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[mug]

No AMD?

Linux driver issues?

 

[aeolist]

I thought 16 gigs of ram was stupid for gaming and only really useful for stuff like video editing.

that part is kind of overkill and they could get away with 8GB

it wouldn't save them much though, ram is fucking cheap

 

[Dr.Acula]

Let me make something clear to some of you.

Judging from the info on the group page, these specs list are neither the limit or the maximum specs for steam machines. All they are, are what valve thinks will be common setups, that they can then test how people use them in the living room and what modifications people are most likely to make. There will be cheaper and more expensive machines of all different form factors from other manufacturers.

Basically anything that has steamOS is a steam machine, whether you're dual booting or not. So don't complain that the steam machine(s) are too expensive when a minimum hasn't been determined.

That said, I find it hard to understand how 300 people chosen at random can help determine what constitutes typical living room use and modifications. I'd guess they a watching many forums and expect the community to be rather vocal about what they like.

In case valve are reading - HIIIIII <3 youuuu

You raise an interesting point. Is Valve going to want to be the official vendor of "Steam Machines," or will they license Dell, Alien, etc. to make Steam Machines sold with controllers and everything?

 

[Zeth]

Other than perhaps form factor and cooling solutions, is anything about these steam machines going to be custom/proprietary?

Nothing proprietary - everything publicly shared, including CAD files for the enclosure, so people can replicate it.

 

[spacemonkeynation]

All I want is a little dongle or VitaTV sized box to stream my PC games to my bedroom TV. Come on Valve, make it happen.

 

[H_Prestige]

Xbone is $500.

360 and PS3 are $200
Wii U is $300
PS4 is $400

 

[Nzyme32]

That's still way too much money when consoles are easily 1/2 or 1/3 the cost.

I don't know, maybe Valve isn't expecting to sell many of these things to begin with.

Consider how this generation has gone and how the price of an xbox360 or ps3 is extortionate compared to the actual components, yet they were very high end when they initially came out, sold at a loss.

I think the prices of on par steam machines to the ps4 and xboxone will be a bit more expensive that the xbox one, unless a giant such as samsung comes along and decides to take some of that sweet living room pie by subsidising heavily.

But, in the long run, the on par steam machines will be more competitive and then far cheaper than the ps4/xboxone. This is when things will get interesting.

 

[VanWinkle]

There are just the higher-end machines. There will be more.

It seems like Valve would want to adhere to some sort of spec guidelines, wouldn't they? Or are these basically just going to be PCs without Windows on it?

 

[FrontalMonk]

exciting news. My current gaming PC is rocking 8gb ram and a 560ti, so the fact that the lowest tier of these beta boxes is running a 660 and it goes up from there sounds delicious.

 

[fallout]

What's weird is that all of these are capable gaming machines themselves. I thought there would be at least one VitaTV style machine completely reliant on the streaming feature for games.

They talk about this:

So high-powered SteamOS living room machines are nice, and fun to play with, and will make many Steam customers happy. But there are a lot of other Steam customers who already have perfectly great gaming hardware at home in the form of a powerful PC. The prototype we're talking about here is not meant to replace that. Many of those users would like to have a way to bridge the gap into the living room without giving up their existing hardware and without spending lots of money. We think that's a great goal, and we're working on ways to use our in-home streaming technology to accomplish it - we'll talk more about that in the future.​

 

[pixlexic]

I thought 16 gigs of ram was stupid for gaming and only really useful for stuff like video editing.

And horribly coded games like bf4.


But again like I said in the other thread it won't cost the manufacture nearly as much to build these machines as it would if you build it yourself.

I am expecting the mid level box to be around $450

 

[Interfectum]

360 and PS3 are $200
Wii U is $300

Ouya is $100. What's your point?

 

[Cartman86]

They have said multiple times that there are going to be various configurations. ranging from incredibly cheap to expensive. This one was stated by Valve to be on the high end. They are still PC's. Not consoles.

 

[Zeth]

You raise an interesting point. Is Valve going to want to be the official vendor of "Steam Machines," or will they license Dell, Alien, etc. to make Steam Machines sold with controllers and everything?

