Moore's Law Is Dead thinks that Valve basically got a bargain bin deal from AMD, who had a bunch of chips they thought were going to be used in a MSFT tablet, but that tablet got cancelled.

So, Valve did some scrapyard engineering, and got a discount on these things that were otherwise never going to be used for anything.

He estimates a total cost to produce of $425, estimates MSRP between $450 to $600, depending on just how hard Valve wants to fuck MSFT with their own leftovers.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sJI3qTb2ze8

If this ends up being remotely accurate, it would be basically a corporate demolition of Shakespearian quality.

Gabe... Gabe was once a MSFT employee, you see.

A disgruntled former MSFT employee, you might say.

No way in hell. For $1,000 I'll just build one myself.

A new Steam Deck OLED is $650 right now. Y'all are absolutely delusional if you think Valve is gunna sell the new Steam Machine with 6x the power of a Deck for $600.

Personally, I think $800 is the absolute lowest these things will go for, and that is a stretch. Unless they are planning on cutting the price on Decks by 20-30% which would be ludicrous considering they are already selling them at a loss and making up the difference on the game sales.

Valve has already said they are pricing the Steam Machines as entry level gaming PCs. And Idk what world some people are living in, but this ain't 2010 anymore. Entry level PCs are $750+ nowadays, unless you are buying some parts used.

I'm not happy about this. I remember back in highschool building some nice entry level gaming rigs for $500, but those days are long past. I probs won't be getting a Steam Machine, but that's because I am a tinkerer and I'll just jank one together for my own use, but for somebody who wants a solid entry-level gaming PC that has a really great ecosystem around it and is no muss no fuss, the Steam Machine is a pretty good option.

My prediction: 512GB Steam Machine will be $800-$900, the 2TB one will be $1,000-$1,200.

As long as it doesn't run Win11

They can't sell this at a loss, or at least it would be incredibly risky. This is (intentionally) "just a PC". It ships with SteamOS but you can of course install whatever you want, including windows. If it is (much) cheaper than a roughly equivalent normal PC, companies might just start buying them in bulk but obviously not generating the supporting sales needed.

It’s likely in everybody’s best interest that this is a wild success. Not only will game developers be incentivized to actually optimize their games for reasonable setups; this will unseat Nvidia’s monopoly over gamers with their ridiculously overpriced graphics cards and also Microsoft’s monopoly of a gamer’s operating system.

Nvidia’s partnership with Palantir is incredibly concerning and any blow to Nvidia is a welcome one. Encourage these developments and hype this all up.

I found this mini PC for $360 with a 780M, so 12 RDNA 3 CUs compared to Steam Machine’s 28. If Steam Machine is priced proportionally, it would be in the $800s. A 780M is about twice as powerful as the Steam Deck’s GPU. If I knew for sure the Steam Machine weren’t going to have 2-3x the power for only $200ish more, I’d buy something like this right now, because I’m mainly looking for a HTPC that can play couch-friendly games on a TV better than the Deck, which this type of machine accomplishes.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CB32HKC5/?psc=1

Edit:

As an aside, I recently experimented with Pegasus Frontend launching VacuumTube and the Jellyfin desktop client, and while the UX is not quite as refined as Android TV, I think I’m happy enough with it to switch to Linux on a mini PC while I wait for Plasma Bigscreen.

Personally, I would be interested in a different type of Steam Machine: A shrouded motherboard as a sort of LEGO base, into which you place modular blocks or cartridges that contain the PSU, CPU, USB, RAM, Wi-Fi, audio, drives, and graphics. Each block can have rails, to provide connections for power and signals, so that users don't need to futz around with wires. Just plonk a brick down onto the rails below it, and you are good for that part.

Would it actually work from an engineering perspective? No idea. All I know is that I would replace parts of my PC more often, if I didn't have to worry about screwing up in some fashion.

I can’t guess at what the price will be or what makes sense for Valve, but I’m not interested at $1000. I can do a Linux box on my own for much less, or for about the same amount, a Windows box that can run all games without tinkering.

Becsuse they said the Frame was gonna be less than a Index complete kit ($1200) I kinda wondered if the GabeCube would be $1200.

Which, since I haven't built a PC since just before COVID lockdowns but keep hesring about soaring costs, I'm not sure if that is actually a decent price, a low price, or a high price.

I will only consider buying it if it's half that price. Also I'm in a specific intersect of necessary mobility & content with what I have.

I'm ready, but Amd is not. I want 4k 120hz on my TV via Amd videocard. But this stupid hdmi forum is blocking this.

I would pay 700 for the 2TB bundled with the new controller.

I’m calling $700 US price. Valve’s the only company that can get into the console space with console prices since the real revenue source is the game store they run.

Edit: I slept on it and decided $750 is a safer bet, at least on the base model

At $1,000 that'd be a hard pass for me even though I love Valve, I could easily build something better for less. I seriously doubt that'll be the price too, it'll probably around $600-800.

If this post is intended as discussion material; No, not as long that I have my stationary computer that fills my gaming needs.