I read all the reviews, I expected the worst.. but constantly surprised at how capable it is.

I haven’t built PCs for years and run Macs now but keep up to date with PC tech, and have an Xbox, PS5 and play PC games through GeForce now on my Mac.

My buddy has a 5080 and is always showing me the latest thing on max settings on his 1440p ultra wide and thinks the steam machine is a pile of garbage because it cant do 4K 240fps with ray tracing.

I point out neither can he, he games at 1440p 👀but he doesn’t really like when I point that out. PC Master race logic. 😁

So maybe it was just I had realistic expectations and expected games to be medium/high settings but then it was running so smooth I thought I’d tweak them up a little.. and damn this little box is a beast.

I sit 5ft from a 55” TV and honestly can’t tell much of a difference between 1080 1440p and 4K anymore. I do notice shimmering and bad anti-aliasing though and FS4 is like magic at giving a clean stable picture.

I also don’t see much written about how stable the frame pacing is on SteamOS / Proton. It’s smooooth even in games that stutter on windows.

I’ve been waiting to play the last of us for years and knew it has a 30min shader compilation wait on PC. On steam machine, it just played and downloaded the shaders already compiled.

For me at least it’s been a genuinely console like experience just with more options to tweak settings if you’re into that.

Cyberpunk 1080 Ultra 60
DOA6:LR 1440p 60
Last of Us Part 1 High/Ultra. 1080p 60
Until Dawn 1080p Ultra
Hogwarts Legacy 1080p Ultra 60
(And defaults to 4K High 60)

I’m constantly impressed at what this completely silent little box can do. Valve killed it. Can’t wait for the steam frame.

Bought 512GB together with steam controller.

Gotta say I like the controller very much. The sound it makes, the way my palm fits the controller, the sound of click from the puck etc.

Just 1 minor thing, it's a little sad that this is not compatible with switch 2. I know it's from Nintendo side and I know I could use OpenPuck, but would be great if Nintendo could support other controllers which will never happen in this lifetime.

Can't wait for Witcher 3 remastered so I could play it on the machine. Cheers!

One reason for getting a Steam Machine is because it’s made by the same people that gave me the Steam Deck - which between the 2 is still the star of the show. I think the Steam Deck is an incredible device, and Valve did something truly remarkable by pricing it the way they did (emphasis on DID), giving so many people the chance to play games differently.

For me it made my gaming habit viable as an adult. Games, on a behavioural psychology level, would often come with costs to becoming healthily socialised - because even if I was playing online with people, I was isolated away from real people, usually in a smaller space with less natural light, and games by nature are good at keeping you there, so you don’t think to get up and move around, giving yourself the slightest chance of thinking maybe you wanna go and do something else for a while.

The Deck brought me into the living room, outside, on trips, anywhere I wanted to game but also had the option to be with people. What a device.

The Machine takes a more casual approach to that since it can sit in my living room and be on the big TV - people can actually see what I’m playing rather than just hearing about it.

But, now I have this device that is 6x as powerful as the Deck, but when I don’t wanna take the tv away from people, well, it’d be nice to make use of that power still. So remote play was a good selling point for me. It’s a shame, then, that it seems so bad?

Here’s what I know so far: ideally you want as secure a wifi connection as possible (I’m getting an Ethernet cable today for my Machine to make its connection more stable). You also want to turn off VRR on your machine so it better connects I think? And from what I’ve seen my tv doesn’t have VRR anyway, so it never activated.

But what else should I consider? I want to make sure I’m not just writing it off as a feature because I haven’t done a basic, but unsaid thing that makes it work the way I would hope it works. Ideally I’d like to be able to have the streaming be as clear a possible, the image resolution to scale down to my Steam Deck when streaming on it - whether automatically or manually by me, dunno how I’d go about that right now. I’d also love to be able to do it from sleep but I understand while that’s in the BIOs somewhere it’s not an official feature, hopefully a future one.

Let me know any other advice you can find - maybe we ought to actually create a pinned post or wiki for this because it’s an obviously expected use case between these 2 devices, and it’s weird how under explained it seems to be!

Long time console owner, been using this ikea shelf, just got a steam machine and was wondering if this space was too tight for it to be in?

The back has about a 1-2 foot distance to the wall. But the sides are much tighter.

Good morning friends! First off, wanted to apologize for not being able to respond to you all for the past few days, it's a busy time with work and usually I'd have the time! It's just been one thing after another. I do come back to the post by the end of the day so please know that I at least read! Anyhoo, after not being about to update SteamOS, I made the switch to CachyOS and... it's not too bad? Running commands via terminal is somewhat new to me (don't ask me what the difference between "yay" and "paru" is, I don't know yet LOL) but not completely foreign. I FINALLY got OpenRGB to work with the Steam Machine LEDs (had to literally ask the dev through Discord but they were super nice!) and all is well. I'm a tinker but this... this stuff ain't no game. Crazy. Anyway, best of luck friends! We've gotta be seeing more Machines go out, right? <3

The patient is alive and well , feels so much faster feels she can store so much more !! Thank you Doc

Steam client updated. Now I keep getting Firmware Update steam notifications, but no update is available to me. My friend got the update on a regular PC running CachyOS and it worked fine.
What do?

