Konsol: a Steam Machine alternative we might build

Konsol concept, white finish Konsol concept, black finish

Concept · tell us what you think

Konsol

× Computer Surgeon YouTube

Hey - Jack here. You might know me from YouTube as Computer Surgeon, or as the director of PC36.

I want you to tell me honestly whether this is a venture worth trying, or whether we shouldn't bother. There's a short feedback form at the end where you can tell me if it's cool or if I should ditch it.

The idea

A Valve Steam Machine, with the main problems fixed

  • ✓ Low VRAM
  • ✓ Low upgradability
  • ✓ Low storage
  • ✓ Short warranty

Side by side

Konsol Valve Steam Machine
Price £1,149 with 1TB£1,249 with 2TB - £100 for the extra terabyte £879 with 512GB£1,149 with 2TB - £270 for an extra 1.5TB
Graphics memory 16GBComfortable at 4K 8GBNot really enough at 4K
Processor Zen 3, full desktop power budget Zen 4, power limited
Storage 1TB as standard 512GB as standard
Upgradable Entirely - standard desktop partsChange the platform or GPU in three years instead of the machine FixedBecomes e-waste once it is outdated
Warranty 3 years, parts and labour 1 year
Operating system Bazzite, Steam Gaming ModeDay to day, much the same as SteamOS SteamOS
Turning it on Smart plug and AC-back, from an appOr HDMI CEC via a USB adapter. Clumsier, honestly HDMI CECOne button wakes the console and the telly
Size 23.7 litresBarely wider - but twice as tall and two and a half times as deep 3.9 litresVery tiny
Noise AverageNot loud. Not silent either Quiet

Proposed spec

Nothing here is locked in

🧠 Processor
AMD Ryzen 5 5600
❄️ CPU cooler
Wraith StealthPossibly a tower cooler instead, if the budget stretches to it
🔲 Motherboard
B550, with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 or better, and Gigabit LAN
📏 Memory
16GB (2×8GB) DDR4-3200 CL16Upgrade options on the listing
🎮 Graphics
Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB
💾 Storage
1TB NVMe2TB option, £100
🧰 Case
DeepCool CH160 Plus375 × 195 × 323.5mm, 23.7 litres, with a carrying handle. Black or white - say which you'd want
⚡ Power supply
Reliable 500W, e.g. DeepCool PF500Upgrade options on the listing
🌬️ Case cooling
120mm rear intake, 120mm top exhaust
🪟 Operating system
Bazzite, booting into Steam Gaming Mode

Two I keep going back and forth on

Both would make it a better machine. Both push the sticker price up. There is a question about them in the form.

That is one of the tricky things about this sort of concept: you have to "charm" the pricing to land near a Steam Machine or it gets dismissed straight away, even when the overall value is way better.

Tower cooler instead of the Wraith Stealth+ £17
650W power supply instead of 500W+ £12

The size difference, honestly

Barely wider. Much taller and much deeper.

Konsol Steam Machine FRONT SIDE 195 323.5 375
KonsolSteam Machine Width195 mm156 mm - only 4cm narrower Height323.5 mm162.4 mm Depth375 mm152 mm Volume23.7 litres3.9 litres
Both drawn to the same scale on a shared baseline. The point the numbers make is that Konsol is not much wider - it is the height and the depth that grow, because a full-size graphics card and a proper cooler both need the room. On a shelf it takes up about the footprint of a small hi-fi component rather than a games console. I think people overestimate how small they need their PC to be. Mostly you are limited by width, and Konsol is actually not bad for width.

In a room

Concept photos

These are the chassis rather than a finished Konsol, so the internals in the photographs are not the proposed spec. Black and white can both be done, which offers an edge, but white internals are not really feasible at this price.

White Konsol concept chassis with a game controller resting on the top panel
Controller on the lid. The whole idea in one picture.
Black Konsol concept chassis standing beside a television
Black, next to my TV. Probably a little less sleek than the Steam Machine, but it still looks nice enough.
Hands lifting the white Konsol concept chassis by the handle on its top panel
There is a handle on the top. It is meant to be picked up and carried to a mate’s house, not left under a desk forever.
Black Konsol concept chassis photographed from a front three-quarter angle
Black from the front three-quarter, if white is not for you.
White Konsol concept chassis on a desk alongside a keyboard and mouse
End of the day, it is a PC. Put whatever OS on it, use whatever peripherals you want. That is the point of PC.
Black Konsol concept chassis viewed side on
Side on. That is where the depth goes - a full-length graphics card and a proper cooler both want the room.
Side window of the white Konsol concept chassis showing the components inside
Lifestyle shot. The glass lets you see inside, which I guess is a benefit?

What it costs us

  • Sale price£1,149
  • Parts≈ £935
  • Profit per build£50-70

Sale price minus parts is not the profit margin. I have got to pay staff, VAT, corporation tax, a warranty reserve, shipping labels, boxes, and so on.

The current price leaves £50-70 profit per build on a good day. I cannot make it any cheaper without adjusting components.

The other half of the answer is why it costs more than a Steam Machine at all: Valve build semi-custom silicon at console volumes, and we buy the same parts you would.

The vision

  • +A console-like experience through Bazzite, which day to day is much the same as SteamOS
  • +Remote start using a smart plug and the AC-back setting
  • +Hardware you can actually upgrade
  • +The obvious deficiencies fixed
  • +Options for dual boot, or Windows with Xbox mode

Where it is behind

  • −Size. Probably the main one
  • −HDMI CEC. Ours is the clumsier way of doing it
  • −Acoustics. Konsol would not be loud, but it would not be as quiet

I would hope those are trade-offs worth making. Tell me if they are not.

Still thinking about

An AM5 version, Ryzen 5 7500F with 16GB of DDR5, would come in around £150 to £250 more. That might end up as a second option rather than a replacement. There is a question about it in the form.

Going the other way, a cheaper version with an OEM RX 9060 8GB, an A520 board and a Ryzen 5 5500 would realistically land around £950, still with the 1TB drive.

What Konsol does not fix

Anti-cheat, and it is the same on both

Games built around kernel-level anti-cheat do not run on Linux. That is true of the Steam Machine and it would be true of Konsol, and nobody building one of these can solve it. At the moment that means Fortnite, Call of Duty, Battlefield 6 and Valorant, among others.

If that is most of what you play, neither machine is for you, and I would rather say so here than let you find out later. I am sure you already knew that, but it matters for the marketing. I do wonder how many Steam Machine buyers did not know it and ended up disappointed.

Over to you

So: tell me honestly. Would you even consider this as an option?

A few questions below will really help, and I would rather know it is pointless if that is what you all think.

No deposit and no obligation - this is a question, not a pre-order. Nothing here is final, including the price.