I have been checking the Steam Machine subreddit the last couple of days and seen that a handful on people over there has been getting theirs now.
So, Lemmings: have you gotten yours yet? And what’s your first impressions?
Don’t mind my essay here. TLDR: I love this thing.
I got mine yesterday. It’s the 512GB with no controller since I already got the controller separately and the 2TB version felt like an especially bad deal.
I was initially on the fence about the price and reserved just to get into the queue to make the actual buy decision later. I was expecting more people to have thoughts on it out before my spot in the queue came up, but I ended up getting my purchase email very quickly on 6/30. I let the email sit for a day but ended up deciding to pull the trigger for a few reasons:
One, I’ve owned every first-party Valve device so far, and all of them have been more than the sum of their parts. Two, I wanted a HTPC, travel, and LAN party PC that’s a bit less restraining than a laptop. Three, being a bit of a performance snob has been distracting me away from actually gaming and I wanted to get back into the no nonsense side of PC gaming again. And four, I don’t mind spending a little extra money advancing Linux, repairable hardware, etc.
I feel like I have to acknowledge reviews from the PC space have been largely negative, but they seem to be undervaluing a lot: the form factor (a 6" cube is still tiny compared to almost all other SFF builds), performance per volume (almost the entire cube is a heat sink), and the benefits of more standard performance targets we’ve already seen with the Deck.
As for first impressions, the device is packaged well, and unboxing was very satisfying. I did have some trouble getting my controller paired since it was already paired to my existing desktop PC and plugging it in directly wasn’t enough to get around that like I expected, but looking up how to pair it to multiple PCs got me past that.
I spent a few hours testing a mix of light to demanding games, and I’m more than happy with what it can do. I haven’t tried gaming beyond 1080p yet, but I’m going to be very selective about when and how I do that. 512GB is proving to be plenty of space for what I’m playing at any one time, and I think that would still be true if I didn’t have other devices acting as additional storage.
I feel like all my expectations above have been validated, and now I’m really looking forward to getting the Frame. I want to make a travel backpack or suitcase with foam cutouts for the whole set.
For those who did have theirs delivered, was a signature on delivery required?
Ive got a porch pirate problem, and can’t guarantee I’ll be there day of, and steam FAQ doesn’t cover that bit. If it doesn’t, then I know I just need to pay the carrier to hold it a few days.
Got the email to purchase mine (2TB no controller, but I managed to get a controller when they first came out so not too disappointed I didn’t get the bundle) last Wednesday, it shipped the following day and should be arriving on Monday. I actually have the day off too so I’m looking forward to spending a good amount of the day testing it out when it arrives.
EDIT: It arrived today! Still waiting for everything to install but so far I’m very happy with it. Happy to answer any questions or try out any title I own (1,000+) if anyone is curious about something.
Got my mail to buy the 2TB with controller yesterday but after some thought I am going to undo my reservation. I just can’t justify the price of this thing. I have a pretty beefy computer upstairs and would probably get really annoyed by the lack of performance in comparison. I will probably go for a mini pc (with steam controller) and stream my games instead.
Btw, if you enlisted on more than one model, your option to buy will only be for the most beefed up one. I enlisted for 512GB and 2TB, but can only buy the 2TB and the 512GB spot is gone.
Btw2, for me it said 3-5 business days for delivery.
Good luck with your reservations, hope you all enjoy your steam machines.
That’s not true. If you reserved for multiple models, then you were rolled randomly in each. Whichever model you rolled best on is the model you can buy.
I guess that depends on what you mean by “rolled best.” It was random for each SKU you selected. If you got on the reservation queue for more than one, then you got to keep the queue position for the most expensive model and your queue position for the less expensive model was discarded, regardless of which queue you were closer to the front of. If you didn’t get reservation queue for any, then you got the shortest waitlist of your selected options.
Edit: so cool getting downvoted for a factually correct statement. Read the policy yourselves
I don’t mean to be rude, I’m just curious.
If you already have a beefy computer, why were you planning to get it in the first place?I’m in the same position, but I actually decided to proceed with my purchase. See my other comment here for details, but the short answer is that I still think the base model is a good value for what it is and fills some niches my beefy PC can’t.
I think this is the appropriate place to post something like this:
https://youtu.be/zvaO4DPM1ZMYou can easily build a PC that’s better at a lower cost.
No offense, but I really don’t like this take.
The Steam Machine is not about price/performance. It’s about easy access with zero hassle to your existing Steam library in your living room. Of course you will be able to match the price/performance if you disregard HDMI CEC, noise levels, size and accessibility/ease of use.
Of course people wanting a PC shouldn’t get this. This is for people who doesn’t have a console since they are PC gamers, and now for the first time can access their existing library at the TV.
Yep, this comes up in every post involving the Steam Machine, so we get it. 👍 I’m getting a Steam Machine anyway, but power to anyone who does a custom build.
Didn’t get picked for the lottery, but i did look into hardware more specially for what I need that can get away with older tech for cheaper and still cover what I want to use it for
I think this is the appropriate place to post something like this:
https://youtu.be/zvaO4DPM1ZMYou can easily build a PC that’s better at a lower cost.
I just want to know how/if it out-performs the steam deck in docked mode.
I’ve been using that in my living room for the better part of two years and it’s been great aside from some AAA games.
Got any particular games you’d like tested? I got mine in yesterday, and I’ve got a pretty big library of games to throw at it.
I’d love to see how Expedition 33 performs. The deck was fine if graphics were turned waaaaay down, but I’d love a couch experience with nice visuals.
I just did some testing.
The game ran a quick benchmark and set stock settings of 1080p, medium preset, FSR scaling, and quality scaling mode to yield a steady 60 fps with about 70% GPU usage. Frame generation was enabled, but there was enough horsepower for it to not actually be used. The picture was a bit grainy however.
With both FSR scaling and frame generation disabled still at medium and 1080p, it’ll play around 45 fps.
I would say the optimal settings are close to stock, but you’ll want to upgrade from FSR 3 to FSR 4 released recently on Proton Experimental. This will probably be unnecessary later when FSR 4 gets rolled into the regular Proton releases. The game looked much less grainy with this.
To do this, on the Steam page for the game, you’ll want to go to Settings (the gear icon) > Properties > Compatibility > enable “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool” > Proton Experimental. Do note the settings in game are currently hard coded to say FSR 3, so you won’t see it mention running on 4.
There’s probably more tweaking that can be done, but that’s kind of getting away from the point of this thing. I have a beefy PC and would still be happy to play it as above.
Sweet, thanks for checking/testing. Now I just have to wait for my number to be called. 😂
Nice. I already have that one. I’ll check it out in a few resolution/settings configurations later tonight.
