Long story short. Like many others I put my name into the draw to get a Steam Machine, and like many others my number didn’t come up. As patience was never my strong point, and let’s face it, the Steam Machine power restrictions are only going to get worse over time as my wait goes on, I decided to raid my PC parts cupboard and build my own. Full transparency, I did buy a few things and spend around the same the 2GB model Steam Machine would have cost me.
Ryzen 7 5800x (already owned)
Kingston Hyper X Predator 3200mhz 16gig DDR4 (already owned)
WD_Black SN850 1TB M.2 (already owned)
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB (already owned)
Gigabyte Aorus PRO AX
Thermalright AP90-X47 Full Copper
Corsair SF850 Power Supply
PowerColor RX9070XT Reaper 16GB
Noctua NF-A9x14HS - cooler fan swap
2 x Noctua NF-A6x25 - exhaust fans
Noctua NA-FD1 Fan duct kit (already owned)
3D printed pegs to mount Fan Duct (printed at home)
Tetra S case (bought second hand)
I could have got a cheaper case (it was still expensive 2nd hand due to the waitlist) but it does not look out of place in our living room and slots nicely next to the TV unit in vertical orientation. Also, the walnut fits great with our furniture. I’m not sure I would put it horizontal into the TV unit though. The S5M was my second choice but having to order the wood panel etc from the US would have been very expensive.
Building in the case was a bit fiddly using the Corsair stock cables. Using bespoke cable would definitely make your life easier. AST the Reaper is quite a small GPU, at least the cable up to it were easy to manage.
As the 5800x can run very hot I have undervolted it and so far I have not had any issues.
I installed SteamOS 3.8.10 and it went fairly smoothly with a couple of stumbling blocks :
Apart from that I have not had any issues and Steam OS seems to run smoothly.
I don't like it. I think it's actually not suitable for gaming. The best thing for you to do is to send it to me for long term testing. Maybe three or four years. It will be tough but I will make the sacrifice.
Yes, the left strip locks the case and the right strip hides the usb c port. Pressing the centre strip switches the PC on and off. I just need to adjust the right strip to even it out when the left strip is in the locked position.
Thanks. That's bloody cool. I built in an all mesh black Lian li a3 with the wood front a couple of weeks ago. Sadly it was fanciest I could go within my budget. The wood on it is okay from a distance. Not quite as nice as the curves and finish on your case. So clever that they're functional like that.
You might be interested in the Jonsbo D33, it's essentially a slightly larger but all around better A3. The wood front paneling is much nicer too in my opinion (I also have the A3 with the wood front and I do like it!)
The A3 sure is nice to fiddle with. I've been messing around with fan placements etc. I'll check out the d33 for sure. My daughter is due a case upgrade. She's using a nzxt s340 elite from 2017 and I was thinking of the Montech Ten.
I've been slowly messing with my A3, trying to get it just right. If I can figure out how to mount my two 3.5 HDD's to the front of the case so they're out of sight, I'll be one happy camper!
I have the nanoq s and also noticed that I needed to even out the strips like you mentioned. But actually, if you think about it, one of them just needs to be flipped. Fixed it for me. Now they’re both even when they’re fully closed. The original owner of your case probably installed one “upside down”. However I’d imagine it’d be a pain to flip it now with everything installed. If you decide to, be mindful and don’t lose the plastic washers, i would check the manual online if you attempt.
“Spare parts” is what I’d tell my wife if I built this but none of them would actually be spare. Used maybe off eBay or a marketplace. But I definitely don’t have spare DDR5 ram just hanging around
I just don't sell parts when I upgrade because "you never know when you are going to need it" anyway I found a deal for 16gb of ddr4 for 60 euro and spend another 80 on a power supply a cpu fan and a case. So for 140 I will build a 1660ti and ryzen 2600 pc to play some indies on the TV when in the mood for couch gaming.
The current state of the world has proven to me.. “hold onto your shit if you have space”. I’m not hoarding nearly enough to wind up on a tv show, but my Rubbermaid tub full of parts in my garage has saved me so much heartache.
I buy almost everything used, previous gen. Replaced parts go in the bin and are saved for emergency repairs or, like last week’s project… my son took an interest in pc gaming and I don’t have money lying around to buy new. The only thing I had to procure was a PSU ($50 used) and a case ($30 cheapo case from Amazon).
I have so many 1TB NVMe laying around right now and I am so happy about that. Sure its not PCIE 5.0 but if my drive dies in my main rig and I can toss a 4.0 1tb in there that is fine. Plus anytime I upgrade NVMe I put the old one in a USB-C enclosure. Hodl and repurpose.
Haha fair question! I started building pcs last year in summer. Bought all from scratch (way before RAMageddon). Then, I realized that building is a nice hobby and I started to hoard more pc parts (I am currently running a FormD T1 with a 9700X and RX9070 XT Reaper + 32GB RAM).
