Adafruit

Valve released the design files for the Steam Machine's front-panel e-ink screen so owners can build or print their own faceplate instead of buying one. The catch, surfaced in the thread: the display is a standard Adafruit 5.83-inch e-ink panel, and Valve explicitly won't sell its own.

So 'make your own' collapses to 'buy a commodity panel and Valve's mounting files' — and readers question modding a $1,049 prebuilt device at all.

Commenters point out you can buy an M4 Mac Mini or an N100 mini-PC for similar money — with more capability. One called it 'memory with a side of compute'.

The bleakest prediction: with RAM shortages and inflation, $350 might look like a good price a year from now.