I think you need to check out what prebuilt PC prices are now. This is pretty much the same price as a DIY.

Just to pick on someone, iBuyPower's cheapest "RDY" prebuilt gaming PC has 6 performance cores, 16GB RAM, 8GB VRAM RTX 5050, 1TB NVME, and costs $1200. Basically same specs as the Steam Machine, for a very similar price, but in a typical midtower instead of a sleek, compact cube

> basically same specs

The RTX 5050 8 GB is 10-20% faster and the Intel 225F is significantly more powerful (a bit harder to get percentage ranges there since there aren't many 225 benchmarks).

The Steam Machine has been known to be roughly a Ryzen 5 3600 + RX 7600 M performance wise for a while and the release benchmarks have confirmed it; given Valve's statements that it would likely cost more than consoles before prices went haywire, I don't think the Steam Machine would ever have been priced competitively.

Steam Machine very clearly states Zen 4, so it has approximately a Ryzen 5 7600, not 3600. So no, the 225F is not going to be significantly more powerful.

> The RTX 5050 8 GB is 10-20% faster

yeah... like I said, basically the same? but if you're determined to split hairs, then that 10-20% faster is also 10-20% more expensive ($1050 vs $1200), so it's still a wash either way. But when "just" a 5060 Ti 8gb (supposedly a $380 GPU) is then 50% faster than the 5050... Clearly the steam machine and 5050 are playing in the same ball pit here. They're doing the same gaming experience

Note that the performance of the RTX 5050 is completely irrelevant if it doesn't work. While some say that their NVIDIA rig is working, that's a risk that's probably not worth taking for something that is expected to "just work." The last thing a console user would tolerate is dealing with whatever mess NVIDIA has dreamed up next.

You need to build within the same constraints.

Also, it's $71 more thanjdiy according to GN.

> Note that the performance of the RTX 5050 is completely irrelevant if it doesn't work.

I don’t really understand the point of this comment. Shouldn’t we operate under the assumption that it will work? Is there something particular problematic about the 5050?

Also, AMD GPU’s are still very affordable and totally viable. I have a 9070 and I love it.

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