Waiting for the Steam Machine

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:41:06 -0700

I am excited to test the Steam Machine, announced by Valve in November 2025. Despite the memory shortage, I remain hopeful that Valve will deliver the device as it was promised in early 2026, allowing me to access Valve’s ecosystem of devices optimized for low-spec gaming without the complexities of building a compact PC. My primary goal for buying a Steam Machine is to have a console-like device for my living room and to enjoy modern AAA games at 4K resolution.

I have a clear understanding that the Steam Machine is not a top-spec device for gaming. Based on leaks and rumors, I have identified key weaknesses I would like to eliminate for my specific configuration. Here is what I plan to upgrade once I receive the Steam Machine:

Increase the amount of RAM;
Enlarge the SSD capacity;
Add a MicroSD card for emulation engines and game ROM’s.

To make my gaming experience bulletproof with the Steam Machine and provide a long and pleasant gaming experience, I’ve identified several weaknesses and would like to fix them. First in my list is the amount of RAM. While DDR5 SO-DIMM is great for compact size console-like devices, the amount of 16 GB is not enough to make me feel comfortable. I’m sure and believe that Valve does a good job stimulating developers to optimize games for low-spec hardware and tweaking SteamOS to provide the best possible game experience. But, still, I’m willing to play games, not waiting for optimization.

The second aspect of Steam Machine configuration is the capacity of the SSD. While for the majority of gamers 2 TB would be enough, I want to have something better, which will allow me not to download a new game each time I want to play, instead of the old one. So, I decided to go with a 4 TB SSD.

Lastly, this is the presence of the MicroSD card in my configuration of the maximum possible capacity to store game emulators and ROM’s for classic games. While 4 TB is a great capacity, it’s not enough to share classic games with modern AAA games on the same SSD.

Taking into account my intentions and memory crisis, I started to make preparations in late December of 2025 and early January of 2026. Here is the list of parts I was lucky to buy before prices got crazy:

Lexar 2TB Play Blue Micro SD Card for $186.95;
Crucial 32GB DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM Kit CT2K16G56C46S5 (2x16GB) for $250.99;
Team Group T-FORCE CARDEA A440 M.2 2280 4TB SSD for $335.99.

Considering current prices for the parts above, I can tell that I have a feeling I’m sitting on top of a pillar of gold. Unfortunately, the latest news related to the Steam Machine pricing makes me sad, and I have no choice but to think about plan B. If Valve sets the price for the Steam Machine above $1000, I think a more reasonable and good investment would be just to assemble an SFF gaming PC and put it in the living room next to the TV. Yes, the DIY Steam Machine will not be as small and compact as the device from Valve, but it allows me to play games in 4K for several years without any issues.

So, here is the list of components I will buy to assemble a DIY Steam Machine in the compact, nice-looking SFF case, in case I have no choice but to move towards plan B:

GPU: PowerColor Reaper AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT;
Motherboard: MINISFORUM BD775i SE;
PSU: CORSAIR SF850;
Fans: Phanteks T30-120 Fan Triple-Pack;
MicroSD card reader: Piodata Micro SD Card Reader;
Case: Ncase T1 - Sandwich Kit - Silver Color.

Everything mentioned above will cost me around $1500, which looks like a reasonable price for the rest of the components. It will allow me to play AAA games without any issues at 4K, utilizing the raw power of the GPU. My OS of choice for the DIY Steam Machine will be SteamOS or Bazzite, depending on which will have native support for the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU. In case I decide to go with plan B, I will write a post where I will describe the logic behind the components I’ve chosen for the DIY Steam Machine. So, let’s hold fingers crossed and hope that Valve will make the right decision about pricing for the Steam Machine, and I will not need to bother you with another couple of thousand words describing my custom game rig.

PS: There are no affiliated links in my posts.

An Attempt to Start Blogging Again

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 21:46:00 -0700

Some time ago, I had a self-hosted blog that I had started it in 2009. I had a lot of spare time then and ran the blog software on the Mac mini, that resided on the shelf of my parent’s apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine. All posts there were written in Ukrainian, and I was trying to keep the blog alive for a decade or so. Since then, many things have changed; I lost the grip and did not have enough time to maintain this home setup and share my thoughts, ideas, and details of my hobbies.

Now, I’m feeling confident enough to attempt to start blogging again. When I started to explore possible ways to spin-up a blog again on some blogging services or give a try to one of many self-hosted solutions, I’ve discovered that the landscape of blogging has dramatically changed recently.

It appears that everything is moving in the Fediverse direction, and I like this. Furthermore, I think that self-hosted solutions are not for me anymore, mainly because of an insufficient amount of spare time. Since my initial blog was started, many things changed: I became a father, moved to a different country, and now I’m trying to build a professional career I dreamed about all of my life. So, blogging for me and all those supporting this hobby thing should be relatively easy and should not require all of my leisure time.

I’ve decided to write posts in English, so this will increase the amount of time I need to spend on blogging, since English is not my home language. My English writing skills require some improvements, so I thought that blogging might be a good practice to improve them. As of now, I need to spend additional time on grammar checks and proofreading. This is a bit hard for me yet, even though I’m able to use all this AI stuff from Apple and Google to make these things easier.

In the end, I decide to choose Micro.Blog as a platform to spin-up my new blog. Here are the key points for me of this service:

Micro.Blog is a managed service. This allows me to save time compared to self-hosting solutions;
It’s small;
It’s part of the Fediverse;
Supports cross-posting everywhere I need (Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads);
I’m able to write posts and publish them from the Ulysses app;
Very thin and simple platform that meets all of my needs.

So, without any future delays, let’s start this blogging journey.

Serhii's Makarenko Blog

Waiting for the Steam Machine

An Attempt to Start Blogging Again