Hi everyone!
I had been a Playstation user since the first one and I own the fifth one.
After using Linux for years on weak computers for my admin, I decided to try Linux gaming in 2025 and bought a used LCD Steam Deck.
While I’ve been enjoying the Steam Deck, it hurts my neck and isn’t powerful enough for sim racing games.
Naturally, I was happy to learn that the Steam Machine was coming and was willing to invest up to CHF1000.- (~$1236) to get it.
Sadly, it’s not available to order in my country, Switzerland.
So now I have to choose between finding ways to order a Steam Machine or buying a prebuilt computer since I don’t want to source components to build something myself.
My priority would still be the Steam Machine, but I’d be open to alternatives.
What are your advices, what would you do if you’re in the same situation?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Edit and update:
Thank you all for your answers and useful links! You gave me some great advices!
In the end, I’ll keep using a combo of Steam Deck and Playstation 5 for a while. The Steam Deck for almost every game, but more often than before docked to preserve my neck, and the Playstation 5 for demanding racing games or an eventual Last Of Us 3.
Then, around 2029, once my Playstation 5 is gonna be old and not upgradeable, I’ll get a Linux gaming rig which is gonna be more powerful. At that time, I’ll have a better disposable income, but I’d still want to pay around CHF 1000.- anyway.
It’ll also allow me to fully emulate all my Playstation games which aren’t available on PC, at least from PS1 to PS4 generations, and use these consoles as decoration for memories.
So they sell the steam deck in your country now? You can probably just wait a good while for them to sell the console in your country.
If you wait long enough they might offer a barebones kit kind of like the old Intel nuks. You can get for cheaper and buy your own ram and storage. Its rumored that the failure for many ai data centers to come to fruition, will line up with the ram manufacturers getting new facilities up, will cause a crash in hardware prices. Don’t know if that means cheap ram or if it gets more expensive in the wacky economy anymore, but its something to gain or lose from when you wait long enough.
I would definately not buy from a scalper though. The thing is barely worth it to me at 700 dollars as a fan boy who would love a new toy from valve. I could not imagine paying close to double for it, or risk getting just scammed. I’m sure I could do something like a charge back, or having to get on some Ai customer support to get my money back but its not worth it to me anymore.
What about a VPN? Maybe this will work.
I’d not want to take the risk of paying and then being told that the Machine can’t be delivered to my house.
Creating a mini-ITX system based on the 9060 is a pretty good alternative. It’s gonna cost you, but so is the SM.
Hello from Germany,
hit me up with a message, maybe we can work it out
Thanks for the proposal, but since it involves huge sums of money, I’d only try with someone I know in real life😇
Okay, i understand that.
If you wanna get into contact to know me, just do it :)
Really wanna help as i am not buying the steam machine.
Are you willing to consider a mail-forwarding service?
In my country (further East from you), it’s a somewhat popular and reliable way to buy stuff that no retailer or the vendor itself offers.
I got Oculus Rift S that way once, years ago, and it was pretty painless - some services will help you handle a lot of the paperwork greatly. Maybe even entirely for you.
The big benefit here is that they usually have the warehouses in the countries that do sell what you want, and established logistical chains to ship things safely and I would even say quickly.
The bigger benefit is having a legal entity to work with, which lets you insure the goods and press charges if the mailer steals, loses or damages them.
More expensive than kind strangers on the internet, but if you’re that careful, maybe this is an option.
That said, your Steam region and Valve’s restration for purchase makes this route difficult. Maybe you could create an account in another region, like the US or Germany, generate some activity and purchases there, wait for whatever minimum Valve sets, and order via the mail-forwarder (to their warehouse, from where they ship to you).
On an unrelated note, I did not expect to see a Swiss in the same boat of all people. Viel Glück am Kaufen!
The Steam Machine itself is just a very fancy prebuilt PC - so while it is your preference, there’s no reason a similar spec prebuilt wouldn’t work too
Would you have any suggestion? I was looking at what tuxedo offers, but I’m a bit lost with the specs.
https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Linux-Computer-/-PCs/Alle-Systeme.tuxedo
Technically their Cube L w/ a 9060 XT 16GB outperforms the Steam Cube by a long shot (I’d guess 40-80%) and offers upgradeability but it’s also wildly more expensive and a little bit bigger. It also comes with 32gb RAM at a minimum instead of the Cube’s 16gb which contributes to the high price. Choosing an older GPU like the 7600 doesn’t make too much sense cost and feature wise, for Couch gaming you’d want the newest FSR’n’stuff in a just-works manner.
Technically a full AMD system is best for SteamOS, but the most important piece is the GPU (do not chose an Nvidia whatsoever). Their Cube with AMD is outdated. It will work fine with the Ultra 5.
Beating the price point of the Steam Cube is almost impossible if bought new, even full diy systems have a hard time unless using used parts.
Beating the price point of the Steam Cube is almost impossible if bought new, even full diy systems have a hard time unless using used parts.
