The GabeCube [24 hours review]

[u/gr3n0lph]

My GabeCube Journey – 24 Hour Review

Hello guys! So I decided I will document my Steam Machine… *cough cough*… **GabeCube** journey. This is my 24 hour post, but I will make this a series and post again after 1 week, 1 month and 1 year. Will need calendar reminders because I know I will forget.

I have been playing games for over 30 years now, so I have seen some shit. I'm a gaming enthusiast, which means I love everything gaming, from unique hardware to retro machines. I play big AAA games and weird, lesser-known indie games. Basically gaming is my main hobby and I love it.

Let’s start with The Wait

Now back to the story. Sometime in June I clicked a link to reserve the GabeCube. I know the price seemed ridiculous at first, but with time I could really understand why it was 1035 Euro. I mean, if we think about it… RAMpocalypse happened and everything got more expensive.

Plus I'm 36, I have a great job and I didn't even need to save up to buy this. Sounds like I'm being a privileged kid, but in truth I come from a very poor household and got to where I am by hard work. Anyways, I digress. So yes, I click reserve and then wait for my email from Gabe to tell me the good news……

**3 months later…..**

*Congratulations citizen! You have been chosen!*

Oh my gosh. Well that took… some time. I almost forgot about my order… lie, I checked my email every day. And I'm still sad my GabeGlasses won't be delivered till like 2077 (Cyberpunk pun).

So I click pay, they take my money…. and I wait for my 512GB GabeCube. And to my great surprise GLS delivered it within 3 days… compared to the 1 week I had to wait for my GabePad.

Delivery day

So I'm at work and my wife writes me that a box got delivered, it's huge and it's in the living room. She asks me: "Is that your cube thingy?" I say: "Yes dear, Lord Gaben has chosen me."

So I keep working, checking my watch every 10 minutes and cursing Chronos for his mockery of my urgency to get home. Then it's 17:30 and I'm rushing home on a train. In my excitement I miss my stop (was watching the Apple HomePod announcement – what a piece of junk) and basically add about 40 minutes to my journey home. It's always when you're rushing to get home that you never get there on time, right?

Unboxing & setup

So I get home and there she is. No, not the wife(whom I love more than life), the cube, brothers. I'm talking about the perfect cardboard box that contained my GabeCube.

I prop my phone up and live stream with my brother to show him the unboxing of this gorgeous device. He built his PC last year and still couldn't believe I splurged on a GabeCube.

Power goes in, HDMI goes in, the wire from the puck goes in, and that's it (Ethernet will be added later this week once I get a splitter). I power it on and it is ALIVE!

Mind you, I have a Steam Deck, so I'm no stranger to how easy Valve made it for us to set up this box. It was a matter of:

- Picking my language
- Setting up WiFi
- Waiting for a quick update + restart
- Signing in

Paused the call with my brother, used the GabeGuard to sign in and boom. The familiar interface of GabeOS (same as SteamOS).

Performance

So I install Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, ETS2… and Hades 2. Didn't have to wait long since my connection is pretty good.

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds: To my surprise the machine was set to 1080p as max game resolution. So yes, I got perfect performance on High with 60 FPS. Then I exit the game, change the max game resolution to 4K and launch it again. Visually way sharper, but the frame rate is now 35–45 FPS. Not perfect but playable.

Hades2 Perfect 60 FPS at 4K. To be honest I didn't expect anything less here.

ETS2: I preferred it at 1080p on max rather than 4K with various visual compromises.

In all my 4 hours of testing I did not notice any noise coming from the machine. Whisper quiet.

Btw, wake from sleep with the GabePad also works really well.

Final thoughts (for now)

All in all it was a nice first experience. I would say that out of the box, the box does what it should: play games without asking you to fiddle with settings. But as the PC gamer that I am, I had to change a few things here and there.

To be honest I think I will barely play any demanding AAA games on this, since I have a GeForce Now subscription and that works like a charm in my area. For me the GabeCube will mostly be for Sega games (Yakuza and Persona) and all my indies.

So let me know how your experience was and what you liked or hated once you unpacked your box. Also, if you have any questions or want me to test anything, let me know!

[u/VR_SamUK]

From your pics I assumed the outcome was you reboxed it to sell

[u/OriginalGoldstandard → u/VR_SamUK]

It’s the new face plate enclosure

[u/gr3n0lph → u/VR_SamUK]

Haha my dumb ass did not order the pictures right

[u/St4va → u/VR_SamUK]

Yeah me too

[u/the_brytt]

Many of us find the sweet spot to be 1440p - similar performance to the 1080p, similar visuals to the 4K when you’re a couple meters back from the screen. Give it a go, as it looks like you’ve only tried those 2 extremes so far.

