Amidst ongoing supply chain challenges, resourceful gamers are taking matters into their own hands, creating functional PC gaming consoles at a fraction of the anticipated cost of Valve’s forthcoming Steam Machine.
By Jesús García on 02/12/2026
Valve announced earlier this month that it is delaying the release of the Steam Machine, citing ongoing issues with RAM availability and rising prices. The company stated it prefers to monitor market evolution before finalizing launch plans and pricing.
“The limited availability and increasing prices of these key components force us to review both the exact launch schedule and pricing policy,” the company communicated on its official blog. Whereas the console is highly anticipated, many experts believe that, given the current context, its price could exceed $1,000.
In response, a community of modders and enthusiasts has begun building their own versions of the Valve console, aiming to minimize expenses. One recent example comes from the YouTube channel ETA Prime, specializing in retro consoles and PC gaming, who published a video demonstrating how to build a “homemade” Steam Machine.
The hardware used includes an ASRock BC-250 mining board equipped with a grade B PS5 SoC with several components disabled. Its exact specifications are: six Zen 2 cores with 12 threads, 24 RDNA 2 CUs, and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. Compared to the base PlayStation 5 model, this build has 25% fewer cores and 33% fewer GPU cores.
Due to the recent drop in cryptocurrency prices, which is causing many users to stop mining, ETA Prime asserts that ASRock BC-250 boards are appearing on eBay for prices between $100 and $150, prompting the purchase for this “build.”
Capable of Achieving 60fps at 1080p
Despite offering less power than a PS5, the creator found that the BC-250 board can deliver performance very close to what is expected from the upcoming Steam Machine. After overclocking the GPU to 2000 MHz, they achieved over 150 FPS in Left 4 Dead 2 at maximum settings.
Spider-Man 2 reached 60 FPS at medium quality with FSR in balanced mode, while The Witcher 3 achieved 75 FPS at high settings. In the case of Forza Horizon 5, performance was at 80 FPS with medium settings, and Cyberpunk 2077 approached 60 FPS also at medium quality. All titles were running at a resolution of 1080p.
However, it’s not without its drawbacks. The user had to update the BIOS to a custom version for it to function as a gaming console. It also has some storage issues and is not compatible with standard PC cases or cooling solutions. Nevertheless, it remains an impressive build and is currently perhaps one of the most affordable ways to enter the world of PC gaming.
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Scavenging in electronic landfills: players search discarded computers to rescue RAM and other parts from inside→ Modder fits a complete RTX 3050 inside an Xbox One S to turn it into a silent gaming PC with an RTX 3050 that reaches 200 FPS at 1080p→
