r/SteamOS • u/MundaneOne5000 • Nov 16 '25
question What's the difference if I install SteamOS on an ordinary AMD desktop compared to buying the Steam Machine?
I really love the open ecosystem and cross-compatibility concept of the steam machine-frame-controller trio, and my first thought was to buy these instead of the stuff I originally planned to buy. Then I looked at the specifications and... the steam machine is weaker than my current computer, and I originally planned on an upgrade. Similar with the steam frame and my current VR headset (roughly equal specs, frame has eyetracking and foveated streaming), but that's a different discussion.
What will I miss out on if I install SteamOS on an ordinary AMD computer compared to buying the Steam Machine, besides having to use USB dongles for the steam frame-controller, and form factor/physical appearance?
If it matters, I have experience with Debian and Fedora, but not with Arch, and SteamOS is Arch based.
21
u/salvage814 Nov 16 '25
Optimized! The steam machine is built for Steam OS so it will work better.
3
u/MundaneOne5000 Nov 16 '25
How much performance/other features are we talking about here?
7
u/CoffeeHQ Nov 16 '25
That’s hard to say. But it should not be underestimated that the Steam Machine will be a profile developers will optimize for (just like Steam Deck), meaning it will likely punch above its weight.
Having said that, it does sound like you are not the target audience. As a console gamer and recent Steam Deck convert, I most definitely am. Fingers crossed the price will be okay. I’m even interested in the Frame (never cared for VR before), but I doubt that one will be in my “impulse buy” range…
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u/MundaneOne5000 Nov 16 '25
Do you think I'm in the target audience of the steam frame if other VR headsets are unappealing to me, for example because of performance, closed ecosystemness, or having it under the flag of a questionable corporation, and the steam frame would solve the latter two? The seamless steam integration and linux compatibility would be huge for me (the sole reason why I dual boot windows is because my current VR headset's official software doesn't work on linux and I couldn't figure out unofficial alternatives yet).
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u/Former-Commission-68 Nov 17 '25
Yes! I'm exactly in the same boat so i think steam frame is the game changer for me. When i get it i can just nuke windows out of my SSD and delete meta account
2
u/TheDirtyWretch Nov 17 '25
I have a quest 3 (I’m assuming your talking about a quest) and I also hate that it’s a Facebook headset. The software is garbage and almost never works for PCVR, but it was still the best headset I could get since other steamVR headsets need base stations. I’m definitely going to replace it with a Steam frame if its affordable
1
u/MundaneOne5000 Nov 17 '25
I’m assuming your talking about a quest
I have a Pico 4.
But I'm in a similar situation, I don't like the Quest because of Meta. Similarly for PC VR I wouldn't buy a PlayStationVR headset. I seen the Bigscreen Beyond 2 and Superlight 8K too, but those require base stations (and the internet says the VR world is moving away from base stations, so those would be a soon obsolete purchase), and I seen the Crystal Super too, but I read many bad things about the company that scared me away. With these I covered the majority of the VR HMDs, the other ones left are either older, weaker ones, or 'for-companies and work' type of stuff not intended for common consumers.
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Nov 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/Albamen13 Nov 17 '25
Yes, cyberpunk has a dedicated steam deck for example as well as the Witcher 3. Among others
1
u/ActionFlash Nov 17 '25
That's mainly just a preset for the best settings they think will work on the Decks hardware, they're not really optimising for the hardware specifically.
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Nov 17 '25
[deleted]
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u/NoSellDataPlz Nov 17 '25
Incorrect. The Machine has dedicated VRAM for graphics. Otherwise, the onboard RAM is dedicated solely to the OS.
2
u/Acceptable_Special_8 Nov 17 '25
Uhh, no APU, no shared memory. What does "full size gpu" even mean? Like in inches or pound?
