[0:00] The Steam Machine just crash-landed on
[0:03] the market at nearly double the price of
[0:06] a more performant console. Truly,
[0:09] it was a dark day for PC gamers.
[0:14] But
[0:15] that was yesterday, and today is a new
[0:17] day. So, rather than carrying a rational
[0:19] grudge towards an inanimate object,
[0:21] we're going to move on. And okay, PC
[0:24] parts, they're not as affordable as we'd
[0:26] like right now, but if we start with the
[0:28] price of Valve's latest box, which is
[0:30] $1,050,
[0:32] we're going to build a PC that dunks the
[0:34] performance of the GameCube without,
[0:36] hopefully, giving up too many of the
[0:38] creature comforts that make it so
[0:40] unique. Although we will be giving up
[0:44] some.
[0:45] For example, at first glance, our CPU,
[0:48] the Ryzen 5 7500F, looks nearly
[0:51] identical to Valve's. Six Zen 4 cores,
[0:54] 12 threads, and even similar boost
[0:57] clocks.
[0:58] But the devil's in the details, and to
[1:00] keep power consumption and noise
[1:02] extremely low, Valve chose a more
[1:05] expensive mobile CPU, meaning that
[1:08] our CPU alone draws nearly as much power
[1:11] as the entire Steam Machine in a light
[1:14] gaming workload. With that said though,
[1:16] we're still talking 65 W, which I don't
[1:19] think is a major concern for most
[1:21] desktop users. And the same goes,
[1:24] hopefully, for size. To find a
[1:27] motherboard,
[1:29] we fired up Newegg, filtered by B850
[1:31] chipset and Wi-Fi, and then sorted by
[1:34] price.
[1:35] The PC hardware industry is kind of
[1:37] struggling with sales volumes right now.
[1:39] So, if you shop around, you can actually
[1:41] find some pretty desperate-looking
[1:43] pricing on motherboards, like this mATX
[1:46] ASRock board with Wi-Fi for $130,
[1:50] or if you're willing to go even bigger
[1:52] to full-size ATX, we tracked down this
[1:55] board with Wi-Fi 7 for just 130 US
[1:58] dollars including shipping on Newegg
[2:00] Canada.
[2:01] What a freaking deal. We didn't go with
[2:03] that one though since most folks trying
[2:05] to build something more console like are
[2:07] probably going to go a bit smaller than
[2:09] that. So we grabbed an MATX board for
[2:11] our demo build here. The exact model is
[2:13] not too important. It doesn't impact
[2:15] performance much these days. So don't
[2:17] overthink it. Just pick a motherboard
[2:19] that has the IO and the features that
[2:21] work best with your [music] budget. No
[2:23] matter what you choose though, it is
[2:25] worth noting your system will be larger
[2:27] than the Steam Machine but it should
[2:29] offer greater expandability with a
[2:31] socket for future CPUs, a PCI Express
[2:35] Gen 5 slot for future GPUs, not to
[2:37] mention extra slots for both storage
[2:39] drives and for other add-in cards. This
[2:42] expandability gives us the ability to
[2:44] match Valve's many antenna approach for
[2:47] Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and their Steam
[2:50] Controller in the future, [music]
[2:51] but we opted not to spend our budget on
[2:54] dedicated cards and we're just going to
[2:55] stick with our onboard Wi-Fi.
[2:58] Now for the most painful part,
[3:00] RAM.
[3:01] Once again, we filtered and sorted by
[3:03] price choosing a dual channel 16 gig kit
[3:06] of DDR5 running at 6,000 [music]
[3:09] megatransfers per second CL36.
[3:12] This may be a controversial choice, but
[3:16] hear me out.
[3:17] While DDR4 can be had for less than half
[3:21] of the price of DDR5, RAM is just 1/3 of
[3:24] the platform triforce and we found that
[3:28] while DDR4 motherboards can be had for
[3:30] cheap,
[3:30] >> [music]
[3:31] >> the AM4 CPUs that go in them are in such
[3:34] high demand that brand new pricing for
[3:36] them is just not that attractive.
[3:39] Especially when you consider their last
[3:41] last generation performance. [music] Now
[3:44] if we were scrap yard warring this and
[3:45] we were buying second hand like we have
[3:47] with our previous console killer
[3:48] machines, DDR4 would likely have been
[3:51] the better choice.
[3:52] But we've seen your feedback that many
[3:54] [music] of you would prefer if we do
[3:56] these with all new hardware. And in this
[3:57] case, we felt that due to the pricing of
[4:00] the Steam machine, that was doable. Just
[4:02] like it's doable to tell you about our
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[4:18] >> Lime Day is back and it starts
[4:21] tomorrow. But, you can get early access
[4:24] right now just by joining the float
[4:26] goats over on floatplane.com. Now, I
[4:29] don't want to spoil every deal that's
[4:31] coming this week, but I will tell you
[4:32] that we are going hard this year on
[4:34] bundles. Like this one for a fully
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[5:01] get in early on some of the spectacular
[5:02] savings for this year's Lime Day. All
[5:04] you got to do is click the link in the
[5:06] description down below.
