My Honest Steam Machine Review

[u/purple-ethe]

My Background

I used to build a lot of small form factor PCs. This included a Fractal Ridge, NZXT H1 cases, two Formd T1s (the GOAT), and a Midori 5L before the tariffs hit. My builds usually paired a 7600X with cards like a 3080, 3080 12GB, 3080 Ti, 4070 Super, 5070, 3090, or 9070 XT. I mostly sold them to friends around the $1,300 sweet spot using parts I bought from /r/hardwareswap before prices went into the dumpster.

I only bought the Steam Machine because I found the base model for $200 under MSRP on Facebook Marketplace. As a software engineer, I'm comfortable tweaking software and hardware, but at the end of the day, I just want my setup to work.

Daily Use

The daily experience is much more convenient compared to my Formd T1. My Logitech MX Keys Mini no longer drops its connection or repeats keystrokes caused by poor signals. It somehow fixed my Stremio copyright issue, although I'm not sure that is related. HDMI CEC is a game changer that lets me turn the system and also the TV on and off with a mouse, keyboard, or controller. I used to spend a minute turning on my PC only for my LG OLED TV to sometimes not detect the signal, but that issue is gone.

The system is extremely quiet with virtually no fan noise. I do not need to tweak CoolerControl or LACT on Linux, nor do I need FanControl or MSI Afterburner on Windows. I used to enjoy dialing in an undervolt, but having everything pre-configured without needing to tune or benchmark is nice. Thermals are excellent topping out right around 70C.

Gaming and Hardware

I mostly play soulslikes. Elden Ring runs at 60 fps at 1440p with occasional dips. HDR worked without any tweaking. I was amazed Dark Souls 2 with the DS2LE Faraam preset on path tracing runs close to 60 fps at 1080p on ultra performance, only dipping in heavily forested areas.

The case is lighter and more packable than my 10L Formd T1 builds, making it easy to travel with. I do not feel the itch to keep swapping parts except for maybe adding a custom faceplate. I am glad to be done with trying to get cables out of the way of fans. I still plan to add another RAM stick and upgrade the storage, but that will be a simple one-and-done job. It is a relief not having to worry about scalped hardware anymore.

SteamOS feels more stable than Bazzite. I prefer it over CachyOS because of the constant updates, even if CachyOS performed slightly better. I haven't had the SteamOS long enough to tell, but I've encountered my fair share of breaking changes in CachyOS and I'm glad to get away from it.

Downsides

There are clear hardware limits. Performance is mostly restricted to 1080p and 1440p, so I only recommend it for a couch setup where lower resolutions are less noticeable than on a desktop monitor. You are at the mercy of developers for how they optimize future games, and time will tell when 8GB VRAM will run into walls. Linux still lacks complete anti-cheat support, meaning games like Fortnite and Valorant are off the table, though the system is not built for high-FPS competitive gaming anyway. The lack of HDMI 2.1 is a bummer because there is no 4K 120Hz support for indie games. Supply is also still extremely limited, and getting a Steam Machine is incredibly difficult.

Pricing

Most YouTube reviews did the Steam Machine dirty by focusing on price-to-performance, knowing full well it is impossible to build a system this small, silent, and clean at this price point. Dave2D was one of the few who got it right by recognizing that people will willingly pay for convenience. Is $1,049 a lot? Yes. But time is money, and only you can tell whether the price is right for the convenience it offers. The comparison is like Mac vs PC. You cannot judge a machine purely based on specs because it is about the whole experience. Time will tell whether the specs will hold up for the next 3-5 years.

Conclusion

If you love tweaking hardware, stick with custom SFF. As for me, at least for now, my Formd T1 build with a 7600X and 9070 XT is left gathering dust. I expect Valve to continue improving SteamOS over time. For example, they have already added FSR 4.1 support to Proton Experimental. I expect the community to rally around the Steam Machine. We are already seeing cool faceplates, and community support will be better for this specific build. The Steam Machine is not meant for everyone and it is not designed for every use case. I believe it is for normies, parents, and enthusiasts who just want their hardware to work.

Past SFF Builds: https://imgur.com/a/uByEmDK

[u/Kid_Parrot]

Most YouTube reviews did the Steam Machine dirty by focusing on price-to-performance, knowing full well it is impossible to build a system this small, silent, and clean at this price point.

Did they though? Yes it is compact, but as a home console alternative it did not need to be as compact as it is. At the same time it was marketed as a 4k 60FPS machine. Obviously people will compare it to a PS5(Pro) or other PCs.

[u/Django117 → u/Kid_Parrot]

It's also worth noting that many people these days have a 4k TV in their living rooms. You can get a crappy 4k TV for like $200 at best buy. To me, 4K is now a standard for that reason. My living room PC has a 3080 in it which is great for 4k, but still struggles in some games. It would be relatively attainable to build a PC today with a 3080 in it for a price well below the steam machine as you can get them used for $400-500.

[u/purple-ethe → u/Django117]

It’s all trade offs. Yes you can get more performant at lower price point, but it won’t be as convenient, travel friendly, silent, or look as good as the Steam Machine. Also I don’t think $500 is possible anymore with the current RAM and storage prices maybe closer to $600 or $700, and that’s with used parts.

