’t possible on the steam deck. E.g. Can’t even play a game like blue prince at 1080p without massive frame drops.
As far as hooking my proper pc up goes, I don’t have cables long enough for that, and wheeling the damn thing over with a cart (which I actually do sometimes) has gotten pretty old.
Also, the reviews showed some good performance at 1440p. As I don’t think I’ll go above 1080p with upscaling, I’m excited.
You’d be much better off just using moonlight from your pc to any other device, but seems like you want to buy it no matter the pointlessness haha. I’ve been there, but not at this price.
I really wanted one, but now it’s an easy wait for at least some kind of sale.
Edited to add, just finished reading and watching a round of reviews and honestly don’t think I even want one anymore.
I don’t think they’ve ever had any sales for hardware. The only discounted hardware I’ve seen was the refurbished Deck. If you don’t want specifically Valve-branded hardware, you’re probably better off building a proper PC from comparable second-hand parts.
They have absolutely had sales on their hardware. I am pretty sure they’ve put deck on sale every year since it came out.
As for building my own, yeah I know, and I’ve considered it many times. But I absolutely dread working in small form factor, and this thing’s size was one of the main appeals for me.
They’ve definitely had new steam decks on sale before. Mine was 20% off just last year.
That was before the RAM shortage. It’s going to be at least 1 full year before RAM price start going down and they can offer discounts. Unless the AI bubble pops. And that’ll have huge economic consequences.
The original Steam Controller and Steam Link went on sale for about 5€ each just before they were phased out. OG Steam Deck also had some smaller discounts.
I was going to but only existing steam accounts can pre order. I get it, but trying to go from console as a poor just feels impossible at this point.
Just take solace in your local library
I genuinely can’t see any reason to get one. Like… if you’re a PC gamer with enough spare cash to get one, you can probably get a better gaming PC for the same money. If you’re a console gamer, there’s no reason to switch because the 512gb with no controller is almost double the cost of a five year old PS5, which has better specs and a controller, plus you’d have to buy all your games again, if they’re even available on Steam (and also if they even work in Linux.) The only thing I think it could be be good for is as a budget gaming PC, but it’s wildly over-priced for that.
Not Valve’s fault of course, but yeah there’s no way for me personally.
Much as I would love an upgrade to my Steam Deck (which I mostly used docked), I can’t justify more than $500, much less $1000. Glad I snagged the $400 LCD Steam Deck when I did. The Steam Deck price hikes prompted me to get a Switch 2, as I don’t see any other new sub-$500 consoles coming out for a long, long time.
I did the promise with witnesses and all to get one at least in year 2 if it launches with Half life 3 just cause the memes I haven’teven player HL ever. If it drops to 600 or so I’m getting it.
I have been waiting for the price to see about replacing my Xbox series S as I degoogling/M$ as much as possible. I just want a streaming box that I can play light games on.
I just want a streaming box that I can play light games on.
If that’s what you want, get an apple tv or shield tv lol.
Steep as shit but still somehow cheaper than expected. We love AI bullshit destroying the entire hardware market hell yeah
Steam Machine, like our other hardware products, is made up of many components that we source from manufacturers around the world. The price at which we sell our hardware is a direct result of the cost of these components. We felt like we had a good understanding of how those costs might change over time when we first started sourcing them for Steam Machine back in 2023. That understanding was born from the many years of data we all have about the evolution of PC hardware prices – primarily, that it tends to get cheaper over time as new technology arrives.
Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components. There are a variety of reasons, all of which are affecting hardware products everywhere. The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we’re sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as we’ve secured them over the past 6 months.
Price wasn’t the only thing impacted by all of this: availability was as well. There were periods where we found we couldn’t source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this has impacted the number of units we’ve been able to produce for launch.
Also:
If I don’t get a Steam Machine right away, is there anything else I can do?
Thanks to the openness of the PC platform, there are lots of options for devices that will allow you to run games natively or streamed to your TV. There are many PC sites and communities out there that can help you with that. For our part, we are continuing to work toward enabling SteamOS to be used on more hardware than just ours. In fact, with the newly-released SteamOS 3.8, you can run the same code and operating system as Steam Machine on your own living-room PC using whatever PC parts you want:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227 . Right now, only AMD GPUs are supported, but we’re working on expanding support for the future.
