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Steam Machine

(store.steampowered.com)
1173 points davikr | 2 comments | 12 Nov 25 17:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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paxys ◴[12 Nov 25 19:40 UTC] No.45905239[source]▶
A bit too sparse on details.

- No price

- No indication for whether the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD are upgradable or all soldered together on the board.

- "4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR" but doesn't mention what kind of games it can run at that quality.

- No performance benchmarks, or mention of what the equivalent retail CPU/GPU to their custom one is.

At face value this seems like a $500-600 PC, and that's also the price it would be able to compete with consoles at.

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mayli ◴[12 Nov 25 19:58 UTC] No.45905535[source]▶
Yeah, gemini gives $649 - $699 for BOM, $749+ if they want some margin from the hardware. Which is cheaper than most "Gaming PC", but still more expensive than Switch/PS5, and lack the expandability of PC.

I wish they could sell at $300-$500, that's really going to make this a must have for this year.

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keyringlight ◴[12 Nov 25 20:14 UTC] No.45905818[source]▶
Using the deck prices seems like a good place to start unless they're using the opportunity to change strategy. It's an updated SoC, but minus a screen, battery, separate dock, built-in controller, and less pressure to pack it in a handheld chassis. They mention a built in wireless adapter for the controller, so I assume there will be bundles with and without a controller.
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1. mayli ◴[12 Nov 25 21:08 UTC] No.45906720[source]▶
I feel the same way, it has to be priced in the range of gaming console rather than gaming PC.
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2. keyringlight ◴[12 Nov 25 22:12 UTC] No.45907557[source]▶
If that's the case I think it's a hugely positive thing, and has gone away for newly bought hardware for a variety of reasons over the past decade. Having a basic PC and then upgrading it with a GPU used to be a realistic route to a respectable gaming PC, but I think that's largely gone away now (partially due to the death of the general "home PC" or many being on laptops. There are bargains to be had in the used market, but that comes with a lot of asterisks.

If they can get this to a large market I think it's great value, not just as a console-model PC but because a full featured desktop without lockdown is so near. It's a reverse of where I've thought MS missed a trick with the xbox, add a keyboard and mouse and let users have turn on a sandboxed lightweight desktop mode then funnel users to get software through their store, which would have been a great way to get xbox hardware installed in houses (especially the cheap S models) during covid when there was a sudden rush to buy PCs for home working that previously didn't need it.

This is targeted at the living room, but I'd love to see non-gaming uses highlighted and get the equivalent of 'deck certified' whether that's linux native or efforts into working well under wine.