The Steam Machine is underwhelming

 So....full disclaimer before we start, this is just all opinion, any build recommendations herein are done with the bare minimum research and if you're actually intending to buy anything I recommend in its place, I'd probably advise you to do further research first. I kinda just slapped some of this stuff together with minimal research based on background knowledge I have. So yeah, discretion is advised there. Research is advised, but yeah, I'm kinda shooting my mouth off here.

So...the steam machine is out. It's $1050 for the base model with 512 GB storage and $1350 for the 2 TB model and uh...YIKES!

Now, is the price justified? yes and no. Yes, in the sense that if you wanted to replicate this machine in a 1:1 way using the closest analogue to the exact parts valve uses, yeah it's gonna be expensive. That said, given the actual VALUE here, there's some poor design choices here due to the form factor and you could build a machine similar to this for MUCH less than it costs here. 

Heck, before we go into THAT, let's discuss the actual specs and performance:

So, it features:

CPU: A semi custom AMD Zen 4 6C/12T

You might think this means, oh cool, it's like a 7600x or something. WRONG. It's like a 3600x, as per gamer's nexus's review. This is because it's using a mobile part, similar to a 7540u. Yikes.

GPU: A semi custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs

Now, this I was able to gauge a lot more accurately. Because the RX 6600 is RDNA2 with 28CU, and the 7600 is RDNA3 with 32. So it should perform somewhere in between there. Probably equivalent to my 6650 XT given that's an RDNA2 32 CU machine, and yeah, the gamer's nexus review, as well as other reviews I looked at, indicate performance bounces between 6600 and 7600 level. This is actually a good thing in my own case since I've been using a 6650 XT for 3.5 years now, I know exactly what it's capable of, and yeah. 

16 GB DDR5 RAM + 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM

the VRAM goes without saying, given this is basically a custom mishmash of a 6600 and 7600 put together. The RAM choice is kind of weird though. Given how underpowered the CPU is, you could do A LOT better going DDR4 here. Again, you lose some power efficiency and form factor, but to me, that's the least of my concerns here.

You get a 512 GB NVME SSD

Wifi 6E

Etc etc etc. 

All in all...pretty mid for $1050. Now, originally, it was supposed to cost $750. But then rampocalypse happened, and we all gotta suffer. 

With that said, I came up with an idea. What is the cheapest equivalent I could build for the money?

I came up with this: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PHBsh9

It's $750, and I'll go over it a bit. I didnt do tons of research into components, but yeah. 

So...Ryzen 5 5500....equivalent to a 3600x roughly. One of the cheapest CPUs you can get, and sadly, this is how this machine performs.

Motherboard, I went with the cheapest I can find, you can probably swap this out if you want. It's micro ATX as well so it helps with the form factor, but yeah.

 RAM, cheapest RAM I could find, but hey, it's better than the DDR4 RAM I used to run with my 7700k. But yeah, 16 GB, for $100. In THIS economy? Nice. 

Cheapest SSD I could find that was 512 GB. You can swap this out for whatever you want.

RX 7600. Slightly better than the steam machine, and the closest analogue still on the market. Kind of a shame it's almost $300 given I got my 6650 XT for $230 3.5 years ago, but yeah. 

Found a cheap micro ATX case, that said, I didn't check the dimensions of the GPU, whether cooling would be adequate, do your own research. 

The PSU was cheap. based on the cultist tier list it's C tier so not amazing but not awful either. Fine for a budget build where you're trying to minimize costs. 

Im assuming the mobo doesnt come with wifi, and this is intended to be a console, so....yeah. I just threw in a Wifi 6 adapter.

All in all, this comes out to $744. It should be roughly equivalent to the steam deck in performance. it will be larger. There may be drawbacks i didnt consider due to cooling, minor features related to the mobo, etc, again do your own research. But uh...yeah. Id personally try to make something like this over a steam machine. 

As for how to make this better while reaching cost parity with the steam machine....:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2CQ89K

I upgraded to a 5600, actually quite a bit more powerful to my knowledge. I considered a 12600kf, but wasnt sure i could fit it in the budget. And given other upgrades I put in, you're not gonna need an insanely fast CPU. I know the 12900k I run with my 6650 XT is like grossly overpowered. But at the same time the 7700k was underpowered. 5600 is kinda in between. Just slightly slower than the 5600x but not as slow as the 5500 which is laughably nerfed and like a 3600x.

I upgraded the motherboard to an ASUS one, and this one has wifi, so no extra adapter needed. 

I upgraded to 32 GB memory, which is more than you'll need. Normally 16 GB is fine but eh its getting long in the tooth, i know i had instances on my 7700k build where i felt like I was straining it a bit. 

I upgraded to a 1 TB SSD. You could also stick with the 512 GB and maybe stick in an HDD but HDDs are expensive too so you'd be spending more.

Fior an extra $60, I threw in a 9060 XT 8 GB. Equivalent to the 5060. Im sticking with AMD for parity with the steam machine, and the fact that I'm guessing whoever makes this is gonna try to run linux or steam OS, and AMD is apparently more compatible there.  

 I stuck with the same case and power supply.

Again, double check this stuff if you wanna buy any of it. You might find better deals, some oversight I made insofar as cooling, power goes (I aint seeing incompatibility on PC part picker here...). But yeah. 

This is why I think this is a crap value. Even in RAMpocalypse, you can build a machine that's 50% faster for the same money, or save $300 building a machine with the same performance for similar money. Either way, yeah, the steam machine is a bad value in my view. 

Now, some are gonna say, "but but, it's about the ease of use, or the form factor." Okay, well, you're paying extra to make things a bit easier for you, or to get a tiny machine. But if youre okay with tinkering, and you don't need a 6 inch long device, well....yeah. Alternatives exist. For a lot cheaper. 

Heck if you want a prebuilt, i found this one looking for one for my friend, with this being an option for $900:

https://www.newegg.com/stormcraft-sirius-gaming-desktop-pc-geforce-rtx-5060-intel-core-i5-14400f-16gb-ddr4-1tb-ssd-si1440fbb-560n2/p/N82E16883420040

It has a 5060 (9060 XT equivalent), a 14400f, which is a better CPU than the build, I have, 1 TB SSD. Only thing its weak on is 16 GB RAM. But yeah, that's $900. Still cheaper than the steam machine.

Again, you're paying for that teeny tiny form factor. 

So...yeah, my honest advice? Skip this, buy something actually worth the money.