This week’s hottest recreation will not be a robovoiced extraction shooter or a buggy martial arts RPG, however Guess The Steam Machine Worth: a well-meaning (if largely speculative) timepasser whereby whoever most precisely converts Valve’s teasing right into a closing avenue value for the resurrected SteamOS mini-PC wins. In 2026, when it launches.
I really feel disregarded, so may have a go myself under, although there’s fairly a severe kink in mine or certainly anybody’s plan to ticket the Steam Machine by speccing an equal DIY PC. Alas, RAM costs have gone stratospheric, in a fashion not seen amongst computing parts for the reason that Nice Graphics Card Dumpster Hearth of 2020.
As then, however now, the trigger is an industry-wide scarcity, solely this time trigged by – you once more – synthetic intelligence. In brief, AI information centres are quickly increasing, consuming up reminiscence output and leaving scant RAM provides for client PC constructing. What’s left has, broadly since October however this previous week particularly, been slapped with obscene markups: this unremarkable Essential DDR5 32GB equipment, for instance, was £88 a month in the past. Now it’s £206. A bog-standard Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB set? Was £100 in September, now yours for simply £350. This premium 64GB equipment was already dear at £210, once more again in September, and now sits at £557 – greater than an RTX 5070, a base PS5, or 1,011 packets of M&S additional cream Bourbon biscuits. 1,011! Makes me sick.
{Hardware} producers should buy at scale, and will have sufficient RAM sticks squirreled away to take care of manufacturing, doubtlessly for the a number of months that shortages are anticipated to proceed. However those that haven’t stockpiled elements will find yourself feeling the crunch – Microsoft are allegedly contemplating one more value hike for his or her Xbox Collection X/S consoles to cowl the upper reminiscence prices.
None of this bodes effectively for the Steam Machine. Worst case, Valve should pay high greenback for its DDR5 modules (these are smaller, laptop-style sticks slightly than desktop DIMMs, however the kind in query nonetheless seems affected) and bump up the Machine’s value to compensate. Greatest case, they’ve sufficient reminiscence from the pre-crisis days for a extra inexpensive launch. However, sooner or later that inventory will run out, and Valve might want to select between supplying extra Steam Machines with this AI tax in play or wait it out whereas these digital cabinets develop cobwebs.
For now, although, no person truly is aware of what the state of affairs can be in early 2026, possible together with Valve themselves. Certainly, it wouldn’t be remotely shocking if fluctuating elements costs are among the many the explanation why they didn’t simply announce pricing for the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Body as a part of the preliminary reveal. In any case, I wouldn’t put an excessive amount of weight on anybody’s Steam Machine value estimates simply because they’ve totted up the price of an analogous home-built PC.
Anyway, right here’s my Steam Machine value estimate, based mostly on totting up the price of an analogous home-built PC. I’m particularly going for elements that will intently replicate the Steam Machine’s efficiency, based mostly on my testing of it at Valve HQ final month, and never essentially its on-paper specs. Partly as a result of it has one thing akin to a custom-built laptop computer CPU and no person’s going to hassle placing one thing like that in a DIY desktop.
- Case: Lian Li A3 mATX Wooden Version (£60)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (£162)
- GPU: Zotac GeForce RTX 5050 Twin Edge (£219)
- RAM: Essential DDR5 1x16GB (£103, ouchies)
- SSD: WD Blue SN500 500GB (£60)
- Motherboard: ASRock B650I Lightning WiFi ITX (£140)
- Cooler: Cooler Grasp Hyper 212 Black (£30)
- PSU: Corsair RM850e (£95)
- Complete: £869
Hope that was useful. It will not be. However I hope.