It’s hard to hold the steep price point against Valve when their communication looks like this.
The common Gabe W.
410 CAD to go from 512GB to 2TB, and sadly that’s pretty much just what a 2TB drive costs these days.
Yep. Storage prices are insane.
price shown in USD not including tax/vat
2 Years ago I got a cheap 2TB SATA SSD for 106euro. The same listing today stands at 230.
In January this year I got 12TB WD hdd off manufacturer site for 230 (25% discount off an official price of 330 or so). Today it is 560 and 25% discount would end up being higher than the cost of that HDD pre-AI bullshit. Thanks, ChatGPT…
If not for AI bros, we’d have Steam Machine around 700.
I think it does include two additional faceplates, including the walnut veneer
Steam Machine 512GB: $1,049 USD / 1,509 CAD / 1,039 EUR / 879 GBP / 1,609 AUD / 4,389 PLN
Bundle: Steam Machine 512GB + Steam Controller: $1,128 USD / 1,628 CAD / 1,108 EUR / 938 GBP / 1,728 AUD / 4,698 PLN
Steam Machine 2TB: $1,349 USD / 1,919 CAD / 1,359 EUR / 1,149 GBP / 2,109 AUD / 5,739 PLN
Bundle: Steam Machine 2TB + Steam Controller: $1,428 USD / 2,038 CAD / 1,428 EUR / 1,208 GBP / 2,228 AUD / 6,048 PLN
Both the Steam Machine 2TB and 2TB bundle options come with two additional faceplates: red fabric, and solid walnut.
To me, at this point it makes no sense to go with 512gb model, if you pay already that much money. The limitations of 512 is too extreme in my opinion.
And at the price that the 2TB model is, you’d be an idiot to buy it.
And if you get the controller bundle, you save $20 over buying it separately.
You also save 9 months of waiting on the pre-order list but neither is a good selling point.
My guess is part of the reason for the controller shortages is they reserved a bunch to do these bundles.
💯
They lost me at that price point, sadly. And I was really looking forward to this thing launching.
Valve makes damn good products, I’m rocking a Steam Deck and a SC in my personal collection, and love them both.
But my next PC upgrade was looking to be just that… a power upgrade. That was the main focus.
The small form factor, the excellent presentation, and the Valve quality that we all know this is going to have… they would have been nice. But right now I’m looking for equal or better than SM performance regardless of form factor, and I have my sights set on several possible options to get that, all of which are at least a couple of hundred dollars cheaper. Sorry Gabe.
Yeah I was thinking of just grabbing a steam machine for my next box instead of a framework or something. If this pricing isn’t stable for the next, idk, decade? Probably not.
8gb of vram in 2026 is not what a “good product” would have. It also costs more than a similar diy pc, performs worse and can’t be upgraded. This thing is doa.
It can absolutely be upgraded, DIY is always going to be cheaper, and at current prices more ram would cause an outsized price increase compared to the performance gains.
8GB vram is perfectly acceptable for the performance level of this box.
It can absolutely be upgraded
Not in any way that matters. It has a non-upgradeable SoC. You can’t just take out the CPU or GPU and replace them.
8GB vram is perfectly acceptable for the performance level of this box.
I think the argument being made is that the performance level of this box is not really acceptable for a game-console-replacement product in 2026.
The performance is pretty bad when compared to the PS5 Pro, which is much cheaper. And comes with a controller.
You can’t bring your Steam library to a PS5, which might be a significant factor, but also if you’ve heavily invested in a library of Steam games, you probably already have a gaming PC, this probably isn’t in any way an upgrade from it, which makes it a pure convenience product for $1k+.
At $900, the PS5 Pro isn’t THAT much cheaper…
The performance is pretty bad when compared to the PS5 Pro, which is much cheaper.
The performance is terrible compared to the PS5 Pro. The performance is pretty bad when compared to the base PS5, which is half the price.
Eeesh too rich for me, but happy for anyone that gets one!
That’s gonna be a no for me dawg.
I blame the AI bubble memory shortage for making this over $1,000 USD.
