SteamOS Release Is A Game-Changer For Building Your Own Steam Machine

Along with the Steam Machine, Valve has also publicly released SteamOS 3.x, which debuted with Steam Deck. With version 3.8, SteamOS can be installed on any modern desktop, laptop, or handheld PC so long as its using an AMD GPU. NVIDIA GPU support is planned for the future.

With the launch of the second Steam Controller and development on SteamOS, the prospect of building your own Steam Machine has become more tantalizing. The current state of the PC hardware market has also made the Steam Machine prohibitively expensive for many that were hoping for a PC based alternative to the current-gen consoles. If you're comfortable building your own and sacrificing the custom form factor, however, similar or better performance can be had in the same price range.


One such effort is the "Terk Box", a project from AMD employee Jacob Terkelsen, which utilizes off-the-shelf components with a 3D-printed Steam Machine enclosure clone.

The 3D print files, originally posted to Printables by 3DCatt, allow DIYers with access to 3D printing to use off-the-shelf Mini ITX motherboards, Flex ATX PSUs, and slim GPUs to achieve the Steam Machine form factor. The Terk Box cannot use the official Steam OS 3.8 distribution though, due to relying on an NVIDIA GPU, but builders who don't want to wait for that can also pivot to the SteamOS-based Bazzite instead.


In any case, the release of Steam OS 3.8 is exciting news even if you aren't looking to match the ultra-compact form factor of Steam Machine. DIYers looking to match it for the price may have some trouble, though, considering the fact that both of our previous efforts have long been spoiled by price hikes or unavailable components.


But running the current numbers and attempting to assemble a reasonably-compact DIY Steam Machine, with slightly better performance, our new DIY Steam Machine utilizes the Cooler Master NR200P V3 pictured above, with a total cost of about $1229 on Amazon.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 8600G
• MOBO: Gigabyte A620I AX Wi-Fi
• RAM: Teamgroup Elite Plus DDR5-4800 MT/s 16GB (2x8)
• NVME: Teamgroup T-Force 650 512GB
• GPU: ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7600 Challenger 8GB OC
• CASE: Cooler Master NR200P V3
• PSU: be quiet! SFX L Power 600W 80+ Gold

It's not a perfect match, but it will perform better than the real Steam Machine, and most importantly won't require you to own a 3D printer or be limited by the custom chassis like the Terk Box. Plus, if you already have a powerful gaming PC and just want an adequate SteamOS-powered HTPC for Remote Play, the above build without a discrete GPU and cheaper storage could save you some money, while still providing the core SteamOS experience.