The Steam Machine is slightly bigger than a portable Blu-ray / DVD player. (I just checked this with my own players)
I can’t wait for someone to make the equivalent of the Gamecube’s GBA Player for discs. Because of its size, It could even be a plastic shell where you put an existing Hitachi/LG portable drive without having to disassemble anything
latop drive in a 3d printed enclosure that stacks with the steam machine. If the machine has free headers on the mobo route the cables internally, otherwise sata to usb adapter.
I love physical media, but are optical discs really a good match with the steam deck? What exactly is the use case here?
As someone who grew up in the ERS of the Sony Discman, I can testify how annoying it is to try to get an optical disx to read while holding it in your hands. The PSP largely solved this with UMD’s- addign an expensive and bulky plastic shell to the discs to stabilize them. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Sony decided to remove that entirely from.the Vita. I can’t remember any other handheld that has used discs. Everything else uses cartridges or is digital-only.
Disc drives are common on laptops, and portable DVD players used to be common. These larger form factors are expected to rest on your lap or a table, so are more stable.
Another consideration is power. It takes a lot of energy to spin those discs around. That’s one of the reasons why SSD’s have almost completely replaced HDD’s in mobile devices.
Another issue is- are you planning on carrying a CD wallet full of discs around with you?
What is the use case for a disc drive on the Deck? For the games I have in disc, its easier to just rip them and keep them digitally. Same with movies and music.
I think a disc drive could be a cool part of a Steam Deck docking station, but I have a hard time seeing myself ever using discs in any other situation.
Edit: Nevermind I got the Deck and Machine mixed up lol
The Steam Machine is expected to be hooked up to your TV in 99% of cases. Why not add the capability to play Blu-Ray movies at that point?
Also, there’s an official dock for the Steam Deck, which is also intended to be hooked into the TV most of the time. It’s reasonable to want an attachment for that as well if you only have a Deck
Fair points in general, but OP is talking about the Steam Machine, not the Deck.
Steam Machine, not Deck.
I definitely read steam deck too and I was right there with you, like, why does this guy want this lol
I’m also still adapting to discussing other hardward in a community called steamdeck. I understand why, just still adjusting personally
Someone could make a custom front plate with a vertical disc drive.
That would be so dope
Holy, yess! I am not sure if the faceplates are big enough for it though
Idk if it would be clear but laptops for a while had cd drives and they were pretty small.
Currently have a laptop with a disk tray, and it could hypothetically work with some design considerations.
I bet someone will 3D print an attachment that could fit a USB CD/DVD player and clip to the Machine
I’ve been considering designing one, but I’d need to buy an external player
Was the accessory for the GBA cart real and actually released? My memory around the GC is foggy af. I might have even had the thing, but I don’t remember.
Yes, I have one. It is great.
the game boy player? absolutely. it was basically a full gba, too. you needed a driver disk for the gamecube to find it, but after that the console just idled and handled io passthrough while the peripheral did all the work.
not like those sega hacks who shipped an entire copy of windows for mips just to play their weird shmups.
Reminded me of the Panasonic GameCube (Panasonic Q). Not a separate DVD player, but built-in. Still, interesting ideas and neat designs!
That’s not a Steam Machine. It’s obviously an Xbox.
Don’t be daft. That’s a Vectrex, 100%.
Not buying a gabecube, but yeah, I’d like a box that can play my console discs.
Off topic, but how does the Steam machine’s dimensions compare to a GameCube, which is bigger?
I’m surprised I cannot find an image of the two devices side-by-side. Here is a mockup of the two in OpenSCAD using the dimensions from Wikipedia
code
dimensions_steam_machine = [156, 152, 162.4]; dimensions_gamecube = [150, 161, 110]; origin_steam_machine = [0, 0, 0]; origin_gamecube = [dimensions_steam_machine[0] + 20, 0, 0]; translate(origin_steam_machine) cube(dimensions_steam_machine, center=false); translate(origin_gamecube) cube(dimensions_gamecube, center=false);EDIT: Not sure exactly what is going on here. This is a Facebook post from November 2025 with what seems to be an empty shell of a Steam Machine. Perhaps it was a 3D printed mockup or something. Regardless, it seems to be enough to give a sense of the relative sizes of the devices.
Oh you rock, this is amazing! Thank you for effortposting :3
Nice, thanks!
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The Steam Machine is slightly bigger but it’s very close.
GameCube: 110 mm x 161 mm x 150 mm
Steam Machine: 152 mm x 162.4 mm x 156 mm
Wait, the gabecube isn’t exactly a cube? Well that’s just mildly annoying for no good reason!
is that 161mm with the handle?
