The Steam Machine fits my TV, my desk, and my life

For the past few weeks, I’ve been very lucky: I’ve been spending a lot of time playing games on Valve’s Steam Machine.

We gave Steam Machine 6and I do not disagree with my friend Sean Hollister’s comment. But even though I already own a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, and even though I’ve had some issues with the Steam Machine, I could spend $1,049 to buy one right now.

My PS5 and Xbox Series X can’t play the hundreds of games in my ever-growing Steam library, they don’t support the Steam cloud that allows me to keep moving between my Steam Deck and the Steam Machine, they don’t support my beloved Steam Controller, and they don’t let me use mods to customize my games to my liking. (The consoles are also very simple compared to Valve’s limited box).

Since getting the Steam Deck a few years ago, I’ve switched most of my games over to Valve’s console, which I prefer to play on my TV. So I thought Valve made hardware specifically for gaming on my TV would be fine, but I was a little worried after reading Sean’s review. The Steam Machine’s problems are many: It’s too expensive, it competes with six-year-old consoles, and you can’t upgrade its GPU to make games look better on the line.

And yet, I marvel at how easily Valve’s tiny 6-inch tube fits into my TV, my desk, and my life.

The Steam Machine is essentially silent: I can’t think of a single time I’ve heard the Steam Machine while playing a game. It’s not Final Fantasy VII Remake IntergradeI’m not 007 The Greatest Lightespecially not with Balatro. Naturally, it works well with Valve’s Steam Controller, which I already have he sang the praises in my review. I can put them wherever I want in my TV cabinet – unlike my PS5 and Xbox Series X, which I have to put in one drawer that won’t fit the others. I’ve even put it on my desk a few times and pulled it over the monitor, and I love that I don’t have to rearrange my small desk to make it work.

Steam Machine has quickly become my favorite way to play games on my TV. It runs quickly with the click of a button, plays well with my Sonos Beam soundbar, and lets me jump into a game within minutes. So does the Steam Deck, PS5, and Xbox Series X sitting under my TV. But I didn’t miss any of them in my two weeks with the Steam Machine.

What I missed was the reservation to buy a Steam Machine. I applied, but I was not selected. I’ll be sad to pack up the Steam Machine and return it to Sean for further testing, especially if there’s no time to get off Valve’s waiting list.

Instead of waiting on Valve, I’ve started looking into building my own PC. I’m in a very lucky position with this: When I told a friend that I was thinking of building a PC, he kindly asked me for an RTX 3070 Ti GPU and a 1TB SSD. This means I can build one that is more powerful and flexible than the Steam Machine without paying for two very expensive parts.

But even now that I can build a PC, I just wish I had a Steam Machine. I have had a lot of fun reading articles like this Fractal Ridge and Credit 7but it will be enough for my TV. I don’t think anything I can put together will be as quiet as the Steam Machine. SteamOS is not available on Nvidia GPUs yet, so I’ll probably have to rely on the Steam Big Picture feature on Windows or use a Linux OS like Bazzite. It won’t be the SteamOS experience I’m used to.

I might not buy anything. To be real with you, I spent the weekend getting back to my Steam Deck on my TV, paired with 8BitDo’s Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller, and it worked better than I remembered. Yes, I was playing light games (I can’t say which, for the sake of repetition). But the game played fine on my TV, and I can carry my Steam Deck under the TV and bring it home.

It was 90 percent of what happened on the Steam Machine plus portability – and most of the games I play run fine on the Steam Deck already, so I’m not sure I need an extra full desktop head in front of my bed.

I haven’t decided what I’m going to do: build my PC, finally get a Steam Machine when my place on the waiting list comes up, or keep moving and install the one I have. My heart longs for the Steam Machine, though. If I were to buy today instead of waiting forever, I would pay the asking price.