[5:17] With storage prices being as high as
[5:19] they are right now, I think a lot of
[5:20] folks are going to be looking at the 512
[5:22] gig Steam machine today and then plan to
[5:25] upgrade that in the future once things
[5:26] cool down. That seems wise. So, we went
[5:30] spelunking for the cheapest half
[5:33] terabyte we could find
[5:35] with a warranty from a reputable
[5:36] company, which this week happened to be
[5:39] an Adata Legend for $85.
[5:42] Would I rather have something with a
[5:43] DRAM cache and or a more modern PCIe Gen
[5:46] 4 interface?
[5:48] Yes.
[5:49] Yes, I would. Either of those things
[5:51] would give our drive a longer, more
[5:53] productive life. But, for gaming,
[5:56] this is hopefully going to allow us to
[5:58] wait out the storm. Continuing today's
[6:00] theme, to find a case, we sorted mATX
[6:03] cases by price and
[6:05] were pleasantly surprised. Zalman used
[6:08] to be a mainstay in the enthusiast air
[6:11] and water cooling space, but in recent
[6:13] years has made a name for themselves
[6:15] offering up exceptional value on cases.
[6:18] And the Qubik's G here is no exception.
[6:20] $30 for USB-C, three included fans, and
[6:25] two tempered glass panels?
[6:27] Desperation pricing strikes again.
[6:30] And the good news is if Zalman regains
[6:33] their sanity by the time you're
[6:34] shopping, there's also the good
[6:36] old-fashioned Cooler Master Q300L for
[6:39] just $10 more. It is a worse case than
[6:42] the Zalman one, but it can be reliably
[6:43] found for like 40 bucks. So, happy case
[6:46] shopping. For our part, we're just going
[6:48] to be throwing our parts onto a test
[6:50] bench since the case doesn't impact
[6:52] performance at all.
[6:55] Our cooler is a bit of a tricky one.
[6:57] See, that ASRock board that we
[6:59] highlighted before actually came with a
[7:01] free Cooler Master Hyper 212, but then
[7:03] by the time we actually filmed this,
[7:06] that offer had expired. So, the budget
[7:09] for it is kind of Schrödinger's $20.
[7:12] Until you go shopping for yourself,
[7:15] you're both spending it and not spending
[7:17] it.
[7:18] Either way, if you don't get a Hyper 212
[7:20] for free, there are a lot of other great
[7:23] options in this $20 price range from
[7:25] brands like be quiet!, Sama, and
[7:27] Thermalright.
[7:29] I know that it can make shopping a
[7:30] little bit more complicated, but that
[7:32] free cooler is not the only place that
[7:34] we saved money by shopping deals. On top
[7:37] of the low cost of the parts we chose,
[7:39] we saved an extra $50 by targeting
[7:42] combos. Now, there are trade-offs to
[7:45] this approach. Sometimes it can be a
[7:47] better value to buy all of your parts
[7:49] from different retailers one by one. But
[7:51] other times, it's better to just bundle
[7:54] up and send it even if you don't get
[7:56] quite exactly the thing you wanted.
[7:58] Speaking of not quite the thing we
[7:59] wanted, sadly, we didn't find any great
[8:02] deals on a power supply. So, we budgeted
[8:05] about $65 for you to get something
[8:07] that's not completely bunk and that will
[8:10] accommodate some of the upgrades that
[8:12] our custom PC allows here. If you're
[8:14] looking for a power supply, just find
[8:16] something that's a good price and then
[8:17] cross-reference against the labs website
[8:20] or one of these super handy PSU tier
[8:22] lists. We found that this MSI MEG A650BN
[8:26] had a rating of C, which is
[8:29] not great, but
[8:32] it is technically a pass.
[8:35] You know what's going to do more than
[8:36] pass though?
[8:38] This GPU. The Sapphire Pulse Radeon 9600
[8:41] XT 16 gig edition features double the
[8:45] VRAM of the Steam Machine. It has a
[8:47] whole generation newer architecture with
[8:49] vastly improved ray tracing and we got
[8:52] it for $430,
[8:54] which
[8:56] is a lot of money. I would have actually
[8:58] loved to be able to recommend an Intel
[9:00] Arc B580 for $290,
[9:03] but
[9:05] while Valve is working on seamless
[9:07] operation with Intel cards, for now,
[9:09] Steam OS works best with AMD. If you're
[9:12] ready to venture outside of Steam OS,
[9:14] Bazzite and Catchy OS are popular
[9:17] distros that can offer a better
[9:18] experience with a wider range of
[9:20] hardware but
[9:22] we're trying to build a Steam Machine
[9:23] killer, not a DIY Linux gaming machine.
