Join the list any time before June 25th at 10 a.m. PT. On that date, the list will be closed and randomized, and you will receive an email with your results shortly after.
Join the list any time before June 25th at 10 a.m. PT. On that date, the list will be closed and randomized, and you will receive an email with your results shortly after.
Back when the Steam Machine was first announced, I liked the idea, but wanted something cheaper (I assumed $650 - $800) so I got a $375 off-brand mini gaming PC for the living room with a Ryzen 8745HS (780M iGPU, roughly 2x SD compared to 3x for SM), 512GB SSD and 16GB of DDR5.
The model I bought is not available now, but similar specs are going for close to $600, so the price is still roughly proportional. The machine I got cut every corner possible, and for example, I never could get Bluetooth to work reliably with my controllers and ended up getting $20 8bitdo dongles for each controller.
The SM, on the other hand, is a more refined hardware and OS combination where everything just works and that Valve stands behind, and where games will be tweaked and certified for that specific hardware. I am enjoying my mini PC, but I’ve put a lot of time into customizing and troubleshooting to end up with games that still stutter at 4K. For anyone who just wants to game instead of tinkering, SM is likely worth the current price.
Edit:
Fixed typo
8Bitdo dongles are the way regardless.