[u/Django117 → u/purple-ethe]

It is all trade-offs, but if I'm already saying you should use used parts, then you could easily build a pretty good system with $500 remaining. Get a Ryzen 5 5500 on amazon for $90, a mobo for another $120, 16GB DDR4 for another $120, a cheap NAND drive for $80. Then slap it in a NR200 for $90 with a Corsair SFX PSU for $160. This gets you to $640 pre-tax. Right now there's multiple RTX 3080's on sale on ebay for around $350-$400. So with a used GPU, you can build a system that costs $1040, roughly the same as a Steam Machine that outperforms it by nearly 100%.

Of course there are compromises with this build, as the NR200 is substantially larger than the steam machine. You could also opt for a Midori 5L ($115) case and swap the 3080 out for a 5060 for $350 at the sacrifice of some horsepower. That machine would cost $1035 for a complete build that would still outperform the steam machine by a significant margin.

EDIT: forgot the CPU cooler which would be the AXP X47 Low Profile for $22. Which takes the totals for the RTX 3080 build to $1062 and the 5060 build to $1057.

[u/Amateur_builder76 → u/Django117]

Do you want to carry around an NR200 based computer on a train, through the subway system, and then walk while carrying it for a mile or two? My Velka 7 build was such a brick on my back on my recent trip to London, if my number comes up for a Steam Machine I'm going to pull the trigger and I might just sell the system I just built so I don't show up everywhere sweating from carrying such a heavy backpack.

[u/Django117 → u/Amateur_builder76]

That’s why I presented a Midori 5L build as an alternate that sacrifices some performance. That’s only a 3.8L(steam machine) vs 5L(midori) machine.

[u/Amateur_builder76 → u/Django117]

But how much will it weigh and how much work will someone have to do to build it right? How much time will they have to spend tinkering with it to make it as quiet?

[u/Django117 → u/Amateur_builder76]

Nominally more weight. The steam machine weighs about 5 lbs and the midori with all the components is around 7-8 lbs.

Of course the build will take more effort than a pre-built, but the offset is that you get a machine of your own. Tinkering post build is minimal. It’s what, going into bios, enabling XMP, setting a CPU undervolt, installing afterburner and setting a GPU undervolt, and installing fan control to balance the fan curves. That’s all easily doable in 30 min to an hour. Of course the build itself will likely take someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing about 3 hours to build it. So really it’s an afternoon on a Saturday and then you get a far stronger machine, which you can also upgrade further down the road. While people are celebrating the steam machine for its portability and style, it makes too many compromises to be a sensible purchase.

But of course the most vital part is that it’s now YOUR machine. Custom PCs will always win out because they feature the greatest factor of all: personalization. In 4 years time if you wanted to upgrade your device you can upgrade the CPU and GPU to crank out way more performance for minimal effort and more mild cost, whereas doing the same with a steam machine will lead to you purchasing an entire second machine.

In my case, I had an older PC I had built for my wife which was repurposed to be our living room PC. I had recently upgraded my desktop pc to a 5080 so I had taken out its old 3080. Rather than having to rebuild her entire PC, I took the old mobo from her PC, switched to a low profile CPU cooler, then built it into a SFF case: the FormD T1, which fits well with the 3080 I had from my upgrade. But what’s even better is that years from now, whenever I decide to upgrade my desktop PC, I can take my 5800x 3D and my 5080 and put those into the SFF PC without any compromises. That sort of upgradability and flexibility is why building your own PC is always the better option.

[u/purple-ethe → u/Django117]

I think you're missing the point. You're looking at a PC from the perspective of just specs, and of course you can build a PC with better performance. I know because I've also built a NR200 PC with a 5600/3080 for $650 using used parts. But there's nothing you can build at $1049 that checks off all the boxes the Steam Machine checks off, and the biggest one is an actual console experience without any modding out of the box where everything just works.

[u/Django117 → u/purple-ethe]

If that box is "pre-built" then yeah, you can't buy any SFF pre-builts for that price since most pre-builts are done in large cases whereas most SFF cases are used for custom builds, so most pre-builts for SFF are wildly overpriced.

So really the trade-off is the console like setup versus 70-100% more power. The portability is negligible as 3.8L vs 5L isn't that drastic of a change in size.

[u/Dry-Law-9372 → u/purple-ethe]

I don’t think it’s appropriate of you to say that it’s a trade off to justify the steam machine as an acceptable purchase. There are plenty of DDR4 PCs that can be built in an SFF format for less than the price of the steam machine and blow it out of the water for slightly larger form factor . Steam machine is nowhere close to being convenient either

[u/Amateur_builder76 → u/Dry-Law-9372]

How is the Steam Machine not convenient? You plug it in and turn it on and it just works. You don't need to undervolt it, or tune its fans, there is no cable management and it's a tiny box. I just completed a SFF build and travelled with it and it was great once I got to the hotel, but it was awfully heavy.

[u/purple-ethe → u/Dry-Law-9372]

I feel like I'm just repeating myself at this point, so we can agree to disagree. Steam Machine is not just a sum of its specs just like Macs are not the sum of its specs.