Steam Machine: RAM And SSD Shortages Pushed Steam Machine Beyond What Valve Originally Planned To Charge
According to BBC, Valve’s new Steam Machine will launch on June 30 at £879 for the base 512GB model in the UK, significantly more than the company originally intended to charge, with Valve blaming a sustained component crisis driven by RAM and SSD shortages.
Four versions are available: a 512GB model at £879, a 512GB bundle with the new Steam Controller at £938, a 2TB model at £1,149, and a 2TB bundle with Steam Controller and two extra faceplates at £1,208. Valve has said it cannot absorb the cost difference itself, so buyers bear the full weight of the increase.
Under the hood, the Steam Machine runs a custom six-core AMD Zen 4 chip clocked up to 4.8GHz, paired with AMD RDNA3 graphics featuring 28 compute units, 16GB DDR5 RAM and 8GB GDDR6 for the GPU. The machine ships with SteamOS 3 pre-installed, though users can install Windows or Linux.
1080p and 1440p gaming are realistic targets, but 4K at 60fps on demanding titles requires AMD’s FSR3 upscaling — it is not native.
To combat scalping, pre-orders require a Steam account in good standing with a purchase made before April 17, 2026. Registrations close June 25, after which Valve will randomise the queue and send purchase invitations from June 29.
At nearly £900 for the base model, Valve is asking buyers to choose the Steam ecosystem over a more powerful gaming PC at a similar price. That is a harder sell than it sounds.
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