Steam Hardware
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Controller] - Steam Controller related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
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It's obviously not Valve's fault but man, that's expensive. Wasn't planning on getting one anyway, but it certainly makes me worried about what the Frame may cost.
Anyone here planning on getting one? I do wonder how much of a market there is for it at this price.
I signed up to get one the moment I heard about the price. I like gaming on my PC, but I much prefer playing certain games on the big screen in the living room. Likewise, my partner has gotten used to the Steam Deck's UI so it'll be great to get her more into gaming.
The Steam Deck + Dock is what I currently use, but playing everything in 720p upscaled to 1080 (or just playing indie games) is pretty frustrating.
And I've used moonlight/steam streaming/even Nvidia gamestream (I have an Nvidia shield) - while they're fine solutions, I don't like the compression artifacts of streaming. Also annoys me that the game physically renders on my computer.
So, yeah, TL;DR I want a Steam Machine. I'm also excited to use desktop mode on occasion. And when the machine finally runs its course, it'll be a nice looking server for the closet!
I genuinely can't see any reason to get one. Like... if you're a PC gamer with enough spare cash to get one, you can probably get a better gaming PC for the same money. If you're a console gamer, there's no reason to switch because the 512gb with no controller is almost double the cost of a five year old PS5, which has better specs and a controller, plus you'd have to buy all your games again, if they're even available on Steam (and also if they even work in Linux.) The only thing I think it could be be good for is as a budget gaming PC, but it's wildly over-priced for that.
Not Valve's fault of course, but yeah there's no way for me personally.
I was going to but only existing steam accounts can pre order. I get it, but trying to go from console as a poor just feels impossible at this point.
Much as I would love an upgrade to my Steam Deck (which I mostly used docked), I can't justify more than $500, much less $1000. Glad I snagged the $400 LCD Steam Deck when I did. The Steam Deck price hikes prompted me to get a Switch 2, as I don't see any other new sub-$500 consoles coming out for a long, long time.
I did the promise with witnesses and all to get one at least in year 2 if it launches with Half life 3 just cause the memes I haven'teven player HL ever. If it drops to 600 or so I'm getting it.
Is the frame more expensive hardware? Can we make any sort of reasonable determination on frame price now that we know the gabecubes cost?
At announcement I was hoping $700, which I don't see happening. Are we still expecting index pricing or is that not happening?
... Well the quest 3 is $600. They can't be too far from that can they? I mean I'd pay $1000 on the frame before I gave meta $600, but most people don't have the same hate for meta that I do.
I think that $600 is a subsidized price and not really useful for comparison. I would expect the Frame to be at least $1000. The hardware likely is more expensive overall since it also includes displays. They aren't high end screens but they still add significant cost. It is probably more expensive to assemble each Frame compared to the Steam Machine also. I wouldn't be surprised if the low end model is $1500+
That would absolutely kill it, at least for me. $700-800 sold. 1k, harder to justify to the wife, but probably still getting it. 1500, well my rift-s is still pretty good I guess.
The frame sure aint gonna be cheap hardware. 0% chance it can match the quest in price. But since it doesn't need as much storage I'm hoping it'll be 700-800. But I wouldn't blink if it's $1000. Valve just doesn't have the economies of scale Meta will.
It's hard to say, but at least before the component shortages, I would have expected the Frame to be the more expensive device. After all, it has 2 included controllers, displays, batteries, tracking cameras etc. But maybe the lower memory and storage (if you go for the 256GB) along with its mobile SoC might help reduce the effects of the component crisis somewhat. I don't expect it to be below 1k€ though, personally.
I might get a 2tb. If I don't game on it, I might swap the Linux version and use it for work. We have standardized in fully decked out System76 Meerkats with Proxmox VE serving jump hosts to manage different clients, so I can use it for that, or I can leverage the GPU and use it for datadump and log analysis. The point is, that it wouldn't be money wasted. Ideally, I'd like to play games on it though.
EDIT: Looking at the Gamer's Nexus review they state upfront that performance is limited, so I honestly don't see why I should get this over a Meerkat.
EDIT 2: Nevermind. The Meerkat has almost doubled in price and is Intel only now. So the Steam Machine is back on the menu.
That was a rollercoaster! lol
I really wanted one, but now it's an easy wait for at least some kind of sale.
Edited to add, just finished reading and watching a round of reviews and honestly don't think I even want one anymore.
I don't think they've ever had any sales for hardware. The only discounted hardware I've seen was the refurbished Deck. If you don't want specifically Valve-branded hardware, you're probably better off building a proper PC from comparable second-hand parts.
They have absolutely had sales on their hardware. I am pretty sure they've put deck on sale every year since it came out.
As for building my own, yeah I know, and I've considered it many times. But I absolutely dread working in small form factor, and this thing's size was one of the main appeals for me.
They've definitely had new steam decks on sale before. Mine was 20% off just last year.
That was before the RAM shortage. It's going to be at least 1 full year before RAM price start going down and they can offer discounts. Unless the AI bubble pops. And that'll have huge economic consequences.
The original Steam Controller and Steam Link went on sale for about 5€ each just before they were phased out. OG Steam Deck also had some smaller discounts.
I have been waiting for the price to see about replacing my Xbox series S as I degoogling/M$ as much as possible. I just want a streaming box that I can play light games on.