A regular pre-built with a 9060 XT 8GB can be had for about 10% less than the Steam Machine (900 Euro). That will be quite a bit faster and also upgradeable. The main advantage of the Steam Machine is the form factor and power consumption.
Where. I just checked with Geizhals, the only pre-built that comes somewhat close to the Cube is this HP (and I’d bet the build quality is shit, they did some nonsense that causes issues for om anything but Windows etc). And even that one with its mediocre CPU is still more expensive than the Cube.
With the Tuxedo you at least get modern hardware with no additional shenanigans and proper customer support (tho’ that one will be hardware-only if you install SteamOS, but still). Sure you can get it cheaper elsewhere (about 300€ less for same performance as the Tuxedo if you buy some no-name pre-built from Amazon) and especially with diy, but knowing your hardware harmonizes with your OS (i.e. Linux) and doesn’t contain bad surprises goes a VERY long way.
(I literally had a PSU in a pre-built catch fire without shutting down as a teenager, inside my wooden desk)
And even that one with its mediocre CPU is still more expensive than the Cube.
Keep in mind that the Steam Machine roughly has the CPU performance of a Ryzen 5 3600, so a 8400F should actually be quite a bit faster.
I filtered for the 9060 XT on Galaxus and got about 20 results below 1k EUR, e.g. this one for 844: https://www.galaxus.de/de/s1/producttype/pc-18?filter=347%3D7709265&so=5. But it seems that Galaxus mis-labeled the GPU, and it’s the non-XT version 👎 This one for 899 EUR actually seems to have the XT though: https://www.galaxus.de/de/s1/product/kiebel-viper-v-1000-gb-16-gb-amd-ryzen-5-5500-radeon-rx-9060-xt-pc-69216705
I also linked a Mifcom machine in another post, this is the German equivalent for 900 EUR: https://www.mifcom.de/entry-gaming-pc-ryzen-5-8400f-rx-9060-id186 But, this also comes with the non-XT version and selecting the 9060 XT 8 GB pushes it to 1059 EUR.
Edit: I guess the RX 9060 non-XT should still be quite a bit faster than the Steam Machine though, it’s just bad if the retailers (and me) mix them up.
Huh, I stand corrected. I didn’t expect the Cube to be well below a 8400F.
Though I’d still expect higher quality from Tuxedo over the absolute cheapest pre-built, as well as the thing with Linux compatibility of all parts and Customer Support. Still bet Mifcom used the cheapest shit everywhere including for parts you should never cheap out on, like the power supply.
On another note, I’m almost sure Steve at some point ranted about how stupid modern GPUs with 8gb VRAM are and that you should never buy them… 🤔
Looks like anything above the nano pro is more powerful than the Steam machine as long as you don’t pick the weakest GPU in the configurator.
I would recommend a pre-built system for two reasons:
- Better performance for about the same price.
- You will get it in a few days, for the Steam Machine you will wait until 2027!
Do you think I would have to wait so much?
I’m not in a rush but 6 months would probably be too much.
Probably so, unfortunately. Every Steam Machine out there now has an owner, and that was all they could manufacture in the past six months.
By the sounds of things, there’s also a lot of reservations out there without a Steam Machine to sell them, and given the RAM crisis, production likely isn’t increasing.
It’ll be a while before they’re looking for more registrations.
I think they’re expecting to take until the end of the year to work through their current reservation list (this might include the waiting list at the time but I’m not sure). I wouldn’t hold my breath unless you’re willing to pay one of the few scalpers on eBay.
If you’re going with a small form factor DIY or some equivalent pre-built PC alternative, I strongly urge you to get an AMD GPU to get a good experience with Steam OS, Bazzite or some other Linux gaming distro.
Your PS5 is more powerful than the steam machine. Don’t waste your money.
Buy any other prebuilt pc for around the same price and it will be better, and most importantly upgradable. A pc you can’t upgrade is just a console, and as a console the steam machine is about 5 years outdated already while charging an arm and a leg.
I don’t need more power than the PS5 so the Steam Machine would be enough.
This being said, the upgradability of a prebuilt would be great, as long as it ain’t too noisy and power hungry.
Get a prebuilt PC which there are few vendors that has even has Linux pre-installed as well as the specs works great without much hassle.
I’d go for a prebuilt unless you really need that particular form factor. A slightly larger prebuilt with similar specs will not only be slightly cheaper, but also have better performance (due to the Steam Machine being quite limited by thermals and power draw).
The form factor isn’t really important, but the fact that I could just buy it and not think about its specs was a big plus.
As I understand it, Steam Machines are not particularly powerful so I think it would be worth exploring pre-builts that are around what you want to spend to see if you can get something comparable or better. SteamOS will be available to install on all desktops at some point but in the meantime there are plenty of gaming focussed distros that will do a superb job. Unfortunately with memory prices the way they are you aren’t really getting the same bang for your buck that you did previously, but there isn’t much any of us can do about it at present. Good luck with it all, it is certainly a very exciting time to be getting into Linux gaming!
