Ever wished the Steam Deck looked a bit more retro — or indeed a lot more retro? Meet the 'SteamBoy', which takes the innards of Valve's handheld and transplants them into a case styled on the Game Boy.
Steam Deck HQ noticed this clever piece of modding in the form a project by 'PhyFawkes' as posted on Reddit (via VideoCardz).
The SteamBoy uses the motherboard, controller, buttons, speakers, and battery from the Steam Deck, fitting the components into a case which the maker says is the same dimensions as an original Game Boy, with a thickness of 32mm (yes, it's thick).
PhyFawkes explains: "The battery is the original battery, and it basically takes up the whole width of the device on the inside. It's sandwiched between the motherboard and the display. The motherboard and controller boards are completely intact as well."
The only element that isn't functional yet is the screen, so this device is still a work in progress. The Redditor has demonstrated it working on an external monitor, though.
The snag with getting the screen going is that the motherboard firmware reports the display properties directly to SteamOS, and so the firmware details must be updated with the info for the new screen. The Redditor says it hopefully it won't take too long to sort this out.
Another part of the recipe that's missing is the triggers, but PhyFawkes says that they might be able to add them eventually, but that space constraints with the case could make this too tricky a proposition.
Apparently the handheld runs cool enough with some slight under-volting. All in all, this a very smart-looking project, and I'm seriously impressed. The case itself is 3D-printed, with the Redditor noting that they're going to provide the details on how to make one for those who might want to try their hand at this enterprising piece of handheld DIY.
Of course, constructing something like this is well beyond the scope of your average gamer, and there are fans of this concept out there who'd be willing to pay money for a SteamBoy of their own. Plenty of them, in fact, as the reception for this project has been nothing short of glowing.
As someone on Reddit put it: "This is legitimately so cool. I would totally back something like this on Kickstarter."
Another Redditor said: "Looks amazing! I'd probably buy 2 of these bad boys."
Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery life
Samsung’s latest folding phone breaks the mould with a squat, passport-like shape reminiscent of the Blackberry, which opens up to become a tablet similar to an iPad mini. It is certainly a better shape for a tablet than other designs, but is a short and wide phone when closed a compromise too far?
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new variant in Samsung’s foldable family for this year launched alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra with a more familiar candy bar shape. Both folders are extremely expensive, with the Fold 8 starting at £1,699 (€1,999/$1,899.99/A$2,699) and the Fold 8 Ultra at £1,899 (€2,199/$2,099.99/A$2,999), with RAMageddon driving up prices even at the top of the market.
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© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
I was fourteen or so when I went to the Gadget Show Live (once a big tech event in the UK which showed off the latest technology) in 2016 as a punter and overheard someone on a stand I'd visited mention they'd spent £1,000 on a custom gaming PC.
A thousand pounds. On a computer. I remember turning that figure over in my head (it's roughly $1,400) and not quite being able to make sense of it, not necessarily because I couldn't fathom how much money that was, but because at the time, it seemed like a lot of money to spend on a PC without any frame of reference as to what that price got you.
As it turned out, £1,000 would have bought you an upper mid-range system back then, and speccing a top-end system of the time would have added an awful lot more to my 'dream budget'. A properly specced 3XS system built around Intel's then-flagship Kaby Lake processor, the Core i7-7700K, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, would set you back around £1,700 including VAT.
Nvidia went one further with the venerable GTX 1080 Ti, which arrived in March 2017. It immediately became the card every serious PC gamer wanted, and pushed that high price even higher. Nonetheless, you still got an entire top-of-the-range PC for that price.
Here's what's strange about that number in 2026: it's roughly what you'd pay for a flagship graphics card alone. Nvidia's RTX 5090 should retail for roughly in line with what this entire PC cost, although the Asus ROG RTX 5090 Astral I've got for testing is over double the RRP of this PC, even taking inflation into account.
Intriguingly, the GPU that was the ceiling of consumer ambition in 2017 is now, in isolation, cheaper than a mid-range graphics card in 2026. Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti launched at £699 / $699 (about AU$930); the RTX 5090 launched at £1,799, at least for the Founder's Edition card.
That's not a like-for-like comparison — flagship GPU pricing has always been a law unto itself — but it does tell you something about the economic difference between these two moments in PC gaming history.
Now, Scan has sent me that exact system, and I've plonked the GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition inside, and I've been running it alongside my own high-spec rig, with an RTX 5090 added for good measure, to see how the decade-old dream holds up.
Here's the entire spec sheet of the 3XS PC that Scan sent my way with the GPU swapped out:
On first impressions, I'm a fan of the Corsair Carbide 400C case, feeling it to be a quieter and more considered choice than a lot of the RGB-laden alternatives that were becoming increasingly common at the time. Coming in white adds a bit of style to proceedings, and it seems roomy enough for the build on offer here. The hinged door with glass window is a nice touch, too.
Inside, the Asus ROG Strix Z270F Gaming motherboard is decently feature-rich and adds a smattering of RGB in the top corner to sit alongside the white LEDs of the RAM and the stock case fan inside. The Samsung 960 Evo SSD would have been top spec at the time, but is the one component that feels particularly outdated. It's a fast, capable boot drive, but is easily filled up with a modern Windows 11 installation and a game or two. Back in 2017, you'd have definitely wanted a hard drive installed as well.
Then there's the GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition. Nvidia's reference cooler on the Ti was a meaningful step up from the blower-style designs of previous generations, with an open dual-fan layout that kept temperatures in check. It's a handsome card even by today's standards and feels more restrained than the AIB partner designs that surrounded it. Holding it in 2026 feels like handling something from a very specific and rather significant chapter in GPU history, given its legendary status.
The 1080 Ti has a reputation that outlasted the hardware cycle it was supposed to belong to. When Nvidia's RTX 2080 Ti arrived in 2018, it brought ray tracing and a steeper price — and offered only a slight bump in rasterisation performance that most 1080 Ti owners looked at the cost of upgrading and decided against it. Even now, folks are asking how good this card is today, which is testament to its performance - and indeed its reputation.
Of course, benchmark numbers are no good in isolation, so for comparison's sake, I'm putting the Scan system against my own personal gaming rig, with the added boost of the RTX 5090. Usually it'd be an RTX 4080 Super, but for a 'dream PC' angle, I needed to go with the modern dream. Here it is in terms of specs:
That isn't too bad of a PC if I do say so myself, and yes, I could use faster RAM or a beefier AMD processor if I wanted to eke out as much performance as possible, but I haven't seen fit to upgrade just yet.
To see how this 2017-era PC performs in the big 2026, I thought it might be fun to run it through a range of games – both ones that are contemporaries of the system and some slightly more modern titles that might push it quite hard. I've also put it through a range of modern benchmark tests to gauge performance against the newer hardware.
To Scan's credit, the machine came running the latest version of Windows 11 25H2 and Nvidia's latest driver release for GTX 10-series desktop cards, driver 582.66, which was a security update released in June 2026.
I've also elected to run games hooked up to my 4K QD-OLED monitor to see how far we can really push this Scan system, running at 1080p, 1440p and 4K to give you a full picture. The RTX 5090 system has also been put through the same tests, as close as possible, to give some comparable results and a frame of reference.
Firstly, I thought it was correct to run the Scan system through some games that would be period-correct for the time this PC was released to give an idea of a baseline. All four titles were run at their maximum settings, for reference.
Far Cry 5 seemed an ideal first candidate, being from 2018, and at the Ultra preset with HD textures enabled, it managed a 113fps average at 1080p. Going up to 1440p pushed things to 95fps, proving some surprisingly playable results. It was only when I got up to 4K that things dipped immensely, with a 50fps average. For reference, the RTX 5090 system hit 186fps at 4K, which tells you something about how much the goalposts have moved.
I followed this up with the original Dirt Rally, a game that relies on a strong CPU to help alongside the 1080 Ti, so the Core i7-7700K has to do a fair bit of heavy lifting. At the Ultra preset, the 1080 Ti managed 127fps at 1080p and 126fps at 1440p — results so close together that the GPU clearly isn't the bottleneck at either resolution; the 7700K is setting the ceiling, and it's holding it pretty well. At 4K, the GPU gets more of a say, and results come in at a still-reasonable 79fps.
However, this revealed one of the bigger gulfs between the older system and my more modern option. The RTX 5090 system managed 304fps at 1080p, 267fps at 1440p, and 225fps at 4K — numbers so high they serve as a reminder of how differently the two machines interpret the same game.
The original Hitman, which uses DirectX 12 at maximum settings, returned 128fps at 1080p, 106fps at 1440p, and 59.5fps at 4K. The RTX 5090 system managed 203fps at 1080p, 191fps at 1440p, and 186fps at 4K — again, the gap narrowing considerably at lower resolutions before opening up at 4K.
I'd argue Rise of the Tomb Raider is the 1080 Ti's finest hour in this period-correct lineup. Running at the Very High preset in DirectX 12, it returned 144fps at 1080p and 110fps at 1440p. These are numbers that would have felt sky-high at the time and still feel impressive today. Even at 4K, the 59.7fps result is the most modern-feeling 4K figure of the four period titles, suggesting this is a game the 1080 Ti was particularly well-matched for, and a near-60fps average provides some very playable results even today.
That is, until you get the RTX 5090 involved – it posted 316fps, 302fps, and 281fps across the three resolutions in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
The older game results paint a flattering picture of the 1080 Ti. However, modern titles are much less kind, as you might expect.
