[TheCoreh]

Very weird USB-C port placement choices...

- 2 USB3-A on the front

- 2 USB2-A on the back

- 1 USB-C on the back

If you want to plug an external USB hard drive or SSD at full speed, you'll need to plug it at the front? Or use up the only USB-C port...

I suspect most joysticks sold today come with a USB-C to USB-C cable, so if you want to charge your controller you either need to plug on the back, use an adapter, or get a USB-A to USB-C cable?

Also the single USB-C port isn't Thunderbolt/USB4, and they're only including gigabit ethernet, which is disappointing but perhaps understandable if they're trying to keep it at a low price.

[preston4tw]

Valve / Steam presumably has good data on what controllers and peripherals people are using, so I'd imagine their port choices are based around that. Here's a June 2024 post talking about Steam Input and controller market share: https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail... . At the time of the post they say "59% of sessions are using Xbox controllers, 26% are using PlayStation controllers, 10% are on Steam Decks"

[ivanjermakov]

Steam input controller says nothing about the interface being used (USB A vs USB C). A single USB C (with DP support, I hope) port in 2026 sounds like a bad design.

[stetrain]

Most gaming peripherals still seem to use USB-A on the computer end for cables and dongles.

Current Xbox and PS5 controllers charge with a USB-C port on the controller end but a USB-A port where the plug into the console.

[mxfh]

Because think they need to be backward compatible with decade old peripheral controllers. People tend to get grumpy about this. Yet nobody flinched when XBox ditched KinectV2 with Series S/X.

For PC's people are used to adapters. And USB-C is superior in every way.

A self declared general compute device should have a least two USB-C outs that can drive displays.

For 2026 (12 years into USB-C spec) I would expect a minimum of 2 3.2 capable fully wired USB-C ports.

Even better something newer that could do near 40GBpS or better. Like USB Gen 3×2

(Written on usb keyboard connected to 4k monitor that also charges the MBP it's plugged in)

[SchemaLoad]

For controllers you can use any cable you want. The Xbox controller will charge just fine on a C-C cable. I don't think they should have gone all in on USB-C like laptops have, but there should have been more than one USB-C and one should have been on the front. Pretty much the only thing you need USB-A for these days is mice/keyboard with non removable cables. Which are becoming increasingly rare.

[coopierez]

The slim PS5 uses USB-C on both ends.

[viraptor]

What do you expect to do with the steam machine that will take more than a gigabit? I mean, it's cool when things are faster, but if you can saturate the link, downloads are still bottlenecked by the drives. And even 4k streaming is under 100Mbit normally.

[daveoc64]

I can download at approximately 2.5 Gbps from Steam on my PC.

I think not having a 2.5 gigabit port at least is a poor choice.

[embedding-shape]

> And even 4k streaming is under 100Mbit normally

Are you talking "4k streaming" as the current streaming providers do it, with trash bitrate, or "4k streaming" as you would do it if you had ripped your own blu-ray disks and you want to stream it from a NAS somewhere else in your house to your living room?

[TheCoreh]

Games are super large nowadays. IIRC Steam uses P2P for the update downloads, so you should be able to saturate whatever link you have, and the SSD should be substantially faster than 1Gbps. So anyone that has a > 1Gbps internet connection should benefit from something higher than Gigabit.

[ericd]

How are downloads bottlenecked by drives? A normal nvme drive does >20 gbit.

[rtkwe]

You'd be wrong C to A is still pretty standard for controllers in my experience.

As for gigabit fewer and fewer people have ethernet routed to their office/TV area much less >1gig networking to take advantage of anything better than a 1 gig.

[SchemaLoad]

I agree that gigabit Ethernet is adequate for the type of product this is. But I do find it funny that the Wifi chip on this is very likely capable of 2Gbit. We somehow entered a world where WiFi is typically faster than Ethernet.

[tagyro]

mmm ...let's agree to disagree

I wired my whole place with 10Gb - couldn't do it in the wall (as in, hidden) so I have flat cables around the door frame and wall corners. I was willing to accept the cables, just to get 10Gb.

And, IMHO, it's worth it.

[mrguyorama]

The steam controller also revealed has a USB-C, as does Hori's official steam controller.

However, you can charge it from things that aren't USB ports. Charging bricks are cheap and most people have one for their phone now, except some unfortunate old iPhone users

[terribleperson]

I feel like part of the problem with going beyond gigabit Ethernet is that copper beyond 1 gigabit is expensive with limited adoption. SFP+ fiber is superior and not even expensive any more, but there's no consumer adoption.

