In the six months since Valve announced the Steam Machine, PC gaming hardware has continued to get more expensive, and now that the Steam Deck has an official price increase, anyone hoping to get a Steam Machine for less than a thousand bucks is probably going to be disappointed.
When I visited Valve to take an early look at the Steam Machine last year, I was told that the price would be competitive with a comparable gaming PC. My gut feeling at the time was that would mean a $1,200 sticker price, which I walked back on once I started doing the math, figuring it would settle at around $800. But I wasn’t taking a months-long RAM crisis into consideration.
Welcome to The Desert of the RAM
In the months since this all started, there have been these momentary glimpses of lower prices. I’ve been using this basic kit of G.Skill Flare X5 RAM as a sort of barometer for the memory market, and right now it’s ‘on sale’ for $404. That’s a high price to be sure, but it is about 10% lower than it’s been for months. But, like all the other dips that have happened recently, that price will probably bounce back up in a few days.
Even back in January, I was told by analyst Anshel Sag that this RAM crisis would be a long-term affair, and that just continues to be the case. But at least for the first few months, DIY PC builders were facing most of the pain. For a while at least, prebuilt gaming PCs and laptops were eating the price while the manufacturers had inventory to spare. But it seems like those days are drawing to an end.
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