My first port of call was Cyberpunk 2077, perhaps this generation's Crysis equivalent, as it can be quite a demanding title for a range of systems. For the 1080 Ti, at the Ultra preset without any upscaling, it managed 52fps at 1080p — passable, if not quite the experience the game deserves — while 1440p dropped to 32fps, and 4K delivered a deeply unimpressive 13.9fps. Enabling FSR 2.1 Quality improved things to 62fps, 41fps, and 20.5fps across the three resolutions respectively, which at least makes 1080p feel workable.
Beyond that, it's a significant compromise. Ray tracing isn't an option here at all — the 1080 Ti simply has not got the hardware for it, and that means for 2026's most demanding titles, including Indiana Jones & The Great Circle that require hardware-based ray-tracing to even run, you won't be able to play them at all.
The RTX 5090, by contrast, ran the Ultra preset at 173fps, 148fps, and 116fps natively. Plus, a more modern card supplements its raw power with Nvidia's DLSS upscaler and fully-fledged RT performance. With DLSS Transformer enabled, those numbers climbed to 183fps, 170fps, and 167fps. With a combination of Cyberpunk 2077 at its RT: Ultra preset with DLSS Transformer enabled, it managed 130fps, 129fps, and 125fps at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The gap between these two machines in Cyberpunk 2077 is the widest in my entire test suite, and the most instructive.
This is especially true when you take the multi-frame-gen tech Nvidia has put into these new Blackwell cards, acting as a multiplier for 'fake frames' for a smoother feeling experience, as long as you're starting with a solid enough base frame rate so too much latency isn't introduced. With the RT: Ultra preset, and the MFG multiplier set to 4x, the RTX 5090 system managed 511fps at 1080p, 452fps at 1440p and 355fps at 4K, widening the gulf even further.
Returnal tells a similar story for this matchup. The Epic preset returned 57fps at 1080p, 45fps at 1440p, and 27fps at 4K — the 1080p result is playable, but Returnal's fast-paced action makes anything below 60fps feel like a handicap, and 27fps at 4K is below any reasonable threshold. The RTX 5090 managed 231fps, 207fps, and 147fps at the same resolutions. In a game built around sharp reactions and split-second timing, that headroom matters more than in most.
Moving over to Rainbow Six Extraction, I had higher hopes for a more modern eSports-type title. The default Ultra preset includes a Dynamic resolution of 25-100% of the selected one, which is how I left it, revealing 126fps at 1080p, 85fps at 1440p, and a genuinely solid 66fps at 4K. It's the most comfortable the 1080 Ti looks across this entire modern test suite, and a reminder that there are modern titles that aren't particularly demanding, which are still playable on older hardware.
Meanwhile the RTX 5090-equipped modern PC scored 461fps at 1080p, 405fps at 1440p, and 272fps at 4K, and prove the benefit of the bevvy of high refresh rate OLED screens we've begun to see in recent years when paired with such powerful hardware.
For one final test, I thought it'd be interesting to try a super up-to-date Unreal Engine 5-based title in Black Myth Wukong, as one of the few titles that doesn't need any hardware-based ray-tracing, unlike a lot of its contemporaries.
I elected to step down to the Very High preset, with FSR enabled (with a resolution scale of 33 for 4K, 49 for 1440p and 66 for 1080p) and frame-gen on. The result was 46fps at 1080p, 44fps at 1440p, and 40fps at 4K, which make for some remarkably consistent numbers across different resolutions that make it clear that frame-gen is doing some form of heavy lifting to keep the output FPS so stable. The RTX 5090 managed 120fps, 122fps, and 119fps with the same settings.
The synthetic benchmarks tell a predictable story. The 7700K holds up reasonably well in single-core workloads — the gap to the 7800X3D is meaningful but not embarrassing, and is somewhere in the region of 50% depending on which test you trust.
Multi-threaded performance is a different matter, though, where nearly a decade of core count increases and architectural progress make the comparison increasingly one-sided.
On the GPU side, the picture is more interesting. In 3DMark Fire Strike — a DirectX 11 test that's broadly representative of the conditions the 1080 Ti was designed around — the RTX 5090 leads by roughly three time. Push to Fire Strike Ultra at 4K, and that becomes nearly five times, and the Time Spy results, which move into DirectX 12 territory, tell the same story: a 4x gap at 1440p becoming 4.6x at the Extreme variant.
The 1080 Ti doesn't just lose ground to newer hardware — it loses it disproportionately as resolution and API demands increase, which is worth keeping in mind as we come to a judgement on this entire system.
Intel Core i7-7700K + Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti FE | AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D + Nvidia RTX 5090 | |
|---|---|---|
Geekbench 6 | 1,643 (Single) | 2,691 (Single) |
Cinebench R23 | 1,204 (Single) | 1,763 (Single) |
3DMark Fire Strike | 19,076 | 55,465 |
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra | 6,241 | 30,553 |
3DMark Steel Nomad | 1,982 | N/A |
3DMark Time Spy | 7,785 | 31,075 |
3DMark Time Spy Extreme | 3,627 | 16,828 |
The comparisons made here make for a fascinating reminder of just how much the PC gaming landscape has changed over the past decade.
In 2017, £1,700 bought you an entire dream machine built around the best consumer graphics hardware money could buy. In 2026, that same sort of money barely gets you through the door for a flagship GPU alone. The economics are strange, but the performance gulf is telling: the RTX 5090 system is several times faster in many of the tests here, especially as resolutions rise and modern rendering technologies come into play.
However, the old Scan system isn't the write-off those numbers might suggest when you drill down. The GTX 1080 Ti and Core i7-7700K remain a remarkably capable pairing in the games they were designed around, with high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming still very much within reach for those older titles. Even some newer titles remain playable with sensible settings, although the lack of dedicated ray-tracing hardware and modern AI-assisted upscaling means there are increasingly firm limits to what the system can do.
That perhaps says more about how well balanced the original machine was than anything else. The 1080 Ti earned its legendary reputation because it wasn't merely fast for its time, but rather remained relevant for years afterwards, and even now it can still provide a decent experience in the right games. There are still folks talking about how well it does today, which is a testament to its legacy.
Admittedly, the rest of the system has aged more unevenly, with the 16GB of DDR4 memory and tiny 250GB boot drive feeling particularly constrained in 2026, but there is still something satisfying about using a PC that once represented the absolute pinnacle of enthusiast gaming so far removed from the original situation.
The modern machine is undeniably better in almost every measurable sense. It's dramatically faster, more capable at 4K, and supported by technologies that simply didn't exist when the GTX 1080 Ti launched. Features such as DLSS, frame generation and hardware-accelerated ray tracing have changed what we expect from a high-end graphics card, while high-refresh-rate OLED displays, such as the one both systems have been hooked up to from Philips, give all that extra performance somewhere meaningful to go.
Still, there is a certain charm to the 2017 system in my book. It represents a point when a top-end gaming PC felt aspirational but not entirely unattainable — when spending £1,700 could buy the whole dream, rather than just the graphics card. The hardware may no longer be cutting-edge, but it hasn't become entirely obsolete either. If anything, testing it against a 2026 flagship proves just how exceptional the GTX 1080 Ti was, and how long a genuinely well-specced gaming PC can remain enjoyable.
The goalposts have moved enormously, but the old dream still has plenty of game left in it.
You can show hidden files on Mac with a simple keyboard shortcut. You do not need Terminal, an administrator password, or advanced technical knowledge for the most common method.
macOS hides some files because they contain settings, app information, or system resources that people do not normally need to open. These items remain on the Mac, but Finder does not display them during regular use.
You may need to see them when following troubleshooting instructions, opening the hidden Library folder, managing website files, checking app settings, or finding data left behind by an uninstalled application. Once the files are visible, you should avoid deleting anything unless you understand its purpose.
Finder has a built-in shortcut that reveals hidden files and folders instantly. It is the fastest method when you only need temporary access.
Finder > Open Any Folder > Command + Shift + Period (.)
The period is the regular full-stop key on the keyboard. You must press Command, Shift, and Period at the same time.
The folder will update immediately. Hidden items normally appear lighter or more transparent than regular files. This visual difference helps you recognize files that macOS does not usually display.
The shortcut works in most Finder locations, including the user’s Home folder and some folders on external drives. It can also work inside the Open and Save windows presented by Mac applications.
If you do not see any changes, try the shortcut inside your Home folder. The available hidden items depend on the apps and services used on the Mac.
Finder > Go > Home
After the Home folder opens, use the hidden-file shortcut again. You may see items with names that begin with a period, including configuration folders created by applications.
Files beginning with a period are commonly called dot files. macOS and Unix-based applications use them to store settings and other information without filling normal folders with technical data.
The Finder shortcut acts as a visibility switch. Using it a second time conceals the files again.
Finder > Open Any Folder > Command + Shift + Period (.)
Hiding the files does not delete them. Finder simply returns to its normal view.
The user Library is one of the most frequently accessed hidden folders on a Mac. It stores app preferences, browser information, caches, containers, saved states, Mail resources, and other data connected to the signed-in account.
You can open the Library directly without making every hidden file visible.
Finder > Go > Press and Hold Option > Library
The Library option appears in the Go menu while you hold the Option key. Select Library before releasing the key.
This method opens the Library belonging to the current user. Its path is ~/Library, where the tilde represents the user’s Home folder.
The user Library is different from the Library folder located at the top level of the startup disk. The top-level folder contains resources that can be shared by different accounts, while ~/Library primarily contains information for the current account.
Deleting content from the Library can reset an app or remove locally stored information. If troubleshooting instructions tell you to remove a file, confirm its name and location before making any changes.
Finder includes a Go to Folder feature for opening locations that are difficult to find manually. It is useful when you know the folder’s exact path and do not want to reveal every hidden item.
Finder > Go > Go to Folder
You can also reach the same field with a keyboard shortcut.
