At the beginning of August 2026, Valve revealed to the market the official value of the basic edition of its latest hybrid equipment, the Steam Machine. The device hits international shelves costing US$1,128, an amount that represents around R$5,739.83 in direct currency conversion, disregarding the heavy Brazilian customs fees. The North American manufacturer’s proposal is quite clear and ambitious: to take the vast library of its virtual games store directly to users’ televisions, eliminating the need for traditional tables and monitors. This strategy seeks to hook the public that prefers the convenience of desktop consoles, but does not want to give up the ecosystem and prices practiced in the world of computers.

Despite the undeniable convenience of transforming the living room into a true digital entertainment center, the recently announced hardware delivers firepower considered intermediate if placed side by side with current generation high-performance computers. To date, the company responsible for the project has not released an official launch schedule or a price list aimed specifically at the Brazilian public. This lack of official information generates great expectations, but also frustration among local consumers who were waiting for a simultaneous global launch.

Learn more: Find out if investing $1,049 in an old Steam Machine is still worth it

With detailed technical specifications on the table and the imminence of high import duties, the national public is faced with a complex financial and technological dilemma. The big question that hangs over technology enthusiasts is whether the investment in bringing the device from abroad is more worthwhile than buying separate components on the domestic market. The idea would be to assemble a customized machine with equivalent or even greater capacity, spending practically the same amount and guaranteeing technical support within the national territory.

What’s under the hood of new Valve-designed hardware

To bring the system to life and ensure fluidity in recent launches, the manufacturer entered into a strategic partnership with AMD to develop an exclusive processor, entirely based on the praised Zen 4 architecture. This customized chip has six physical cores and 12 processing threads, operating with an extremely efficient energy consumption limit of 30W (TDP). During moments of high demand, such as complex open-world scenes, the central processing unit can reach clock speeds that reach the 4.8 GHz mark, ensuring frame rate stability.

On the same topic: New Valve controller hits the market with advanced features and limitations on macOS

The visual department of the equipment also carries AMD’s customized DNA, using modern RDNA 3 technology in a custom-designed graphics card. This GPU has 28 computing units, peak frequencies of 2.45 GHz and a TDP set at 110W, accompanied by 8 GB of VRAM memory in the fast GDDR6 standard. The internal set is completed with 16 GB of DDR5 RAM, which fortunately allows future expansion by the user, as well as internal storage options in ultra-fast SSD of 512 GB or 2 TB, also supporting the addition of micro SD cards for those who need extra space for lighter games.

The user interface and hardware resource management are handled by Steam OS, the company’s own operating system built on a Linux base. This software has gained worldwide notoriety in recent years for seamlessly running native Windows titles through the Proton code translation layer. The great asset of this system embedded in the new device is the absolute synergy with the internal parts, guaranteeing exclusive usability functions. A practical example is the ability to automatically turn the television on and off via an HDMI cable (CEC technology), a native feature on desktop consoles, but quite complex to configure natively on a traditional Windows desktop.