So...the debate over whether individuals can adequately construct their own steam machines for similar price points continues. And, much like with the steam deck, the weirdo niche hobbyists are rearing their ugly head arguing for their specific niche and expensive tastes and saying that no, you absolutely can't make your own steam machine at the same price point. The hangup seems to be on the form factor, the one point of discussion I freely concede the argument from the get go. Because idk about you, but I don't particularly care about the size of the PC, assuming it's at most an ATX mid tower build. I mean, if you want to get a super tiny PC, yeah, you're gonna need to go all in with a specific form factor, and that limits the parts you have access to, and that limits your options.
I would argue for like 98% of people, most are just happy to have a PC. They dont care about "OMG I WANT THIS SPECIFIC FORM FACTOR FOR THIS SPECIFIC LIVING ROOM PC", and if anything, the form factor is a negative for me with the steam machine. As I've noted before, talking about handheld PCs, steam decks, gaming laptops, etc, you're often overpaying when you NEED to have a certain package in a niche form factor. The reason i dont get the appeal of the steam deck or the nintendo switch 2 is because the idea of a machine that's that large that it barely qualifies as being portable, while being that expensive, just makes the whole thing unappealing. Just because you CAN do something doesnt mean it makes sense or you should, and normally the tradeoff of making such ideas work is cost. Size, power, cost, pick 2. A small and cheap machine isn't gonna be powerful, a small and powerful machine isn't gonna be cheap, and an affordable and powerful machine isn't gonna be small. That's just the economics and physics of computing. And I tend to go either powerful and affordable, meaning I'm fine with a full/mid atx tower build, or small and affordable, meaning I'm making tradeoffs on power.
But again, the niche hobbyists are like some of the most annoying vocal and unpleasant people I've encountered in the tech space. They're the ones who defend the steam deck and are like ITS NOT FOR YOU, while going on about how great it is to play 2D indie games on their $400 $550 $800 device. Meanwhile I look at that machine and would rather game on a dedicated gaming PC, or an android handheld. And these guys seem annoyingly vocal and defensive about their very unique special snowflake needs.
The same is true with these guys. I posted the builds from the previous article on several forums and I got some pretty fricking toxic responses from "SFF PC" fanboys (small form factor = SFF) who are like WELL ACKSHULLY THATS A 30L CASE, I WANT A 5L CASE LIKE THE STEAM MACHINE AND YOU CAN'T DO IT AND BLAH BLAH BLAH. yeah, I admit it, I can't. I also dont want to, because I'm not a super special snowflake with super special needs. And people might be wondering why I'm being so nasty myself, and it's because these specific hobbyists are that nasty and combative with me. It's actually kinda stupid. And my honest take is "oh my god, who the hell cares", but these guys really care a lot to the point it seems to be their entire personality in arguing online.
Look, you're free to like whatever you want. You are free to your own special unique tastes. But it kind of reminds me of the "expensive tastes" argument van parijs made in his real freedom for all book where it talked about how people with different tastes might have different needs and a normal UBI wouldn't do it. Well, in that case, if you're really that super special and finnicky, you can either make do with less or get a job. Im not gonna go out of the way and do special treatment with that.
And with this, it's like, yeah, you can either make do with the larger form factor, just being happy to have a reasonably affordable PC, which is difficult in the current market, or you can pay out the nose because of your expensive tastes. And to use the logic you guys often use against me, if you dont like my builds, THEY'RE NOT FOR YOU. But you know what? Im sure 98% of prospective buyers out there would be happy to have a cheaper performance equivalent machine even with a worse form factor, or a more powerful machine for the same money. Not everyone wants to spend hundreds of extra dollars because they need a literal gamecube form factor.
As a matter of fact, this is the machine the guy I was arguing with linked me. Let's go over it
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/G6pdH3
Ryzen 8400F- NO ONE, I mean, NO ONE, except for these weirdo SFF hobbyists buy the 8000 series ryzen parts. They are underpowered and overpriced. They literally only make sense for these specific guys. And msot of them dont even want a dedicated GPU, they want to use the powerful integrated graphics. Any sane mainstream buyer can go with a Ryzen 5000/7000/9000 series part.
CPU cooler- I mean, I wouldnt go with a processor that requires a fancy cooler if you want that form factor, or a lower price point, in mid tower builds I'd recommend a peerless assassin/phantom spirit but yeah those coolers are the size of the PCs they are talking about themselves.
ITX motherboard. Yeah. Really special tastes here.
DDR5 RAM...yeah, totally blowing your budget spending 2x on RAM as me.
B570 intel card, not a terrible choice but intel can be weird with some games compatibility wise. Id probably stick with AMD.
Expensive ITX case. Yeah. Again, paying for form factor.
850W PSU...I mean, WHAT?! You don't need that for a low power build, I put one of those in MY PC because I'm running a 240W 12900k and while I got the 6650 XT, if I go with say a 300W GPU in the future, i have the headroom.
But yeah. THis is a totally pointless and unbalanced build. He literally made unique choices for form factor that dont make sense for any reasonable buyer looking to get the most value oriented product. Again, super specific niche expensive tastes here.
Could I do better? Lol nope.
When I try to come up with a build, I run into the following problems:
1) For ITX, the only motherboards i can find need a bios flash to run 5000 series products, causing problems, and the 3600x is $200, despite it performing the same as a $85 5500.
2) I LITERALLY cant find a GPU that fits into a 5L case, because guess what, those kinds of PCs typically rely on integrated graphics. So building a literal steam machine sized machine is impossible, but thankfully, I'm not a super special snowflake that needs a super special form factor and can just use an ATX build like everyone else, so yeah.
Heck, going back to HIS build, let me try to improve THAT:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GfxL9K
I went with Intel, 12100f is 5500 level performance. I went with the 7600 for additional game compatibility and parity with the steam machine. I couldnt swap out the PSU because of his dumb form factor choices and the 850W was ironically cheapest that didn't suck. But hey, this is totally HIS design choice.
Heck going for steam deck price parity, I went with this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NFmdH3
The 12400 is so much more expensive then the 12100f i just went with the 12600kf. And I was pigeon holed into a more expensive 9060 XT to upgrade.
So yeah, can I STILL make the price point work?
Yeah.
But who would want to?
Again, I just dont see the appeal.
And if people are wondering why im being this petty over it, it's because I find these guys obnoxiously annoying. Like again, you're free to like whatever you want, but when you start complaining other people who are finding cheaper ways of doing things arent fitting your super special specifications, it's like, screw off and shut up. Like, again, I bet 98% of people would be happy with any build I'd recommend. It's just that other 2% who have super special needs ans who absolutely HAVE to have a specific form factor aimed at a specific niche of people who are annoyingly vocal about their hobbies and seem very cult like in their defense of them.
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