The eagerly awaited Steam Machine is finally here, but between the reservation waitlist and the $1,049 price tag, plenty of gamers are being left on the sidelines. Luckily for them, SteamOS 3.8 now officially supports custom desktop builds, opening the door to a DIY route.
Within just a day of the official Steam Machine’s release, PC builders are already proving how lucrative the custom path can be, with configurations outclassing the official box at the same price.
SteamOS 3.8 makes DIY Steam Machines official
Ever since the release of the Steam Deck, installing SteamOS on your own hardware has been a constant goal for the Linux Gaming community. Through various methods such as recovery images and forks like Bazzite, gamers have been able to enjoy the benefits of Valve’s optimizations on their own hardware for a while. But the methods hadn’t gained official support until now.
In an interview with The Verge, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirmed the team team has been rolling out improvements to make SteamOS “more compatible with desktop hardware.” SteamOS 3.8 brings notably better support for recent Intel and AMD platforms as a result.
Nvidia support is in development too, with Griffais saying Valve has “a growing team” working on it, and that the company is “collaborating with Nvidia very closely.” Given Nvidia’s historical antagonism with the Linux community, Valve’s collaborative approach is a massive boon for gamers. The engineer was candid that the drivers may not arrive this year, but emphasized it is “certainly something that we’re working on in the background.”
What to expect from the SteamOS desktop experience
SteamOS on a custom desktop is not quite plug-and-play yet. Griffair describes the current sweet spot as console-like setups, where the PC is plugged into the TV and used purely for gaming.
“If you have something that is similar to the use case of a Steam Machine, where you have a PC that’s gonna be plugged into a TV, and has a single hard drive that you’re not going to try and dual boot, you can put SteamOS on there, and you’ll have an experience that is very similar to a Steam Deck docked or a Steam Machine.”—Pierre-Loup Griffais, Valve
There are however significant caveats to this approach, most notably the absence of HDMI-CEC support on DIY machines. HDMI-CEC, for those unaware, is a technology built into the HDMI connection that allows connected devices to wake up your display through a signal sent along the cable. This technology is used in most major consoles and set-top boxes.
Regular PC hardware does not include HDMI-CEC support, and thus lacks any method for waking up your TV without human intervention. This is one of the areas where the official Steam Machine offers a notable advantage. Valve developed a custom-motherboard for the Machine, giving it native CEC support, offering a much more console like experience. That is further helped by the support for a wireless controller to wake up the machine, much like your Xbox or DualSense would, another feature sorely missing from PCs.
Related—Valve confirms Steam Controller price and release date
For more-experiences PC-builders there is another stumbling block. Dual-booting is not straightforward yet. Installing SteamOS currently means wiping your drive. Griffais says better coexistence with other operating systems is on the roadmap, but it is not there yet.
Creators are already building Steam Machines that outperform Valve’s
Despite the caveats, a DIY Steam Machine can offer incredible value compared to the official device. In fact the DIY argument got a real-world stress test from Linus Tech Tips, who built a custom machine at the same price point as Valve’s and walked away with significantly better hardware.
Related—Steam Deck returns to stock with up to $300 higher prices due to memory shortage
The build featured a Ryzen 5 7500F, a Radeon RX 9600 XT with 16GB of VRAM, and ran SteamOS natively. Across multiple titles including Final Fantasy VII Remake, the DIY machine delivered higher framerates at higher settings.
DIY doesn’t necessarily mean assembling a pc yourselfWhile the DIY approach may seem scary at first, especially if you have never built a PC yourself before, it doesn’t have to be such an involved process. In fact, with AMD’s growing marketshare, many off-the-shelf PCs feature Ryzen CPUs and Radeon GPUs, allowing you to simply install the OS and get going!
While the tradeoffs are significant, there is no denying the fact that if you’re willing to get your hands a bit dirty, a DIY option may offer a much better value.
Should you build your own Steam machine right now?
If you are comfortable wiping a drive and setting up a fresh OS install, building your own Steam Machine today is a viable option, especially on an AMD-based system. Those wanting Nvidia support, dual-boot capability, or a more seamless out-of-box experience should hold off for further SteamOS updates. Linux gaming distros like Bazzite and Nobara offer broader hardware compatibility in the meantime.
But if raw gaming performance is the priority and you are happy to get your hands a little dirty, the DIY Steam Machine has never made more sense. Plus if you don’t enjoy the experience, you can always revert back to Windows later.