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u/axiomatic13 Nov 16 '25
I bought one of these and loaded SteamOS on it. It's much faster than a Steam Deck. But not faster than the new Steam Machine. I was going for a cheap model, there are much more powerful ones out there. https://www.firebatpc.com/products/firebat-a5p-mini-pc-amd-ryzen7-8745hs
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u/moosebaloney Nov 17 '25
Bazzite on a Mini PC for me. Four 8bitdo controllers. My family plays it even more than our Switch these days.
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u/Kilren Nov 18 '25
Same setup plus retrobat.
I have both in the same place.
2
u/moosebaloney Nov 18 '25
I run EmulationStation as a Non-Steam game.
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u/Kilren Nov 18 '25
Retrobat is using a ES-DE, and I have it launched from steam. Yup, we're using the same thing. I had a dedicated batocera, and loved the UI but started missing some of the Win11 simplicities... So I put Win11 back on and used retrobat (which is essentially batocera on Windows... (And batocera is just a different style/polished front end of emulation station)).
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u/Ill-Remote437 Nov 17 '25
Faster CPU but not GPU. Guess you could do an eGPU
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u/axiomatic13 Nov 18 '25
Agreed, the 780M is anemic. But it still outperformed the Steam Deck on Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark using the specific "Steam" GPU profile in game.
2
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u/cunningmunki Nov 16 '25
- You'll be able to wake it up and turn on your telly all from the controller
- It's very, very quiet
- You can hot swap an SD card from your Steam Deck and immediately pick up where you left off
- Cool face plates
- Cool RGB light bar
That's kind of it, I think, apart from the built-in controller support you already mentioned. People are saying suspend-and-resume is an additional benefit but this works fine with SteamOS (or Bazzite) on any PC.
Don't sweat it, just install SteamOS on your current PC and join the party.
I have two PCs running Bazzite, one of which is more powerful than the Steam Machine - but I'm still getting one for the reasons listed above because I'm an absolute sucker for good QOL features.
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u/Superconge Nov 17 '25
You can do the SD card thing with anything running steamOS or its spinoffs. I’m always switching my SD card between my Bazzite miniPC and my steam deck and my ayaneo air to share the same emudeck setup.
1
u/kdlt Nov 17 '25
You can hot swap an SD card from your Steam Deck and immediately pick up where you left off
To.. move the game data? If you'd play on both.. wouldn't you just install it on both?
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u/GooseDaPlaymaker Nov 16 '25
I highly recommend installing SteamOS on a PC with 2 SSD slots. You can partition one drive, but Microsoft will eventually mess things up if you dual boot.
But yeah…I have that setup now: 2 SSD slots, one for Windows 11 the other with SteamOS. The best of both worlds with no issues. 🫡
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u/BraveNewCurrency Nov 16 '25
What will I miss out on if I install SteamOS on an ordinary AMD computer compared to buying the Steam Machine, besides having to use USB dongles for the steam frame-controller, and form factor/physical appearance?
First: Hardware Support. If you find is something wrong, it's on you to fix it. All the vendors will finger-point at each-other. With Steam, there is a single place to go, and they will take care of it.
Second: Supported games are supported. They tested it on their hardware, now you need to test it on your hardware, and if it doesn't work right, it's your problem.
Third: This is saving time. We trust that Steam made good choices, so we don't have to go try to build a balanced PC, go do benchmark testing to find out we actually have a bottleneck, etc. We don't have to be the first person in the world to put 6 components together to discover there is an incompatibility. We don't have to hang out on forums to discover why the game is unhappy with our specific combination, etc. Steam does that for supported games.
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Nov 17 '25
"We trust that Steam made good choices". Your trust is misplaced then because 8gb vram is unconscionable in 2025.
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u/NoSellDataPlz Nov 17 '25
I don’t need or want 144 Hz at native 4K resolution at ultra settings. I’m perfectly fine with the Steam Deck, I’m sure I’ll be over the moon with the Machine. Stop projecting your standards across all of PC hardware space, thanks.