[0x457]

Most controller/headphone dongles come with USB-A, so 2.0 in the back makes sense. Radio for new steam controller is integrated.

I have a Y-splitter for my PS5 controllers and if I didn't, I would have had some sort of controller dock. I assume I would do the same for this. Either way, TV is too far from my couch for a cable, so I wanted to keep playing and charging I'd use a powerbank from my coffee table.

Gigabit Ethernet...that's sad, I'd take 2.5G, so I can better stream my legally ripped Blu-rays. I assume most people don't care because they would use Wi-Fi or their switch only goes to 1G. Better than JBL making android TV sound bar with 100mpbs.

I think it purposely designed, so you don't try to build a NAS on it.

[JMiao]

I think the decision of usb2-a at the rear is for wireless keyboard and mouse adapters. Those ones can behave abnormally on usb3-a, plus it’s nice to have those ugly adapters out of sight.

[Ekaros]

Also just old wired mice and keyboards. The desktop use scenarios. If you use both ports for those at back. Any temporary faster devices make more sense at front.

[monocasa]

A lot of devices that you commonly plug and unplug like flash drives and passkeys still make sense as USB-A for a lot of people because of the specifics of the USB spec.

C to A converters for devices are technically verboten since they would allow an enduser to make a A to A cable, which can fry hosts if you plug them into eachother if they don't support USB OTG. You can lose certification if you try to ship a device with a C to A converter.

Because of that, USB-A devices with an optional A to C converter (or neater devices that have both plugs on them natively) are what makes a lot of sense for a lot of people for the kinds of devices that live on a key chain. So it makes sense for that to be the default on the front of a desktop, IMO.

[dmix]

most of the usecase is going to be keyboard, mouse, and bluetooth headset dongles. All three of mine attached to my Steam Deck dock are USB-A.

although I own a bunch of those usb-a->c attachments you plug on the end, so it wouldnt make much difference

[vel0city]

> bluetooth headset dongles

I imagine this has decent Bluetooth support out of the box even if not mentioned? Its hard to find a WiFi chipset these days that doesn't have some kind of Bluetooth support.

Maybe proprietary headset dongles, but if its just bluetooth its probably not needed.

[terribleperson]

You can replace the internal ssd with an off-the-shelf ssd and it also has SD card support, so there should be less need for external SSDs.

Gigabit Ethernet is definitely a bummer when I'm close to having fiber all the way to my PC.

[rtpg]

> I suspect most joysticks sold today come with a USB-C to USB-C cable

while things can be charged with USB-C cables, the only thing I've ever received A C-to-C cable is... a USB-C wall charger. Granted I haven't gotten a USB-C iPhhone yet and I gotta imagine that one is C-to-C.

Generally lots of pack-in cables I've seen in the wild for charging devices continue to be USB-A-to-C. Switch 2 ports are USB-A, PS5 front port is USB-A... we're still getting there.

[HexPhantom]

The lack of USB-C on the front is especially odd in 2025

[jerojero]

The steam machine has a bespoke wireless connector for the (new steam) controller so it doesn't pollute the Bluetooth network and cause lag.

Yes, the controller is charged through usb-c, but you can just use any charger around to charge that. I mean, the battery should last for 30+ hours so you only need to charge it on a weekly or biweekly basis with heavy usage.

[MomsAVoxell]

I suspect it'll be like the Mac mini situation, and the after-market USB hubs that fit the form factor will expand rapidly ..

[0x457]

It would be a case if it had I/O like Mac mini. Like if it had TB3/TB4/USB4 somewhere, it doesn't.

[pseudosavant]

Real question, what would >1 gigabit Ethernet or Thunderbolt do for you in a low/mid-range gaming PC?

[KeplerBoy]

With thunderbolt you could connect an egpu. This machine won't age terribly well with it's limited GPU capabilities.

[ortusdux]

Could it be a synergy with the Steam Frame's dual band wireless dongle? I'm guessing they would really want users to plug that into the front of the device.

[extraduder_ire]

Adapting A ports to C is much more convenient than going the other way. I have a whole sack of passive A to C dongles that stick out less than 1cm from the port.

[lynnharry]

The console is on the TV side and I usually just charge my controllers on the sofa side. That way I can charge and play at the same time if I want to.

[TiredOfLife]

It's an old semi-custom semi-discontinued laptop soc.