^ Yep, there's no way any of us could build a PC with a similar form factor as some of these, especially the Asus. It's also important to note these are modular, so you could buy in with a mid-range Steam Machine and upgrade down the line with a better GPU. I'm also with you about HTPC or ITX cases - they're almost all these ugly little cubes.

Pike, I think Steam Link is what you're looking for, similar to what Vivi and I were talking about above. You will be able to just stream your library to a micro-console over your home network, which comes with a Steam controller. Also, because it's streaming, I believe you won't be limited by Steam OS and Linux for the kinds of games you can play. The Steam Machines are more for people who don't have dedicated desktops already.