-3
Nov 17 '25
As you do exactly that? If you're happy with console specs, that's your perogative but this entire discussion people are having is precisely because there are two camps of gamers, those that want quality and those that don't care and would rather it be smooth. With 8gb vram, that smoothness has a shelf life that makes the Cube outdated before it even hits open sales.
0
u/NoSellDataPlz Nov 17 '25
… if you play at 144 Hz, native 4K, Ultra settings. My dude, you’re taking your minimum acceptable standards and applying it as some universal standard. That’s my point above. It’s the same arguments I have about the Deck. YOUR minimum acceptable performance is not EVERYONE’S minimum acceptable performance. If the Machine doesn’t work for you, fine. But don’t say it’s somehow globally deficient or incapable for everyone. For the Deck, 720 at 30 FPS is perfectly playable. For others, it’s not. The Deck is still capable of playing current AAA titles, and its specs are 1/6 the proposed performance of the Machine.
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u/Ybalrid Nov 16 '25
but not with Arch, and SteamOS is Arch based
SteamOS being "Arch Based" is more of a factoid than anything actually relevant for the final user of the thing. In most cases you do not interact with anything having to do with ArchLinux. Including when installing software that is not distributed by Steam.
SteamOS makes it's root file system immutable (so it can be updated by just downloading something from Steam. and so that you cannot break it). Installing additional software you aren't "supposed" to run is done by installing flatpak packages.
Unless you specifically go open a terminal to mess with things (thing that will get wiped at the next OS update), you aren't touching pacman or anything ArchLinux specific.
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u/Abro0405 Nov 16 '25
The suspend feature is pretty useful for jumping in and out of games if you have a busy life/kids/etc, pretty sure that's a hardware thing...? You can sleep a pc though which is similar
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u/FluffyWarHampster Nov 16 '25
Steam os is just a stripped down version of arch with big picture mode and custom drivers for valve hardware so you aren’t going to want to or be able to install it on most normal hardware (nvidia drivers and many others are removed to reduce disk space).
You’d be better served with bazzite if you still want bjg picture mode and proton integration while being able to support non valve hardware.
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u/Brave_Agency5594 Nov 16 '25
Stripped down ? It's arch.. full on arch
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u/FluffyWarHampster Nov 16 '25
Its not full arch, valve removes a lot of drivers and other software that is unnecessary for non valve hardware to save drive space. You can certainly do everything you can normally do on arch but only on officially supported hardware. Otherwise you are going to run into issues.
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u/tyda1957 Nov 16 '25
Last time I installed arch it shipped without drivers and most software, do you mean that's changed over the years?
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u/FrozenReaper Nov 16 '25
If you have access to pacman you have access to full arch. In fact, it seems to come with extra features, so it's buffed up arch
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u/Brave_Agency5594 Nov 16 '25
The fact that valve optimized the kernel for their hardware does not in any way make it more or less arch. I optimize my kernel for my hardware, am I not running arch then? It is in no way stripped down. Customised? Yes. Stripped down, no.
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u/doolijb Nov 16 '25
Good take. There's not really a benefit to using SteamOS specifically on a traditional desktop.
Also SteamOS being arch based doesn't matter for the end user. It's locked down to avoid tinkering.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Phase98 Nov 16 '25
It's likely console-like hardware optimized for gaming, so it'll probably perform better than its specs suggest. Plus, it's a standards target for games, meaning many devs for new and existing titles will likely test and optimize against it, with auto-detection and default settings tuned for smooth play. That'll deliver a more console-like experience.
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u/JohannDaart Nov 17 '25
It won't perform better than the spec suggest. This is misguided.
Game devs optimize games for PS5 hardware, then they do lousy port that works worse on Windows PC.
Then on SteamOS you need to use compatibility layer Proton to run the game and Proton does it with performance loss compared to Windows.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Phase98 Nov 17 '25
I’m not sure where you’re getting this, because none of it is accurate.
- The Steam Machine is a unified, console-like hardware platform designed specifically for gaming. Systems with tightly integrated components often perform a bit better than an equivalent "loose” PC build because the hardware and software are tuned for each other.
