- Valve’s Steam Machine apparently sold out immediately in Japan
- Pre-orders go for up to $3,000 in the US on eBay
- If, given all this, you are tempted to look for cheap alternatives from Asia, be very careful with that idea.
Given the price of the Steam Machine (and some other drawbacks of the device), it’s not surprising that many gamers are looking for alternatives, but you have to be careful in that regard, although it may be hard to believe that some people are willing to pay a batch more than the official MSRP for Valve’s gaming PC.
Before we get into the story of how much resellers are reselling Steam Machine pre-orders for, the caveat is that what appear to be super affordable Steam Machine clones are being offered in China.
A great example posted on Reddit is a white copy of the Steam Machine that claims to be built around a Ryzen 5 5500 processor with 16GB of DDR5 RAM, along with an AMD RX 6750 GRE graphics card with a 2TB SSD. This sells for the equivalent of $688 in China, so compare that to what Valve charges for a Steam Machine with 2TB of storage: $1,349 in the US.
So, at first glance, you’re looking at not far off half the price of the Chinese clone PC, but there are some important caveats that I’ll come back to in a moment.
Meanwhile, while there are those looking for a cheap alternative to the official Steam Machine, at the other end of the spectrum there are those willing to pay something like double the asking price to secure one of the initial Steam Machine models to roll off the production lines.
As TweakTown noted, there are people trying to resell their reservations for a Steam Machine on eBay. In case you haven’t noticed, Valve offered the opportunity to reserve a spot to purchase their gaming PC (using a random lottery system, rather than first come, first serve), and some successful people are effectively selling their spot in line.
Some of these auction listings are for sale for around $3,500 in the US (for the 2TB model), and TweakTown notes that there appears to be one confirmed sale for $2,800. It’s hard to believe anyone would pay that much, but apparently it’s true (unless the seller is up to mischief somehow).
On top of that, Notebookcheck.net highlighted another apparent indication of the Steam Machine’s popularity as Valve prepares to open pre-orders (for those with a pre-order). In fact, the device is already on sale in the Asian market and the PC is already sold out in Japan. Retailer Komodo Station apparently placed the Steam Machine directly on its shelves (rather than using a reservation system), and the PCs didn’t stick around long before disappearing.
Analysis: reasons to be afraid
So there is certainly a level of demand for the Steam Machine, although this could, and indeed I would say is likely to be, a reflection of both stock levels and demand. However, there are disgruntled gamers in Japan who are complaining on social media that they cannot get a device.
This is also reflected in eBay’s apparent prices for US pre-orders, although there’s an important point to note here: most of them haven’t sold (yet). In case you were considering this route, keep in mind that you are placing a lot of trust in the seller to fulfill your order in the end. It’s not an approach I would recommend, and neither is buying a Steam Machine clone in Asia because it seems like a bargain and a half.
What are the dangers of the latter? Well, mainly because you don’t really know what you’re going to get. If we take the example highlighted of the Chinese PC on Reddit above, there are some notable red flags listed, including the fact that the Ryzen CPU is paired with DDR5 RAM that the platform it runs on (AM4) does not support.
On top of that, the RX 6750 GRE is a relatively chunky GPU, as several Redditors point out, and it seems highly unlikely to fit into the chassis shown in the image of the device. What also about the temperature, cooling solution and fan noise? I would be especially concerned on those fronts.
Who knows: maybe you’ll get a much larger box than illustrated or different components than advertised. I’m not saying this will necessarily be the case with the example product shown, but this is the concern with all of these types of offerings from Asia, and is why I would overlook any such purchasing opportunities when shipping outside of China.
Remember, there is also the additional cost of importing the PC to consider, not to mention that if the device fails or gets too hot and unstable, then good luck with the return process. There are also the potential security risks of a PC from an unknown supplier in China that could be loaded with a dodgy version of SteamOS to trap the unwary.
In short, there are a lot of potential pitfalls, and if you want a more affordable alternative to the Steam Machine, or a more performing and cost-effective living room PC like the so-called ‘Stim Machine’, then buy something locally and from a trusted (national) retailer.
Or just go the DIY route and build your own Steam Machine, which is the other option available for those not impressed with Valve’s pricing. Of course, you have to keep in mind that the RAM crisis, which drove up the price of the Steam Machine in the first place, will make this task much more complicated than it would have been a year ago. There are also elements of Valve’s PC that a DIY build won’t be able to replicate, such as HDMI CEC support.
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