I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

PaulHoule

I hope it is a while before I have to buy a new computer!

bigyabai

Okay? You can wipe off your tears and go buy a cheap gaming PC off Craigslist. Toss Bazzite on it, and you're good to go. I'm not sure what type of sympathy people want to court with the "woe is me" narrative around how they need a third gaming device. The selling point of the Steam Machine is the software. Nothing about the bespoke hardware is worth crying over, it feels like object fetishism for the sake of it.

homebrewer

I've long wished for rich western societies to run extensive student exchange programs with low income countries. Living even one year in most of the world will change your outlook for the rest of your life.

vel0city

I'd say if you feel this way and you're not really using the Steam Deck as a handheld you might as well sell it and take the money to buy the Steam Machine. Used 512GB Steam Decks go for >$500, you'll probably get a bit for selling the docking setup you have as well.

everdrive

"Nothing is safe, nothing is reliable, and I am looking at the extremely real possibility that I am already unemployable if I have to go back on the market." Anyone I know who has needed to look for work has had a hell of a time with it. It's a scary world out there.

post_break

You have a steam deck you don't use, so sell it and buy the Steam Machine, and then don't use that either.

tekla

Oh man, you don't want to buy a generic computer because it won't make you look good in front of others and its only sorta expensive

jrm4

Person has a Steam Deck that they don't use? The only thing that keeps me from being genuinely baffled by this person taking the time to write this is the fact that I'm seeing similar takes elsewhere, which also baffle me to no end. Are people really this enamored by "the thought of buying new thing," as opposed to, like, thinking about whether they'll use it? Anyway, the Steam Machine seems like an extremely solid deal. It's a reasonably powered PC, and for an extra $200 or so, you'll get the guarantee that everything will just work, at least game-wise.

foo12bar

At this price point they should have never released it, they should have waited. Everywhere I see reviews of it on the internet, come along with forced smiles and talk about how they agree with the philosophy behind it and they should be commended for fighting against Windows. But ultimately no one recommends this to the general public. The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to flop. Only thing they can do now is keep it on the market, and in a few years upgrade *and* discount this thing in hopes of reigniting the hype. If they withdraw it, the very small but existing set of current buyers will scream bloody murder about being abandoned, and if they then try and re-release, trust will already have been broken.

mnls

First world problems

smcg

The Steam Machine was $250 less before all of the price increases from hardware buyouts. Go complain to Big Tech. You can install Steam on almost any Linux device. The Steam Machine is great for those who want a portable console-like device. Have you ever tried to build and maintain a shuttle PC yourself? It's obnoxious. This makes the goal of high quality portable gaming much easier.

yathern

I have a desktop with a relatively powerful 5070 (I think) GPU for playing VR games. But my priorities for couch & controller games is not really around super high graphics performance. Lately I find myself playing classic games on emulator, or generally games without huge graphics demands (been playing that climbing game PEAK a lot lately). For me, getting a random no-name-brand Mini PC is such a fantastic deal these days. Throw bazzite or now real Steam OS on it, have access to your whole library - it's a linux machine you can configure to your hearts content. I love it. Probably the best deal on amazon right now is this machine, though there's others if you know how to search. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DK34WJ84 Example of real-life gaming performance here - nothing mindblowing, but more than you'd expect from a tiny box that costs like $400. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlup85AxRd0 Just wipe windows immediately and put SteamOS on it and you're good to go

Aurornis

> So what now? The short answer is that I have (a) a nice couch; (b) a big TV; (c) a Steam Deck that I never use. I even have a dock for the Deck. So I should hook them all together and try out some games. This is the real answer. Why lust over new hardware and fret about finances when you have everything you need to play some games right now? There's not even any mention of what games they want to play on the Steam Machine that they can't play on their Steam Deck. They already bought a new TV to use with the Steam Deck and then didn't use it, so why even consider spending more money on more gaming hardware?

butz

It is possible to build an equivalent PC with Steam Machine specs, with same case size (internal PSU) and similar or lower price? I'll probably still a wait a bit to see reviews from actual users, but I really dig the form factor and was unable to find anything similarly sized with built-in PSU.

ChrisArchitect

Related: Steam Machine launches today https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48632884

gos9

“homebrew steam machine” it’s called a computer computers have gotten more expensive, deal with it lmao

tossmysalad

They should have made it $540/$692/$989 540 is basically 500. People could say “it’s half the price of an iPhone!” It’s a no-brainer price, but really, people are buying the ~700 one and the ~1k one. It should also come with a base controller that is good but made of cheap parts. All the upgrades with lights and weights and accelerometer etc is a huge market on its own. Steering wheels, guns, and so-on, too.

Fire-Dragon-DoL

I am flabbergasted by the negativity. It is more expensive of what we hoped for. Is it overpriced? I tried to calculate what a PC would cost NOW and it's exactly the same cost. I have a big Steam Library, a Steam Deck (actually 2), a desktop PC, a very old desktop pc. We are also a family of 4 and both my kids enjoy gaming (they are my kids after all), recently they started showing a lot of interest for games I play rather than Nintendo games, so I am getting one, here is what I see as positive that others don't: - I'm buying a console for which I have to buy zero games for. That's probably saving me more than 3k right out of the gate. - if I buy a game for such console I can play it on a flight, on the go, at my tv, at my desk - if I want to mod it, I can - I can finally give a computer to my kid that's not severely outdated, and it has linux, so they learn freedom and power before anything - I can finally play Nightreign with my wife without using Nucleus Coop (2 instances on the same pc), which makes my PC a furnace - Buying it puts me in the camp of "I have more linux gaming devices than windows gaming devices" Yeah there are some of us in the market for it!