The Steam Machine costs $1,049 and sits behind a reservation queue. You can build a SteamOS console yourself for less, and it will be repairable and upgradeable in ways the boxed one is not - but working out which parts actually fit in ten litresmeans an evening of cross-referencing spec sheets, forum posts, and someone’s photo of a case with a ruler next to it.
CouchRig is that evening, done already and written down.
We do not publish numbers we have not read.
That sounds like the sort of thing every site says. Here is the difference: it is enforced in software. A build cannot be published if its performance figure has no source attached - the publish step rejects it. Which is why you will find empty fields on this site rather than confident guesses, and why the comparison charts are shorter than they could be.
We are not neutral about this. A fabricated benchmark got onto this site once. The gate exists because of it, and the editorial policy exists so you can hold us to the rest - what a review unit does not buy, what a sponsor cannot buy, and how corrections get published rather than quietly applied.
This is a small independent site, operated by CouchRig and built and written by one person who wanted a SteamOS console in the living room and got annoyed enough at the research to make this instead.
It pays for itself through affiliate commission on parts, which is described in full on how CouchRig makes money. Nobody pays for coverage here.
Corrections, review units, sponsorship, or a build you want to show off - all of it goes through the contact page. If you have built something, we would like to see it: submit a build.