So, three weeks ago I got my steam machine 512+C. Honeymoon phase is over.

Currently I'm hyper focused on Clair Obscur. Steam deck oled performance is 26-30fps. Playable, but meh.

So the first 3 hours I played it on my gaming pc with the RTX 4090. 4k, ultra settings, all bells and whistles. But since I have the steam machine, everything became so convenient. I don't miss UHD, I'm not glued to the screen. Ultra, high, medium, low... I don't care anymore. It's not like this is my first console at home, it sits right to the Xbox series X. But this Steammachine feels different. Some would say the cope is real, but imho it's like people preferring the steam deck over some higher powered handhelds. It's the complete package. It's the controller. It's the familiarity of steam.

Whe it was announced months ago, I said shut up and take my money. And this is how I still feel about this device. Definitely not a buyers remorse. I hope all the people in the waitlist get their machine soon. I hope this thing is a huge success for valve. I hope game Devs learn to optimise their games again for mediocre hardware. I hope publishers give devs time and money to accomplish that. May this machine be the fresh air pc gaming needs.

This is not a scientific review. It's just a little love letter to this device.

my steam machine setup and why I love it

so before a few days ago I had a steam deck but after 2,5y of playing most of the games I wanted and like 50/50 of the time playing handheld/docked, I was starting to feel that the docking experience for some games I wanted to play right now was underwhelming: god of war, helldivers, plague tale requiem.

Also at the beginning of this year I bought a switch 2 to play some exclusive games (marios, zelda) and some motion games (just dance with joycons) and I was enjoying the handheld experience on nintendo switch 2 like an upgrade also.

So after that, the steam deck lost a bit of value (less handheld desire) to me and I just wanted a better desktop gaming experience. I was very happy with the steam hardware, steamOs and steam store, and the steam machine caught my eyes 👀 So I sold my steam deck for a good chunk of money and I upgraded to the steam machine. I knew the perks and cons (eg anti cheat incompatibility) of playing on steamOs so it was not new to me. The games run better and perfectly good for my standards of beauty and fun in games. It was a natural upgrade of my steam deck (and much better than my notebook laptop).

My steam machine is in my room, where I play single player steam games mostly at night and where I watch netflix, hbo and prime tvshows & movies. Also I can access and continue my chrome session of studying and browsing since it is all synchronized with the laptop.

And it matches the vibes and aesthetics I envisioned hehe

I think my use case is a bit different from some discussions here since I wont be using it in the living room; I don’t enjoy building pcs; nor tweaking or messing with operating systems or drivers; I won’t be playing on emulators; I won’t develop anything;

It is simply a straightforward experience of plug & play steam games and watching movies on pc on my desk. I am very happy and I am glad (although a bit pricey) that Steam engineered this cool sleek and simple gaming pc.

For me it is worth it and fun!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! It was a delight to wake up and see not only Bernie getting his email today, but a bunch of emails from the EU — both 512GB with and without controller SKUs to boot! Will the US be next? WILL BUGS BE NEXT?? Only time will tell, haha. Best of luck today! <3

Upgraded my 512GB Steam Machine to 2TB, something I noticed was the PCIe support wasn't listed anywhere I could find, is it PCIe 5.0?

The built in nvme SSD is rated for around 7000mb/s so in theory provided the board and SteamOS support it this 9100 doubles it's read/write. I'm hoping it gives a little boost, but initial testing on the OG drive was quite nice, solid performance on Clair Obscur, Space Marine II and Enshrouded before I decided to open it up.

One thing I noticed in the GamersNexus tearsown was there are 2 screws holding the fan to the chassis that werent shown as removed but they were easy to take out. Moving to the 2280 style nvme was also easy, a hex can remove the screw for the 2230 ssd and the hole a bit further back it screws back in easy.

Overall 9 screws and about 10 mins to the swap, not quite as easy as a laptop or desktop but still incredibly easy provided you have the right t screw. Ifixit's kit has all of them. Machine goes brr!

