Transcription
Look, I'll be honest. The Steam Machine is expensive. We all assumed it would be in the $7 or $800 range, but it ended up crossing over the $1,000 mark and even higher if you want the controller or more storage. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
But I'm not here to bash Valve or anything. I still think the Steam Machine is an amazing device. It's tiny, quiet, power efficient, and I even have a few friends who pre-ordered it and are super excited to try it out, and I'm happy for them. But for me, I don't know. I just need more more power, more flexibility, and being cheaper would be pretty cool, too.
I want to build a living room PC that is small and inconspicuous, but can still handle the newest games at 1440p or 4K. And I sit like 10 ft away from my living room TV. So, you better believe some upscaling is going to be on the menu. I don't want an RGB machine from Walmart in my living room, and I don't want to use a bunch of used parts. I mean, if we're going to try to compete with the GameCube, we need to have as few of compromises as possible.
Anyone who's tried to build a tiny PC in the past knows that the smaller the product is, the more of a premium you're going to pay. So, while an ITX form factor would come closer in size to the actual Steam Machine, I will settle for just having a case that both isn't an eyesore and will still fit in my living room entertainment center.
I did some shopping around on Prime Day, and I was actually able to find this, the Jonbo C6. This is a great case to build in because it kind of checks all the boxes for just a good premium case. It's small but can still accommodate MATX motherboards and standard ATX power supplies, meaning we won't have to compromise too much on our component choices. But jamming it all in there might still be a struggle depending on what parts you pick. It's got this beautiful all black chassis with tons of air flow everywhere. No tempered glass in sight. Everything really comes apart toolless, so we can have super easy access while building. I mean, look how small this thing is. It's fantastic.
There are some limitations we need to be aware of though. While it does handle standard size power supplies, the maximum CPU cooler height is only 75 mm. So, we will have to go low profile there. And if you were thinking of putting a big honker GPU in there, good luck. The absolute maximum this case can handle is 255 mm in length with a 48mm in thickness. So, we need to stick to smaller one or two fan graphics cards if we want to stand a chance to build in it.
On the whole though, the C6 is a very premium feeling case that I think will serve us just fine. I was able to pick it up during Prime Day for only $54. One downside though is that it does not come with any case fans at all, so we will need to buy a three-pack on Amazon for around $9. I already have a ton of fans lying around, so I'm just going to use those for this build, but I will add $9 to the budget nonetheless.
Now, the whole reason the real Steam Machine is so expensive is primarily due to the market on DRAM. So, storage and memory are the most heavily affected components, and the DIY market is also hit with that plague. Anyone trying to build or buy a computer for the past eight months knows that it's really difficult to find a good price on anything lately. So, I always recommend finding bundle deals wherever you can on websites like Newegg or at your local microenter if you live near one.
Luckily, I do, and I was able to pick up one of these great CPU, motherboard, and RAM bundle deals they have. I got all three of those components for only $275, which is a pretty good deal considering the market. But these kinds of deals are always changing depending on their stock. So, just be sure to check back often to see if anything's attractive to you.
The CPU included in the bundle I acquired is the Ryzen 5 7500 X3D. It's got six cores, 12 threads, and has a boost speed of up to 4.5 GHz. It's also using the AM5 socket. So unlike the real Steam machine, if we want to upgrade the CPU in the future, we should have no problems since AMD has promised to continue supporting AM5 for the foreseeable future. It's also got a relatively low TDP of only 65 watt, which is really going to be crucial here. This PC is going to be a really, really tight fit, so managing thermals and noise is going to be kind of a struggle. And since it's an X3D chip, it also has a massive 96 megs of L3 cache, which is perfect because this PC is destined for gaming, not for, you know, streaming or high core workloads.
The motherboard paired with this CPU was the MSI Pro B850 MVC, which is a surprisingly featurerich motherboard for the price. It provides the essential connectivity you need for a modern gaming rig, including built-in Wi-Fi and robust power delivery without the wasted space or inflated cost of more premium larger boards. And since we're pairing it with the efficient 7500 X3D, this motherboard offers a stable, reliable platform that won't bottleneck our gaming performance or complicate our AM5 upgrade path down the line.
Moving on to the RAM from the bundle, we were provided this single stick of GSkill DDR5 memory with a capacity of 16 GB and a speed of 6,000 mega transfers per second. Now, don't worry, a single channel memory is not the death sentence that it once was on DDR4. To keep the video brief, just know that running a single stick of RAM compared to two on DDR5 will net you a loss of about 5 to 10% in most titles. But in this RAM apocalypse we find ourselves in, beggars can't be choosers. I'm going to use this single stick today. And if in the future I find myself wanting a little more performance and the prices have come down, I might buy another stick to supplement it. But for what this PC is destined for, a single stick will be just fine.
But RAM is not the only component affected by the shortages. Storage of all shapes and sizes have seen major price increases, making it very expensive to just store your damn games. The best deal I could find was this 512 GB Adata Legend 710 for $70 on Newegg. Does it have a DRAM cache? No. Does it have impressive speeds? Not really. Does it at least look cool? Well, nah, but it is a Gen 3 NVME drive from a brand that I can actually pronounce. And it matches the capacity of the cheapest Steam machine configuration.
But half a terabyte of storage is not a great place to be in, especially if you really like playing those huge AAA modern games. My recommendation is to always buy as much storage as you can afford. 1 tabyte is a good starting point for most people if you have the money. But if you're a crazy person, you can remove one of the fans in our JohnBo case and replace it with a used 4 TB hard drive from eBay for like 50 bucks. But again, only a crazy person would do that. Not me. I wouldn't do that. I'm sticking to my half TB, which isn't the worst thing in the world since I primarily play one or two games at a time anyway, so it should be just fine.
