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Dell set to introduce beefed up Steam Machines

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According to PCWorld who spoke with Chris Sutphen, the senior marketing manager at Alienware, Dell are pushing out two new Steam Machine models.

QuoteA new Alienware Steam Machine priced at $749 will have the Intel quad-core Core i5 chip based on the Skylake architecture, Nvidia's GTX 960 GPU, 8GB of DDR4 memory, a 500GB hard drive and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

For more horsepower, a $899 Steam Machine will be loaded with a Skylake-based Intel Core i7 chip, an Nvidia GTX 960 GPU, 8GB DDR4 DRAM, a 1TB hard drive and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.


The original cheaper Steam Machine will continue to be sold too.

I see this as a good sign, a sign of Dell's faith in the platform. Also, they wouldn't be introducing new models if the original didn't sell enough to be worth continuing to the point of adding more models. You could argue the opposite though, if it didn't sell enough they are trying higher models to see if people bite.

Another interesting quote from the article is this Alienware's Chris:
QuoteWe expect the SteamOS catalog to strengthen at the end of year


Going to be a fun year. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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31 comments
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Halifax Jun 14, 2016
I bought the low end $450 i3 Alienware Steam Machine at launch - it's a good machine!

It looks attractive and tiny under the TV, plus very quiet - and surprisingly decent 3D game performance for such a small and quiet PC form factor. It's what I was looking for: a modest gaming PC for under the TV, that looks attractive in the living room, and adequately runs about 90% of my games library, since the majority of my titles have more modest hardware requirements.

Glad to see some kind of movement here, any movement :-) I recently convinced a local friend to buy one. And I was honest with him: install Win 10 on it, it'll basically be considerably better for gaming in general: almost uniform better game performance head-to-head same hardware/same game, better games compatibility.... But that's not the point, Linux is a new gaming OS option doing surprisingly well in a short amount of time, plus it's a better choice over Windows at a desktop usage level for *many* many reasons. You really are taking your PC's life in your hands using Win 10 as your desktop.
melkemind Jun 14, 2016
Valve is definitely playing the long game. It's nice to see manufacturers that share its long-term vision. I wonder if part of that is because Dell is now privately owned and not at the mercy of greedy shareholders.
Segata Sanshiro Jun 14, 2016
Quoting: bubouswhy one intel i7 CPU?
have to improve the GPU and not the CPU, Steam Machine is to games....and i5 is sufficient.

Yup. Would make more sense if the next model up had a GTX 970 and still an i5 since it still wouldn't bottleneck the card.

It's this kind of stuff I've been complaining about since the first Steam Machines specs were announced. All these terrible decisions end up doing is giving the machines a terrible price-performance ratio and make them pretty unappealing.
[email protected] Jun 14, 2016
I think the price is very good. Very competitive against Zotac's boxes with similar specs to their high end models.

The 960/970 is good enough for most games on Steam really.

I have a 670 FTW+ and it's good enough to play most games on high/ultra at 1080p.

And if you don't like SteamOS, think of it as a very capable and effective PC that can run Linux or Windows at a very affordable price with warranty at that.


Last edited by [email protected] on 14 June 2016 at 3:01 am UTC
burnall Jun 14, 2016
I would like to see amd rx 480 or 470 steam machine priced around 500 to 600 euros. That would be awesome, I would just sell my old pc.
TheRiddick Jun 14, 2016
The RX480 should bring some new life to the steam-machine push. Hopefully AMD can sort out some good official drivers with the pro series before then so SteamOS can be a THING..
Overlord Jun 14, 2016
Valve has all the piecess here to make steam os a success.Just make some performece tweak on SteamOS And release HL3 exclusive for linux/steamOS with Vulkan.Even if only just for 1 week .If they can make a great HL3 ,SteamOS populatrity will rise like the steam itself.
Kuduzkehpan Jun 14, 2016
nice big companies coming in not only Linux also hardwares. (SM)
good job valve.
Pecisk Jun 14, 2016
Quoting: Segata Sanshiro
Quoting: bubouswhy one intel i7 CPU?
have to improve the GPU and not the CPU, Steam Machine is to games....and i5 is sufficient.

Yup. Would make more sense if the next model up had a GTX 970 and still an i5 since it still wouldn't bottleneck the card.

It's this kind of stuff I've been complaining about since the first Steam Machines specs were announced. All these terrible decisions end up doing is giving the machines a terrible price-performance ratio and make them pretty unappealing.

We are talking about small, laptop like silent machines here, not full blown PC. A bit different pros and cos and requirements. One of them being silent.

Also Vulkan (why i7 upgrade).
Mblackwell Jun 14, 2016
For me the sweet spot is still $300-350 before I would consider buying one... buy I have definitely considered it a few times in the past. The hardware revision they are talking about is on the level of what I'd hoped to see really.
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