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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!

As a designer I've been idly waiting for Steam screensavers to come out of beta so I could start digging in, and now they're here!! I've been pretty surprised by the seeming non-existent excitement for this feature when the potential is so damn broad, so I'm hoping I can show what there is to get excited about.

I have lots and lots of ideas for these, but first thing I wanted to knock out was the classic Windows XP Pipes screensaver. Luckily, many years ago someone already got this banged out in threejs, so I'm taking full advantage of that MIT license. Big ups to 1j01, their code is basically 90% of the work, I've just been modifying it to add some functionality and refine the pipe behavior. I'll likely release it on github as a fork to make sure they keep most of the credit.

-

This screensaver is exactly what it says on the tin, pipes for days. I added an image in the background that slowly materializes as the pipes fill up the space (this can be literally anything but I made it the Steam logo for now), added my own custom-designed palettes alongside one inspired directly by the original, adjusted the behavior of the pipes to make them a bit closer to the original, and surfaced a bunch of options so you don't need to dive too deep into the code to adjust it to your liking. The attached video is recorded on my ultrawide monitor, so it's a bit.. wide.

Let me know if there's anything someone would like to see here as an option. I'll continue fucking around and hopefully I can get this into a repo at some point very soon 🫡

NIGHT EDIT:

I need to sleep so I haven't tossed together a README yet, so excuse any lack of attribution or useful information, but here's a first early version! There are still some weird rare bugs here and there, and I don't do much handling of unexpected config values just yet.
https://github.com/Acerocks22/tabs-screensavers/

You'll find all of the currently available customization options in the `config.js` file. Be careful with a few of these, I'm still working on managing memory build-up. Palettes can be edited or added-to in the `definitions.js` file. Let me see any cool palettes you make :D

Got some skins for it I’m loving the steam machine it’s completely replaced my setup as much as people on my last post seemed to hate but much less desk space taken and it is dead silent under load it’s amazing going from such a loud pc to something this quiet
The collection of current gen hardware is amazing I’m actually amazed at what this hardware can do with lower power chips

They finally added a patch that improves optimization on low spec & handheld configs!!

& yup… native FG finally enabled! I removed LSFG 2.0 (worked great, but disables hdr).

Now no noticeable lag at all…. Looks great at 1440p, FSR performance, FG on! Locked 100fps.

Now it almost competes with Series X! (I play on both).

Thx to the devs!

I've been experimenting with HelixSR on my Steam Machine, and the results are pretty interesting so far.

In Cyberpunk 2077, I'm running the game at 4K, high settings, and Quality upscaling, combined with Lossless Scaling Frame Generation (LSFG). The experience is surprisingly smooth, almost buttery smooth, actually. I'm genuinely impressed with how well it runs.

Interestingly, after installing HelixSR, FSR 4 disappeared from Cyberpunk's graphics settings, and I can now only select FSR 3.

In The Witcher 3 (Next-Gen), however, the results have been much less impressive. I can barely notice any improvement, if there's one at all.

I haven't done any proper benchmarking yet, so these are purely subjective impressions. I also haven't verified whether HelixSR is actually active in both games.

Has anyone else experimented with HelixSR on the Steam Machine and experienced similar results? I'm particularly curious whether others have noticed significant improvements in some games but little to no difference in others. I'd love to hear what you've tested, which settings you've used, and whether you've found any ways to improve compatibility or performance.

Edit: I'd also like to add that while I did notice some minor ghosting and artifacting caused by LSFG when using FSR 4, it's barely noticeable, if at all, with Helix.

I had the same with the steam deck. I wonder if many experience the same. I love the controller but this reaction from my hands bugs me out 😵.

I’m sure this topic has been brought up already but I am loath to scour hundreds of posts and willing to absorb the hit(s) so here goes …

Just how the h-e-double-hockey-sticks can I copy steam games to an external SSD turned USB-C drive using my newly arrived Steam Machine?? Every place I’ve looked has given me instructions that are impossible to follow because whatever version(s) of SteamOS they were using are so out of sync with the version that is now on my “machine” that the steps are nowhere close.

