Saving for a PC or wait for a Steam Machine? - Console peasant looking to join PC Master Race

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The Last Stand

The Last Stand

Lady Bougainvillea
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Aug 17, 2018
I'm looking into saving for a gaming computer. My minimum requirements for a personal gaming computer would be:

  • Proper emulation for PS3 games
  • Balance of performance and graphics
  • On range with Xbox Series X to ponder playing newer games
  • Multitasking for web browsing
Would that be possible with a budget of $1200-1500 or even lower or just wait for a Steam Machine? I would think if it can emulate PS3 games, Dolphin and PSPSSP would be just fine. I'm mainly interested in older games.
 
a low/mid end PC is affordable with that budget, considering you find cheap RAM sticks for now.
 
Buy me a PC and I'll send you long letters describing games, the internet, anything you want. I'm a giver.
 
WeWuzFinns said:
Now is probably the worst time to get a new PC since 1980s
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True, but that doesn't mean things can't get even worse. With the AI bubble who knows when RAM prices will go back down, could be many years (and what of new non-ML focused GPUs?) Valve probably got a decent price having put in a wholesale order in advance, so if looking for a budget PC I'd definitely wait for the steam machine (also lets you escape Windows 11 niggerhell). Non-Valve distros are almost there as well, but there's still some game fuckery with certain (usually badly coded) titles alongside random other quirks one needs to tinker around with (HDR stuff). Though it's definitely works much better out of the box than even a few years ago.
 
My thinking, and this is just my thinking, if the MS Windows 11 fuckery continues, AND Steam can release a solid PC based SteamOS AND keep most of the base opensourced you will see a true linux alternative for high end gaming this year.

The developers will follow.
 
The Last Stand said:
I basically just want a superconsole. Emulation and all that jazz. And maybe a 4K wallpaper of Ingrid Bergman or Joan Crawford. And free multiplayer.
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yes even my prebuilt pc with specs from 2019/2020 does all those things.

ps3 emulation made some progress since they could reverse engineer the CPU and boosted its performance on the emulator.

theres Wallpaper Engine for windows if you want fancy wallpapers, even animated ones and full videos as well.

multiplayer will always be free, as long as you pay for your internet.
 
The Last Stand said:
I would think a high end computer could be optimized to run PS3 games provided the right components are in play. I thought PS3 emulation has improved as of late.
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It's still super CPU heavy

Steam Machine is not upgradable except for ram and storage, but upgrading storage (the SSD not the SD card) means you have to re-install the OS.

If you build your own or buy a prebuilt, unless its DDR5 you are locking yourself in and would need to replace the motherboard should you decide to upgrade, but DDR5 is retardedly expensive right now so I wouldn't do that. Unless you wait, best option is a prebuilt since they had RAM deals from before the shortage, or used if you can find prices that aren't stupid.
 
herefortheactualthreads said:
yes even my prebuilt pc with specs from 2019/2020 does all those things.
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What are your specs if you don't mind me asking?

Steam Machine still sounds enticing as a console/PC hybrid where you could plug and play.

Soggy Floppa said:
It's still super CPU heavy

Steam Machine is not upgradable except for ram and storage, but upgrading storage (the SSD not the SD card) means you have to re-install the OS.
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That's fine. I would think the CPU for the Steam Machine COULD handle that since it's newer.
 
Definitely go for PC, you have full freedom over all software onboard including OS without any fuckery. You can just turn it in to a different system one day if you're fed up. More work no doubt, but also more reward in the long run. This is despite any comparison in price, you're just getting a more comprehensive and personalisation friendly system with a PC.
 
No point spending a thousand dollars on some fancy gadget when the Atari 2600+ costs only ~$130 new and plays all the classics, from Yars' Revenge to Missile Command.
 
Looking at what you want, I could give my two cents on it
The Last Stand said:
  • Proper emulation for PS3 games
  • Balance of performance and graphics
    ...
  • Multitasking for web browsing
  • Would that be possible with a budget of $1200-1500
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For these kinds of use cases, the Steam Machine would seem like a good choice. It may cost less than the usual PC (especially if you compare it to something like the Framework Desktop, which is more powerful but also potentially 3x as expensive). PS3 emulation has been conquered with the addition of AVX-512 on Zen 4 and 5, which the Steam Machine will definitely feature. However...
The Last Stand said:
  • On range with Xbox Series X to ponder playing newer games
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The Steam Machine is not very upgradable. Yes, you can change the SSD and RAM sticks, but you will be stuck with a (pretty good) laptop-tier GPU with 8GB of VRAM. It will probably be good enough for all of your games, but PCs are made to be upgraded.
If I were to purchase a new computer, I would divide the build in three purchases:
  1. Try to look for a combo deal for RAM. Online dealers may bundle a power supply, motherboard and other stuff in order to prevent scalpers from buying everything.
  2. You can purchase a used GPU on eBay, if you know where to look for. AMD 7000 GPUs can be bought at a reasonable price.
  3. Get the other components as needed.
I did spend around $1500 on a new build, however you have to consider I already owned a GPU and power supply, plus it was before the huge price hike on chips.
If the rumors are true, the Steam Machine will release in February/March. It may not be the best computer for $1000, but it would be fair enough for most of your games.
 
HairyBadger said:
My thinking, and this is just my thinking, if the MS Windows 11 fuckery continues, AND Steam can release a solid PC based SteamOS AND keep most of the base opensourced you will see a true linux alternative for high end gaming this year.

The developers will follow.
Click to expand...
I don’t think it’ll happen overnight but I’m :optimistic: it will happen. Without gaming/ease-of-use the only thing Windows will have in its favor vs. a Linux distro is the office suite (excel primarily) which only really matters for business/accounting. (Also for laptops I know many windows-die hards have already switched to a Mac for that ARM-based Apple-Silicon that doesn’t chew through battery like x86).
 
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