On the waitlist for Steam Machine… maybe this is a blessing in disguise?

The Steam Machine is largely a poor device when it comes to how much it costs, but I wanted the convenience of it, the fact it could double as a living room console, and the fact I have a Steam Deck and so is part of the Valve ‘ecosystem’. The thought was I could just stream it easily to my Deck when I can’t play in the living room, and have Valve pushing out software updates to it, etc. the power just needed to be good enough to run what was available now, really. For example I’ve gone to great lengths getting Arc Raiders to run well on Deck, so any device that can run that to a suitable standard would mean any games I wanted to run well would likely do so on the Machine with upscaling.

Buuuut I’ve not managed to reserve one, I’m on the Waitlist. Which means I won’t be getting one likely until 2027. And I don’t think prices are going to come down, but rather the opposite, so it’s making me weigh up my options.

I presume others have asked for a similar device, like parts and prices and such, but I wanted to throw my question out there too. So any advice welcome - UK based, in London. Never built a PC before.