Again, sorry for the newb post but … I’d love an answer (if there is one) that actually works. Thanks.

JG from Frustration-ville

I'm having issues with my steam machine hooked up through HDMI to my LG c6h. I am getting noticeable screen flickering in games and SteamOS when VRR is enabled. I've tried changing the resolution, brand new high speed HDMI cable, and switching to a monitor with no luck. On the TV itself, ive tried enabling both GSYNC and Freesync which did not help. The only fix is turning VRR which is unfortunate. Any tips on how this can be fixed?

Finally Achievement Plugin is a Decky Loader plugin that replaces the plain Steam achievement popup with 18 popup templates, rarity tiers with their own sounds, an achievement browser and an on-screen tracker. I’ve just released 1.6.2, and I want to introduce what the recent updates added too.

New in 1.6.2: faster, complete popups

• A tester on a Steam Machine reported popups only appearing after pressing the Steam button, or 1–2 minutes late, and then with just a title.
• The plugin now reads Steam’s own stats file directly, so an unlock should show up about a second after Steam writes it.
• Names and descriptions now come from Steam’s local schema first. It has every language and includes secret achievements, so descriptions don’t go missing.
• Nothing is shown twice if another detection path catches the unlock first.
• Unlock history: a list of recent unlocks with the game, rarity and time. It starts from the day you install 1.6.0 and keeps the last 500. There are “Show more” and “Clear history” buttons.
• Share card: select an unlock to make a 1200×630 image with the icon, name, description, rarity, game and date. It’s saved to Pictures/Finally Achievements and previewed in the panel. The plugin doesn’t post anywhere. You open or copy the file yourself.
• Session summary: when you close a game, one popup such as “3 unlocked, 1 rare”. It only appears if you unlocked something.
• Almost there alert: a popup such as “Only 2 achievements left”. You set the count from 1 to 5, and it fires once per count. It skips finished games and games with very few achievements.

Languages: English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese and Polish.

Install or update: download from the latest release. In Decky, turn on Developer mode and use “Install plugin from ZIP file” (or install from the URL). Your settings are kept.

GitHub: https://github.com/otisabiburada/finally-achievement-plugin

I CREATED THIS PLUGIN WITH CLAUDE JUST FOR MY PERSONAL USE, BUT WANTED TO SHARE IT, IT IS MADE WITH THE HELP OF AN LLM. PLEASE KNOW THAT BEFORE USING IT. HAVE FUN!

So I moved my SD card from my Steam Deck to my new Steam Machine, and then redownloaded some lighter games onto the Steam Deck hard drive.

Even though I have Steam cloud saves set up, my Steam deck now won’t play Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, saying the “downloadable content for this game is not available”.

I checked and the dlc is downloaded and I reverified game files and still no luck. Has anyone else had cloud save issues with games that have DLC?

Is it normal that "watch -n 2 sensors" shows a fault on the fan?

Could someone else run the watch command on their Steam Machine and let me know if they get the same thing?

Physically, it is spinning, but there is a faint static sound (almost resistor buzz like sound).

fan1: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM, max = 4900 RPM)

System Fan: FAULT

Ciao Guys,

I have finally revived news about my SM being shipped the other day, and I wanted to order a set of keyboard (either one hand or full size) and mouse for my living room set up, do you have any suggestions? Both would be better to be wireless.

Thanks a lot!

I'm having horrible performance on the same SD card that works great in my Stream Deck. I've seen a few other people mention it in the Steam discussion forums, not here yet.

Anyone else seeing this?

I noticed that when I pause the steam machine for a while, the audio is muted. Then, when I come back and press a button, it unmutes itself. Is that something by design?
Also, I have the Steam machine connected to an HDMI port. My Xbox is connected to the other CEC HDMI port. When I turn off my TV, the Steam machine goes into standby mode. Is that also by design? I don't think my Xbox does that if I connect it to a regular HDMI port.
Are there any other interesting things that the Steam Machine does that other gaming consoles don't?

So I'm trying to install it and it just isn't working.

It appears as if the installer isn't updating the .exe file. So the one I have is the original which asks me to insert the game disc to play.

Hasd anyone else had this issue?

