Valve’s Steam Machine is expensive. I built a DIY rival for $150 less

Yesterday, after months of hand-wringing, Valve finally revealed the price of its second-generation Steam Machine. It’s $1,049, several hundred dollars more than just about everyone was expecting when it was first previewed last year. It’s the worst time to build or sell a gaming PC in decades right now, but you can still do a little better if you hunt for a bit.

Given that Valve is intending to expand its Linux-based SteamOS to self-built hardware, and you’ve got plenty of other options like Bazzite besides, I decided to see if I could leverage those Amazon Prime Day deals into an equivalent desktop PC build that costs less. And I did, with a little help from PCPartPicker. Picking and choosing between Amazon and Newegg, and with a coupon code, I managed to build a desktop PC with an AMD 6-core processor and 8GB graphics card for $887.52. That’s at the time of writing — the PC hardware market is so volatile that that figure could change at pretty much any time.

Here are the pieces I chose, and my rationale for doing so. I wouldn’t actually build this desktop instead of, say, buying a used PS5, or an older gaming laptop. But it’s an option. Such is life in the age of “AI” gobbling up all the manufacturing capacity.

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X ($147)

This Ryzen 7000-series CPU matches the Steam Machine’s spec, which lists a “semi-custom AMD Zen 4, 6-core, 12-thread” chip with 30 watts of TDP and a top speed of 4.8GHz. The 7600X should technically be more powerful than that — its base clock is 4.7GHz with a boost up to 5.3GHz, though it uses a lot more power at 105 watts by default. I dare say AMD and Valve’s custom tuning on a similar chip will give it an advantage, and neither one of them use that magic 3D V-cache, but it’s still a fantastic mid-range CPU for gaming.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X CPU

Graphics Card: XFX Radeon RX 7600 ($280)

Valve says the discrete GPU in the Steam Machine is a “Semi-custom AMD RDNA3” card with 28 compute units, 110 watts of TDP, and 8 gigabytes of VRAM. Given those specs, it’s almost certainly a variant of the RX 7600. Again, the retail card technically has slightly higher specs, with 32 compute units and a faster boost clock. But I’ll bet that the one in the Steam Deck does better with “certified” games.

XFX Radeon RX 7600 graphics card

RAM: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan 2 x 8GB DDR5-6000 ($180 with coupon code)

This is the part that really hurts with the sticker shock, at least if you know what RAM used to cost. Valve says the Steam Machine has 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and this is the cheapest I could find for a dual-DIMM package. 6000 speed isn’t the fastest out there, but it won’t bottleneck your other parts.

Team Group 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR5-6000 RAM

Storage: ADATA Legend 710 512GB PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD ($70)

If there’s a weak spot in this build, here it is, a third-generation PCIE NVMe drive that’s just 512GB. That matches the base model Steam Machine (the 2TB upgrade is $300 more), but Valve isn’t saying how fast its included SSDs are either way. I won’t lie, that’s not a great drive for 2026, but I’m currently using a third-gen SSD in my gaming desktop. It’s fine, and still far better than any SATA drive.

AData Legend 710 512GB M.2 SSD

Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro WiFi Micro ATX ($100)

A MicroATX motherboard won’t let you cram your build into a teeny tiny case like the Steam Deck. But this AM5 board does pack Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for easy connections anywhere in your house, and upgrades for any component should be easy, including the CPU, GPU, and RAM. That last one is especially relevant — with four total DIMM slots, you can expand to 32GB easily, if you manage to stumble across a little more memory (or cannibalize it from another build). An upgrade to an AM5 X3D CPU is also easy.

ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi AM5 AMD B650 Micro ATX Motherboard

CPU cooler: Thermalright Assassin X ($17)

Beggars can’t be choosers. This is the cheapest air cooler, from a reliable brand, that’ll fit with the CPU socket and inside the case.

Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE V2 CPU cooler

Case: Zalman CUBIX MicroATX ($30)

It’s not as adorable as the Steam Machine, but it is compact, vaguely rectangular, and affordable. Note that there’s no MicroSD card slot or USB-C on the front — you’ll have to rely on the motherboard’s rear connections and an adapter. But at least there’s plenty of room for expansion, so long as you stick to a GPU with a maximum length of 260mm.

Zalman Cubix mATX PC case

Power supply: Rosewill 750-watt ATX ($44)

Oof, it pains me to recommend a power supply with no modular cables in 2026. And that price might only be good for Prime Day. You might be able to find a 600-watt power supply with modular cables for the same price, but you trade away some room for upgrades.

Rosewill 750-watt ATX power supply

Operating system: SteamOS or Bazzite

Windows 11 should run fine on the parts above, and you can install it for free and just ignore the constant nagging to register. That’s probably the easiest way to actually play games on this setup. But Bazzite is almost as easy, and it’s pre-configured for Steam. Or just skip the middleman and install SteamOS, which supports any home-built hardware as of version 3.8.10. You’ll want to stick to AMD processors and graphics cards, at least for now, but it should “just work,” more or less.

Again, I have to stress that the PC hardware market is incredibly volatile right now. The prices for the above parts will almost certainly shift around — PCPartPicker will help you quickly find alternatives, if you need them. And I have to say that this isn’t necessarily a good idea, more of a mental exercise and an option, in the likely event that you can’t get a Steam Machine order in later this week.

Good luck out there.