I, um, accidentally took apart a Steam Machine entirely. What started as a simple desire to examine its RAM arrangement turned into a nearly complete disassembly, the intricately layered, almost Russian Doll-esque design of Valve’s compact PC requiring that one component be extracted to access another. Before I even realized my arm was growing weary from the screwing, the Machine’s innards were scattered across my desk – not gruesomely enough to reassemble, but in far, far more separate parts than I had naively planned for or was brave enough to try in my main review.
Nonetheless, this allowed for a much more thorough evaluation of the Steam Machine’s upgrade capabilities and repair potential, as well as how readily it will disclose its secrets. After all, despite its inspirations from streamlined, living room consoles, it is fundamentally a PC, and the nature of PCs is that there’s always someone who wants to modify and rebuild their own. Just, you know, intentionally.