During Valve’s CES 2014 event this evening, the company released a brochure featuring images, prices, and specificiations for 13 third-party Steam Machines. Let’s take a look-see!
Aside from Alienware, the party pooper, each of the 13 machines at the very least comes with some basic specs, giving us an idea of what to expect from these Valve-approved gaming PCs. Some we’ve seen earlier today. Others we’ll be getting to know more about later this evening. According to Valve’s Gabe Newell, Maingear’s system was too late to make the brochure, but I’m sure there will be more about that down the line.
So, what do you guys think? That certainly a bunch of PC gaming machines, right?
Comments
36 responses to “Valve Unveils 13 Steam Machines, With Specs And Prices”
Out of all of them ill probably buy the Gigabyte Brix Pro because i was planning on getting the model down for a home media centre.
Id consider the Ibuypower, looks nice form. the rest just dont look nice in my opinion. and yes id buy a piece of hardware based on looks
I don’t blame you for something that will be sitting under your TV in the middle of your lounge room. No one wants to give prime position to something which looks like a beige box PC or kids toy :p
That would be my pick. Best looking case IMO.
But like a glutton for punishment, I’d be more likely to buy the parts separately and make my own.
I dig the specs, but most of them are super ugly in design. Will still buy/10
Considering the price and specs on some of those, I don’t see the difference between them and a PC, appart from branding and operating system.
Having said that, I haven’t really looked into what Steam Machines will actually be/do, so feel free to correct me.
That is the point. They are just PC’s. Although, they are specifically designed to be hooked up to a TV and run of a proprietary OS (Steam, so no need for Windows) and are largely dedicated to gaming.
still need windows on them unless you like not playing a huge portion of AAA games and well most games in general.
Yeah. And that’s the downside. While a handful of AAA titles have been ported to linux, most haven’t. So anyone after that won’t get as much value out of a steam machine unless that changes significantly.
More than that, I think not having movies/streaming/video content available (or apps) hinders the Steam Machine from being worthwhile under a lot of peoples TV.
My game list on my native linux version of steam is growing every day, even with the current environment.
It’s a chicken and egg problem. People wont put games on a platform with no users, and users won’t use a platform that has no games. At least valve is now providing a platform that opens access to a large number of users. The number of native linux games will continue to increase to the point that [hopefully] it will be no different to windows for gaming. I’m not saying this will be a smooth or even painless transition. But I certainly hope that one day we get there!
My Pc is close enough to my TV that I can connect them by HDMI. Solves all issues.
Oh yeah, I’ve got a HTPC (my old gaming PC really) hooked up to my TV. It works great. I’m more interested in the Steam OS streaming than the actual means because of that. But with Steam OS in its current form, there is no desire or need to swap over because I would lose more functionality.
Actually, you have a full desktop OS underneath. You can minimize the Big Picture mode, and you’ll be left with a full Debain installation. Just install whatever apps you need. VLC, Chromium, etc. It’s all there. Why do I know this? I have Steam OS installed and running on my box.
Not sure why so many people think it’s JUST Steam and nothing else.
You don’t need Windows on them, if you’ve already got a Windows machine with Steam installed. You can then stream your Windows (or Mac) games to the Steam Machine connected to your TV. This is what I’m interested in, since I can’t connect my Windows PC directly to my lounge TV.
I’d be happy with a low spec, small form Steam machine which I’d use for Linux based games (mostly Indie), and stream AAA and graphics heavy titles from my Windows PC.
If you have ANY PC with windows already you don’t need a steam machine, so this is entirely null and void. Any exceptions would be so far in the minority its not worth even a millisecond of anyones time debating.
No need to be so defensive, mate, was just adding my 2 cents.
I agree the majority won’t need a steam machine, but I just referring to whether you need both windows and steam os on the steam machine, if you bought one.
You directly state ” you don’t need windows on them (implying steam machine), which is 100% untrue.
This wasn’t a passing comment, you were directly claiming something false as the truth. For those who have a gaming pc there is not a single need for a steam machine they can simply dual boot steam os buy the controller and plug in a HDMI cable to the tv if they want a steam machine on their “tv”. If they don’t have a gaming machine then they still need windows on their steam machine.