Finder > Shift + Command + G
A small field will appear. Type or paste the path of the location you want to open, then press Return.
Go to Folder > Enter ~/Library > Press Return
Go to Folder > Enter ~/.ssh > Press Return
The .ssh folder stores information used by Secure Shell tools. It may not exist if SSH software has never created it on the Mac. Finder displaying an error for this path does not necessarily indicate a problem.
Go to Folder > Enter /Library > Press Return
Pay attention to the beginning of each path. ~/Library opens the Library inside the current user’s Home folder. /Library opens the shared Library at the top level of the startup disk.
You can also paste a longer path supplied by an app developer or support technician. Check the spelling carefully because similarly named folders may contain completely different data.
Terminal can change Finder’s hidden-file preference so concealed items remain visible until you change the setting again. This option is helpful during longer troubleshooting or development sessions.
Terminal is included with macOS and can be opened from the Utilities folder.
Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal
A Terminal window will appear with a text prompt. Enter the command exactly as presented and press Return.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true && killall Finder
Finder will close briefly and reopen. This restart allows the new visibility preference to take effect.
The command does not change the files themselves. It tells Finder to display items that macOS normally conceals.
You can reverse the change at any time.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false && killall Finder
Finder will restart once more and return to its regular view.
If Finder does not behave as expected after changing the preference, you can remove the custom value. macOS will then use its default behavior.
defaults delete com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles && killall Finder
Terminal may say that the preference does not exist if no custom value is stored. That message simply means there is no setting to remove.
Terminal can list hidden files without making them appear in Finder. This can be helpful when checking whether a file exists while leaving Finder unchanged.
The ls command displays the contents of a folder. Adding -a includes hidden items, while -l displays details such as permissions, ownership, file size, and modification date.
ls -la ~
The results appear inside Terminal. Names beginning with a period are hidden during normal Finder use.
ls -la
These commands only display information. They do not delete or modify the files shown in the results.
A hidden file is not automatically unnecessary, suspicious, or safe to delete. macOS and installed applications conceal many items to protect settings and reduce clutter.
The .DS_Store file, for example, can store Finder display information for a folder. External drives may include folders such as .Trashes and .Spotlight-V100, which macOS uses for Trash and Spotlight features.
Removing the wrong item can reset an application, delete local information, interrupt syncing, or cause macOS to rebuild a database. Copy an item to a safe location before changing it when troubleshooting instructions require manual file work.
Some system folders remain protected even when Finder displays them. Showing hidden files does not bypass administrator permissions or System Integrity Protection. There is no need to disable Mac security features simply to view a hidden folder.
Applications can also contain internal resources. These files are stored inside an app bundle and are different from standard hidden files.
Finder > Applications > Control-click the App > Show Package Contents
Changing files inside an app bundle can prevent the application from opening. If you need one of its resources, copy that file elsewhere instead of editing the original.
When you finish working, return Finder to its regular view to reduce the chance of accidentally moving or deleting a configuration file.
Finder > Open Any Folder > Command + Shift + Period (.)
The post How to Show Hidden Files on Mac With or Without Terminal appeared first on AppleMagazine.
Apple Intelligence files can occupy several gigabytes of Mac storage because locally downloaded models power text generation, summaries, image creation, Siri requests, and other on-device features. Removing these files can recover valuable space when Apple Intelligence is no longer needed.
Apple lists 7GB of available device storage among the requirements for Apple Intelligence, but the amount displayed on a Mac can be higher. Additional languages, image-generation resources, updated models, and temporary assets can increase the total over time.
The files are managed by macOS and do not appear as ordinary documents that can be moved to the Trash. Apple provides a supported removal method through System Settings: turning off Apple Intelligence causes macOS to remove the downloaded on-device models.
This also disables features that depend on Apple Intelligence. Writing Tools, summaries, Image Playground, Genmoji, intelligent Shortcuts actions, and Apple Intelligence functions inside Siri may become unavailable. Regular Mac applications and the rest of macOS continue working normally.
Recording the available storage before removing the files makes it easier to confirm how much space macOS recovered afterward.
Apple menu > System Settings > General > Storage
Allow the Storage page to finish calculating its categories. The process may take a moment when the Mac contains many applications, local files, connected volumes, or several user accounts.
Apple Intelligence may appear as a separate item within the macOS storage category. Depending on the installed macOS version, some related assets may instead be counted under macOS or System Data.
Note the amount of available storage displayed near the storage graph. Comparing the total free space before and after the procedure is usually more reliable than watching one category because macOS can reclassify system-managed files while deleting them.
Apple menu > System Settings > General > Storage > All Volumes
This view is useful when the internal drive contains several APFS volumes sharing the same physical storage. The available capacity belongs to the shared container rather than remaining permanently assigned to one volume.
The storage used by Apple Intelligence is different from the memory, or RAM, used while features are running. Closing applications may reduce RAM consumption, but it does not delete the models stored on the internal SSD.
Apple Intelligence is available on compatible Macs with Apple silicon. Intel-based Macs do not support the complete Apple Intelligence system and should not contain the same downloadable model collection.
Apple menu > System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Turn off Apple Intelligence > Turn Off Apple Intelligence
The second Turn Off Apple Intelligence command confirms the change. The exact appearance may vary between macOS versions, with the first control presented as either a switch or a button.
Apple says that turning off Apple Intelligence removes the on-device models. There is no separate model manager, Delete Models button, or supported Finder location from which users must remove the files manually.
Keep the Mac connected to power while macOS completes its background storage work. The Apple Intelligence setting changes immediately, but the Storage page may not display the recovered capacity at once.
macOS manages these models through its system asset service. The operating system must identify the associated packages, release them, and recalculate the storage categories. The process can therefore continue after the Apple Intelligence switch has already moved to the off position.
Turning off only individual features does not remove the complete model collection. Disabling notification summaries, Writing Tools, ChatGPT access, or Siri suggestions leaves Apple Intelligence itself active.
A Screen Time restriction also serves a different purpose. It can prevent access to image generation, Writing Tools, and other functions without turning off the underlying intelligence system. Use the Apple Intelligence control inside Apple Intelligence & Siri when the objective is recovering storage.
After macOS has had time to process the removal, return to the Storage page.
Apple menu > System Settings > General > Storage
Wait for the storage graph and categories to finish updating. Compare the new amount of available space with the figure recorded before Apple Intelligence was turned off.
The Apple Intelligence entry may disappear completely, display a smaller amount, or become part of an adjusted macOS or System Data category. The increase in total available storage provides the better indication that the local models were removed.
If the figures have not changed, restart the Mac to refresh its system services and storage calculation.
Apple menu > Restart > Restart
Sign back in, allow the Mac to remain idle for a while, and open the Storage page again.
Apple menu > System Settings > General > Storage
Restarting does not delete the models by itself. Apple Intelligence must remain disabled while macOS completes the removal.
Emptying the Trash is not part of this procedure because macOS does not place Apple Intelligence models there. The Trash affects only files that a user or application has already marked for deletion.
First, verify that the complete Apple Intelligence system is off rather than one related feature.
Apple menu > System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Apple Intelligence
The control should display Apple Intelligence as disabled. If macOS presents another confirmation request, complete it and leave the feature off.
Storage information can take time to settle because macOS also manages caches, local snapshots, temporary update packages, and purgeable files. These categories can change while the Mac is idle, making an immediate before-and-after comparison misleading.
Installing the latest stable macOS update can correct storage reporting or asset-management problems.
Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update
Save current work before installing an update. The Mac may need to restart, and the installation temporarily requires additional free storage.
Beta versions of macOS require extra caution. Development releases may download experimental models, retain previous model revisions, or temporarily change the Apple Intelligence controls. A procedure confirmed for the public version of macOS may not produce the same storage behavior in a beta.
Avoid following online instructions that require starting in macOS Recovery, disabling System Integrity Protection, mounting protected volumes, and deleting folders with names referring to MobileAsset or generative models.
System Integrity Protection prevents applications and administrator accounts from modifying protected parts of macOS. Disabling it weakens that protection and creates the possibility of deleting the wrong asset, leaving macOS with an incomplete model installation, or causing the system database to disagree with the files present on the drive.
A storage utility can help identify how much space system files occupy, but it should not require disabling macOS security to remove Apple Intelligence. If the documented switch leaves a large allocation after a restart and sufficient processing time, Apple Support can investigate the asset database without exposing the Mac to an unsupported system modification.
Turning Apple Intelligence on again reverses the storage saving.
Apple menu > System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Turn On Apple Intelligence
The Mac will download the required local models again. Apple recommends leaving the device connected to Wi-Fi and power while the model download completes.
The post How to Remove Apple Intelligence Files From Your Mac appeared first on AppleMagazine.
MacBook Neo sales have given Apple something the Mac rarely achieved through its premium models: immediate access to the enormous market for affordable everyday notebooks.
The new line arrived in March 2026 with a launch price of $599, or $499 through education pricing. That placed a current MacBook within reach of buyers who previously depended on discounted older models, inexpensive Windows laptops or Chromebooks.
Price opened the door, but appearance helped people walk through it. MacBook Neo entered the market in blush, indigo, silver and citrus, avoiding the visual compromises commonly associated with entry-level computers. The aluminum enclosure, color-matched keyboard and 13-inch Liquid Retina display made it look like a deliberate new Mac rather than a reduced MacBook Air.
Those choices changed the conversation around an affordable Apple notebook. Buyers could select a computer according to personality and style before considering processor benchmarks. Students could carry something visibly different from institutional gray and black laptops. Families could distinguish multiple computers by color, while first-time Mac owners received a product with its own identity.
