HOT STUFF

ALL THE BIGGEST STORIES FROM PLANET TECH

- Tom Wiggins]

HOT FIVE #1

SQUARE WAY TO HEAVEN

Valve Steam Machine

Gaming PCs aren't exactly famous for their subtlety.

Often the size of a suitcase and invariably covered in flashing lights and logos, they can make your living room look like a Twitch streamer's den-but the new cube-shaped Steam Machine is so understated it makes a PS5 look absurdly ostentatious.

Despite its diminutive dimensions (it's about the size of a Nintendo GameCube), Valve reckons the six-core AMD chipset inside makes it as powerful as six Steam Decks, with 16GB of memory and 8GB of dedicated VRAM giving it enough grunt to run games at 4K@60fps (albeit with FSR upscaling).

You can choose from either 512GB or 2TB of NVMe SSD storage and it'll run SteamOS out of the box, although gamers will be free to install a different operating system if they want to. It'll also have a builtin wireless adapter for the new Steam Controller, which looks a bit like a Steam Deck with the screen sliced out.

Of course, Valve couldn't resist giving the Steam Machine a little lighting, so you get a customisable LED strip on the front that can show the progress of your downloads. Handy.

As hot as... a suitcase full of steam £tba/go.stuff.tv/SteamMachine

HOT FIVE #2

TREK'S MACHINE

Lego Icons Star Trek: USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D

For over 25 years, Lego fans have been able to build all manner of spaceships from a certain movie franchise with the word 'Star' in its name... but those who prefer Klingons to Jedi Masters have had to make do with creating their own DIY designs- until now.