Summary
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SteamOS matters: Valve’s operating system and updates allow others to create and customize Steam Machines.
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Meta PC’s Steamroller ships with SteamOS, standard PC parts, and runs AAA titles at high frame rates.
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If SteamOS becomes common, developers could eliminate Windows licenses and save about $100 on pre-built PCs.
When the Steam Machine arrived, everyone understandably focused on the hardware and price. After all, the Steam Machine will live and die by how powerful it is and how much it costs, so people were very interested in both elements.
However, there is one thing that people seem to ignore and that is the software. Valve has confirmed that the Steam Machine will run SteamOS and receive updates to allow other people to create their own Steam Machines at home. Well, one company has already taken the lead and released a gaming PC that comes pre-built with SteamOS, and it could confuse the way we approach high-end PCs as a whole.
Steamroller is a pre-built gaming PC with SteamOS as default
Yes, it happened even before the Steam Machine was released.
The PC in question has the appropriate name Meta PC Steamroller. It’s a bit more expensive than the entry-level Steam Machine, so it’s clearly not trying to beat Valve’s deal by undercutting it, but it looks like that extra money is going towards designing a PC that you can upgrade over time:
META PCs STEAMROLLER is a 1080p SteamOS gaming desktop powered by AMD Radeon RX 7600 and AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, built as an upgradable alternative to Steam Machine. It runs CS2, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Baldur’s Gate 3 at high frame rates, and because it uses standard desktop parts, you can swap out the GPU, add RAM, or expand storage whenever you want.
What’s interesting about this list is the concept of manufacturers selling PCs with SteamOS pre-installed. If Valve manages to make SteamOS the de facto operating system of choice for gamers, PC makers will naturally use it instead of Windows. and if that This happens, pre-built gaming PCs can shave around $100 off the starting price, because the manufacturer no longer needs to pay for the Windows 11 license. We’ve already seen some handhelds come with a cheaper SteamOS option, so it’s not too far-fetched to think the same could happen with PCs.
