Steam Machines will only come with one 16GB stick of RAM — company may change this to two 8GB sticks in the future, but the first batch of consoles is limited to single-channel memory

Summary

Valve confirmed to Gamers Nexus that the first batch of Steam Machines will only have one 16GB RAM stick. This would have a negative effect on the console's performance, but the company likely did this to keep its price as low as possible, or because it's the only available option left for the company.