Early shipment estimates suggest that strategy worked. IDC data shared with TechCrunch placed MacBook Neo shipments at approximately 1.1 million units during the March quarter, even though the computer had been available for only about three weeks. Apple does not disclose sales by individual Mac model, so the figure remains an independent market estimate rather than an official unit count.
The pace was nevertheless substantial enough to make MacBook Neo one of the strongest recent Mac introductions. It also pushed the story beyond one successful product launch. Apple had entered a price segment responsible for tens of millions of notebook purchases each year and found customers who had never seriously considered macOS.
Apple spent years concentrating the MacBook line above the mainstream notebook market. MacBook Air became the accessible model, but its price still placed it beyond many students, families and buyers in countries where local income and currency conversion make Apple hardware especially expensive.
Discounted older MacBook Air generations partially filled that gap. Retailers could keep M1, M2 or M3 models available after newer versions arrived, offering buyers lower prices without Apple designing a dedicated entry-level computer.
That approach had limitations. Availability depended on remaining inventory, configurations varied among retailers and the product still looked like a previous generation being cleared from the channel. It could attract value-conscious buyers, but it did not establish a permanent starting point for the Mac.
MacBook Neo created that starting point. Apple designed the model around an A18 Pro chip rather than the M-series processors used by MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The base configuration included 8GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage, enough for browsing, school assignments, communication, streaming and everyday productivity without competing directly with higher-performance Macs.
The model retained features that buyers encounter every day: an aluminum body, a 13-inch high-resolution display, a Magic Keyboard, a large Multi-Touch trackpad, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and a fanless design. Apple rated its battery for as long as 16 hours under its testing conditions.
Performance headroom, memory capacity and external-display support remain more limited than on a MacBook Air. Those compromises are easier to accept when the computer is purchased for writing, research, web applications, video calls and media consumption rather than professional video production or complex development work.
IDC estimated that the sub-$700 segment represented about 75 million annual notebook shipments, close to 40% of global notebook volume. Windows and ChromeOS historically controlled more than 95% of that tier. Apple had been competing for a small premium section of the market while a far larger pool of buyers purchased elsewhere.
MacBook Neo sales gave the company a way into that pool without placing an old design or plastic enclosure at the entrance to the Mac line. A buyer comparing computers at similar prices could now choose macOS without first accepting a major premium.
Low-cost laptops are frequently designed to disappear. Dark plastic, conservative finishes and generic bodies keep manufacturing simple and reduce the risk that one color will remain unsold. MacBook Neo took the opposite approach by making color one of the most recognizable parts of the product.
Silver preserves a familiar Mac appearance, while indigo offers a darker alternative without returning to standard black. Blush gives the line a softer finish, and citrus creates the visual signature that separates Neo from every other MacBook on a table.
The colors do more than decorate an inexpensive computer. They prevent the model from being defined entirely by what it lacks. Instead of asking why it has an A18 Pro rather than an M5, buyers can begin with which finish they want.
That distinction is valuable among younger customers. IDC described reactions from teenagers who focused on the display, weight and appearance rather than memory specifications or processor architecture. Their interest centered on how the computer would look at school compared with the Windows laptops and Chromebooks already around them.
Apple used a similar strategy when color helped turn the original iMac into a cultural object. Later iBook models carried bright finishes into portable computing, while colorful iMac and MacBook designs made personal computers feel less institutional. MacBook Neo revisits that idea for a generation accustomed to selecting colors for phones, headphones, cases and watches.
The approach also avoids making affordability look like punishment. A lower price does not force the buyer into an anonymous product with a visibly cheaper exterior. Neo has limitations, but its design gives owners something exclusive to the line instead of presenting the computer as a substitute for the MacBook they could not afford.
Color alone did not produce MacBook Neo sales. The launch price, battery life, macOS integration and recognizable MacBook construction carried more purchasing weight. Color made those advantages easier to notice and gave stores a product that could attract attention before a salesperson explained its specifications.
Apple said customer response exceeded its expectations and connected the launch with record participation from people buying their first Mac. That audience may prove more valuable than existing owners choosing a less expensive replacement.
A first Mac purchase can introduce a customer to applications and services that become part of daily work. People who already use an iPhone can access Messages, FaceTime, Photos, iCloud, AirDrop and iPhone Mirroring from the computer without rebuilding their digital routines.
That familiarity lowers one of the barriers to changing computer platforms. A person may have used Windows throughout school or work while carrying an iPhone for years. MacBook Neo makes the switch less financially demanding, while the connected features reduce the amount of relearning required after purchase.
MacBook Neo sales also challenge the assumption that low-cost notebook buyers care only about the lowest available price. Many customers are willing to spend more than the cost of an entry Chromebook when the difference provides a better display, metal construction, longer useful life or closer integration with a phone.
The line is therefore competing on perceived value rather than absolute cheapness. A $599 launch price remains expensive beside the least costly education laptops, but it enters the same purchasing discussion as many mainstream Windows models. It no longer requires a buyer to stretch directly toward MacBook Air pricing.
Education represents a particularly large opportunity. Schools and families make purchases around durability, battery life, software management, support requirements and the number of years a computer can remain useful. A lower acquisition price gives the Mac a better chance of surviving the first stage of that calculation.
Small businesses face similar decisions. A company that previously reserved Macs for designers or executives can consider Neo for administrative work, communication and browser-based services. Wider Mac deployment then becomes possible without assigning a premium notebook to every employee.
MacBook Neo sales may also protect Apple from depending entirely on upgrades. Mature computer owners can keep a capable Mac for many years, extending replacement cycles. Bringing new people onto the platform creates additional demand without waiting for an existing MacBook Air or MacBook Pro to become obsolete.
The geographic distribution of the first units shows both progress and unfinished work. IDC estimated that 44% of March-quarter shipments went to the United States. That concentration is unsurprising for an Apple launch, but the larger opportunity sits in markets where Mac adoption has remained limited by price.
India offers an early example. Approximately 18,000 units reportedly shipped there during the short March launch period, while retailers later experienced difficulty obtaining enough inventory. The local starting price of ₹69,900 remained above the direct currency conversion of the U.S. price, yet it sat far below the ₹119,900 entry point reported for MacBook Air at the time.
Older MacBook Air generations had previously generated Indian sales when retailers offered substantial discounts. Neo gives Apple and its partners a current model to promote throughout the year rather than depending on irregular clearance inventory.
Availability timing will influence adoption elsewhere. The computer reached some markets later than the initial launch, including Indonesia in May. Local taxes, currency movements, distribution capacity and supply allocation can produce a very different value proposition from one country to another.
Independent forecasts remain optimistic despite severe pressure across the PC industry. TrendForce projected Apple notebook shipments could grow 7.7% during 2026 and estimated that MacBook Neo could reach between 4 million and 5 million units. IDC later said stronger-than-expected demand from the model contributed to an upward revision of its notebook forecast.
Those gains are occurring while memory shortages and rising component costs are pushing much of the computer industry toward higher prices. IDC expects worldwide PC shipments to contract during 2026, making Apple expansion unusual in a market where many manufacturers are reducing configurations and protecting margins.
Supply control helped Apple enter the lower tier at a difficult moment. The company already designs the A18 Pro, uses a highly standardized configuration and purchases components at enormous scale. That structure gave it more room to assemble a focused notebook without relying on a separate processor vendor for the central chip.
Recent Mac price increases caused by rising memory costs may test how much of the early advantage Apple can preserve. Neo depends on remaining close enough to mainstream notebooks that first-time buyers continue placing it on the same shortlist. A widening price gap would return the Mac to the premium territory the new line was created to escape.
The next evidence will arrive through education purchasing cycles and expansion in price-sensitive countries. A personal citrus or blush MacBook can win attention in a store, but deployments across schools and small businesses will depend on supply, local pricing, management costs and useful life. The first semester filled classrooms with individual Neo buyers; the coming academic year will reveal whether entire institutions are ready to replace rows of gray laptops with macOS.
The post MacBook Neo Sales: The Story Behind the Numbers appeared first on AppleMagazine.
Valve's SteamOS has often presented the perfect excuse to be whisked away from Microsoft's troublesome Windows 11. The Linux operating system's better gaming performance has often been proven, utilizing RAM well without the bloatware often found with Windows 11.
SteamOS provides a console-like user interface (UI), making navigation and game launches far easier than Windows 11, despite the recent Xbox mode. With those benefits in mind, I've been contemplating a full switch to SteamOS, ditching Windows for good, and the best way to do that would be via Bazzite.
Bazzite (not affiliated with Valve) is effectively a SteamOS clone, specifically designed for "Linux newcomers and enthusiasts alike", but most importantly, comes with out-of-the-box compatibility with Nvidia and Intel GPUs, and a smooth experience for handhelds.
Using my second streaming PC, I put Bazzite to the test over a few months. Without a doubt, it's easily the best option for any gamer looking for a console-like couch gaming setup.
With tools like Decky Loader, customization is easy, with plugins to change SteamOS game mode themes, navigation sound effects, or even the startup and shutdown videos. However, despite all of the benefits of using the operating system, I still can't step away from Windows 11 on my main system, and there are multiple reasons why.
As a frequent multitasker using applications like Discord to stream games to friends, Bazzite (more specifically SteamOS) isn't an ideal option. Using Discord to stream games on the same rig works just fine in desktop mode; however, it's not the same story for its game mode, which is arguably the entire purpose of using Bazzite.
Streaming on Discord in game mode severely drops frame rates in games, with constant stutters in many I tested, and there are a few instances where attempting to stream an application will result in a black screen. I tried to use the NZXT Signal 4K30 capture card and stream my second PC's Bazzite activity on Discord via my main PC, but it's not that simple.