And agreed, it’s a delightful piece of kit!

[u/Keishiebaby → u/the_brytt]

Since I put my settings to 1440p I can play all the games I love. Squashing hordes of xeonos on Space Marine 2 is a real way to stress test it! Looks beautiful for the emperor!

[u/RealityIsRipping → u/the_brytt]

1080p makes sense on a 4k screen because it’s just turning 4 pixels into 1.

I feel like 1440p would look odd on a 4k screen

This is coming from someone who has never owned a 4k screen, just thinking about it.

[u/the_brytt → u/RealityIsRipping]

Yeah the theory’s solid but in reality modern 4K screens are very good at interpolating. At 1440p it’s literally double the pixels (3.7M) vs 1080p, although still essentially half that of 4K (8.1M). The gain from twice many pixels in the render is far larger than any small loss from interpolation algorithms. It’s a great sweet spot.

[u/LachieMacca01]

A week and a half in and my PC is dead to me and widows will never be welcome back into my life

[u/Altruistic-Teach5899]

Mine comes today! Eager to play indies, Capcom titles, Total War, Warhammer games, and... Well, no, thats kinda it, thats all i play, lol

[u/flao_zen → u/Altruistic-Teach5899]

Please Update when you tested total war Warhammer. That would be the reason for me to get it but it think a normal Desktop PC would be better for it.

[u/Hellgate93]

I got mine last week and im very happy with my purchase. Mh wilds is doing good as well as killing floor 3 and BG3. Everything plays at 60fps in 1080P and the Steam controller works nicely.

The only issue ive encountered at the very start is with changing to discord in game mode, as mh wilds will not accept any button inputs and needs a restart. Havent tried it in other games yet. Propably the Game screen isnt considered "active".

[u/Adamocity6464]

Mine arrives today. I’m so excited.

[u/vitek6]

24 hours is not enough time to make a review of something.

[u/gr3n0lph → u/vitek6]

Which is why this is called a 24 hour review and I will make updates as time passes. It’s literally in my description. But to be honest I think 24 hours is the most exciting moment.

[u/Elemnos → u/gr3n0lph]

Ignore scrooge MC doesn't even probably have a steam account.. the first 24 hours was definitely the wow factor and I actually turned off my other 2 desktop computers and just use my steam machine and steam deck now. Still on the fence about the frames I probably won't get them until down the road but I've been completely blown away with the enjoyment they have brought.

[u/savant_idiot → u/vitek6]

☝️ 3/10 comment.

[u/vitek6 → u/savant_idiot]

Ok

[u/savant_idiot → u/vitek6]

2/10 - If quiet quitting was a comment.

[u/gr3n0lph → u/[deleted]]

Indeeed. That is why I love the valve approach. If you want to play then just play and if you want to go wild and customise and tinker then by all means you do you. It’s the versatility that I love. But also the fact that unlike the consoles my game library will always be with me.

[u/coolo995]

I often lower the resolution to 1800p to get 60fps and I can barely tell the difference between that and 2160p.

Some more advanced games I lower to 1620p (I think?) and can tell more of a difference, but it’s noticeably better than 1440p and much better than 1080p.

[u/Excellent_Safety1138]

Have you tried switching into desktop mode? Everyone I do it it just becomes a black screen.

Edit: I meant every time lol.

[u/MrStarkIDontFuck → u/Excellent_Safety1138]

not normal, contact steam support

[u/CaptainInsano15]

I just wish I could play some titles that require anti cheat compatibility... COD, etc!

Just glad emulation is soooo easy.

[u/kenef0]

Great write up! Only hope the next ones are as good.

How are you using GeForce now? I used it in its early days but haven’t in a while and it was always through my computer.

[u/OkTea5924]

I just wish valve made it with an apu like Sony and Xbox and gave it 24gb of ram to work with instead of the dgpu with 8gb

[u/Jimlad73]

Will it play GTA6

[u/Xevious212 → u/Jimlad73]

If base PS5 can I wouldn't see why it wouldn't, especially with FSR 4 enabled. Rockstar is usually pretty good with optimization. But we won't really know until the PC version.

[u/srstable → u/Jimlad73]

Not on release. Mostly because it’s releasing for consoles

[u/gr3n0lph → u/Jimlad73]

Most likely yes. I will give RDR2 a go today.