Remember that laptops typically have a different form factor for RAM than desktop PCs, so if valve goes for DIMM, an old laptop might not be useful for that.
Is the steam machine a normal ATX design? I have their original Steam Machine made by Dell, the Alienware Alpha, and it was a custom laptop motherboard with laptop sized SODIMM slots.
I also wasn’t suggesting using his old laptop ram for the new machines because its a different DDR version, either 3 or 4, i don’t know how old it is. But I have an extra ddr5 laptop I could give him ram from, if he got a bare bones steam machine.
Its VRAM (8GB) is soldered and not upgradeable. Its main memory (16GB) uses SODIMM but accessing those slots seems to require removing the heatsink which means anyone who does so should be ready to replace the thermal paste as well. That’s a lot to expect from the people who buy this thing considering it’s largely intended for people who don’t already use a custom desktop build.
Even if they do want to sell it without the SODIMM slots populated to avoid supply issues there, they can’t avoid the supply issues on the VRAM side.
Remember that laptops typically have a different form factor for RAM than desktop PCs, so if valve goes for DIMM, an old laptop might not be useful for that.
Is the steam machine a normal ATX design? I have their original Steam Machine made by Dell, the Alienware Alpha, and it was a custom laptop motherboard with laptop sized SODIMM slots.
I also wasn’t suggesting using his old laptop ram for the new machines because its a different DDR version, either 3 or 4, i don’t know how old it is. But I have an extra ddr5 laptop I could give him ram from, if he got a bare bones steam machine.
— edit —
Yeah, seems like it uses SODIMM slots
https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/hands-on-with-steam-machine-valves-new-pcconsole-hybrid
Its VRAM (8GB) is soldered and not upgradeable. Its main memory (16GB) uses SODIMM but accessing those slots seems to require removing the heatsink which means anyone who does so should be ready to replace the thermal paste as well. That’s a lot to expect from the people who buy this thing considering it’s largely intended for people who don’t already use a custom desktop build.
Even if they do want to sell it without the SODIMM slots populated to avoid supply issues there, they can’t avoid the supply issues on the VRAM side.