Sure, HDMI passthrough on the capture card is possible, but I didn't want to be limited to 4K 60 frames per second on either my TV (which is capable of 144Hz) or my gaming monitor (capable of 240Hz). Frankly, capture cards with higher passthrough capabilities don't come cheap.
Duplicating or projecting the display, as you would on Windows 11, would be the easy solution. However, Gamescope, the compositor responsible for displaying games on screen with Bazzite, cannot duplicate outputs.
Still trying to avoid the NZXT capture card's 4K 60Hz passthrough limitation, I opted for an HDMI splitter with one input and two output ports. Unfortunately, the moment the capture card is connected, the output on either my TV or monitor has the refresh rate slashed to 60Hz and VRR disabled.
That occurs to ensure that the Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) of both is matched, according to what the capture card is capable of in passthrough.
None of these issues are present on Windows, as you can use OBS to project the main display onto the capture card without ever having to rely on an HDMI splitter or a better capture card.
This isn't an attack on SteamOS or Bazzite in particular; after all, game mode is quite literally designed for gaming, so multitasking isn't a priority for Valve or specifically Bazzite developers in this case.
However, it's worth noting that streaming on the gaming OS is more trouble than it's worth, and that's without even mentioning the potential audio bugs or OS glitches. That's only one part of why it's worth sticking with Windows, though.
I wish these issues stopped there, but not quite. Firstly, a large majority of popular multiplayer games such as Battlefield 6, Call of Duty (most of the modern entries), Destiny 2, and EA Sports FC 26 will not work on Linux due to their anti-cheat systems.
This is an issue that lies directly with publishers and developers for those games that refuse to adapt their anti-cheat systems to work on SteamOS. It also doesn't seem as though this will change any time soon; the Steam Machine was arguably one way to effectively force the hand of publishers to consider anti-cheat compatibility on Linux, but it's not exactly a popular PC due to its high price.
It's also worth noting that Game Pass is inaccessible natively on Bazzite, and requires either cloud gaming or third-party launchers, and you'll be lucky if you can get the latter to function.
The solution to accessing those anti-cheat games is a dual-boot with Windows 11 and Bazzite. However, that isn't completely ditching Windows 11 as I've planned to, and a dual-boot can end up messy thanks to Windows' forced updates.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect is that Nvidia GPUs don't play nice with game mode on Bazzite, often resulting in glitchy functionality, or just completely black screens. I tested this by swapping out the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU in my second PC with my spare Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and found that game mode was just frustrating to use.
So if I wanted to use Bazzite on my main rig equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super, its DX12 (a graphics API) gaming performance would be worse than Windows. Overall, the entire purpose of switching over to Linux was for better gaming performance and easy console-like UI navigation would be non-existent.
I'm sure all of these pain points will be addressed at some point, whether via Bazzite or Valve's official SteamOS builds. For now, though, I'll stick with Windows 11 on my main rig — even though I desperately want to be done with it.
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“Sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past,” sang (or croaked) Leonard Cohen, and I’ve found myself recently doing the same. However, while Cohen was lamenting the death of a relationship, my early-onset nostalgia has been triggered by something far more tragic and poetic: the death of affordable computer components.
I’ve spent the majority of 2026 marvelling and despairing, in equal measure, at how components, especially memory-based ones, such as SSDs, RAM and graphics cards, have skyrocketed in price. As you probably know by now, this mainly due to pressures on the supply chain from a seemingly endless procession of AI services that have been gobbling up memory.
Not only has this made upgrading your PC extremely expensive (upgrading the RAM was once one of the most cost-effective upgrades you could make), it’s also made products such as laptops, games consoles, and phones more expensive too. It’s upended decades of the tradition of technology getting cheaper over time.
Watching the tech I write about (and love) get increasingly expensive and inaccessible for a lot of people is getting pretty depressing.
Take both the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. In previous generations, six years after launch, consoles should have had numerous price cuts, making them almost impulse buys at this stage; along with a healthy second-hand game market, this traditionally meant that waiting until late into a generation to get a console was a great way to save some serious cash.
However, both the PS5 and Xbox Series have had several price rises this generation, which means buying a six-year-old bit of hardware is now more expensive. This is far from an ideal situation (and one of the reasons why the PS5 will likely be the first PlayStation console I don’t buy), and it’s not unique to consoles. Apple recently hiked the prices of its Macs and MacBooks (including the budget MacBook Neo, which launched at $599 / £599 / AU$899, but has since risen to $699 / £699 / AU$1,059 and which in turn quite drastically undermines the Neo’s value proposition).
Watching the tech I write about (and love) get increasingly expensive and inaccessible for a lot of people is getting pretty depressing. Take the Steam Deck: recently, it was announced that Steam Deck sales have dropped by a whopping 80% after Valve increased the price of the gaming handheld to $789 / £649 / AU$1,199, a $240 / £170 / AU$300 rise.
Now, I've loved the Steam Deck since day one, and would always recommend it to most people thinking about buying a new gaming laptop or handheld, simply due to its excellent value.
Now? Not so much. I simply can't justify the idea that people should buy an old, underpowered bit of kit that’s almost as expensive as the budget gaming laptops I used to tell people to avoid.
For many of us PC gamers, it also means upgrading or building a new gaming PC is now out of the question, and the hardware we currently have will need to tide us over for a few more years.
But, does that mean you can’t upgrade your PC at all for the moment? Thankfully, there are still plenty of ways to boost your computer without spending a fortune, such as upgrading parts that aren’t memory-dependant (for instance getting yourself a new monitor), or tweaking the software.
As for me, I decided to transplant one of my existing gaming PCs into a new case, while also taking the opportunity to upgrade the cooling. One of the most fun things about building PCs is coming up with a theme or design, and because of my disillusionment with the current state of computing, I thought it would be fun to turn my PC into a retro device that harkened back to a time when computing really was fun: the 1990s.
Because I’m updating my current PC, I have most of the hardware already (which is just as well considering the prices of many components). Here is the starting spec:
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i RGB ELITE Liquid CPU Cooler
Case fans: Noctua NF-A14 PWM Chromax 140mm
Processor: Intel Core i9-12900K, 16 Cores / 24 Threads
GPU: PNY Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Slim
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32GB DDR5 5200MHz
Storage: 500GB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 PCIe
Secondary Storage: 2TB WD_BLACK AN1500 1TB NVMe SSD
Power: Corsair HX1500i 80 PLUS Platinum 1500W PSU
Case: Fractal Design Vector RS Tempered Glass
I've been feeling for a while that this is a bit of a mid-range setup that is (outside of the RTX 5070) showing its age, which is why I mainly use it for working, with a spot of image and video editing and the occasional game.
For pretty much all of my gaming needs, I have a far more powerful gaming PC with newer components (and an RTX 5090), but looking at the specs at this point in 2026 during the midst of the RAM crisis, I think I was being rather harsh on this PC. For a start, the 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2.5TB of storage feels positively decadent these days.
So, my main goal was to swap the (perfectly fine, if a little dull) Fractal Design Vector RS case for something with a bit of retro style. Enter the Thermaltake Retro 360 TG Mid Tower Chassis.
This is a case built for modern PCs, but with a pleasingly retro look. Of course, it’s a wonderful shade of beige that will instantly give flashbacks (the good kind) to anyone who used a PC in the 1990s. It also has sections for a CD-ROM drive and floppy disk drive, though those aren’t usable and are really more of a gimmick.
Still, it looks like it could have come straight from the '90s, while still supporting modern hardware, including space for all-in-one CPU coolers, and a front panel that includes a USB-C port. It also has a tempered glass window to show off the components inside, something that’s common these days, but wasn’t really a thing back then. This combination of retro looks and modern capabilities was perfect for my needs.
To make things easier when transporting the motherboard and installed components into the new case, I was planning on removing the existing Corsair iCUE H150i RGB ELITE Liquid CPU cooler, giving me an excuse to install a new one.
To make the most out of the glass window of the Retro 360 TG case, I picked the Thermaltake TH360 V3 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO Liquid Cooler, which — as well as having powerful cooling — comes with a 3.95-inch LCD display that looks (to my mind, at least) like an old CRT monitor.
This screen can display system info (such as the temperature of your CPU), as well as custom animations, and I thought it would help liven up the inside of the PC, while still keeping with the retro-modern theme.
I also had a spare pack of Corsair RX120 RGB fans (the perks of being a tech journalist) that I wanted to use. For a start, they're white, which would fit the beige aesthetic, and it also meant I wouldn’t have to remove the case fans in the older chassis, potentially saving me some time and annoyance (the Thermaltake Retro 360 TG Mid Tower Chassis doesn’t come with fans, and they are essential for keeping the PC cool when in use).
Once I’d assembled everything I needed to transform my PC into a retro powerhouse, I prepared to make the switch. Because I was swapping an already-built PC into a new case, the prep work differed slightly than if I was building a new PC from scratch.
The first step was to remove the bulk of the PC from the old case. To make things easier, I wanted to keep as much as I could in the motherboard, but there were some components that needed to be removed.
So, I started by unscrewing the large CPU cooler from the top of the processor. I then removed the GPU and WD_BLACK AN1500 SSD, which like the GPU, slots into a PCI-e lane of the motherboard. The other SSD is screwed directly into the motherboard via the M.2 port, so I didn’t need to worry about that.
I then carefully disconnected the case fans and I/O connectors (which allow you to turn the PC on and off using the buttons on the case, use USB ports, etc), then unscrewed the motherboard and lifted it out of the case.
It wasn’t a major inconvenience, but a good example of how moving cases can require tools that you’d not usually need when building a PC.
