Steam Machine Who? Retailers and Modders Are Building More Powerful Compact PCs For the Same Price

The reservations list for Valve's new Steam Machine might be closed, but its reviews have been middling at best, and downright derogatory at worst. But it turns out that with smart hardware selection, some PC retailers and home modders have been able to build their own systems that are comparably sized and priced, but with much more powerful hardware inside.

The Steam Machine isn't a weak machine, with Valve claiming that it's more capable than over 70% of PCs running Steam, according to its own hardware survey. But that doesn't mean the 6-core Zen 4 CPU and onboard GPU are particularly powerful. Indeed, the graphics cores are roughly equivalent to an RX 7600—an entry-level card from three and a half years ago.

Despite this modest hardware, it still costs over $1,000 with the base storage, and several hundred dollars more with 2TB. But modders and retailers may have a better...

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