Hi, if you want to I can dig around and make you a list of components it will be cheaper and with a better performance ratio.
Building a pc is not that hard, it’s closer to legos theese days and installing linux is easy ( I would recommend bazzite with kde ).
As someone who pre-ordered the OG steam controller and steam deck I’m sitting this one out. The hardware situation is just too bad right now. Then again there’s no guarantee it will actually get better, but I have some faith in China still
I would go for a pre-built computer with an RX 9060 XT (preferably with 16 GB VRAM). That GPU will run loops around a Steam machine. You can get such a pre-built for around 1000 CHF:
Thanks for the links. I’ll have a deep look into these!
The only real reasons to get a Steam Machine are if:
- You really want your computer to be a 6" cube
- You really want HDMI CEC support
- You really want to give your money to Valve instead of some other company
Otherwise, something else will be cheaper and/or faster, at the cost of being a more normal desktop size and shape.
I haven’t had a prebuilt desktop since I was 15, so I would definitely build my own. (In other words, if the thing stopping you is being nervous about screwing it up, don’t be because it isn’t actually hard.)
Otherwise, I don’t have any specific prebuilt brand recommendations for you, but I’ll echo the advice to get something with a Radeon 9060 XT (or better). Alternatively, if you think you might want to do AI things with it too instead of just gaming, consider a small-form-factor PC with a fast APU and a lot of unified memory (e.g. like the Framework Desktop or Minisforum MS-S1 Max) or a Radeon RX 7900 XTX (with 24GB RAM), but be aware that those would be a lot more expensive right now.
Not op but to give my perspective, I’m not a computer person, and I’m on the waitlist for a steam machine for a few reasons:
- I’m terrified of breaking the expensive computer parts if I tried to build my own computer. That’s potentially a lot of money to waste
- I don’t even know enough about computers to know which parts are good. I’ve looked into it, and I could probably create a decent grocery list for myself, but I have no personal sense of what’s good or bad
- I want to switch to Linux gaming and the steam machine offers Linux gaming in a prebuilt package. I don’t have to download Linux or proton myself, or pick which distro I want to use. I want to just boot up the steam machine and have things work. (I got Kubuntu for myself on my laptop to try Linux but even that was scary for me. Progress takes time and the steam machine offers an easier learning curve)
- I get valve support if something doesn’t work or needs fixing
I’d like to one day get to the point where I can build my own computer and be confident on Linux. But for now, the steam machine offers an ease of access that I’m willing to pay more for. Hopefully the steam machine can inspire people who’ve never even considered trying Linux to give it a go on their other devices as well
I understand being intimidated. Under normal circumstances I’d say maybe try building a cheap computer for your first time, but there kinda aren’t any right now. That said, my first one was a reasonably high-end machine for the time, and it turned out fine.
I feel like the biggest sticking point is actually #2, not #1. I was the kind of kid who was obsessively reading tech magazines/websites/newspaper ad flyers and knew exactly what I wanted and where to get the best deal on it. So yeah, I definitely recommend doing your research first.
But good news: you’ve got it easy these days with YouTube showing you what to get and how to assemble it instead of having to read. The parts themselves are easier these days, too: no jumpers to set, and almost everything is keyed to only fit one way. Short of being really inept/careless and bending CPU pins or snapping the edge connector off a PCB or something, you’re not going to hurt anything.
The bottom line is, if you want to do it eventually you might as well do it now, because there really isn’t that much to it.
All good and valid points!
As you say, progress takes time, have a good journey!
Thank you!
Building a pc is no doubt scary if you are not used to it. It does make sense to own a pre-built first, just so you can become more familiar with the parts, but once you build, you are very unlikely to want a pre-built, and will also look at the specs of the steam machine and wonder why anyone would even consider it. Gaming is very easy on linux due to steam, you just install it and play games. Distro selection… well everyone has an opinion. I use Manjaro KDE because it is very user friendly.
Build one! If you’ve already got the money, building a computer is not as hard as it might seem. You can put SreamOS on there but Bazzite and CachyOS are good gaming options too.
As I’ve told others, ‘it’s like really expensive legos’. Cpu go in cpu hole. Ram go in ram hole. Nvme go in nvme hole. Success!
Accurate as long as you use something like pcpartpicker to ensure compatibility.
Yeah, I tell my friends to use pcpp for drafting builds, although the component list is not great for older stuff, or for server gear (I just rebuilt a server, and while they claim to list Supermicro boards, mine and variants didn’t show up, while it is a standard micro atx). So trying to research what to build around, say a mobo and cpu that you grabbed from a thrift shop, can be hard if you don’t know what specs and compatability to look for. For new typical builds though, it takes a lot of the confusion and worry out of it for new builders.
A few years ago now, I used pcpp to draft a friend’s first pc, get funding for the project, and then helped the friend + father from box to boot (and way beyond, but) over a video call, and the most either had done before was replace a gpu. Booted first try, too.
Legos! :D
“Oops, I ordered Duplo.”
A moment of silence for the fallen 😔