[9:27] With that last component installed,
[9:29] overall, we're looking really good right
[9:31] now. We've got a faster CPU with bigger
[9:34] caches, twice as much VRAM on our GPU,
[9:38] we've got more expansion. I mean, as the
[9:40] great philosopher and poet DJ Khaled
[9:42] said, "All I do is win, win, win, no
[9:45] matter what."
[9:47] But,
[9:48] okay, sometimes I do take big fat L's,
[9:50] and there are a couple that we've got to
[9:52] talk about here.
[9:53] Without Valve's specialized hardware, we
[9:56] are not getting support for HDMI CEC.
[10:00] That means no automatic synchronization
[10:02] between my
[10:04] console here and my TV, audio system,
[10:08] etc., etc. Also, while I do benefit from
[10:11] Valve's quick resume feature, and I
[10:14] >> [music]
[10:14] >> can wake the system up from a, you know,
[10:16] USB peripheral, what I can't do is power
[10:19] on from a Steam controller at this time.
[10:22] Oh, right. And, of course, for better or
[10:24] for worse, we had to spec it, build it,
[10:27] and now we have to configure it to get
[10:28] the most out of it. And, if it doesn't
[10:30] boot, we're on the hook for figuring out
[10:33] why. But, it will, right?
[10:36] Everything's showing up. All we got to
[10:37] do is activate expo,
[10:40] save,
[10:41] and we should fire up right into Steam
[10:43] OS. Now, it's time for our side-by-side
[10:45] comparison. David will be gaming on the
[10:47] Steam Machine, and I will be gaming on
[10:49] the
[10:50] Vapor Contrabption.
[10:52] Here we get
[10:53] >> Wait. You're going to need a controller,
[10:55] and thankfully, Valve gave us a ton of
[10:57] room in our budget.
[10:58] >> All right. Yes, it's not cheap.
[11:01] >> It's 100 bucks stand-alone, 70 bucks if
[11:02] you get it bundled with your console.
[11:04] So, for 65 bucks, I'm going with the
[11:05] Vader 5 Pro, uh a controller that I
[11:08] really enjoy. It's 80 bucks MSRP, but 65
[11:10] bucks on the street. This thing rocks.
[11:13] >> Yeah, this is the like Goku skin one,
[11:15] but you can save 10 bucks by going with
[11:16] the black one. It doesn't have track
[11:18] pads. I'm sorry, I don't use them. I
[11:20] don't mind that.
[11:22] How could you?
[11:24] What do we want to start with?
[11:24] >> Let's start with Final Fantasy VII
[11:26] Remake.
[11:26] >> Okay, let's do [music] it.
[11:28] Right out of the gate in Final Fantasy
[11:29] VII Remake, it is close.
[11:33] You're within the 8 gigs of VRAM of the
[11:36] Steam Machine,
[11:36] >> Mhm.
[11:37] >> but that GPU is just plain not as
[11:41] powerful.
[11:43] >> This is a fairly well optimized section
[11:44] of the game, too. I was seeing drops to
[11:47] like 30, sub 30 sometimes in other
[11:49] parts.
[11:50] >> Both systems are running high 4K with no
[11:53] upscaling, though. So, in fairness to
[11:56] the Steam Machine,
[11:57] it's not like it can't run the game. It
[11:59] just doesn't run it as well.
[12:03] Let's move over to something that we can
[12:04] sort of play around with the settings on
[12:05] a little bit more. How about 007? This
[12:08] is going to be the apples-to-apples
[12:09] comparison.
[12:10] 4K medium quality, FSR set to quality,
[12:13] motion blur off.
[12:15] That's another big fat win for the Vapor
[12:18] Contraption.
[12:20] This is not close. I mean, I'm running
[12:23] 50% faster.
[12:24] >> Well, I'm curious how low my settings
[12:26] need to go to match your performance.
[12:28] >> Sure.
[12:30] >> Can I leave that low?
[12:32] Low.
[12:33] >> Okay, come on. That's got to be enough.
[12:34] That's got to be enough.
[12:35] >> Even that's not enough?
[12:36] >> That's got to be enough.
[12:38] That's not enough.
[12:40] Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on.
[12:41] I I think we're right on par now. In
[12:44] fairness,
[12:45] that's a pretty decent-looking game at
[12:48] low settings.
[12:50] But, you can really see how they're
[12:51] using some cheats, right? Like, there's
[12:53] a lot more of sort of Vaseline smear
[12:57] cinematic out of focus on yours.
[13:00] When actually that's just clearly a hack
[13:02] for the
[13:04] lower view distance and lower texture
[13:06] quality.
[13:07] And yeah, especially if we look out over
[13:08] here.
[13:11] >> Hey.
