I wanted the tiny box format for playing my steam library on the TV without needing to run a cable from the PC. Wasn't sure I could build one this small so I waited to see how much this was.

Around $800 for the 2TB model was my hope when it was announced. Stupid AI data centers screwing over memory prices.

I wonder how many people there are that fall in that category but who wouldn't just buy a much cheaper console instead though.

With today's prices how much cheaper would you get building similar yourself?

There are things this does that would be very difficult to achieve in a custom build. It's very compact and quiet and has very good driver support without any tinkering. It's a machine you hook up to your living room TV and for that it works very well, including CEC support which is not standard on PC hardware. The price is of course hard to swallow and performance isn't great but i think this thing will definitely sell all the units they can possibly make.

They will sell out instantly and this blocks the scalpers.

OH NO brother they're RAFFLING IT!? hahahaha that's fucked

I’m actually glad to see it. A raffle is one of the only realistic ways to deter scalpers while still leaving the console eventually accessible to people who actually want to play on it. Fuck scalpers; anything that hurts them is a win in my book.

OH NO brother they're RAFFLING IT!? hahahaha that's fucked

I disagree. The Deck and Controller each had their queues announced at least a week ahead of time. The queue for the Steam Machine kinda just shadowdropped in comparison. Plus a raffle doesn't penalize anyone for having work or living in a timezone where they'd normally be asleep.

Given the circumstances it's pretty fair.

It's a one-per-household, vetted for bots and scalpers raffle, yup. Well, more of a first-wave-shuffling and then waitlist, really.

Each global region has separate quantities and lists, and each version of the box has their raffled/shuffled lists.

What's nice about that is, not only are they going to actively try to limit to one household, but as long as you get in before the 25th, even if you get shuffled to the very end, you're still going to be before anybody that comes in almost 4 days later, and have a chance to be literally first. Chaotic, but I think that's kinda fun.

randomization is to determine the order of receipt

... that's high demand, sheesh

AI did a number to gaming, but truthfully, gaming technology was probably about to stand still anyway. Barely any studios can afford to make a game that's so technologically advanced that it pushes our current hardware to its limits.

You're probably right...

As an optimist, I really hope this hardware crunch leads to a greater focus on polish and optimization. I feel like a lot of development studios have let specs inflate to cover being unwilling to focus on building their games efficiently. It can feel crazy when you start comparing specs on games from different studios.

As a realist, I imagine we're just going to have a lot more cloud gaming services and that may just end up being the norm. I'm still waiting for a AAA publisher to start releasing their games exclusively to cloud platforms, probably first as a pre-release or early access bonus of some sort. I have my money on Ubisoft as the first big one if they manage to keep it together as a company.

As an anarchist, I've been looking into selling all my electronics and investing in some farmland.

It will most likely sell out constantly for the next year, they will be fine.

But it's not a problem in Linux: https://www.techpowerup.com/348178/valve-engineer-improves-linux-memory-management-for-gpus-with-8-gb-vram-or-less

For $1k you could do quite better than the Steam Machine (though not mini-sized). Just spec'd out a build on Amazon with AM4 and you've got options:

• $55 - Thermaltake 700w PSU

• $90 - Corsair 4000D case (I have one of these, good airflow and easy build space). This is a place you could skimp to save a few bucks, e.g. - this case is $55

• $130 - Cheap 1 TB SSD (went with Timetec, apparently Fikwot is okay too, seems to be a SSD parts manufacturer that started selling direct)

• $85 - B550 ATX mobo

• $130 - G.Skill 16 GB DDR4 3200

• $175 - Ryzen 5 5600 XT OR Ryzen 7 5700 (5600 is faster but 6c/12t, 5700 lower core speed, but 8c/16t. I have a 5600x, no complaints)

• $279 or $290 - RX 7600 GPU, or RTX 5050 (up to preference. The 7600 is generally comparable or slightly better overall, but you will see much better with it on Linux. On Windows the 5050 might be the better choice)

Total cost: About $950 (or $915 with the cheaper case), which leaves a bit of overhead to get a cheap cooler for the CPU (optional since it comes with one), and/or additional case fan(s).

Edit - to be clear, you can probably do better than this. I just browsed prices and parts on Amazon, but you might be able to find parts cheaper on https://pcpartpicker.com/ or by purchasing used parts on eBay.

For example, the Ryzen 5 5600x can be found for around $125 on Ebay, that's $50 savings. And slower DDR4 RAM (2600 base speed) can be found for as low as $65 on Ebay, though I'm not sure if that's a compromise I'd make, up for debate.