Valve's Steam Machine is a small gaming PC designed to sit under your TV. It runs SteamOS, plays your Steam library and, according to Valve, is "roughly 6 times more powerful than Steam Deck". It's also not cheap. The BBC reported its UK launch prices in June 2026: £879 for the 512GB model, or £1,149 for the 2TB model, with the Steam Controller adding £59 to either.
So should you buy one, or put the same money into a traditional gaming PC? This comparison uses Valve's own information, the BBC's price reporting and PC Gamer's review, all credited at the end. Forge PC hasn't tested the Steam Machine, and any performance results below are PC Gamer's. Component prices were checked on 13 November 2026 and are approximate.
Steam Machine at a glance
| Steam Machine (512GB) |
|---|
UK price at launch | £879 (£938 with Steam Controller) |
Processor | Semi-custom AMD Zen 4, 6 cores, 12 threads |
Graphics | Semi-custom AMD RDNA 3, 28 compute units, 8GB GDDR6, 110W |
System memory | 16GB DDR5 |
Storage | 512GB or 2TB SSD |
Operating system | SteamOS |
Size and weight | 15.2 x 15.6 x 16.2cm, 2.6kg |
The hardware details are from PC Gamer's review, which lists the GPU's sustained clock at up to 2.45GHz and notes that the machine is cooled by a single 120mm fan at the back. The connectivity is generous for the size, with Wi-Fi 6E, Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 and several USB ports.
Where the Steam Machine wins
Size and noise. It's a compact cube made for a living room. PC Gamer called it "really, really quiet", and said you'd struggle to hear its fan over normal background noise.
Simplicity. It arrives ready to go, with no building and no Windows licence to buy. SteamOS is designed for the TV and controller, with fast suspend and resume.
Valve support. If something goes wrong, there's one company to deal with, rather than a separate warranty for each part.
Where a gaming PC wins
Performance for the money. PC Gamer's review is blunt: "You can get much better performance for your money from a regular gaming PC hooked up to your telly box for similar cash." In its benchmarks, a Lenovo Legion Tower 5i with an RTX 4060 and Core i5-14400F beat the Steam Machine in almost all its tests. The Steam Machine did beat one of PC Gamer's Intel Arc B570 builds in Black Myth: Wukong.
PC Gamer also found that demanding games needed heavy use of upscaling and frame generation to run smoothly. It found that games defaulted to 1080p, which Valve says is deliberate "to ensure a good gameplay experience out of the box".
Upgrades. A desktop PC lets you swap the graphics card, add memory and add more SSDs as your needs grow. The Steam Machine's graphics are built in, so they can't be upgraded.
Software choice. A Windows PC runs every PC game and launcher, including games with anti-cheat systems that don't support Linux. SteamOS is based on Linux, and PC Gamer reported some software quirks getting games to run. If you play mainly on Steam, check each game's compatibility rating on Steam first.
What £879 buys in parts
Graphics cards make up most of a gaming PC's cost. On 13 November 2026, the cheapest new cards on SpecPrice's UK tracker included:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 8GB: about £425 at AWD-IT
AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB: about £450 at Scan
AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB: about £580
Our best gaming PC under £800 guide shows a complete 1080p build for about £792, using an Intel Arc B570. It also has a stretch build with a Ryzen 5 5600 and RTX 5060 for under £1,000. Those totals don't include Windows, which costs £119.99 for Home on Microsoft's UK store. See our Windows 11 Home vs Pro guide for details.
If your budget reaches the price of the 2TB Steam Machine, our best gaming PC under £1,200 guide pairs a Ryzen 5 5600 with a 16GB RX 9060 XT. That's twice the graphics memory of the Steam Machine. Our VRAM guide explains why that matters in newer games.
You can also put SteamOS on your own PC
Polygon reported in June that Valve's position is that you can build your own alternative. Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that a PC built for the same job, plugged into a TV with a single drive, can run SteamOS and give an experience "very similar" to a Steam Machine, "with some caveats". Check Valve's own guidance on supported hardware before you try it.
Which should you choose?
Buy a Steam Machine if you want a small, quiet, console-like box for the TV. It suits you if your Steam library is mostly indie and older games, or if you're happy to use upscaling and lower settings in newer ones. It also suits you if you never want to open a PC case.
Build a gaming PC if you care about frame rates, want to upgrade later, or play games that need Windows. For the same money, you can get a faster graphics card with more video memory, as long as you're happy with a bigger box.
Our verdict
The Steam Machine is a well-made, quiet living-room PC, but rising component costs have made it expensive for what's inside. On PC Gamer's results, a regular gaming PC at a similar price runs games better and can be upgraded. Choose the Steam Machine for convenience and size, and build your own PC for performance and flexibility.