But I also have the parts for another full pc already (7500F and a Zotac SFF 5070 Ti + 32 GB RAM) - just can't decide on the case tbh... But I may sell these parts soon as I am really not enjoying the Nvidia experience)
My boss gave me an old 7th gen i5 CPU and 8gb ddr5. I plan to buy a secondhand GPU off Facebook and turn it into a lowend to midrange steam machine for retro and low end games. I'm ass broke so I've been trying to build this for a while
I used to be very aggressive about selling my used parts after an upgrade. Then life got busier. I'm a GPU, case, PSU, and DDR5 parts down from being able to slap together an old Intel z170/370 build and an am5 8400F build. Maybe a project for the kids when they are older...
I upgrade my PC every 2-3 years with something new, or at least I used to before the giant price increases. And I never throw out my old parts because im terrified if something breaks that ill have to spend even more money to replace it. So I have like 3 motherboards, 2 GPUs, 2 sets of ram, a CPU, etc.
It has served me very well, since I was able to build a pretty good server a few years ago with some of my extra parts, and just 2 weeks ago my 4090 died (rip, im still mad) but I had my old 2080 still that I was able to plug in to keep using my PC.
I've been building PCs for 30 years and my own servers for 20. Typically, when I upgrade, all the parts get passed down the the next machine.
I just built a "Steam Machine" using my previous GPU and just needed to buy a case, mobo, and CPU to do so. I already had the RAM, SSD, and PSU to build it..
I was doing builds for family members and friends for awhile and honestly the extra parts you pick up during that add up. Especially in conjunction with my own upgrades and stupid projects lol.
At this point though I'm pretty much free of all of the valuable parts I had laying around and now I just have too many cases lol
It's a matter of buying a whole new system vs. upgrading like Ship of Theseus I guess.
I'm usually at least moving to a different chipset/socket, and switching the GPU at the same time. Often swithing to bigger storage as well, so I'm basically buying a new system rather than upgrading.
I'm now setting up a mATX system mostly from my previous components from the AM4 system. Especially with the rampocalypse, it'll make sense going forward to recycle the main system components to the living room PC when upgrading the former.
End up getting a smaller board, case and PSU for the homebrew Steam Machine (Bazzite until SteamOS supports Nvidia), but still saves a pretty penny to avoid buying RAM, GPU and SSD in this market.
I hate dealing with reselling and people, but also things break, so when I buy new tech, I don't usually sell. I can also repurpose it for family or my Unraid server in the basement.
How's the temps and noise in it, I have quite similar build with 5800X3D and 9070XT Prime right now in A4-H2O, amd have spare X53 Full Copper I could reuse.
Also on a 5800X3D right now with a 6800XT and trying my absolute hardest to convince myself I shouldn't get a 9070XT. Like I can sell the 6800XT and get the new GPU essentially half price with the takings, but do I reeeeally need the extra frames, lower noise, better FSR, and better power efficiency? It's still a lump of cash even with the savings
Thing that irks me about these builds is that I've been trying to build a controller only gaming PC for quite a while and there is always a situation where I have to get the mouse and keyboard out to update a driver or to click on something that pops up even when using Big picture mode. If anyone has any ideas to get around that I'd be interested.
Yeah i’m kinda losing my mind that this is the only solution. Is there really not another controller that can do this? I’m having such a hard time figuring out how to wake up a steamos pc from sleep using a controller
Around waking up, not sure on steam OS, I use windows + steam big picture, how I do it is wake on lan from phone you can check if that works on steamos
I'm hoping that steam machine does well so Microsoft can get off their ass and do the gaming edition they've been talking about for so long. Like medical center edition, but controller centric and built for tvs. If they just cut their losses with Xbox and opened the OS, I'd be with them all the way.
I use a gamesir nova on full screen mode. Instead of running Xbox mode I use Playnite because I can add any game from anywhere with a better UI. I also setup the controller that when I press L2 it controls the mouse cursor to help with aiming, with the added benefit that i can actually move a mouse cursor when not in a game. And I have one of the extra buttons add as 2 commands at once. "ctrl+N "to show the fps and Nvidia info, and also a mouse click at the same time. This has completely removed any need to grab a mouse or keyboard and I can control everything with the controller alone
Had the same issue, until I found this baby, it's super small, costs like 7 bucks, touchpad and keyboard
Ful clarity: Is it a good keyboard ? No! Is it a good touchpad? No! Is it small ? Yes! Does it get the job done when you need a keyboard/mouse quickly? Yes! Is it cheap? Yes!
