Higher than expexted. Because soneone wrote a headline assuming it would cost 500 dollara based on nothing.
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
96 points (92.1% liked)
PC Master Race
21292 readers
450 users here now
A community for PC Master Race.
Rules:
- No bigotry: Including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
- Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
- No NSFW content.
- No Ads / Spamming.
- Be thoughtful and helpful: especially when new beginners have questions.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Oof, looks like 2010s Buzzfeed changed headlines forever
If I had to guess, I'd think somewhere in the 1500 usd region. Which will make it more expensive than some prebuilts, but still somewhat justifiable to enough people due to certain expectations. Hell it may even perform a lil better than some prebuilts with dgpu, since valve already has skin in the game to keep improving Linux experience. Still I wouldn't trade a 6 y/o PC for it rather just slap Linux on it myself...in fact I did that.
1500 is too much. You can definitely build better PC at that price… it just won’t be that small.
Oh I wholeheartedly agree, even 1000-1200 is too much imo. I wonder if they were hoping to sling it for around 700-1000 given past NUC prices but with all the stupidity going on we will never know.
I mean if memory/ssd/gpu/everything prices have shot through the roof, is this really that unexpected?
God I wish I could build a computer from scratch like Minecraft by starting with punching dirt out of the ground and just arranging things on a table. 😭
Which translates to you'll be spending more to build a mid tier pc yourself
Yeah, it sounds like a lot, but what's that cost compared to other pre-builts of equivalent spec? With how fucked everything is I'd wager the Steam Machine isn't insanely priced compared to the other offerings.
Less if you buy used.
Unfortunately, Valve can’t stick an eBay AMD 6800 + a DDR4 CPU in there; they gotta take the hit and buy everything new.
That actually might be a great sales driver.
Buy the environmentally responsible 100% renewed hardware Steam Machine. Case is 96% recycled materials.
If anything, it’s good to have a mass produced option from Steam. Eventually when I’m priced out of building big badass rigs I’ll look to Steam to provide a plug and play console experience.
I’m on my dream PC build, and at this point I don’t really care to build another one again. Console simplicity is great now that I can play most things 60-120 fps.
Especially given that it runs Linux so you are saving a bunch on the operating system
Because OEM firms buy in bulk the cost reduction is usually a hundred or so.