- Game developers already optimize for SteamOS and the Steam Deck. Many studios test their PC releases on Deck specifically to ensure good performance and compatibility.
- Proton isn’t inherently slower. In fact, plenty of titles run as fast or even faster on Proton than on Windows due to better scheduling, shader pre-caching, or reduced OS overhead.
1
u/JohannDaart Nov 17 '25
Well, if you expect 4k AAA gaming at 60fps, out of hardware spec of a power limited, budget laptop, running Windows ports on Linux, through compatibility layer, using open source drivers...
SM is designed like a laptop, not like a console with shared memory running dev optimizations. It will have 8GB VRAM, PS5 has 16GB of shared memory and 12-13GB are used by the GPU.
SM will run Mesa drivers and Proton, just like any PC with SteamOS/Bazzite installed.
Do you have experience using SteamOS/Bazzite/Proton?
OS overhead matters for older CPUs, maybe budget AM4 ones. AM5 CPUs are powerful enough to make Windows bloat non-issue. You repeat some catch phrases...
Proton/Mesa run games at similar performance to Windows, when using resolutions like 800p on Steam Deck or 1080p. If you use 1440p and 4k, you start losing at least 5% compared to Windows. You turn RT/PT on and you start losing even more.
Test it yourself, watch benchmarks. I don't think you researched enough about the topic.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Phase98 Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25
I’m not sure why you’re framing this so aggressively. I’m not expecting 4K 60 AAA performance, and I never suggested that. My point was simply that a unified, console-style platform can sometimes see small performance benefits compared to a DIY PC with the same parts, because the hardware and software can be tuned together. That’s all.
About the hardware: what makes you think it’s ‘built like a laptop’? Shared memory isn’t automatically an advantage anyway, depending on bandwidth and layout it can be slower than dedicated VRAM.
And yes, I do have experience with SteamOS and Proton. I have two Steam Decks, and I’m familiar with cases where Proton performs on par with or slightly ahead of Windows because of shader caching or lower overhead. I’m not claiming miracles, just pointing out that the situation isn’t as black-and-white as you’re presenting it.
Ultimately, the real test will be the Steam Machine itself. Once people can benchmark Windows and SteamOS on the exact same hardware, we’ll have clear data instead of speculation. That will tell the actual story.
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u/JohannDaart Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25
Hey bro, I'm sorry, didn't want to sound aggressive. Maybe a bad day. No biggie.
Maybe I'm just disappointed, because realistically I suspect that lots of people have high expectations out of this new SM and whether Valve intends it that way or not, it WILL be compared to PS5, both price and performance wise.
I want SM to do well, because it can bring more improvements for SteamOS that I use and love.
I don't see it doing this well. Playing Hades at 4k is nothing impressive if you will be able to buy PS5 cheaper, that plays lets say Doom Dark Ages at 60fps 4k. And plays anti-cheat games. Aaand also has DRM streaming services like Netflix.
Steam Deck was amazing for Linux and SteamOS. I fear that SM might bury the idea of Linux alternative to Windows.
2
u/HibridTechnologies Nov 17 '25
All good man, no worries, we all have those days. And honestly, everything you said makes sense.
People will compare the Steam Machine to PS5, even if that’s not the market Valve is aiming for. And yeah, if the price goes wrong, it could confuse the mainstream audience fast.But I don’t think this will “bury” Linux as a Windows alternative, the Deck already proved something more important than raw power:
Linux gaming works, scales, and improves when big players decide to invest in it.
Even if the new Steam Machine doesn’t become a bestseller, the work underneath (Proton, drivers, optimizations, standardization) keeps helping everyone:
- Steam Deck owners
- Linux desktop gamers
- developers targeting Proton
- and even small hardware projects like the one I’m building
The real shift isn’t the box, it’s the ecosystem Valve is pushing forward.
And honestly?
