My Experience with Steam Machine
For the past two weeks, I had the honor of testing the Valve Steam Machine. Although I already own a PS5 and Xbox Series X, this little box charmed me. It's silent – I never once heard the fan, it plays great with my Steam Controller, and it fits anywhere. Games from my Steam library look better than on the Steam Deck, and mods are a given.
Drawbacks
My colleague's review gave the Steam Machine a 6/10, and I agree: it's expensive ($1,049), the hardware corresponds to six-year-old consoles, and the GPU cannot be upgraded. Yet I would buy it right now if I had the chance. My PS5 and Xbox don't support Steam cloud saves, Steam Controller, or mods – that's crucial for me.
Comparison with Alternatives
The Steam Deck is great, but on TV it loses performance and I can hear the fan. The Steam Machine is silent and more powerful. Unfortunately, I wasn't selected from the waiting list, so I'm considering building my own PC. A friend gave me an RTX 3070 Ti and SSD, but no cases like the Fractal Ridge will be as quiet. Plus, SteamOS isn't for Nvidia GPUs, so I'd have to use Windows or Bazzite – it's not the same.
Conclusion
Maybe I'll end up sticking with the Steam Deck and an external controller. It provides 90% of the experience plus portability. But my heart longs for the Steam Machine. If it could be bought without waiting, I would gladly pay the asking price.