Chinese Company Unveils Budget SteamOS Gaming PC That Costs Nearly Half the Price of Valve’s Steam Machine

A new competitor has entered the living-room gaming market, and it's already attracting plenty of attention. Chinese manufacturer GMKtec has introduced the EVO-T1, a compact gaming PC powered by SteamOS that delivers impressive hardware at a price nearly half that of Valve's official Steam Machine. The announcement comes as demand for affordable SteamOS devices continues to grow among PC gamers.

The GMKtec EVO-T1 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor featuring 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, 40 RDNA 3.5 graphics compute units, and 32GB of LPDDR5X memory. It also includes a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, making it powerful enough to handle modern AAA games while maintaining a compact console-like form factor. The system ships with SteamOS pre-installed, allowing players to access their Steam library with a controller-friendly interface similar to Valve's own hardware.

Perhaps the biggest selling point is the price. While Valve's Steam Machine starts at $1,049, the EVO-T1 is expected to retail for around $599, making it one of the most affordable SteamOS-powered gaming PCs announced so far. Thanks to Valve's decision to make SteamOS available for third-party hardware, manufacturers can now build their own console-style systems without relying on Windows, opening the door to a new generation of living-room gaming devices.

The arrival of lower-cost SteamOS hardware could significantly reshape the market. Valve has already acknowledged that it wants more manufacturers to adopt its operating system, and affordable alternatives like the EVO-T1 may help bring PC gaming to a much wider audience. As SteamOS continues to improve compatibility and performance, gamers can expect to see even more compact gaming systems challenging traditional consoles in the near future.