"We said it's happening. We meant it." That's the updated message sitting on Jsaux's Steam Machine faceplate landing page, and honestly, it's doing a lot of heavy lifting after months of radio silence since the accessory maker first teased its e-ink panel back in January.
The page is still in teaser mode with no listing or pricing, but the update does more than just confirm the original monochrome e-ink design is still alive. Jsaux has quietly revealed two additional faceplate variants, and the full lineup is a lot more interesting than anyone expected.
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Three panels, three completely different vibes
"Three front plates for your Steam Machine. Color E-Ink, Mono E-Ink, Color Dot Matrix" is how Jsaux describes the lineup, alongside new renders of each design. Here's the breakdown:
- Mono E-Ink: The original concept, using a similar 5.83-inch black-and-white e-ink display to the one Valve demonstrated in its own DIY faceplate kit. Displays PC performance stats on the front of the cube.
- Color Dot Matrix: Replaces the entire faceplate surface with an LED grid. The effect in the renders looks like something between a retro scoreboard and a case mod from 2007, and it's genuinely eye-catching.
- Color E-Ink with rotary dial: The most distinctive of the three. This variant uses a smaller color e-ink screen, roughly half the vertical height of the mono version, paired with what appears to be a physical rotary knob and three oval-shaped buttons below it.
That last one is where things get nostalgic in a very specific way.
The Hi-Fi PC nobody asked for but everyone secretly wants
The color e-ink variant's layout, a small display flanked by a dial and physical buttons, is almost identical to the front panel design of early-2000s Hi-Fi PCs like the MSI MEGA 651, a bare-bones Pentium 4 machine from 2003 that doubled as an actual music system. Those setups used front-panel controls to run the CD drive and radio without booting Windows, which was genuinely useful before the era of always-on streaming.
Jsaux's version won't give the Steam Machine disc-playing abilities, but the aesthetic callback is hard to miss. The key here is that this isn't just a screen swap. Adding physical controls to the faceplate opens up a different kind of interaction with the box, one that feels more tactile and less buried in software menus.
What most players miss about the Steam Machine's faceplate slot is that it's essentially an invitation for third-party accessory makers to define what the front of the device even means. Valve handed out the template with its DIY e-ink kit earlier this year, and Jsaux is already running further with the concept than anyone else publicly has.
Where things stand right now
The landing page still has no release date, no price, and no "add to cart" button. The "notify me" prompt remains the only actionable option. Jsaux got ahead of the Steam Machine launch curve before with its Steam Deck docks, releasing accessories before Valve's own official versions arrived, so there's a reasonable track record here. But the timeline remains genuinely unclear.
For anyone who wants a faceplate right now, Valve's own DIY kit is the only currently available route, though that requires building the display yourself. The Jsaux lineup would offer a plug-and-play alternative with a bit more personality, especially if the dot matrix and Hi-Fi-style variants make it to production without too many compromises.
The Steam Machine itself retails at $1,049, so the accessory ecosystem around it is still finding its footing. If Jsaux can deliver on all three variants, it would give owners a genuine reason to think about the front of the cube as a customizable feature rather than a fixed part of the hardware. For more on what's happening across the PC gaming space, check out our gaming guides for the latest coverage.