[13:11] >> Oh, yeah. I've got way more sharpness in
[13:14] the details on the hills.
[13:16] >> It's certainly playable on this side,
[13:18] >> Oh, yeah.
[13:19] >> if I had to pick between the two, I it's
[13:21] no contest.
[13:22] >> How's our main character? Cuz that tends
[13:23] to be where they'll they'll cheap out
[13:25] last.
[13:26] Yeah.
[13:26] >> Not too different. Like, you're sharper
[13:28] cuz you have more internal resolution.
[13:29] >> Yeah, but it's not by that much. This is
[13:32] a clear win, but one that I don't think
[13:34] is going to be that impactful for a lot
[13:36] of gamers.
[13:38] Oh, this would be an interesting one for
[13:40] us to
[13:42] put the machines to sleep and then
[13:43] resume.
[13:44] >> 2 1 go.
[13:48] Oh.
[13:50] >> All right.
[13:51] >> I'm doing pretty good.
[13:52] >> Holy schnikes.
[13:54] >> Oh, you're doing really good.
[13:56] >> [laughter]
[13:57] >> This is a no offense markedly smoother
[14:01] experience than what I'm looking at over
[14:03] there.
[14:03] >> That being said, I'm still above 100
[14:05] frames. I would never say this is
[14:07] anything but a good experience.
[14:09] >> I mean, here, touch my stick.
[14:12] >> Huh?
[14:13] Oh, that's better.
[14:14] >> [laughter]
[14:17] >> That's smoother, yeah.
[14:19] >> That doesn't even look like 100 FPS to
[14:20] me.
[14:21] >> No, I
[14:22] >> I wonder if the sleep and resume didn't
[14:24] work properly. You know what's ironic? I
[14:26] was expecting the Steam machine to
[14:27] actually have an advantage in sleep and
[14:29] resume but
[14:32] it works perfectly on here. Other than
[14:35] that, I can't wake it up with my
[14:36] controller. Like check this out. By the
[14:38] time David troubleshoots this, I can
[14:40] probably put my machine to sleep and off
[14:44] and wake it.
[14:46] And I'm back in game and running
[14:47] smoothly.
[14:48] >> Way smoother.
[14:49] Oh, I thought this was going to be like
[14:50] the one time I got to be like, "Steam
[14:52] machines are really good use case for
[14:53] indie games."
[14:55] And it's I think it still is. It's just
[14:57] not as good a use case.
[14:58] >> Yeah, wait, you're locked at 60 now.
[15:00] >> Yeah.
[15:01] >> What the heck?
[15:02] >> Maybe it's worth doing a reboot.
[15:03] >> Yeah.
[15:04] >> What? Now I'm getting to 250 frames.
[15:07] >> Okay, that's more like what I would
[15:09] expect.
[15:09] >> Yeah, me too.
[15:10] >> [laughter]
[15:11] >> Way smoother.
[15:11] >> So, we may have found a bug. Sometimes
[15:15] when the quick resume borks, it seems to
[15:18] bork more [music] than just your resume
[15:20] speed.
[15:20] >> Yeah.
[15:22] It's good to know that it can get
[15:23] better. And this is pre-release
[15:24] software. I expect Valve to fix it, but
[15:27] >> They're not going to be able to fix this
[15:29] performance delta.
[15:30] >> Oh, yeah.
[15:30] >> Yeah, you have over 200 frames per
[15:32] second, but yeah, I have over 300 frames
[15:35] per second.
[15:36] >> [laughter]
[15:37] >> Both will provide a very good indie
[15:39] gaming experience.
[15:41] >> Some just better than others.
[15:43] This is a game that I'm expecting to
[15:45] look a lot better on mine.
[15:46] >> I fully agree.
[15:48] >> All right.
[15:50] Here we are. Oh, yikes.
[15:52] >> Neither of these look very good.
[15:54] >> [laughter]
[15:55] >> I mean, some of them look more or less
[15:57] gooder than others.
[15:58] >> Well, you have much more performance
[16:00] headroom too, if you wanted to tweak.
[16:02] I'm barely hanging on above 30.
[16:05] >> While it is clear that for the same
[16:07] price, you can build a much more
[16:09] powerful PC than the Steam Machine for
[16:10] gaming, you will be making some
[16:13] compromises.
[16:14] Some can be addressed, like we could
[16:17] have cut down our GPU slightly for a
[16:20] better quality SSD.
[16:21] But some of them can't be addressed,
[16:23] like the complete lack of CEC control.
[16:26] And for some people, those conveniences
[16:28] are more important than raw performance.
[16:31] And for some people,
[16:33] they just can't live without the Segway.
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[17:27] If you guys enjoyed this video, hey, go
[17:29] check out our full review of the Steam
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[17:33] deeper into the performance as well as
[17:35] some of the features that make this
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