Once the motherboard was out, one of the first major hurdles that you wouldn’t encounter if building a PC from scratch presented itself. I noticed when I tried placing the motherboard in the new case that it wouldn’t sit properly. Taking it out, I realized that when unscrewing the motherboard from the old case, some of the standoffs (which screw into the case to lift the motherboard off the chassis) had been unscrewed as well, and were still attached to the motherboard.
So, I needed to hunt down some pliers, which allowed me to hold the standoffs and unscrew the motherboard from them.
Once off, I was able to screw the motherboard into the new case (which already had its own standoffs installed) without an issue. It wasn’t a major inconvenience, but a good example of how moving cases can require tools (in this case pliers) that you’d not usually need when building a PC.
With the motherboard installed, I then plugged in the new cases’ I/O connectors. One thing I loved about the Thermaltake Retro 360 TG Mid Tower case is that front panel’s wires, which are often individual wires that can be extremely fiddly to attach to a motherboard, came as a block, which made installation much easier and faster.
While the larger components were still laying on my desk, I also connected up the PSU cables. The Corsair HX1500i 80 PLUS Platinum, which again I transported from the old PC, is a modular PSU, which means the cables aren’t permanently attached to the PSU — instead you can just plug in the cables you need to both the motherboard and PSU.
This makes installation a lot easier, and cable management much neater, and it meant I could plug the cables into the motherboard without having to install the PSU until later (a decision I made to make things easier, but I’m not sure it worked!).
I also took the opportunity to install the three Corsair RX120 RGB fans, adding two to the front of the chassis to pull in cooler air, and one at the rear that pushes hot air generated by the PC’s components out of the case.
These fans are more advanced than the previous ones I used for the PC: rather than being plugged into the motherboard and controlled that way, they daisy chain to each other, then connect to an iCUE LINK system hub, which then connects to the motherboard via a microUSB cable, all powered by the PSU.
This made the installation harder, as it meant I needed to route the proprietary cables to connect each fan to the hub, and some of those cables weren’t that long. It also meant having to hunt down an extra PSU cable, which caused issues later. While the iCUE LINK system hub meant I had greater control over the fan’s RGB lighting and temperature control, I don’t really think it was worth the extra effort. If I did this again, I’d stick to standard, easier-to-install case fans.
Finally, I installed the TH360 V3 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO CPU cooler. I removed the existing thermal paste from the CPU and reapplied a small blob. I had ordered extra thermal paste as I wasn’t sure if the CPU cooler would include some, as not all do. As it turns out, the cooler does come with a small tube of thermal paste, so I now have a spare tube, but it’s always handy to have extra.
It was important to reapply the thermal paste, as the existing paste on the CPU was now several years old, and some of it remained on the cooler when I removed it. To ensure maximum cooling efficiency, removing the old paste and applying new paste was the best, and safest, option.
Installation was easy: I screwed the radiator and fans to the top of the case, attached the fan controls to the CPU Pump header on the motherboard, then placed the screen (which attached via magnets) on the cooler.
Always keep hold of cables and any other extras that come with your components, even if you don’t initially need to use them
With that in place, I then put the GPU and SSD back in their PCIe slots, connected (almost) everything up to the PSU, then secured the PSU in the case.
I say ‘almost’, as I didn’t have a cable to attach the iCUE LINK hub to the PSU. As I mentioned earlier, the PSU is modular, so I had only plugged in the cables I needed during the original build, but now I needed an extra cable. The PC wouldn’t boot without the hub powered on, nor would it boot when I tried a cable from a different PSU (this is likely a safety feature — you should never use cables from a different PSU, but I wanted to check).
Thankfully, after some rummaging around, I found the extra cables from the PSU, installed the correct cable to the hub and the PC booted fine. This wouldn’t have been an issue if I’d used a more basic fan, but at least I was now up and running. It also highlighted an important lesson: always keep hold of cables and any other extras that come with your components, even if you don’t initially need to use them.
With the PC booting without issue, I then added the finishing touches. For instance, I ordered some retro stickers from Geekenspiel, a website that makes the kind of stickers you used to find on PCs, but for modern hardware (such as a sticker with the old Nvidia logo, but referencing the modern RTX graphics card).
I also paired the PC with the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard, a wonderful-feeling keyboard that offers modern features but with an old-fashioned look and beige colorway that perfectly complements the PC.
I also ordered a Microsoft ProIntelli Wired mouse, which is a modern mouse inspired by Microsoft’s iconic IntelliMouse peripherals. Again, it combines retro looks with modern tech, which makes it a perfect choice for this build.
With the peripherals attached, I logged into Windows 11 and set up the TT RGB PLUS 3.0 software, which allows me to tweak the settings of the TH360 V3 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO CPU cooler, and configure the screen. I made a short retro-inspired gif of the TechRadar logo, and used the software to display it on the LCD screen of the cooler.
I was very pleased with the results, and it instantly made the PC more interesting visually while still feeling retro. However, I have to say the TT RGB PLUS 3.0 software seemed quite flakey, with some options simply not working. The software also needs to load in Windows 11 before the animation plays on the screen.
The fans of the cooler were also very loud, and setting them to ‘Quiet’ in the software didn’t seem to make a difference. So, I restarted the PC and went into its BIOS and tweaked the fan speeds there, which worked. Suddenly, the PC was whisper-quiet.
I wasn’t quite done, however. While the hardware now certainly looked the part, I wanted the software to match. At first, I considered ditching Windows 11 altogether and instead using a Linux distro skinned to look like Windows 95.
The benefits of this is that I’d be free of all the bloat that Windows 11 comes with, especially the AI stuff I have no interest in, and also that Linux is far more customizable; with a bit of time, I could make an operating system that looked and acted a lot more like Windows 95.
However, there were also plenty of downsides. For one, it would be time-consuming to install and configure a distro, and many PC games and software won’t run natively on Linux. The TT RGB PLUS 3.0 software, for instance, won't work on Linux, and while there are workarounds, they are again time-consuming and fiddly. Plus, this approach would mean things like adding gifs to the screen wouldn’t work — and I wanted my gifs.
So, I decided to stick with Windows 11, but heavily mod it to look like Windows 95. This involved using WindowBlinds 11 and Start11 by Stardock. The first piece of software lets you drastically change the look of Windows 11, and has a ‘classic’ theme that’s perfect for my needs.
For a little while, I was able to pretend the tech world wasn’t a dumpster fire, but a more fun, perhaps more innocent, place to be
Start11, as you might have guessed from the name, focuses on the Start menu, and allows you to tweak it so that it looks, and works, like the classic Start menus of Windows 95 and Windows 98.
Each of these bits of software took a bit of configuring, but before long I had Windows 11 looking, and feeling, like Windows 95. Changing the desktop icons through Windows 11’s settings to feature classic Windows icons (I downloaded them from DeviantArt), and changing the desktop wallpaper to a solid teal color completed the look.
While not perfect (Windows Explorer still tries to show Windows 11-era tabs, and the taskbar clock can be a bit funny), I now had a retro-inspired modern operating system to complement my retro PC.
Overall, I was pretty happy, and a comforting sense of nostalgia washed over me as I used my big beige box. For a little while, I was able to pretend the tech world wasn’t a dumpster fire, but a more fun, perhaps more innocent, place to be.
Overall, I’m so glad I tried this out: it feels, ironically, as if I’ve given my aging PC a new lease of life. It looks great, and the mouse and keyboard feel fantastic — and familiar. Windows 11 also feels more sprightly, as I turned off a lot of the unnecessary animations and visual effects that usually run when using the operating system.
Strangely, I have also managed to fix a weird startup bug the PC used to have where sometimes the GPU didn’t power on. Since moving the PC into its new case, this has not happened once, so I must have inadvertently changed something during the move (not just by removing the GPU, as I had tried that before, and even swapped GPUs, and the problem persisted), so that’s a nice side effect.
The process was a lot faster with an existing PC than if I’d built one from scratch, though that has meant I needed to make some compromises. The motherboard and components don’t really complement the beige case, for instance; if I’d been building a new PC, I’d have probably tried to get white components instead, and cables to match.
Even in 2026, building, tweaking and upgrading your PC can be fun and creative, and you don’t have to spend a fortune if you can repurpose a lot of the components
I’m also glad that I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to tech, and I hadn’t thrown away the PSU cables I didn’t originally use. Okay, so I might have felt a bit daft holding on to cables for almost half a decade that I would likely never use, but it meant that I had the correct one when I needed it.
Finally, it proved that even in 2026, building, tweaking and upgrading your PC can be fun and creative, and you don’t have to spend a fortune if you can repurpose a lot of the components.
The retro theme of both the PC itself and the software it runs looks and feels great as well. It was hard work, but well worth it. If this article has inspired you to do something similar, let me know in the comments below!
Super-premium Android has top performance, long battery life and good cameras, but is let down by software
Honor’s svelte Android phone-tablet has been given a glow-up for its sixth version, offering a great alternative to Samsung for a fancy foldable with a red suede-like back framed in gold.
The Magic V6 continues the Chinese challenger brand’s strategy of taking a razor-thin device and slapping a giant circular lump on the back to fit in top-class cameras, something others often forgo. It costs a not inconsiderable £1,500 (€1,700/A$2,999) but only until August when the price jumps to a cool £2,000 (€2,300) – a solid £300 more than last year’s model as the cost of RAMageddon continues to bite, even at the very top end of the market.
