LDLC's PC Box – briefly the Stim Machine – takes on Valve's Steam Machine with more power at the same price

French hardware retailer LDLC launched a compact PC aimed squarely at Valve's Steam Machine, originally naming it the Stim Machine before quietly dropping that name a couple of days later. The device is now listed on LDLC's site simply as the PC Box or PC Box Kit, though the cheeky original branding had already made the rounds online.

The PC Box comes in one configuration priced at €1,039 pre-assembled – exactly the same as the Steam Machine's base 512GB model in Europe. It packs an AMD Ryzen 5 8400F CPU and an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU, both a step up from the Steam Machine's Zen 4 processor and semi-custom RDNA 3 graphics. The RX 9060 XT is a full generation ahead of Valve's GPU and, according to Gamers Nexus benchmarks cited by Eurogamer, can deliver up to 70 percent more performance. The PC Box also benefits from higher power headroom on its discrete components, letting them stretch further than the Steam Machine's thermally constrained hardware. The trade-off is size: the PC Box measures 222 × 181 × 285mm versus the Steam Machine's compact 156 × 152 × 162mm cube. It also ships without SteamOS installed – you have to set that up yourself.

Raw performance isn't the whole story, though. Valve built CEC support into the Steam Machine's HDMI port, which is what lets it behave like a console from your TV's perspective – powering the screen on and off, switching inputs reliably, the works. The PC Box, like virtually every other PC, lacks that hardware-level TV integration, which blunts the living-room pitch considerably. Rock Paper Shotgun's hardware reviewer summed it up bluntly: the PC Box should mulch the Steam Machine on benchmarks, but it's also almost certainly louder and too large for a Scandi media cabinet. Valve separately released a standalone version of SteamOS 3.8, meaning anyone can technically build their own Steam Machine-style setup – but the software alone can't replicate the CEC convenience.

Both machines are expensive by any measure, with the ongoing memory shortage keeping component prices elevated across the board. At identical pricing, the PC Box is a compelling option for buyers who prioritise raw frames over living-room polish – but for anyone who wants something that disappears behind the TV and just works like a console, Valve's smaller, quieter box still has a clear edge.