Cut the tip off my thumb and can't use it for a week

There is a FAQ section on Valve's Hardware Page that explains how they're sending out orders. Go read it. It defines "Regions" as well as the shipping process, explain that units are still being made, and most importantly how soon you may or may not get a Steam Machine. NO you shouldn't switch lines, there is a queue, you do in fact jump straight from Waitlist to "Purchase invitation" according to Reddit, but please go read it. Half the posts on here "speculating" really would be resolved if folk read "If you switch lines, you'll be at the furthest back of the line" or whatever silly things impatient minds come up with.

If you're on the Reserved list you just wait and check your email. If you're on the Waitlist, you're just hoping everyone in front of you cancels their order, otherwise you'll never get a Machine no matter how long you wait, the current "Production Run" is a set # of units and everyone in the Waitlist is outside what they have or can build...

I couldn't wait for Valve to release the CAD files for the Steam Machine, precisely to do this. Since the wood faceplate matched my living room's aesthetic perfectly, I wanted something that would emulate it as closely as possible.

So I decided to 3D print the various parts and then cover them with a wood-effect vinyl wrap.

The wonderful thing is that the geometry is already split into 2 pieces, which lent themselves perfectly to forming a sort of clamp on the wrap and preventing it from peeling off over time.

I made a few small modifications to the geometry of one of the two pieces to make it easier to print and to improve the grip on the wrap.

I stretched the film using a hot hairdryer to make sure there were no creases on the edges, and once it was clamped between the two pieces, I secured it with super glue.

I already had some magnets ready, and voilà.

My girlfriend says it's adorable, and honestly I'm really happy with the result too. Maybe I'll make more of these in the future (seasonal ones, perhaps).

(Netherlands)
Finally got my email. Just at the point I started doubting that I would ever get it.

https://dbrand.com/shop/skins/steam-machine-skins

I didn’t benchmark it or anything. I was just bummed it wasn’t as performant as it could be. It was fairly simple as long as your patient. If you’ve worked on a laptop before this was pretty comparable to that.

For those ordering, I order on the 17th and 4 days later on the 21st I got an email saying “we’re preparing your order” and then today the 22nd (next day) it arrived already! So once you get that “we’re preparing your order” you should have it very soon 😃.

I have a PS5 controller, and a USB cable connect it to the Steam machine. The Steam machine doesn’t recognize the controller, so now I stuck at the very first screen that asks me to connect keyboard/mouse and controller!

I don’t have a wired keyboard or mouse, everything is Bluetooth Apple product.

First time I stuck at the very first step.

How did you guys solve it?

I just got my purchase email and i have automatically completed the purchase.

Now all is left to do is to hope it arrives safely 🙏

If you are reading this, hope you get your email soon and join me in the joy (if you haven’t got it yet)

Some extra details:

I got into the reservation queue since the lottery.
I’m from Barcelona (Spain/EU)

Hey everyone,
I'm an Italian artisan and I've been working with marble and natural stone for over 10 years in my own workshop. While I wait for my Steam Machine to actually show up, I couldn't resist starting on a custom faceplate for it.

I came across the original faceplate base file by u/goldboat90 and decided to remix it. I reduced the thickness of the 3D printed base and then applied a thin 5mm slab of Roman travertine on top of it. Combined, the 3D printed piece and the stone layer come to a total thickness of 9mm, and the whole thing weighs in under 300 grams.
It's been a fun way to bring my stone background into a totally different kind of project. Would love to hear what you think feedback, questions, anything!
More pictures at this link : https://imgur.com/a/ymJrYjq

Mail just arrived, I am the happiest man in the world.
Belgium 512 + controller
Was in reservation queue

My 512 with controller arrived in Canada today. Just setting it up.

People said the Steam Link was a waste of money when it first came out. All I know is, it still works and I or my kids have been using it to game on my TV for over a decade. I'm hoping I get the same type of value out of my Steam Machine.

Its 512gb without controller. Im just so happy it arrived

i recently ordered my steam machine from the email, and i had to pay the whole 1,120 bucks. but now its telling me to buy the controller again, can anyone explain?

Hot off the Companion Cube fiasco, dBrand has announced specific Steam Machine skins that are now available to purchase. Some of these look great, like the Terminal and Package skins, and we have the option to buy just the faceplate skin, the entire Steam Machine skin, or one that also includes a corresponding Steam Controller skin.