"As we talked about last week, the Steam Machines available for sale next year will be made by a variety of companies. Some of those companies will be capable of meeting the demands of lots of Steam users very quickly, some will be more specialized and lower volume. The hardware specs of each of those machines will differ, in many cases substantially, from our prototype. "

 

[IcyEyes]

Can you imagine the public outrage? Hehe...

Wow, I figured out some terrible things !!!

You don't, which is explicitly stated in the article.

Are you guys even reading it?

... meh.

 

[BlazinAm]

which new console is going to be $200-300 when these things launch next year?

The i3 with GTX 660 might the one that is 300 next year.

 

[H_Prestige]

Ouya is $100. What's your point?

My point is that they priced themselves out of the console market.

 

[Serandur]

It seems like Valve would want to adhere to some sort of spec guidelines, wouldn't they? Or are these basically just going to be PCs without Windows on it?

That's my takeaway. They could just be aiming at the prebuilt gaming PC market, only with much smaller profit margins (so more affordable prices). I don't really know what their plan is with these.

 

[Mulgrok]

Found: Half Life 3 exclusive on Steam Machine.

except, you could install steamos onto the current PC and not need to buy a steam machine.

 

[Timeaisis]

I'm still confused how this works. Is this just a Steam-branded machine? If so, anyone can buy a PC RIGHT NOW and install steam OS when the time comes. I don't understand what a "steambox" is supposed to be other than a PC with Steam OS. If that's all it is, why are they marketing as a specific console? It's just a PC...

Am I missing something here or is Valve just being really bad with their marketing right now?

 

[TedNindo]

I could also imagine some laptops with HDMI out and capable of dualbooting into SteamOS and windows. Wearing a Steam Machine sticker or something.

 

[Phamit]

Any word on a Blu ray drive? Or digital only?

Cause nobody wants dvd anymore with 500 discs

 

[Interfectum]

My point is that they priced themselves out of the console market.

How do you know? Because someone said there might be a $600 model?

 

[DyTonic]

I'd buy one if I needed an upgrade.

 

[valouris]

I still don't get the point of the hardware beta-test. They are basically handing away 300 PCs in small cases, and tell people to use said PCs in their living room.

 

[SteveWinwood]

Any word on a Blu ray drive? Or digital only?

Cause nobody wants dvd anymore with 500 discs

i didnt know anybody wanted physical media at all

How do you know? Because someone said there might be a $600 model?

because he can look into the future

and he cant read

 

[Zoolader]

Steam should have made beautiful tv panels instead that can stream from your pc kinda like the Nvidia Shield does. Get in your living room and beat Apple to the punch. I have no interest or need for a steam box, I'll continue building my own pc's.

 

[CrashPrime]

Let's talk realistically about what type of specs a Steam Machine will need to compare to a Xbone/PS4.

i3 + 660 would just about do it no?

By the time the beta's over, do we really live in a world where this couldn't be offered at $400-500?

I really do think Valve is bringing PC gaming to the masses at that point. You have to realize that while the PS4 and Xbone have their own unique features, the Steam Machine certainly has its own, namely PC games back catalog.

 

[Kintaro]

i didnt know anybody wanted physical media at all

This.

This is the PC world. We ain't got time for that physical media nonsense.

 

[a916]

It seems like Valve would want to adhere to some sort of spec guidelines, wouldn't they? Or are these basically just going to be PCs without Windows on it?

I thought that was the draw, you don't have Windows and other stuff running the background hogging resources.

 

[Serandur]

I still don't get the point of the hardware beta-test. They are basically handing away 300 PCs in small cases, and tell people to use said PCs in their living room.

Marketing? Just to get some feedback from a random sample of users? <shrug>

 

[Dr.Acula]

Any word on a Blu ray drive? Or digital only?

Cause nobody wants dvd anymore with 500 discs

True, being a "media PC" I want a bluray.

 

[Zeth]

Valve's biggest mistake: announcing/sharing this information with strings of text. Could have used a few GIFs at least.

