Recently, Valve released the long-rumored Steam Machine, which combines the design of a small PC with the experience of a living room game console/HTPC. It is expected to be launched in early 2026, and the pricing has not yet been announced. Although the machine looks relatively simple, it is a small black square box, but judging from the official introduction, this such a compact device has many advantages in design.
According to Notebookcheck, Steam Machine supports replacing the front panel. In addition to replacing the customized panel that the user likes, this gives users and third-party manufacturers a lot of room to play. Due to the magnetic design, users can easily replace it. Valve also plans to release design files that will allow DIY enthusiasts to print or create custom panels with different textures or airflow patterns, making the Steam Machine even more playable.
Valve's engineers have not been idle. In addition to showing some conventional designs, they have also developed an e-ink display. After replacement, it can display real-time data, including CPU and GPU load conditions, as well as fan speed. However, the e-ink display is only used for internal testing for the time being, and there are no plans to put it on the market. According to current trends, it may only be a matter of time before third-party manufacturers release similar products. The Linux-based Steam operating system can also meet the needs of software and hardware customization.
Steam Machine uses a semi-customized AMD processor and graphics card: the CPU part uses Zen 4 architecture, with 6 cores and 12 threads, a maximum acceleration frequency of 4.8GHz, and a TDP setting of 30W; the GPU part may be closer to the RDNA 3.5 architecture, rather than the standard RDNA 3 architecture, with 28 CUs, a maximum operating frequency of 2.44GHz, a TDP of 110W, and 8GB GDDR6 video memory; equipped with 16GB DDR5 memory; storage space is optional, 512GB or 2TB, and users can also expand storage through MicroSD.