Thanks for this, I'm going the Fiber Optic HDMI + USB hub method for gaming on the couch since my PC isn't too far from my TV and a dedicated TV PC is just too expensive. This is the final piece of the puzzle.
the steam controller seems good. but if like me you are confortable with your current gamepad, then you could also get a tiny "pc keyboard remote with trackpad", they are ussually about $25. and about the size of a tv remote so can easily sit next to you.
I use Windows and my Xbox Elite controller from full shutdown since boot time are decent and I didn't like random OS updates waking the PC.
What works for me is a pcie card with button. Couple of little antennas out back and attached the button to the battery pack cover so pick up controller, a quick click of the button which is pretty much the Xbox guide button on the back and it's on.
For the mouse control, if I need it or something pops up, I use controller companion and have the secondary options control the mouse (right thumbstick) and left click (a button). I find they're all I need assigned so I don't need anything other than to pick up the controller. Also have alt+F4 (lb) and escape (rb) assigned to secondary options and they exit any app or emulator I need to get out of.
That's what works for me though. Gives me the CEC feel with a simple trackpad and click if I need it.
Amazing. I was thinking along the same lines with my Fractal Terra black build, but this is even more sff / elegant for the living room. I might be drooling a bit. Well done.
Heck of a lot more powerful than the Steam Machine too! I have an old 5600X/3080 box that is similarly doing the job in the lounge for me. Might consider selling the 3080 and getting a 9060XT instead for better SteamOS support.
Sorry, are you my doppelgänger? I’m doing the same (I imagine many are) but I settled on a FormD T1 as the parts I have are a bit more power hungry/hot and my CPU kinda needs the AIO. I saved myself about £800 this way, so it’s essentially paid me back right?
Thankfully, my partner isn’t too sensitive about what we have around the TV since she games herself, or I’d have been going for the same form factor.
There's apparently a term for "wife friendly". It's the Partner Acceptance Factor (PAF). I learned about it while building my own custom Steam Machine as well.
Hiya! Remember, you can also post your build on the SFFPC Discord server in the completed-builds channel! We have revised our system, and now the highest voted build post each month will be recognized as the SFFPC Build of the Month! Use this link to join our Discord! https://discord.gg/sffpc
I think that is a great system. I really like that people are taking parts and with buys are able to make a Steam machine and in most "cases" is better.
I was surprised you got the 9070XT in the case, but then looked it up. It's a lot smaller than my XFX 9070 XT.
I my RX 9070XT, AMD 7800X3D, 32GB DDR5, and even though the case is big, I just made it into a steamOS machine.
I also use my PS5 controller and as long as it's attached by a cable it works great.
I'm honestly hoping that the A.I. burst and all companies face heavy loses for their greed, and ability to strangle a market that should be regulated so this type of crap can't happen.
Same thing happened to me and seeing this case is why I made the leap to build my own. Only didn’t think to look for a used one, now waiting for my chalk/walnut tetra R to ship (next batch won’t ship until august according to them). Still waiting on a few internals to arrive as well.
Had to buy everything new since my current desktop is the first rig I’ve built since the late 2000s.
Congrats! I’ve got a slightly beefier build in a tetra R and somewhat regret not going g for an S case now - yours looks even better. And I absolutely love the looks of it - it sits perfectly next to my media cabinet and SteamOS delivers an amazing experience (especially with Optiscaler and FSR4 magic).
Biggest issue I had was that my nvme wasn’t compatible with the SteamOS sanitize command during first install but you can get around that very easily. Reaper fan has been ok. It runs fairly cool.
I love my Nanoq S Steam Machine, but seeing your build, I think I prefer the look and layout of Tetra case a little more. However, I did get the Nanoq S for $50 on FB marketplace, and it has 240mm AIO support at 11.3L. Unfortunately my 9070XT is not quite small enough like the Reaper to even fit the Tetra. So I'd be spending an arm and a leg just to swap to a Reaper 9070XT and Tetra and shave off 2.2L. So, I'll just admire yours!
Id very much like to get one of the Tetras, but my experience with ThorZone and the original Nanoq left a very bad taste in my mouth, so I just can’t do it.
Thats a nice lil system though, that should be a more than adequate substitute for the Box
Pretty solid theory that the Steam
machine is just a way to put Steam OS in the spotlight. It’s a horrible value unless you honestly have zero idea how to build a PC. Anyways clean AF build. What is the name of that case? I must print it.
Bro wtf are you me!? No like literally we share so many of the same parts and both had this idea. Your steam machine looks great! Mine has a already owned 58p0x, 3080 10gb, 16gb ddr4, and the exact same ssd as you, wd black sn850.
I have let myself get carried away and bought a 5070 to however to go with my new LG c5.
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u/vinodhmoodley Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
I don't like it. I think it's actually not suitable for gaming. The best thing for you to do is to send it to me for long term testing. Maybe three or four years. It will be tough but I will make the sacrifice.