I have my Steam Machine connected to a 4k TV. SteamOS has the resolution set to 4k.

When I go into the video options in Star Wars Galactic Racer the resolution drop down shows ONLY 2160p. There is no way, in-game, to select 1440p or 1080p.

Is there a way to make those (and all other) lower resolutions show up in game? Or a way to change the resolution without having to quit the game and set the resolution in the game properties in Steam?

Hi all - I apologize if this has been asked before and I just didn't see it. I received my Steam Machine a couple weeks ago and absolutely love it, but I got the 512gb option because I had planned on swapping out the 4tb NVME (gen 4) that I built into my work PC back when prices were reasonable. I'm typically good with tinkering and fairly comfortable with Linux due to years of owning and tweaking a Steam Deck. However, what I thought what be an incredibly simple upgrade has been driving me insane.

I pulled the two drives out of their respective machines, formatted / cleared both (with the 4tb drive being formatted to EXT4, and the other drive planned for other purposes), and used Etcher to make a SteamOS boot drive from the Steam installation guide page. Easy so far.

However...every time I try to run the boot drive with the 4tb drive installed in the Machine's NVME bay by loading the BIOS first (holding the power button for a few seconds, then pushing it again once it's red / magenta) it either takes a long time to get to the BIOS screen (up to 45min once, although usually just a few minutes) at which point it shows no NVME drive in the system summary, OR it shows the drive correctly on rare occasions but then when I choose the option to load from the USB drive it just returns to the BIOS screen again but now shows no NVME drive. If I then load from the USB into the SteamOS live session, the NVME still isn't recognized by the installer, partition manager, etc (each shows no drive installed / recognized at all).

Once I attach the 4tb drive to another system or put it in an enclosure after it first disappears from the BIOS list, it shows a 0B capacity, lacks partitions, etc. The only way I've found to fix that is to load up a Mint live session and reformat it with Gparted.

I haven't found a ton of documentation on issues with the Steam Machine or SteamOS, but as far as I can tell the Gen 4 4tb drive should be compatible. I also used the drive for almost two years on my work PC up until a few weeks ago, so between that and testing copying files to it after reformatting it I know it functions correctly. Beyond that, I've tested all the variables I can think of:

• Tried Etcher and Rufus for creating the boot media
• Tried three different USB drives, each of which I've used before and know they work
• Tried both the latest SteamOS image on the support page as well as the previous one from June

I'm genuinely at a loss and could use any suggestions whatsoever. I'm worried that whatever quirk / error keeps messing up this drive puts a now unexpectedly expensive piece of hardware at risk the more I try to resolve this, so at this point if I can't figure out any other solution I may just try to set the 512gb drive back up in the Machine and see if the 4tb will function well as an external drive, even though it's far from ideal. I'm already exhausted from two young kids and work, so I really wish this "simple" upgrade had just worked like it should have. I just want to play some Galactic Racer instead of spending more evenings fighting with hard drives. Thank you in advance for any help.

Hello guys,

I bought a mini pc called the Asus NUC 14 Performance Barebone (open box) for around $1100. This is basically an Asus ROG NUC 970 (exact same specs without RAM and SSD). The specs are an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and an RTX 4070. I added $300 for 64 GB RAM, and I already had a 1 TB SSD. I really want the quiet and small size PC so this was perfect for me and it cost me like $1400 total. I have like 3 days to return this mini pc and buy the Steam machine instead. What ya guys think? I could probably buy the Steam machine 2TB /w controller for around $1500 after taxes. I'm torn between these two choices, and I have like 3 days to decide.

The steam machine is a pretty capable little box but does have some limits. Anyone here try it with an eGPU? Is that even possible? Heck yeah dudes let’s go.

An unofficial, open-source client for sending custom 1-bit frames to the JSAUX 5.83-inch E-Ink faceplate. The protocol was documented from the official V1.1 SteamOS installer and verified against real hardware from macOS.

Got a steam machine, hooked it up, started initial steam os setup

.. everything going well until...

Ok tried wired, tried another network, rebooted router, tried hotspot from phone, same screen, will not continue from here...

Help! Do I need to return it?