Missed the email for my reservation by a couple days (I’m in the by September group) but luckily after opening a help ticket they gave me a new window to purchase it. Just wanted to put it out there in case someone also misses there and a as a general good guy Steam. Excited to finally get my hands on one.
I never check my email. I just learned I missed the Steam Machine purchase email 10 days ago. I didn’t even think I was in the queue! I got the original “you’re not in the queue” email. I must have been close to the top of the waitlist.
In any case, I don’t really want it anymore. It’s basically not upgradable, and even adding RAM is hard. It’s a cool looking machine that takes up little space, and it’s neat that companies can make new faceplates and stuff for it, but as a computer, I’m just not sure it’s the best value.
Instead, I’m looking at mini PCs that feature an Oculink port. It lets you connect to an external GPU with a cable. Something like the GMKtec K12 has an integrated Radeon 780M, which is good for lots of gaming, but you can add a GPU for high end gaming. And then the GPU is upgradable.
I have an old RTX 3060 12 GB sitting around (which I’ll keep for CUDA tasks like photogrammetry) but I’m looking at maybe a Radeon 9060 XT or 9070 XT for gaming. I don’t have to decide now, and I can upgrade later. Turns out the 3060 is almost identical in performance to what’s in the Steam Machine but has the advantage of 12 GB of VRAM.
Maybe I’m not the average potential Steam Machine buyer. I happen to already own a GPU and an ATX power supply, so I only need to buy these things:
- $689 GMKtec K12 (32GB RAM, 512 GB NVMe SSD)
- $110 Minisforum eGPU dock
- $25 Oculink cable
$824 total
But that’s because I already paid $250 for a used 3060 12GB years ago, and ~$80 for a power supply.
So the real total for buying this system from scratch right now is about $1,150 but you get an upgradable GPU and 32 GB of RAM. The CPU is also better. Sadly, you don’t get a Steam Controller.
The big downside of Oculink is the machine has to be powered off before you plug it in. It’s not hot swappable. It’s literally just external PCIe. However, some eGPU docks support USB-C or Thunderbolt 4/5, which are hot swappable, and there’s even new tech on the horizon called MCIO which is like Oculink but has 8x PCIe lanes instead of 4x. Not that 4x is much of a bottleneck for gaming. Gaming just doesn’t require that much bandwidth.
Anyway, I just figured I’d share my thoughts because I’m sure other people are in the same boat: wanting a Steam Machine but can’t get one, or they want something a little more upgradable, or they just dont want to wait all year for it to ship.
Valve not having to do anything, yet they still do the right thing, love these guys
Yeah, I was fully expecting to go to the back of the line. Got a quick response of ‘your purchase window has been reopened for 72 hours.’ They absolutely deserve the goodwill directed their way.
They don’t have to, but making customers happy for no cost is beneficial to the company
Yeah totally, however most companies today just prefer to spit on the customer instead of providing a great service…
I had the exact same experience with the original Steam Deck reservation way back when. Valve is usually pretty friendly.
I hesitated on my Steam machine reservation and someone suggested trying this. I ended up spending most of the money on something else. But it is great to know they help with this.
I did order my controller the second I got the email.
I have a question, do you only get an email notification, or donyou also get an in-app notification?
I wonder for my own sake…
I believe I only got the email and no in app message. But I also probably didn’t open the app or the computer launcher in that time period, only using my steam deck. Funny because I was checking it every few days, worried that I’d miss it and then have just had a bunch of other stiff going on the last week.
I missed my window for the original SteamDeck reservation by about 10 hours, way back when.
I changed the system clock to unlock the preorder again.