Main screen: 7.95in (403ppi) 120Hz OLED flexible display
Cover screen: 6.52in (406ppi) 120Hz OLED
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB
Operating system: MagicOS 10 (Android 16)
Camera: 50MP + 50MP ultrawide + 64MP 3x tele; 2x 20MP selfie
Connectivity: 5G, dual sim + esim, USB-C, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, GNSS
Water resistance: IP68/69 (1.5 metres for 30 minutes)
Dimensions folded: 156.7 x 74.5 x 8.75-9mm
Dimensions unfolded: 156.7 x 145.6 x 4.0-4.1mm
Weight: 219-224g
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© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
It's finally happening! Valve's long-awaited Steam Machine has landed at last, promising to bring gaming-PC-level performance to an ultra-compact console-style device ideal for couch gamers who want to dip their toes into PC gaming for the first time. This is Valve's second run at the console-style PC market, and the gaming giant seems a lot more committed this time around.
And... well, I'm not entirely underwhelmed by it, but it's also not overwhelmingly impressive. I guess you could say I'm distinctly whelmed by the Steam Machine; it's a lovingly crafted piece of hardware that arguably achieves what it sets out to do, but falls down in two extremely important areas.
As you might have already guessed, those areas are performance and pricing. At the default 1080p resolution, it's a capable little machine that should be able to give you a good gaming experience with minimal fuss, but anyone expecting beefy 4K performance on par with the existing slate of top-tier home consoles is going to be disappointed.
Of course, this boils down to what sort of games you want to play. If you've got a 4K TV in your living room and want a compact PC specifically so you can enjoy older games, or the sort of indie game experiences that aren't so freely available on consoles – I'm talking the low-budget viral titles that so frequently dominate TikTok and Instagram Reels – then the Steam Machine might actually be an excellent choice.
Another key aspect of Valve's new console-PC hybrid is SteamOS, the recently updated operating system designed to provide a more console-like experience than conventional platforms like Windows and macOS. It's already available for anyone to put on their own PC, and of course powers Valve's own Steam Deck handheld. In a break from tradition for PC reviews, I've added an extra section to this review to specifically discuss SteamOS, but for now all I'll say is that it gets the job done well.
Moving on to pricing, it's painfully clear that the ongoing RAM crisis has taken a toll on the Steam Machine's value proposition. Starting at $1,049 / £879 / AU$1,609, it's a fair bit more costly than the PS5 Pro, which my esteemed colleague Rob Dwiar already noted was "too expensive" for the average gamer in his review here on TechRadar - and that was before Sony hiked the price of its home consoles earlier this year.
Considering that the Steam Machine was widely expected to represent an accessible path into the world of PC gaming for those who have previously not ventured beyond the confines of the console market, that price tag is sure to upset some gamers who were eagerly awaiting Valve's return to the console market. Hell, you might even be better off building your own Steam Machine killer.
But it's important to remember that the Steam Machine was probably never going to live up to the price-to-performance ratio of modern home consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X, even though it is ostensibly using newer, better hardware. This is due to the game development process and how developers implement platform optimization; if you're making a game for PS5, you're just making a game for PS5. You'll have to take the Pro model's specs into account now too, but at the end of the day you only need to optimize your game's performance for a specific set of hardware components with clearly defined limitations.
On the other hand, optimizing a game for PC means optimizing it for the uncountable millions of possible hardware configurations that exist across pre-built and custom gaming PCs, plus every gaming laptop on the market, plus handheld gaming PCs, and now plus the Steam Machine. It's a wildly different ballgame, and while some developers might skimp on good PC optimization, it's borderline impossible to get a game running consistently well on PC versus a specific console.
Does this entirely excuse the lackluster bang for your buck the Steam Machine offers? No, probably not. It's a mitigating factor that I have taken into account for this review – but quite frankly, I think Valve's second attempt at bringing PC gaming to the masses has slightly missed the mark.
As I mentioned already, the Steam Machine starts at a rather steep $1,049 / £879 / AU$1,609, which gets you the standard configuration with no controller and 512GB of high-speed SSD storage. The actual performance spec doesn't change if you upgrade to the 2TB SSD model for $1,349 / £1,149 / AU$2,109, so you're essentially just paying for the extra storage – and even by current component pricing standards, that's an expensive upgrade.
Whether you pick the 512GB or 2TB model – and despite the price, I'd definitely recommend the latter if you play triple-A PC games, since install sizes have become frighteningly bloated as of late – you get the same semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU and discrete AMD RDNA 3 GPU, along with 16GB of RAM and a separate 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM.
Both models can also be bundled with Valve's Steam Controller (which also comes with a charging 'puck' and USB cable), which adds $79 / £59 / AU$119 to the base price of either model. This is actually a pretty decent add-on, since the Steam Controller is a genuinely good gamepad and normally costs $99 / £85 / AU$149 direct from Valve if you buy it separately. Unless you already own one of the best PC controllers, I'd strongly recommend getting the bundle.
It's also worth noting that pre-orders for the Steam Machine sold out almost immediately, so if you want to get your hands on one, you'll have to sign up for the waitlist directly through Steam.
Base spec | Max spec (review config) | |
Price | $1,049 / £879 / AU$1,609 | $1,349 / £1,149 / AU$2,109 |
CPU | Semi-custom AMD Zen 4, 6C / 12T | Semi-custom AMD Zen 4, 6C / 12T |
Graphics | Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3, 28CUs, 8GB GDDR6 VRAM | Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3, 28CUs, 8GB GDDR6 VRAM |
RAM | 16GB DDR5 | 16GB DDR5 |
Storage | 512GB NVMe SSD | 2TB NVMe SSD |
Ports and Connectivity | 4x USB-A, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x microSD card reader, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet; Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 | 4x USB-A, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x microSD card reader, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet; Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 |
Weight | 5.73lbs / 2.60kg | 5.73lbs / 2.60kg |
Dimensions | 5.98 x 6.38 x 6.14 inches / 15.2 x 16.2 x 15.6 cm | 5.98 x 6.38 x 6.14 inches / 15.2 x 16.2 x 15.6 cm |
For a product that I found a little disappointing overall, I have to say that I have very little to criticize when it comes to the physical design of the Steam Machine.
Simply put, it looks great. The whole unit is a neat black cube of matte metal measuring roughly six inches along each edge and weighing a little under six pounds, with a thin indentation near the base on the front side, inside which nestles a bright LED lightbar. Beneath this, there's a power button with an additional LED (which stays illuminated while the Steam Machine is in sleep mode) along with two USB-A ports and a microSD card slot for easily adding extra storage. The cube sits atop four small rubber feet, which feel quite durable.
The 17-LED lightbar is more than just a simple power indicator, which I quite like. If your Steam Machine is downloading a game, it 'fills' from left to right to indicate the download's progress, and you can customize it with extra colors and functions in SteamOS too.
It's significantly smaller than any current-gen home console and the vast majority of pre-built gaming PCs, and certainly a lot smaller than any custom desktop PC the average system-builder could assemble - you'd need to be seriously confident with graphics card disassembly and custom cooling to even get close to something this small.
In fact, it's immediately reminiscent of the Nintendo GameCube I treasured in my teenage years, though I promise I haven't let nostalgia cloud my opinion here. The closest you're likely to get to this sort of compact gaming PC now is probably the Asus ROG NUC that I personally reviewed last year - and while that offers far superior performance, it's also so eye-wateringly expensive that it makes the Steam Machine look cheap.
The front panel is removable and can be easily swapped out with magnetic faceplates. If you spring for the 2TB model, you get two of these included: a red felt fabric one and a rather nice wood-effect one that matches my TV stand perfectly... it looks right at home there, actually. Wink wink, nudge nudge, Valve.
The power supply is (somehow) built into the breathtakingly compact chassis, meaning there's no chunky adapter brick here either - just a regular cable with a two-pin power connector. This is included in the box, along with an HDMI cable (though the rear I/O also features a DisplayPort 1.4 output, which may be preferable if you're connecting it to a desktop monitor rather than a TV).
That rear I/O is where you'll find the rest of the ports: the aforementioned HDMI and DisplayPort, along with an RJ-45 Ethernet port, two USB-As, and one USB-C. I'll confess that as a fan of physical connectivity, I find this port selection a little lacking, but it's realistically going to be plenty for the target audience of the Steam Machine. It might be less than a fully-fledged desktop PC, but it's comparable to any modern home console. Wireless connectivity uses Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 – I would've liked to see Wi-Fi 7 here, but it's not a dealbreaker.
The internals are very tidy, with a large air intake grille behind the magnetic faceplate behind which sits the mainboard. A single large upright fan draws air through and out of the rear exhaust. This is (surprisingly) an upgradable system, though it's more along the lines of a gaming laptop than the average desktop PC; you can swap out the M.2 SSD and the RAM, but that's it.
Lastly, I'll briefly touch on the new Steam Controller. We reviewed it separately here, so I won't go into too much detail, but it's certainly good (if overpriced, like the Steam Machine itself). Pairing the pad and the 'puck' that doubles as a wireless transmitter and charging dock is a seamless process, and the controller itself feels good to use in games. The lack of an audio jack, as seen on other mainline console controllers, is a bit of a shame, however.
I have to admit that I really, genuinely love the design of the Steam Machine. My only real criticism here (and the only thing stopping me from giving it a perfect score in this section) is that it only has one single USB-C port, and it's on the rear. This is a minor gripe, though; for the most part, this is a very well-designed piece of hardware.
Civilization VII: (1080p, AMD FSR 1 + MSAA Balanced, High): 114fps; (1080p, High): 107fps; (4K, AMD FSR 1 + MSAA Balanced, High): 56fps; (4K, High): 50fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: (1080p, Highest): 131fps; (1080p, Low): 182fps; (4K, Highest): 47fps; (4K, Low): 91fps
Total War: Warhammer III: Mirrors of Madness: (1080p, Ultra): 58fps; (1080p, Low): 110fps; (4K, Ultra): 24fps; (4K, Low): 35fps
Cyberpunk 2077: (1080p, Ray Tracing: Ultra, Balanced upscaling): 33fps; (1080p, Ultra): 71fps; (1080p, Low): 114fps; (4K, Ray Tracing: Ultra, Balanced upscaling): 10fps; (4K, Ultra): 17fps; (4K, Low): 38fps
Marvel Rivals: (1080p, Balanced upscaling, Ultra): 57ps; (1080p, Low): 82fps; (4K, Balanced upscaling, Ultra): 22ps; (4K, Low): 24fps
No resolution upscaling or frame generation modes are used unless otherwise specified.
