The day we've all been waiting for has arrived: When will the Steam Machine be priced AND when will we get it?
Here's the good news: you can join the waitlist to get on the Steam Machine right now. If you join the waitlist anytime before June 25th, your account will be randomized and receive an email on when you will be able to purchase the machine you wish to grab. I expect emails to rollout the following week, however, this is pure speculation, so please take this with a grain of salt. I will update this article when I get firm confirmation on when the devices will start to ship.
The bad news? The pricing. The base model by itself is $1,049.00. This is $50 higher than I personally thought it would be; so the prices are a bit steep. Unfortunately, due to the high tariffs and the lack of RAM chips, this is causing a lot of headaches for gamers.
Spec Sheets
There are four different SKUs for the Steam Machine as of this writing. Two of them come without the controller while two SKUs will come WITH a controller. Obviously, the ones with a controller will fetch a higher price tag. Let's take a look at all the different models:
The Base Model
The base model starts at $1,049.00 and comes with a Semi-Custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T chip and the GPU is also an AMD custom RDNA3 at 28CUs. Here's a full rundown of the specs for the base model:
- Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T
- Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
- 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
- 512GB NVMe SSD, microSD card slot
- Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit ethernet
- Integrated Steam Controller wireless adapter
- Small form factor, ~6 inch cube
- SteamOS 3
Add a controller into the mix and you're looking at the price climbing another $79 to $1,128.00. You do get some money off of the Steam Controller if you go this route, but still not the most ideal if you're looking to get a Steam Machine. Though, since this is a PC, this is probably the best deal you will find for a decent PC that runs Steam games. This will really depend on your viewpoint of what this device will be for you.
The 2TB Model
The 2TB model is where the price gets enormous. Let's take a look at the specs first:
- Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T
- Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
- 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
- 2TB NVMe SSD, microSD card slot
- Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit ethernet
- Integrated Steam Controller wireless adapter
- Small form factor, ~6 inch cube
- SteamOS 3
- Extra faceplates - red fabric and solid walnut
The price? $1,349.00, with the controller variant being $1428.00. This again, is a $79 difference.
As you can see, the specs are mostly the same. The additional space will be a nice QoL feature and you get some additional faceplates, but I find it hard to believe that many will be able to swing this price. This really is a matter of how you view this device. If you view it more as a game console vs. a PC, then it's likely that you are not going to think this is worth the hefty price tag. If you view it as a PC that can play many games, then you're looking at the device that is a fairly decent PC for gaming. The matter of perspective is very much at play here, but I do feel like the vast majority of people are not going to want to pay this type of price for the Steam Machine. You can join the waitlist now by heading over to the following link.
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