Why even buy a Steam Machine? Check out our own DIY builds for $1,050

I’ve never seen the core components of a good PC cost more than they do right now, but I’m still excited to build a new machine.

That was something of a revelation for me this week, because working in tech journalism — neither a lucrative nor stable field — has taught me the value of the dollar, and how important it is to stretch those dollars when times are tough. And right now feels like a pretty tough time to be a PC enthusiast.

Yes, GPUs have finally started to feel semi-affordable again thanks to waning interest in crypto mining, but AI fever has caused memory and storage pricing to skyrocket.

And that’s why the new Steam Machine starts at $1,050 despite packing a middling AMD GPU, 16GB of RAM and a paltry 512GB of storage. This is also why you shouldn’t be angry at Valve for charging over a thousand bucks for what is essentially an entry-level Linux gaming PC.

Of course, if you’re a Full Nerd subscriber, the Steam Machine isn’t really for you. No, it’s specifically marketed toward folks who want to get into Steam gaming but don’t want to deal with the hassles of building PCs.

Nonetheless, we couldn’t resist our own DIY Steam Machine challenge for this week’s Full Nerd episode. Alaina Yee, Adam Patrick Murray and yours truly spec’d our own Steam Machine competitors, and learned you’ll have a tricky time getting significantly better parts for that $1,050 price.

But I still had a blast with this exercise because it’s just plain fun to hunt for deals, mix and match parts, and strive for that ultimate bang-for-buck. There’s also something empowering about customizing a computer to fit your unique needs.

Lots of us get into this hobby because PC building delivers the satisfaction of figuring out how everything works — and how to make it work best for you. And while I dearly miss the days when I could buy 32GB of RAM and a few terabytes of SSD storage for under $200, I love that even when component prices are ridiculous and budgets are tight, I still get the same satisfaction from spec’ing out a new machine.

So, as we all plug our noses and wade through the steaming pile of garbage that is the current PC component market, I hope you can still appreciate what makes this hobby so great. Half the fun comes from finding creative solutions to frustrating problems. Like, who knew we’d get so excited about reusing old DDR4 RAM?

In this episode of The Full Nerd

The Steam Machine was basically all we could talk about on this week’s episode of The Full Nerd, from the launch of competing mini PCs with tongue-in-cheek names (like the Stim Machine and the Steamroller) to a rundown of the PCs we’d build instead of dropping over a thousand bucks on Valve’s latest box.

PCWorld

While we ended up with some remarkably similar-looking boxes (Jonsbo cases got a lot of love this week), there were key differences under the hood that illustrate how much room you have to build a cool, unique PC for the same price as a Steam Machine. Here’s a brief rundown of our builds and links to the full lists on PCPartPicker.

Adam: Adam really went above and beyond by spec’ing three potential builds that cost (roughly) as much as a new Steam Machine. He has two builds for gaming as well as a unique spec that ditches the GPU entirely in favor of focusing on RAM, storage and CPU power. It couldn’t run Cyberpunk 2077, but it might make a great streaming machine.

• Build #1: Big GPU, small SSD for maximum performance at the cost of storage.
• Build #2: Weaker GPU but a better PC overall and way closer to what Adam would actually build.
• Build #3: Who needs a graphics card, anyway?

Alaina: Alaina also did some extra work and came to the show armed with two unique PC builds, both offering way more storage than anything we “built” because she was wise enough to put cheap spinning platter hard drives in her machines alongside a small SSD for speed.

• Build #1: Alaina calls this AMD-based gaming build “I woke up and chose violence,” and it’s a boxy little beast.
• Build #2: This build relies on a Micro Center bundle to build a slightly more beastly gaming machine in the same small case.

Alex (Me!): I just brought one hypothetical $1,050 PC build to the show this week, and I think I managed to deliver a pretty compelling Steam Machine competitor at a lower price than anyone else was able to hit. Admittedly, coming in $30 cheaper than a new Steam Machine isn’t the biggest savings, but at least you could buy a cheap game with the extra money!

• Build #1: What if the Steam Machine had some flashy RGB and a built-in handle like the GameCube?

Glenn: We also got PCWorld intern Glenn on the show, and he follows in his father Gordon’s footsteps by spec’ing out a build that capitalizes on a sweet bundle deal (and the possibilities of flipping some of the gear in that bundle for extra cash). It’s a mid-range gaming machine that might blow Valve’s box out of the water. Might it also blow out that 500W power supply? Only one way to find out!

• Build #1: What the self-described LeBron James of PC building would put together for (roughly) $1,050.

Of course, these lists only tell a small part of the story. You’ll want to watch (or listen) to the show to hear our reasoning as well as some, ah, unique strategies for making the most of that $1,049 budget.

Valve

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Nerd news of the week

It’s not all Sturm und Drang in the news this week, and there are a few especially notable highlights I recommend you check out.

• South Korea to spend $585 billion on expanding RAM production: Major South Korean tech companies like Samsung are promising to work with the government on an expansion plan that will see them spending $1 trillion on new RAM fabrication facilities, AI data centers and robot manufacturing. There’s no telling how long these “megaprojects” will take to bear fruit or what the results will be, but at least the world’s biggest RAM distributors are investing in building out their production capabilities.
• PlayStation will stop releasing games on discs in 2028: Ring out another death knell for physical media, as Sony has confirmed it will cease selling PlayStation games on disc by January of 2028. That means less physical waste and less power for customers to loan out or resell their games, and it could signal a broader shift for physical media in general.
• Your phone’s location data is now protected by the Fourth Amendment: Your phone’s location history is now considered protected by the Fourth Amendment’s safeguard against “unreasonable searches and seizures” thanks to a recent 6-3 ruling by the US Supreme Court. That means that police will (hopefully) require a specific, legally sound reason to request data on where your phone was at a specific time, and courts will need to verify that such requests are justified and do not overreach.
• For the first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides: University of Minnesota researchers claim to have successfully created an artificial cell (branded the SpudCell), which is reportedly “a cell-like system constructed entirely from known chemical components that can perform a complete cell cycle,” i.e. grow, replicate and divide. The artificial cell can’t survive without support and lacks many other characteristics of living cells, but it’s another step on the path to creating artificial life and self-replicating systems.

That’s all from me this week, but make sure to bookmark PCWorld and check back regularly for more nerd news you can use!

This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.