Let’s Take a Closer Look at the Steam Machine Motherboard
From the outside, the Steam Machine looks like a cute and compact box, but the real interesting part is hidden inside. Because Valve’s new device is about the size of a 140mm PC case fan, the motherboard also had to be much smaller than the usual desktop PC standards. The teardown images shared with Digital Foundry show that Valve went for quite an aggressive engineering choice in this area. Because the Steam Machine’s motherboard is significantly smaller than even standard Mini ITX boards used in small form factor PCs.
Steam Machine Uses a Motherboard Almost Pico ITX Size
Valve engineers describe the Steam Machine’s motherboard as “almost Pico ITX” size. For comparison, Pico ITX motherboards are approximately 100 x 72 mm, while Mini ITX motherboards are 170 x 170 mm. Although the Steam Machine’s board appears slightly larger in raw dimensions, there’s a reason for that: the mounting points at the four corners extend outwards from the circuit board itself. Despite this, the resulting design is truly impressive.
The shared images clearly show the AMD-branded processor and graphics unit on the front of the motherboard. The CPU is located at the bottom, and the GPU at the top. A total of four 2GB VRAM modules surround the graphics processor. This means the Steam Machine’s 8GB GDDR6 graphics memory is presented in a rather cramped but organized arrangement on this small board.
Moving to the back of the board, the shared backplate for the CPU and GPU is noticeable. A single 16GB SODIMM DDR5-5600 memory module is located in the lower left section. Interestingly, the motherboard also has a second RAM slot, but this slot is left empty. This raises questions about future upgrade possibilities or Valve’s cost and heat balance considerations.
The Steam Machine’s cooling system is also one of the most critical parts of this small structure. Keeping a semi-custom AMD CPU, RDNA-based GPU, VRAM modules, and system memory cool in such a confined space is not easy. Therefore, more technical details will emerge as full teardown reviews of the device become available. For now, the picture is this: while the Steam Machine’s price has sparked controversy, its motherboard design truly offers an extraordinary and compact example of engineering.
Read More: Why Does the Steam Machine Only Come with One DDR5 RAM Module?