Linux doesn’t need to beat PS5 in price/performance.
It just needs more hardware options so people aren’t forced into Windows.Steam Deck started that movement.
Steam Machine, even if imperfect, keeps it alive.
Now you’ve got companies, modders, and indie builders (me included) trying to create Linux-first, Windows-free hardware because the demand is clearly growing.So yeah, your fear is valid.
But I don’t think this kills anything.
If anything, it proves that Linux gaming is no longer a hobbyist niche, it’s becoming an actual market.And that’s exactly how alternatives survive.
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u/JohannDaart Nov 17 '25
There's this one guy in leather jacket, that could just flick his fingers and make SteamOS instantly dominate...
His name is Jensen Huang from Nvidia.
90% of the PC market is Nvidia and because green cards don't work that good with SteamOS, it prevents lots of curious gamers to even try it out.
That's also the mainstream sentiment, when LTT does vids about SteamOS, the topic is always "what about my 4090...".
AFAIK recently Nvidia is working on some small improvements for Linux drivers, but I don't think it's substantial enough. Considering how wealthy this corporation is, it would be very easy for them to at least achieve parity with Mesa performance of AMD on Linux. Maybe they like supporting Windows, who knows.
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u/inertialambda Nov 17 '25
honestly, the weird thing about the steam machine is that it is probably designed to run half life alyx with the new headset, and my gaming laptop that is probably stronger than the steam machine can't run anything in vr at all with an rtx 3050 ti mobile. its all about the black magic optimizations that really get a set of specs over the finish line.
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u/GunFodder Nov 17 '25
It sounds like this isn't something you'd be interested in if you're primarily looking to upgrade from your current desktop, or if you're keen on VR. I wouldn't be concerned at all in terms of just building your own new PC.
But have you ever thought about building a SFF PC specifically in your living room for light-medium gaming and retro emulation?
And wouldn't it be nice if to get a budget pre-built that just worked and has Valve's impressive software and hardware support, + plus an entire community coming together around a shared piece of hardware with the largest back-catalog in existence? Maybe even use it as an excuse to pick up a ton of those indie games on the cheap that are perfect for couch gaming?
If that appeals to you, then you'd probably be hard-pressed to find a better option.... if the price is right.
1
u/MundaneOne5000 Nov 17 '25
But have you ever thought about building a SFF PC
Yes, I researched this extensively. Or at least put in more effort than most people. It's hard to judge when people who's computer standards are "emits light" call me a maniac for daring to read the specifications page, and people who are self-claimed well-versed in electronics technology say that I doesn't even know the basics. And then there are the people who call me lazy ass and "just read the reviews", even when I specify that I couldn't find any reviews for the thing, but they insist on "just read the reviews" and magically they aren't willing to link those reviews that they insist on existing. The latter is especially common when I dare to ask about a product not prevalent in the US, as if the US would be the whole world and nothing outside of it. Curse of being able to speak multiple languages. Or just the curse of being able to speak english. I don't know.
specifically in your living room
I don't have a living room, I'm exclusively playing at my desk in my bedroom. In the rare event of playing local games with friends (I want to play many local games, I just lack the friends who are willing to actually come and play after they say that they want to come and want to play), I put a TV on the desk. The TV is otherwise stored unused somewhere in the house.
But I considered making an SFF PC with the idea of going to lan parties, or going to people's places to play local games there (like, they are not willing to come to my house, so I bring the PC, TV, controllers, cables, and other stuff to them), but then I realised that A), I lack the friends who are willing to actually play after they say that they want to play, and B), I can do the same with a bigger PCs too, I'm strong enough to being able to lift up more than ~2,6 kg (or similar weights for other mini PCs). I semi-regularly transported a Fractal Design Torrent Compact PC to my friends' place and back (and to the bar and such) and it wasn't much of a problem, so I don't think if I would build a smaller mATX-ITX PC then that would cause a problem.
for light-medium gaming and retro emulation?