So like I said anyone who your comment might be true for is in such a small minority (Basically limited to rich enthusiast wasting money). I have no problem with you adding your 2 cents, If you remove the “you don’t need windows on them” part your comment is fine, but with it you are giving dodgey advice and flat out false information to anyone who might be reading and none the wiser which is why i responded so vigorously. Few things in this world piss me off more than people spreading misleading or utterly false information, intended or not.
Mate, you don’t need Windows installed on your steam machine.
Steam OS on the steam machine will stream the game from your separate Windows or Mac machine. Check under In-home Streaming:
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/
Just like nvidia shield’s streaming feature.
I thought SteamOS didn’t support AMD GPUs
not yet.
The current pre-release version doesn’t support AMD GPU’s, but Valve is working on getting that support up and running for the actual release. I expect that support for AMD will happen in the coming months, probably well before any of these machines actually hit the market.
I wouldn’t be surprised if these manufacturers have access to early steam os code which includes support for AMD GPU’s. There’s no way they would even spend dollar 1 on this type of marketing without first checking to see if their solution was viable.
I wish they’d release a model for the sole purpose of streaming. I don’t plan on having a secondary gaming PC under my TV, I just want to stream my primary system via SteamOS to my TV when I want to play a game with a controller (I currently run a 15m HDMI cable and USB over Ethernet extender).
Question from the ignorant and uninformed: Can I just build my own PC and load up Steam or is there something specific about these boxes? Besides how damn cool they look.
Nope, you can build away and load up steam OS, it’s basically just a linux OS.
Sweetness.
spot on mate,
and i just checked a few diff PC sites and you can infact buy cheaper matx/mitx systems which have better specs for cheaper and just chuck the ‘steam os’ on them, so thats a cheaper / more flexible alternative
Yeah totally. Considering it’s a linux box and can’t run most of the games natively I wouldn’t want to waste $$$ on a 2-3k machine just to have to stream it from something else, seems crazy.
I’d rather donate my current (4 year old) pc into a good mid range steam box for the lounge room and then upgrade to a workhorse for my main pc.
Is it just me, or are they really expensive for what they are?
Steam only, and they seem more expensive than if you built the computer yourself.
An xbox one or ps4 is either similar or the same price as one of these, and you usually get all the big games.
I’m in the same boat as you b0m8. I really don’t see why there’s such a fuss over these things when there’s already established, polished TV based consoles to choose from.
Why the living hell would you want a steam box with a Linux OS to stream content when you can either get a dedicated console or just run longer cabling from your main PC?
Better yet, why not just buy a PS4 or X1 and get a proper selection of AAA games and features that Steam OS won’t offer for a fraction of the cost?
Steam OS is a Linux based OS… whoop de do?
For people who want the convenience of couch gaming, the established console market already has you covered. Why go to these ridiculous, expensive lengths to run steam games instead for a controller?
I seriously just don’t get the point…
Kill two birds with one stone and stick your gaming laptop under your TV when its not travelling with you.
So the biggest difference between a PC and this steam machine is basically the custom controller support? I mean you can hook up your laptop or PC to a large screen right?
+50% Australia tax…
Whatever happened to the piston? Doesn’t appear to be present. I think that’s very telling!
I am about to start building the ‘Webhallen’
It uses an awesome pc case that comes in so many different colours, the insides are far too extreme for me as I am building it as a HTPC with SSD only.
what about the steam controller? do these come with one????
rofl these specs I can build one the same shit but cheaper
What happened to the Master Race?
These are just rather average (some rather poor) PCs in fancy boxes.
I can’t wait to see the PS4 v XB1 v SM fanboi wars.
I am currently using a family PC and for the same price of a console I can get a steam machine that’s slightly better than my home PC and call it my own, that’s what i’m looking for here.
And why would i buy a next-gen console and spend $100 a piece on games (or whatever the price is) when I could play most of my 80 games from my couch?
Most might disagree but im going to get one of these iBuyPower ones.