Benchmarking the Steam Machine was... interesting, to say the least. I had hoped to mostly stick to our usual suite of tests used for benchmarking the best gaming PCs and best gaming laptops, but the vast majority of those systems are running on Windows 10 or 11. SteamOS, while a very solid platform these days, simply doesn't have the same degree of flexibility as Microsoft's flagship operating system.
For starters, the Steam Machine locks itself to a maximum framerate based on the refresh rate of the monitor it's connected to, which meant I had to seek out a different high-refresh-rate display to get accurate results. Notably, the Steam Deck does something similar with its built-in 60/90Hz screen, so I suspect that this is a SteamOS quirk rather than any hardware-imposed limitation, but I wasn't able to find any way to disable it.
Then I got to the compatibility issues. Half the tests we usually run (most pertinently Geekbench and 3DMark) simply can't be installed and run natively in SteamOS's default Big Picture Mode, so I had to cut down my testing selection fairly significantly. To compensate (and to provide a better idea of how well the Steam Machine can actually handle gaming), I expanded my gaming tests to include more graphical configurations than usual.
Furthermore, you have to dig into the settings of SteamOS itself to uncap the resolution, which is set to FHD 1080p by default. Eagle-eyed gamers clocked prior to the Steam Machine's release that Valve had quietly lowered expectations by adjusting the language used in the product's store page from "4K gaming at 60 FPS" to "Up to 4K gaming with FSR", crushing hopes that it would be a true competitor to the likes of the PS5 Pro. Clearly, 1080p is the ideal target, which will no doubt be a disappointment for some potential customers.
Anyway, let's talk about the actual performance. At 1080p with graphical settings maxed out, the Steam Machine can handle almost anything you throw at it; the discrete semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 GPU inside this little black box was able to crack 60fps in most games I tested at FHD resolution (sometimes requiring the use of AMD's FSR upscaling tech, though this had virtually zero impact on visual fidelity), with the exception of titles that use ray tracing.
With ray tracing turned off, you'll be fine; turn it on, and you can expect framerates to tank even if you also switch on FSR. Cyberpunk 2077 looked and played great at 1080p Ultra settings with no upscaling, but switching to the Ray Tracing Ultra preset (with AMD FSR 3 set to Balanced) saw my average framerate drop to a little over 30 in the built-in benchmark, while actual in-game performance was even choppier.
Annoyingly, some games don't seem to properly support the most recent version of FSR on SteamOS; while I've been able to use it in games like Civilization VII and Shadow of the Tomb Raider while testing Windows-based gaming laptops and PCs, FSR 3 was conspicuously absent from the settings menu of both games on the Steam Machine - Civilization would only let me select FSR 1, while Shadow had no upscaling options available at all.
Once I started to crank things up to 1440p and 4K resolution, though, the cracks started to show. Older titles (and 2D games, like my current obsession, Slay the Spire 2) largely run fine at higher resolutions - but unfortunately, I could probably say the same about any home console and plenty of cheaper desktop PCs.
Modern triple-A games start to struggle a little at 1440p, but remain playable provided you're willing to tone down the settings a bit. I've only included the full suite of 1080p and 4K results in the results box above, but to give you a few quick examples: Cyberpunk 2077 remained playable with an average framerate of 68fps at 1440p Ultra with FSR 3 set to balanced (no ray tracing), while Total War: Warhammer III dropped to 45fps at Ultra - but could be salvaged to a stable 63fps with the Medium graphical preset.
At 4K, don't expect to be playing the latest hit games at high framerates; at least, not without some very significant graphical tweaks. The now eight-year-old Shadow of the Tomb Raider was the only game I tested that made it above 60fps at 4K resolution, and that was with the graphical settings turned down significantly.
As for more demanding titles, just don't bother. Total War: Warhammer III barely made it above a 30fps average at Low settings, with frequent drops into sub-30 territory, while Cyberpunk 2077 gave abysmal benchmarking at anything above the lowest possible graphical settings, even with FSR upscaling turned on, and struggled heavily to maintain a consistent framerate during actual gameplay. Turning on FSR frame generation did technically give a stable 30fps at 4K Ultra, but with the added issue of some visual tearing and artifacting, especially during busy scenes.
I also experienced a small number of crashes during my testing process, specifically in Total War: Warhammer III and Marathon. It's possible that these were merely down to game instability rather than any specific fault with the Steam Machine or SteamOS (I've personally had Marathon crash at least once on my Windows 10 gaming desktop), so I won't mark it down for this, but I've opted to include it for the sake of comprehensiveness.
Lastly, I'd like to briefly discuss the thermal performance of the Steam Machine, which is a shining beacon amidst the otherwise fairly underwhelming overall performance. The large cooling fan at the rear of this little cube was whisper-quiet throughout all my testing, and the casing barely got more than a little warm. Whatever thermal wizardry Valve pulled off here, it clearly works.
A bonus section appears! Yes, I'm going to take a moment here to discuss SteamOS, since it's arguably the linchpin of the Steam Machine's whole 'console rival' mission statement. Does it really make PC gaming more accessible? I'm pleased to say yes, it certainly does.
An Arch Linux-based operating system, SteamOS is now in its third main iteration, and it's improved greatly from its humble beginnings as the full-screen version of the Steam desktop app. It's easy to set up and offers a pleasingly straightforward interface that even a gaming rookie should be able to navigate, while also packing the full suite of settings found in the Windows desktop version of Steam.
One nifty feature is the optional Linux desktop mode. It's quite effective, if basic, letting you install Linux-compatible programs like LibreOffice and the Firefox browser. It's neat, but it's a feature that will likely only be used by a small subset of buyers since it doesn't really offer anything for pure gaming users.
Naturally, you can connect a keyboard and mouse as well as a controller, which is useful for games where typing is necessary, but it turned out to be even more vital. I wasn't actually able to complete the SteamOS setup without first connecting a mouse to select the system language, and when playing some other games after my initial benchmarking process, I found that I couldn't complete the initial setup for Forza Horizon 5 using just the Steam Controller, which was annoying.
As effective as SteamOS is, compatibility issues are an inevitability when dealing with a Linux-based system. While the vast majority of games on Steam are fully compatible, there will be specific outliers, and there are plenty of non-gaming programs that aren't available. And of course, you can't play games from other storefronts like Epic and GOG, unless you decide to go the whole hog and install Windows 11 on it instead - which is an option!
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
Value | The Steam Machine is an expensive product for the specs and experience it offers, to the point where it struggles to compete with mainstream home consoles. | 2.5 / 5 |
Design | A durable, high-quality chassis with an impressively compact design. The port selection is decent for a console-style device, and the swappable faceplates add a bit of visual flair. | 4.5 / 5 |
Performance | 1080p performance is great, but triple-A games start to struggle at 1440p and 4K. Considering the price, the gaming quality is decidedly lackluster, and you may encounter some compatibility issues with SteamOS. | 3 / 5 |
Total Score | I really want to love the Steam Machine, and it arguably achieves its goal of competing with living room consoles, but the asking price is just a bit too high for what it offers. | 3.33 / 5 |
You want living-room PC gaming
The compact design and straightforward functionality of the Steam Machine make it great for a couch gaming setup.
You're looking to make the jump to PC gaming
Want to ditch your PS5 in the wake of Sony's new digital-only game policy? The Steam Machine offers a very accessible way to enter the PC gaming space without the complexities of PC-building.
You're on a budget
While you could easily spend a lot more on a compact gaming PC, the price of the Steam Machine is unfortunately a little too high to be appealing.
You want to play games from multiple storefronts
The best experience you'll get here is by sticking with SteamOS, but that will lock you out of playing games from other storefronts like Epic and Prime Gaming.View Deal
Alienware Aurora
It's a bit more expensive than the Steam Machine, but if you want a pre-built gaming PC that can comfortably tackle 1440p and potentially even 4K gaming, the more affordable configurations of the Alienware Aurora are a solid choice. Read our full Alienware Aurora review.
Asus ROG NUC
If money is no object, the latest Asus ROG NUC gaming PC is unquestionably the one to pick if you want a compact system for a living-room gaming setup. This NUC probably has the best performance-to-size ratio of any gaming PC on the market right now. Read our full Asus ROG NUC review.
My review process for the Steam Machine was a little different from how I'd usually approach a gaming PC or laptop review, due largely to SteamOS's Big Picture Mode not supporting our non-gaming tests.
Still, I ran the Machine through all the usual gaming tests, then took it downstairs to my living room and set it up on my TV stand to use it for some good old-fashioned couch gaming. As someone who was raised on Nintendo consoles but made the jump to PC gaming in my teens, I was keen to get the full intended experience out of the Steam Machine.
In addition to our usual game tests, I played a bunch of other games over a full weekend spent rigorously testing (read: having lots of fun with) the Steam Machine. These included Marathon, Warframe, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and the frighteningly addictive Slay the Spire 2.
I've been testing and reviewing computer hardware for almost a decade, and I've been a gamer for much longer than that. Before joining the TechRadar team, I worked at the PC-building hobbyist magazine Maximum PC, so you can trust that I'm putting every ounce of knowledge and experience at my disposal into bringing you high-quality, insightful, and non-biased reviews.
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