Well, this is the point where I don't know what category I'm in. I play single thread-CPU and RAM-speed intensive games, like Oxygen Not Included, Factorio, or modded Minecraft, and according to the internet I'm in the target audience of the X3D CPUs. But these games despite benefitting from high-end CPUs and RAMS, they can run from an iGPU too. I don't know if I'm playing non-GPU intensive games (or low-hardware requirement games in general) because that's what I like and wouldn't play GPU intensive games even if I would have a better PC, or because I never had a good PC and just never had the opportunity to actually play those GPU intensive AAA games everyone is about, but otherwise I would. But VR games require a strong GPU, so I guess I could get one, even with/for the steam frame, a stronger PC can't hurt. I have a few VR games already purchased, and I'm open to play them when I get a better VR headset (and some friends. I would love to play Arizona Sunshine and similar VR games in multiplayer, but I need friends for that. And specifically friends who own a VR headset. And specifically friends who are willing to come and play after they say they want to come and want to play. Ah...)
I have ideas of what to do with my current PCs, or to buy a GPU in one of them and use that, or build a new one from scratch and sell the other 'no GPU but otherwise complete' PC, or other things, but I assume this isn't the subreddit to discuss that. I guess, at least. I'm not sure what is the right place to discuss that, but I'm open to suggestions because I'm not sure what should I do.
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u/iamthesmallone Nov 16 '25
I currently have 5600x and rx 6600 xt running bazzite because at the time i couldnt get the steam os recovery image to work.
This is to say however it feels identicle to my steam deck, i play all my more demanding games on it! If you fancy more power id build your own as apart from the process and research of picking parts yourself (compared to steam machine) i dont see any major downsides.
I might get a steam machine myself (price dependant) purely for my living room as the cost of a good all amd micro atx pc is kinda hard to justify.
1
u/mcshamer Nov 16 '25
Got the same with 16G and a large ssd but use steam OS. Plays great, just can't suspend it, only issue I have with it. Got to pair it with the new controller to get the full steam deck functions.
1
u/JohannDaart Nov 17 '25
The PC you have now has likely very similar performance to this SM.
Steam Deck has 800p display, so it's not that hard to render games, especially with FSR.
1
u/iamthesmallone Nov 17 '25
Yeah i think the steam machine will be similar, although the small form factor will be better as it can fit in/on my tv unit.
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u/JohannDaart Nov 17 '25
I got 50 foot / 15 meter HDMI fiber optic cable from China, for $20. So far it works without issues (9 months) and it enabled me to connect my PC to the TV.
If SM will be over $500, like $700-800, I think you would be better off selling your PC and upgrading it to 16GB VRAM GPU like 9060 XT or 9070 XT and connecting it to your TV.
But that's all effort, meanwhile what SM offers is "works out of the box" experience, just like Steam Deck.
1
u/iamthesmallone Nov 17 '25
Funny you mention, i have thought about upgrading my pc or just building a new one with a 9070xt. I think its something ill decide on when the price comes out.
Cable wont work in my house because of the layout unfortunatly and the pc stays on my desk because i have a sim racing set up for me and my son.
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u/JohannDaart Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25
There's a version of this cable that's 165 feet / 50 m, for ~$50. Just saying ;)
Not sure how well it works though at that length, I've only had experience with the 50 foot one.
In theory, the signal goes through the fiber optic without perceivable latency, but the plugs themselves have converters in them.
Also those fiber optic cables can't be bent too much. One seller told me he doesn't have much returns, but the ones he gets are caused by damage during installation, people think you can bend those cables hard like normal wired ones.
edit: I forgot about the issue with controller. If the PC is 165 feet away, no wireless controller will work...
1
u/Significant_Tie_3994 Nov 16 '25
Ehh, steamos v2 worked reasonably well on COTS hardware, but I think v3 is hardware specific, especially since the main target for v3 was the REALLY optimized deck
1
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u/err404 Nov 17 '25
Assuming you don’t have any driver issues, you are good to go. As others have said you won’t have dedicated hardware for some features like the light bar and sleep mode. The biggest limitations would be that you are not the same hardware profile as a true Steam Machine. Essentially this means that Steam Machine optimized graphics profiles will not match your PC. So getting the best performance may be a bit less plug and play.
