Your PC Can Become Steam Machine, Valve Confirms

Support for NVIDIA hardware is also on the way.

Valve

The Steam Machine's announcement landed poorly due to its over $1,000 cost, despite Valve's efforts to explain why it's priced well above a standard console. On the positive side, though, it seems that we have Steam Machines at home.

Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that users will be able to build a custom Steam Machine using SteamOS. "Starting with the SteamOS 3.8 release, you can put together your own Steam Machine using whatever PC parts you want." While he did not provide specific timeframes, Griffais also said that Valve is actively working on NVIDIA driver support for SteamOS.

SteamOS 3.8.10 was released just last week. In Valve's Steam Machine FAQ, the company addresses the question "If I don't get a Steam Machine right away, is there anything else I can do?":

"Thanks to the openness of the PC platform, there are lots of options for devices that will allow you to run games natively or streamed to your TV. There are many PC sites and communities out there that can help you with that.

For our part, we are continuing to work toward enabling SteamOS to be used on more hardware than just ours. In fact, with the newly-released SteamOS 3.8, you can run the same code and operating system as Steam Machine on your own living-room PC using whatever PC parts you want: learn more here. Right now, only AMD GPUs are supported, but we're working on expanding support for the future."

Griffais says that SteamOS in its current form should work best on console-like setups where the PC is paired to a TV and runs on a single-boot hard drive.

Installing SteamOS on non-AMD hardware is technically possible, but far more complex than it should be. Valve is reportedly working to address all the compatibility limitations. However, building a gaming PC right now will probably cost about the same as a Steam Machine because of the RAM shortage.

Don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter and join our 80 Level Talent platform, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Are you a fan of what we do here at 80 Level? Then make sure to set us as a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our content in your feed.