Linus Tech Tips Claims Steam Machine Might Cost Around $700 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 December 2025 / 4,940 Views
Linus Tech Tips in a new video discussing what the cost of building a Steam Machine is by purchasing parts with similar specs reveals the upcoming device could be priced around $700.
If Valve were to build the Steam Machine at the lowest historical prices for the parts it would cost Valve around $602 to manufacture. However, prices of parts have increased and it could cost as much as $910 at retail pricing or $813 with lesser brands.
Valve will likely be able to acquire the parts for less than this once you subtract retail profit margins and Valve purchasing the parts in bulk. Linus believes Valve will be able to source certain some components for less, like the power supply, motherboard, and case.
"I think it means $699 USD, if there are no changes in the market," said Linus (via VideoGamesChronicle). "It’s probably above Valve’s cost today and there will be some opportunity for them to improve their margins over the several years lifespan of the device, as their initial investment gets paid off, and hopefully, RAM and SSD pricing returns to some form or normality."
He added, "The Steam Machine presents a compelling deal at that price, without completely undercutting the market."
Valve has confirmed the price of the Steam Machine will be comparable with PCs that have similar specs.
"I think that if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at," said Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais at the time.
"Ideally, we’d be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we’re working on refining that as we speak, and right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there’s a lot of different things that are fluctuating."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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PS5 is better equipped than GabenCube, that said...
PC gamer toward PS5:
PS5 is not impressive. We can totaly build a PC to match this at ~$500 budget.
PC gamer toward GabenCube:
Yeah, at lowest historical price, the equivalent PC is at best ~$600.
The Gabencube has free online though.
A Digital-Only Open Platform is an oxymoron. If it was a true open platform it would allow physical copies, and trading/selling of digital copies. PC is the most anti-consumer platform with Denuvo and 3rd party EULAs potentially locking you out of games you rightfully paid for.
Add to that the PS5 is 5 years old now, the value for $500 at 2020, the pandemic going full force no less, was insane, and even after all this time people can't build a similar PC for less...
But to be fair, people, me included, were mad at the Pro price being $700 + the disc drive, the overall sentiment for the PS5 was not that it was expensive for the vast majority of people, actually scallping was the biggest complain as it was very hard to get a PS5 for $500 for a long time. If there was no pandemic and the shortages the PS5 would have an insane launch like the Switch 2 was having this year.
By ignoring the price of online, games, accessories etc., you're not much better yourself though. There's poor arguments on both sides, yours included. Reality is more nuanced.
Far more nuanced in my opinion, consoles also tend to get regular bundles and discounts. The pc market fluctuates a lot in price as well thanks to Crypto and AI. However a PC can provide in doing way more things. Although the Gabecube is probably not the best device for those things.
The path of buying a pc Vs console itself is also different, if you already need a new pc for school/work, the extra costs to turn that into a pc suitable for pc gaming, are lower than buying an entire rig. They could even be lower than buying a non-gaming pc and a console.
The accessories are mostly relevant for Switch 2, since couch co-op is a novelty on PS5 to begin with. Online costs are a big factor though, if you bought a PS5 at launch chances are you pay more for online than the machine. Although you also get some free games.
At $500... Before everything got much more expensive.
The time context matters a lot when talking prices these days.
Pricing it at $600 would be good imo.
And at a price point like that, it's dead in the water.
So another niche product. Is this what the industry wants? To go back to the days when core gaming was semi-underground? Because if they're not careful, that's what's going to happen.
Sign me up for a purple one.
Since especially the CPU is much more powerful than current-gen, I think the Steam Machine is a pretty solid box.
I would love the PS5 to have that CPU.
GPU/VRAM has been so ridiculously high-priced and artificially held back for years now (remember nvidia's statement that 8GB was a "customer driven" business choice?), that I personally think the PC hardware market has become a shithole for profits rather than computational progress.
Well, some peoples is wrong with the predict that will cost 299U$ with a 150U$ vouncher for Steam Credit included.