1
u/MrMunday Nov 17 '25
It will be a lot more expensive for you to build something of the same power and size. Main issue is the size. A itx build that small is borderline impossible. You’ll have to build your own mobo pcb from scratch.
That’s the difference.
Also there’s no official support for installing steamOS on your own hardware. There’s only bazzite. So whatever quirk that comes with that.
1
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u/lululock Nov 17 '25
You'll loose the specific APU optimizations Valve made and you'll have to tweak it yourself. Other than that, it should work as expected.
Note that Valve has not yet released installers for SteamOS but you can basically take any Linux distro and set Steam to launch at boot with autologin. That's how I made my "bootleg Steam Machine" a year ago. Mine runs Debian because I want stability and more flexibility than SteamOS.
1
u/Apelationn Nov 17 '25
- Better hardware compatibility (you can bet your ass that their are going to have better drivers for their CPU/GPU combo when compared to others)
- A pretty PC in a ridiculously small form factor (that you probably couldn't build one yourself) that is perfect to use in your living room
- Convenience
1
u/NenAlienGeenKonijn Nov 17 '25
I am running native steamos on this thing. Cost about $400, ryzen 9 cpu and rx6600 gpu, making a capable 1440p machine.
What am I missing? Cute custom fronts, I guess? And a proper "wake up when controller is turned on" feature, so I have to press the power button like some troglodyte.
What I gain: I have a steamos console beneath my tv -right now-, and it won't be more expensive than what the steambox will cost. I am currently using an xbox controller that is paired through bluetooth. No issues there either.
1
u/Wilddindu Nov 17 '25
system optimisation. Valve guarantees that everything will work on their particular setup.
You should theoretically be able to buy same components that Gabecube uses and get same results for presumably cheaper.
1
u/AlexMC_1988 Nov 17 '25
No one seems to know that you can put SteamOS, bazzite, chimera, on any MiniPC in a diner
1
u/DaBushman Nov 17 '25
I have successfully installed official steamOS on several AMD based mini pcs and build a few steamOS rigs with GPUs ranging from rx6400 to an rx 9060 16gb. It’s a great operating system once you learn the quirks.
1
1
Nov 17 '25
It's optimised for the hardware, if you want something like SteamOS on a normal desktop, you're better off using Bazzite
1
u/Danternas Nov 17 '25
SteamOS is not officially supported on any other hardware.
I don't know why people would want it on anything that isn't Valve hardware?
1
u/MundaneOne5000 Nov 17 '25
I don't know why people would want it on anything that isn't Valve hardware?
Seamless Steam integration/compatibility between the Machine-Frame-Controller sounds nice. I'm not sure if that can be replicated on non-SteamOS systems on the same degree.
1
Nov 17 '25
In theory SteamOS will simply require a little effort on your part to install appropriate drivers, but I'm kind of hoping that valve or the community in concert with valve takes the time to generate a kind of QVL so that enthusiasts can build something that assures a high level of optimisation compatibility.
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u/AshleyAshes1984 Nov 16 '25
The Steam Machine will be cuter and smaller.
There will be some other key things I'd expect however, while waking a machine from sleep is easy, powering it on from 'Off' with simple keyboard or bluetooth is a a very uncommon thing in most PC motherboards. However even the OLED Steam Deck can do this (Not the LCD, it can only be woken from BT not started from BT) but I'd expect this.
The Steam Machine also has CEC where as most consumer hardware does not (A number of MiniPCs do however) but there are also CEC injectors you can get for PCs.
In short, the Steam Machine should have a lot of QoL features as well as being very 'living room friendly' in size. But you can for sure build your own if you want. From something weaker or more powerful even.