Valve has put out an official overview and quick start guide for the Steam Machine, a roughly five-minute video that walks through unboxing the hardware and getting it arrange. The video comes a few days after Valve confirmed the $1,049 starting price and June 30 release date earlier this week, with reservations closing June 25, so consider it because the setup manual for anyone who manages to get one.
Many of the video is a simple hardware walkthrough, and the headline details line up with what Valve has already shared. The Steam Machine is about six inches square, roughly the dimensions of a tissue box, with an internal power supply so there’s no brick to cover. The 2TB model ships with two extra swappable faceplates, one in solid walnut and one in red fabric, and Valve says it’s going to release CAD files so the community can design and print their very own. A built-in wireless adapter also permits you to pair as much as 4 Steam Controllers directly, no charging puck required.
On the software side, the walkthrough leans on the Steam Deck comparison throughout. Steam Machine runs SteamOS similar to the Deck, so that you get the identical gamepad-first interface, a desktop mode, and the Verified program that tells you at a look how well a game runs. Obviously, the difference between the 2 devices is power. Valve has pegged the Steam Machine at roughly six times the horsepower of the Steam Deck, and says many games that were unsupported or merely playable on the Deck are actually Verified and run well here. The video also reminds you to not set it directly on carpet or wedge it into an enclosed space, because it pulls cooling air in through the underside.
When Valve first revealed the hardware last November, we said we hoped it will land at a price competitive with consoles. At $1,049 to begin, it didn’t, though Valve has pinned much of that on the memory and storage shortages that drove up component costs. The Steam Machine launches June 30, and this overview video is Valve’s way of showing what you really get within the box before then.
Steam Machine – Official Overview and Quick Start Guide