upvote

points

by retired1 days ago |
comments
upvoteby kllrnohj1 days ago|
next
[-]
Or buy this and get the exact same thing, but without building and parting it our yourself? It's still an open computer, not a locked down console. The price reflects that reality. It's not subsidized because you actually just properly own it.

The price of this steam machine is a rounding error away from the build it yourself DIY price. It's not marked up, this is just what PC components actually cost these days :/

reply
upvoteby retired23 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
A DIY machine can be repaired or upgraded down the line with off the shelf components. The Steam Machine uses proprietary hardware with most components soldered on.
reply
upvoteby kllrnohj22 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
The steam machine has upgradable storage and RAM, both being their respective commodity connections (m.2 & sodimm respectively). There's even 1 sodimm slot free from the factory if you want to immediately plunk in a 2nd 16gb stick.

Those two are realistically the only upgrades someone buying a prebuilt instead of DIY is going to entertain doing regardless.

But that's all besides the point, which it's simply that clearly the steam machine is priced fairly for the hardware it contains in the current economic market. Whether or not you personally would prefer a prebuilt or to DIY is entirely irrelevant

reply
upvoteby garciansmith20 hours ago|
parent|
next
[-]
Note that some machines will have two 8GB sticks, others just one 16GB stick. This is mentioned in the Gamers Nexus interview with some Valve employees, who were talking about the difficulty of finding RAM at any price. They had intended them all to be two sticks, but some will come with one because that's all they could source.
reply
upvoteby retired7 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
Would have been nice from Valve to be transparent about that. Maybe a little warning that your particular batch performs a little less than others.
reply
upvoteby pbhjpbhj6 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
What sort of difference does dual-channel RAM make? Some people probably want the single 16GB so they can add their own additional stick. Which option is better is not straightforward.

...

https://www.techspot.com/article/3066-single-stick-vs-dual-c... - seems like 5-50% change in FPS! Way more of a factor (on some games) than I thought.

reply
upvoteby kllrnohj3 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
Valve claimed in their internal tests it did not meaningfully change performance, which I'd be inclined to believe. The Steam Machine is likely going to be most often GPU bottle-necked, so the CPU performance regressing by even double digit percentages doesn't necessarily result in any change in gaming performance.

You'll note in that techspot comparison, by contrast, they used the fastest CPU and fastest GPU and then still used medium/low settings to really maximize whatever difference the RAM speed would have. Which is a valid test, but it's not necessarily going to generalize to low-end hardware. Like the CPU being limited to 90fps instead of 120fps doesn't matter when the GPU is struggling to hit 60fps in the first place.

reply
upvoteby retired7 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
[-]
A GPU defect on the Steam Machine requires a full replacement of the proprietary motherboard. You can’t put a new GPU in or have someone do it for you. And when GTA VI comes out there is no upgrade path possible to make the Steam Machine perform enough.
reply
upvoteby kllrnohj3 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
> A GPU defect on the Steam Machine requires a full replacement of the proprietary motherboard. You can’t put a new GPU in or have someone do it for you.

Of course you can have someone put in a new one for you, it's called an "RMA"? A GPU defect is going to show up well within the warranty period. It's things like fans that will fail over time.

reply
upvoteby nomel1 days ago|
prev|
next
[-]
Interesting claim. Complete parts list please!

Every time I've seen a comment like this, the eventual parts list is about the same price, has large deviations, or re-uses existing hardware (or used hardware). Looking at all the subreddits, the general consensus seems to be the price is fine for the components, and (if you care) it's impossible to build anything with that form factor.

reply
upvoteby retired22 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
It will be difficult to build it that small, however you will end up with a PC that doesn’t use proprietary hardware and is easier to repair. There is something to say about that.
reply
upvoteby nomel18 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
You misunderstood my last sentence, and my overall point, so I'll try again: Do you have parts list that supports your claim, with all new parts, without caring about the form factor?
reply
upvoteby baq1 days ago|
prev|
[-]
show me a mini PC which has the radiator volume of this steam machine.

actually, show me any PC like that...

reply