 

[MrCunningham]

You could also remove the parts and sell them for more than the cost of the machine. I can't see 'them' subsidising hardware in any way, otherwise you're going to end up with a glut of cannibalised Steam boxes as people take them apart and sell the individual components.

So very true.

Other than perhaps form factor and cooling solutions, is anything about these steam machines going to be custom/proprietary?

Outside of the controllers, probably nothing. Even then the controller will not be proprietary either, as it will work on any platform like Windows, Linux and Mac.

I mean, the OS is basically what needs the beta testing, and we are all going to do it on our machines, right?

Yeah, the OS will be free for anyone to download. It's going to be Linux based, so it will be easy to dual boot with windows. I'm going to be downloading and installing the SteamOS as soon as it hits.

 

[wenis]

it would be sure nice to get one of these, but none of us will

 

[Serandur]

I thought that was the draw, you don't have Windows and other stuff running the background hogging resources.

It also means they can cut out the price of Windows I suppose, but SteamOS will be available for all PCs, not just Steamboxes.

 

[Clawww]

Wow, not getting into the beta will be even more disappointing now.

 

[Nzyme32]

You raise an interesting point. Is Valve going to want to be the official vendor of "Steam Machines," or will they license Dell, Alien, etc. to make Steam Machines sold with controllers and everything?

I am all but certain they are licencing to others. They pretty much proclaim it from the steamOS announcement and the group update. What will be interesting is what actually are the rules to be steam machine. Although the licencing is free, they still have to be licensed at that means a set of rules. Possibly in the form of minimum specs, ease of upgrade etc.

Perhaps judging from the 16GB RAM on all the prototypes that might be a minimum, and the idea may be to encourage upgrades of just the graphics cards? No one knows yet.

I imagine they will have some big companies on board that to make certain classes of steam machine. Think about how many companies would love to gate crash the living room. Samsung are so apple hungry they may even make a "Galaxy Steam Machine" or something.

Basically the opportunity for companies to get some of their stuff into the lounge is there, and I believe a lot of companies will give it a shot in the hope of being a brand recognised for their living room box. Prices may get cheaper faster than everyone thinks, but not at first

 

[iJudged]

IMHO, these are the specs I was hoping for in our next gen consoles. (or something close to it)

 

[Edwards_Omatic]

That's some beefy tech, I can't see little Timmy getting one of these for christmas.

 

[GillianSeed79]

Most people don't want a PC without Windows, either.

Most people already have PC's or Mac's though. I'd rather just keep my aging laptop around for my normal PC stuff and buy a Steam Machine-equipped titan dedicated to gaming that I can upgrade later.

 

[Nzyme32]

It only seems like a clusterfuck to people who are used to be spoonfed marketing bulletpoints and massive wank fest system reveal conferences.

Valve is actually treating us as if we have some intelligence. Go fig.

 

[Eteric Rice]

I think... This means my machine is already a steam machine.

Fuck yeah!

 

[MRORANGE]

Scalable hardware..... And everyone just lists the highest model and says its expensive...

 

[Gaogaogao]

' RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU) '


does this mean they all have 16gb of ram? feeling the pressure to upgrade.

I know not all the video cards will be 3gb

 

[DeFiBkIlLeR]

So this is basically a Valve/Steam PC franchise for OEM's ?, who think they'll get lots of sales simply because it has the Valve name on it.

I really don't see the point unless it's a fixed spec platform really, Just build your own lower priced box, and throw on Steam OS.

Just seems pointless to me, reinventing the wheel.

 

[Serandur]

I wonder if Origin, Uplay, and GFWL can run on SteamOS.

 

[gaming_noob]

Only 3gb of GDDR5. Looks like PS4 is more opwerful

 

[SteveWinwood]

So this is basically a Valve/Steam PC franchise for OEM's ?, who think they'll get lots of sales simply because it has the Valve name on it.

I really don't see the point unless it's a fixed spec platform really, Just build your own lower priced box, and throw on Steam OS.

Just seems pointless to me.

how are you people missing the point so much

go for it, go do that, they want you to do that

 

[RoKKeR]

Damn, more horse power than I was expecting.

Price tag should be...interesting.