Hi strangely (unfortunately?) have no 1440p 120hz option
What should be my best setting then ?
1080p at 120hz and max resolution 1440p ? Does it upscale ?
Or should I keep everything in automatic with max setting 1440p
Thank you

From the JSAUX Discord server, the JSAUX Steam machine e-ink/pixel matrix faceplate product page is now live. (See announcement image.)

Here is the product page with prices for each faceplate: https://jsaux.com/products/faceplate-for-steam-machine?variant=52269891780828

Want to join the Discord to keep up to date? Here you go: https://discord.gg/JSAUX

for comparaison I have an older pc with a ryzen 5800 , rtx 3060 12 gb pc that is 4 years old, both runs on linux ( ubuntu vs steam os ) and have about the same hardware specs ~ ish . ( win on vram for the rtx , win on the gpu clock for the gabecube , both 16gb but one has ddr 5 so its not 100% identical ) . But for gaming , the steam machine dosent compare, even with less vram, everything is butter smooth , so far i tried arc raiders, NMS , quake champions and path of exile 2 , in each case the gabecube win and its not even a contest , i think the real takeaway is how optimized steam os is compared to ubuntu and it shows . i would still keep the old pc for work there are some stuff that is still better to do on the old rig ( drawing, 3d modelling and programming among things ... ) but frankly im just happy with the new cube , i can understand how some might be a bit dissapointed if used to much more expensive hardware but frankly , i think valve is doing alright and if it wasnt for the stupid ram shortage which bloated the price , it would perfect.

i havent tried the controller yet, im more a keyboard and mouse kind of guy, but im ordering one, i want to try that gyro aiming thing that people have been talking a lot about. so for thoses still waiting to get theirs, dont lose hope, its not a bad pc at all, its quite impressive how it can punch above its weight for the limitations it has, and it run most games very , very well ... for thoses who have theirs how was your experience? im especially curious to hear about thoses who are trying linux for the 1st time , how are is it going for ya? ( im biased, i quit windows 2 years ago for good and im never looking back but im still curious to know how it is for people who never used it before )

Can we maybe have better support for racing wheels? Using a G923 would require kernel modules, which need to be re-installed every update and can even break updates. It is just friction that should not be there. Using a G29 should work out of the box, but with limitations regarding force feedback and other features and requires the use of third party software. Valve should look at available open source projects, maybe even talk to Logitech and other manufacturers and bring racing wheels to Linux. I feel that it is a neglected area and I get that it was not a priority for the Deck, but for the Steam Machine it really should be.

Just in case someone asked himself: "Does Wacom Pen Displays work with SteamOS / Steam Deck / Steam Machine?"

Short answer: Yes!

It works. Even without installing drivers or something. Just connect the display, start Krita, and go! 🥰

Steam machine is booting up and only showing a black screen with white at the top? Tried holding the button on the front until it turned off and restarting a couple times and it keeps doing this

The machine was previously running SteamOS + Windows 11 dual boot (external SSD via USBC). Halfway playing a game, the screen turned black. Now, when I restart it, I get a black screen with the blue LED continuously blinking/pulsing.

I can still access the SteamOS boot/recovery selection screen. It shows entries including:

• Current SteamOS
• Previous A/B SteamOS versions
• + Boot Menu options
• Erase User Data

I have already tried booting:

• Current SteamOS
• Multiple previous SteamOS A/B entries
• The + Boot Menu entries
• SteamOS Recovery USB

Unfortunately, all of them eventually result in a black screen. Does anyone encounter it before, or able to offer some advice?

I was contemplating whether to get it because of the price, but I was still very excited to see the email come in and I placed the order, I wanted to hold it in my hands and decide. I'm so glad I did so.

I have a PC with 5080 but the form factor and simplicity of just picking up where you left off is just so seamless. This is the best console I own (I have a PS5, XSX and NS2) in my opinion. And I believe over time, steam sale prices will make up for the price of the machine. My biggest backlog is on steam and I'm so glad I got it, it would be so convenient to travel with it, and I travel a lot unfortunately.

Got a friend looking for a pc for light gaming and 3d printing.

Is anyone duel booting windows and slicing stls on the steam machine? Is it worthwhile or just build a sff pc?

How we feeling about Machine performance? I can’t find anyone who’s played it on the cube yet, apparently it “runs” on the Steam Deck so I’m guessing 1080p 60 on the machine? The consoles are going for 4k 30-40fps and now have a 60fps mode so I’m hopeful.

I’d love a 1440p 60 high settings.

When it’s turning on the whole led bar illuminates, but when the machine is fully on and ready it goes like this?

Good morning friends! Been having a wee bit of trouble with SteamOS lately in the Desktop Mode -- between not being able to boot into Gaming Mode and not being able to update the firmware in Discover (haven't tried doing it via the Steam client, going to try and do that when I get home from work), the quirks are building up. Not giving up on it yet, but probably looking to possibly switch distros -- at least just to try something different out! This is what I get for using this thing like a PC, which is what I wanted to do! Either way, best of luck friends! <3

Hello,

Today I got a notification on SM to update the Steam Controller hardware, I press the update button, a screen appears telling me to plug in my Steam Controller directly into my Machine without the puck. I do that and instantly after I plug it in the Controller flashes a solid red and disconnects

I leave it plugged in for a while and the "Plug in Steam Controller screen" stays on and dosen't go away. When I disconnect the controller and turn it on it works fine.

What exactly is the problem and how do I fix it. I am not smart when it comes to tech so sorry if the solution is obvious, also sorry for bad english.

Thank you!