Fans can breathe a sigh of relief: Valve will let users build their own Steam Machine

The Steam Machine has finally been officially unveiled. While the new reservation system has been largely well received, many users may find the price too high and the performance too low. However, gamers apparently will not be limited to Valve’s official configuration. As Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge, Valve is now giving desktop PCs the green light for the first time.

“Starting with the SteamOS 3.8 release, you can put together your own Steam Machine using whatever PC parts you want.”

In practice, this means a traditional gaming PC running Valve’s SteamOS instead of Windows. According to Griffais, Valve intends to continue developing SteamOS specifically for desktop PCs. With SteamOS 3.8, which has already improved compatibility with current Intel and AMD platforms, the first step has already been taken. Nvidia, however, remains a work in progress. Griffais says Valve is now working “very closely” with Nvidia and has a growing team focused on driver support. Full Nvidia support, however, is not expected in 2026.

The news has been well received on Reddit. Many users see it as an important step toward making gaming less dependent on Windows and hope SteamOS could eventually become a real alternative for gaming PCs. Gamers also see an opportunity to use SteamOS on hardware that is significantly more powerful than the official Steam Machine. However, it remains unclear whether Valve will offer the Steam Machine as a barebones system to enable truly authentic custom builds. The biggest point of criticism is Nvidia. Some users feel Valve is currently promising a bit too much with “any PC components” as long as Nvidia graphics cards are not yet fully supported.