It’s been more than half a year since Valve announced the Steam Machine, along with the Steam Frame and Steam Controller, yet only the last one on that list has been making its rounds to the media, given how it’s not dependent on more expensive components (read: RAM prices). That being said, and with at least one product slowly but surely rolling off the shelves, there is now some detail about Valve’s upcoming cube-shaped gaming machine.
Thanks to the sleuthing of pepeizq on Reddit, they discovered an additional four new packaging IDs in the Steam Tracking database. These IDs are 1629447, 1629446, 1629458, and 1629460. Again, these are all allegedly packaging IDs for the Steam Machine, and more specifically, these could be variations of the device.
Reference to the Steam Machine in the reservation system update according to Steam Tracking
byu/pepeizq insteammachine
Now, Valve has confirmed that the Steam Machine will be available in two different storage capacities: 512GB and 2TB, both with microSD expansion slots at the front. Speculation suggests that the four packaging IDs could refer to 512GB and 2TB models, to be sold without and with a Steam Controller. In other words, we’re probably looking at a bundle here.
As a quick primer, the Steam Machine sports a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU with six cores, clocked up to 4.8GHz. For graphics, the device uses a semi-custom AMD RDNA3 GPU with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Aside from that, users will have the option to choose between 512GB and 2TB of NVMe SSD storage. Both models come with a microSD card slot.
In terms of connectivity, the Steam Machine supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Naturally, it also has a built-in adapter for the Steam Controller. As for ports, it comes with two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, two USB-A 2.0, and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2. Additionally, it features DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 and Ethernet ports.
It should also come as no surprise that Valve partnered up with accessory makers Dbrand and JSAUX to create custom panels for the Steam Machine. Dbrand, in particular, are creating its own interpretation of the Companion Cube as a homage to Valve’s Portal series.
That aside, the pricing for the Steam Machine remains a mystery, all due to a less mysterious reason: the still-very-expensive price of RAM. Having said that, it’s not like we Malaysians will officially be getting Valve’s new toys anyway.
(Source: Reddit, Videocardz)
