This $1,299 gaming PC wants to be a Steam Machine without waiting for Valve

Valve’s Steam Machine may be the face of SteamOS, but the platform isn’t exclusive to it. A big announcement after Steam Machine’s unveiling was that SteamOS would be arriving on systems outside of the new hybrid console. Now, MetaPCs is one of the first to take advantage of this by opening the preorders for the Steamroller, a new prebuilt gaming desktop that ships with SteamOS installed by default.

Though Steamroller is not trying to be a tiny console-like cube. It is a normal desktop PC with standard parts and a real upgrade path. The system costs $1,299 and is listed with a preorder date of July 3, 2026.

A desktop with Steam Machine in its bones

Steamroller pairs an AMD Ryzen 5 9600X with a Radeon RX 7600, 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. MetaPCs also lists a B650M or B850M Wi-Fi motherboard, a 240mm AIO liquid cooler, and a 650W 80+ Gold power supply inside a Jonsbo D32 black case.

These specs basically make it closer to a conventional gaming desktop, rather than Valve’s upcoming gaming hardware. To recall, the Steam Machine uses a custom enclosure and custom AMD components. Its size is what helps it achieve its living-room-first design philosophy. But MetaPC’s new prebuilt does have one big thing in common, which is SteamOS.

The real highlight

SteamOS desktops are not a new idea. Valve already tried this with the original Steam Machines from Alienware, Zotac, CyberPower, and others back in 2015. That first wave never really took off. Following the Steam Machine reveal, rivals have already started popping up, including fake-looking Chinese clones.

The difference now is that SteamOS has years of Steam Deck momentum behind it. Proton has improved dramatically, and developers pay more attention to Deck compatibility. Valve is also pushing SteamOS beyond its own handheld. With these specs and the platform, we can expect this machine to be pretty decent at 1080p desktop gaming.