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“I can’t believe I beat Valve to it” is the newest video from YouTuber Zac Builds, who, well, beat Valve to making a Steam Machine. He says, “I don’t want to just make a one-for-one copy. Instead, with a bit of ingenuity, I think we can make something that’s cheaper, faster, and overall better than what Valve has to offer.”
Still, working off $1,000 top-end pricing leaks, Zac thought they could build their own machine for cheaper—hence the video. Zac reports a “rude awakening” when shopping for parts, and that’s especially true for components to fit the compact size of the Steam Machine. “My first attempt was significantly over budget, and that doesn’t even account for all the small miscellaneous parts I’m going to need along the way. Oh no.”
The answer? Shopping second-hand. Through a series of deals, Zac picked up a Ryzen 5 5600X, Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB, a Gigabyte B550I motherboard, a Gen 3 XPG 2TB SSD, and 16 GB of DDR4 memory, alongside a 650-watt PSU for $1135 CAD (or $835). The problem from here is finding a good enough case, so they just decided to build their own.
After 3D scanning all of their equipment (no, the 3D scanner is not included in the price of the build), they built a bottom layer to hold all those parts, then separate layers to hold extra parts, which are snapped into place with screws. To get all those parts into the Steam Machine-sized case, it has a single Noctua fan above the CPU, and the PSU hangs just above that.
If you’re wondering how it handles the thermals, Zac also built a custom connector that sits on top of the fan and takes in cold air from outside of the PC. It’s a cramped build, but a smart one.
They did, however, leave room in the cutout for USB Type-A ports in the front, really completing the Steam Machine look. They did opt to go without the SD card slot at the front as they couldn’t find a good enough peripheral cable to do the job, but “given all the extra ports on the back of our machine, I’m not really too worried about it.”
The build itself was primed with paint and finished off with matte black spray over multiple thin coats. Being one of the key ways Valve encourages users to customise their Steam Machine, Zac also placed magnets in the front of their build and created a face plate that snaps in place. To really finish off the look, the YouTuber grabbed a piece of walnut wood, fed it through a drum sander and even carved a bit of their own branding into it before placing it in.
One big challenge that caused a hiccup upon booting the rig up was that “it turns out that my graphics card is too new for SteamOS.” Though a SteamOS beta worked on the device, it eventually failed, and Zac went to Bazzite, the Linux distro, instead.
The modder does note that the CPU is likely less powerful than that in the Steam Machine, though the beefy GPU should more than make up for that difference. They also point out that the DDR4 memory and Gen 3 SSD are less powerful on paper, but not a massive compromise for a gaming machine.
As to how well it all runs, Arc Raiders, Cyberpunk 2077, and Spider-Man 2 all get up to 60 fps average at 4K settings with a mixture of medium and high settings. The games do require FSR upscaling to do it, though. With frame generation on, the frame rates climb up to 100 fps, according to Zac.
“Now, obviously I can’t do a direct in-game comparison because the Steam Machine isn’t out yet, but what I do know is that my GPU is over twice as powerful in terms of raw performance, and I haven’t found a game yet where my CPU is the bottleneck, so I feel pretty confident in saying that my Steam Machine will outperform the official Steam Machine by anywhere from 50 to 100%.”
Combining the cost of parts, plus everything needed to make the case, Zac reports a total spending of $1,301 CAD (or around $950). However, the Steam Machine is around 50 mm thinner and 50 mm less deep, “but I suspect you could fit this thing just about anywhere you’d want a Steam Machine.”
What Zac does note is that part of the benefit of the Steam Machine is that you’re “essentially paying Valve to work out all the headaches for you”. You don’t have to build your own rig with a Steam Machine, and you don’t have to worry about your OS.
Still, with the Steam Machine still not getting any confirmed pricing, and the memory crisis further threatening not only pricing but supply, seeing more creators turn to the second-hand market and creative solutions is certainly not a bad way of handling it for now. It’s just a shame that not everyone has access to a 3D printer and the ability to create their own wood front panels.
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