artyom@piefed.social 3 days ago
I mean it’s not hard to create a compelling argument for not buying one. Just watch pretty much any of the reviews.
The easiest argument is that you can do better building your own PC and putting SteamOS or Bazzite or Cachy handheld editions on it.
However it will likely be much larger, less efficient, and possibly more noisy. And won’t support HDMI-CEC.
cloudless@piefed.social 3 days ago
Most of the reviews I have watched are very positive about the Machine. Building my own PC doesn’t really get any cheaper these days, and I want the Steam Machine form factor.
The only criticism I have seen are about not being able to do native 4K, which I don’t care for.
artyom@piefed.social 3 days ago
Hardware Unboxed had the harshest review I found, calling it “impossible to recommend”, and the video was full of similar commentary. Honestly I unsusbscribed from this channel after this review (and based on many other of what I consider to be “bad takes"). But there were many other largely negative reviews that I came across with similar points. Namely the price is too high and the hardware is unimpressive.
DIY does get quite a bit cheaper. Especially if you look at used parts, and account for repairability and longevity. I just had a PSU crap out on me on my desktop. If that were a Steam Machine there would probably be no parts available, as it was ~10 years old. But since it is a standard modular PSU people have been producing for like 40 years, I was able to choose between several dozen models that suited my needs and it just bolted right in.
I don’t particularly want to convince you not to buy one. And if it’s the form factor and low noise you’re after, there’s not really anything comparable available. There are a thousand mini PCs but none of them have the giant fan/heatsink combo that creates the low-noise conditions. And it’s so much better than any other console.
But you asked me to try 😅
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Hardware Unboxed is really biased towards Nvidia. And they don’t like Linux either from how they talk about it. Unsubscribed from that channel long time ago, about the time when unsubscribing from LTT channel.