The Micro Center bundle we got does not come with a CPU cooler, though. We need something that most importantly fits in our Jonbo case, but also doesn't thermal throttle our CPU under heavy load. Our Ryzen 5 chip is only 65 watts, so it should be pretty easy to cool with this is 40XV3 from ID Cooling. It's a simple four heat pipe lowprofile air cooler that should have no problem cooling our system during gaming. It's only 45 mm in height, coming in way shorter than our case's theoretical limit for coolers. But best of all, it was only $20 over on Amazon. But there are a lot of similar coolers around this price point, so pick whichever one is on the best sale at your time of purchase.
Now, in terms of power supplies, I really wish we could get a fully modular one. Considering how little room we have in the case, cable management is going to be slightly annoying, but I found a deal that was just too good to pass up. During the recent Prime sales, this PSU that I love was on sale for only 42 bucks brand new. This is the A550BN from MSI. It's a power supply I'm sure you're familiar with if you're a fan of the channel. You are a fan of the channel, right? Right, guys? This PS2 has everything we need in a power supply and lacks everything we don't. It's got an all black design and has a solid C rating on the PSU tier list, meaning it probably won't explode. But again, the biggest downside is that it's not modular in any form, so we might need to get a little creative during building. If you can find a good deal in the future, I really do recommend finding a good power supply that has some form of modularity.
Now, for the most important part of the build, the graphics card. There's no way that we can compete with the Steam Machine in terms of power efficiency, but I I'd like to keep it as close as possible and try really hard to not make this a 1,00W hog. So, I'd like the GPU to have a few clear purposes. First, it has to fit in the dang machine. So, already every three fan card is out of the running, and even many two fan cards are too large as well. I'd like it to have a pretty low TDP so we can handle noise and thermals more efficiently and it has to be AMD. This PC is destined to have Steam OS installed on it. And while Valve has promised to have more support for Nvidia in the future, for now we know for sure that newer AMD cards have great support and works perfectly with Steam OS.
The Goldilocks card I eventually picked was the AMD Radeon 960 XT, specifically the 16 gig video memory variant. This is actually the perfect card for this machine, and it's not even close. It's relatively power efficient, has a huge 16 gig VRAM pool, and it's powerful enough to run AAA games at higher resolutions on our TV with very little to no help from upscaling. The large amount of video memory is also going to help this machine not choke on games that have higher texture pool requirements. I got this Ace Rock Challenger version of this card on Newegg last month for $400. And if my measurements are correct, this card should just barely fit inside the case. Fingers crossed.
But we are still missing one piece of the puzzle, the Steam Controller. Now, I'll be honest, I like the idea of the Steam Controller. And if I really wanted it, I could just buy it separately. But I don't really have a need for those giant trackpads, no matter how nifty I think they are. So, I just wanted to pair this machine with a controller I really enjoy. The Ultimate 2 from 8bit do. This guy was on sale for only 40 bucks recently, and for that low price point, you're getting a lot of controller, including TMR joysticks just like you'd find on the Steam Controller, as well as switchable triggers between linear or tactile, two rear paddle buttons, a built-in gyroscope, and a dedicated charging dock so you can just slap this thing down after a session and never forget about it. Of course, you can just use whatever controller you already like for this setup. I just wanted to showcase one that I've been using recently and I really enjoy.
I'm assuming you guys can install Steam OS by yourselves, but if not, I'll cover it right now. Download Steam OS installer. Flash to USB with Etcher. Plug into new PC. Turn off secure boot. Reboot from USB. Follow the set of prompts. Confirm wipe drive. And done.
Okay, great. Concerning the benchmarks, most televisions these days are 4K resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate. So, I'm going to be adjusting all the settings to try to get the most graphical fidelity that reaches that threshold. But do know if you have a fancy TV that has a higher refresh rate than that or maybe even a resolution, you can change all these settings for yourself and try to figure out what works best for your television and more importantly your own personal gaming desires. So, let's do a quick build montage of this PC, check out some performance, and then back here for the final price breakdown. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Man, this thing is awesome. I've got the power of a steam machine in my living room that is way more powerful and yet still somehow cheaper and we didn't have to rely to using a bunch of dusty used parts. The final cost of this build for me before tax was only $870 plus 40 bucks if you count the controller. Forget Steam Machine clone. This is a dang old good gaming PC no matter which way you look at it.
But remember, there's a lot of ways in which the real Steam Machine does win this debate. I had to research all these parts and put in the work to get it all built and installed. That's time that I will never get back and could have avoided if I just had bought the valve box. The fans I had on hand are pretty good. But there is just no world where this powerful machine is as quiet as the steam machine. But speaking personally, I sit about 10 ft away from my build and I can't hear the fans. So, it's not really a big concern. If you are building this and sound is a really really big concern for you, it might be worth the extra investment to buy some better fans like Noctua, Arctic, or be quiet fans to help quell the noise.
The power draw under load and even at idle is pretty high compared to the real Steam Machine, but we are getting much much more performance. Feel free to undervolt your components if that's something you're really worried about, but for a gaming PC, it's not a bad result and it's it's actually closer than I thought to the real Steam Machine. I love this thing. It's exactly what I wanted when the Steam Machine was originally announced, but it might not be for you. After watching this, if you still feel like you really want the Steam Machine, I say go for it. Or if you want a machine in your living room and don't mind having a full-size RGB glow box, then buying a pre-built from Walmart or Costco might be a better fit for you. But if you want to split the difference and build your own cheaper custom gaming PC, you can click one of the videos on screen now. Like the video if you liked it, and please get subscribed for more technology content. See you.