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First Generation Steam Machines Revealed

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Valve and an assortment of different companies have revealed their Steam Machines from console price-point to stupidly powerful gaming computers.

These come from:
  • Alienware 
  • Alternate 
  • CyberPowerPC 
  • Digital Storm 
  • Falcon NW 
  • GigaByte 
  • iBuyPower 
  • Maingear 
  • Materiel.net 
  • Next Spa 
  • Origin PC 
  • Scan 
  • Webhallen 
  • Zotac


So we have 14 companies making Steam machines with only 13 revealed as Maingear weren't part of it oddly, that's quite a lot and the cases mostly all look awesome. I say mostly as Digital Storm's just looks like a normal PC.

Some of the prices are insane and I don't see why anyone wanted a stupidly high-end gaming machine wouldn't just build it themselves.

Personally I don't feel that the "Digital Storm Bolt II" at all qualifies as a Steam Machine, it will ship with Windows to start with to quote The Verge
QuoteAccording to the company, the system may not ship with SteamOS until the new operating system is out of beta.
Digital Storm tells us the all-important Steam Controller won't come with the computer, but be available to purchase later on.


No Steam controller, a $1,899 price tag (wow!) and they have outright stated they aren't looking to compete with consoles, so what they have done is make an expensive PC, not a Steam Machine.

Considering Valve themselves have stated this on their press release:
QuoteEvery Steam Machine includes an innovative Steam Controller designed for use with a wide variety of game genres, and is powered by the SteamOS, a custom OS built atop Linux.

I find it odd the Digital Storm unit is allowed to be called a Steam Machine.

The others have come out with some fantastic designs like CyberPowerPC's "Machine A" and "Machine I" (same box but different configurations).
image
That looks fantastic, it will start at $499 (~£304) for Machine A too which is an excellent price considering it comes with a Steam Controller too.

You can see the rest of them in a list on IGN's round-up. including a short video to explain Alienware's box.

Sadly they where no AAA game announcements, but we still have Steam Dev Days to go.

Exciting times ahead folks. You can view Valve's CES press sheet here, Warning it's large!

What do you think, or if I have missed something important let me know. 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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12 comments
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manny Jan 7, 2014
survival of the fittest.

indeed we have enough variety and will be interesting to see what happens.

they won't be too competitive yet, then the ps4/xbone's hardware will start lagging behind each passing year and the Steam machines specs will look more attractive and the linux OS will have many more games.

anyway, if you think you missed anything, there's also good reports at the verge.
scaine Jan 7, 2014
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I'm gutted that there was no CS:GO or Portal 2 announcements. CES wouldn't have been the place to necessarily plug them directly, but I thought that a general "Steam Machine" announcement would have coincided with those titles at least.

Sad. And a wee bit worrying.

I'm just dying to play Stanley Parable.
OZSeaford Jan 7, 2014
Quoting: Quote from mannysurvival of the fittest.

indeed we have enough variety and will be interesting to see what happens.

they won't be too competitive yet, then the ps4/xbone's hardware will start lagging behind each passing year and the Steam machines specs will look more attractive and the linux OS will have many more games.

anyway, if you think you missed anything, there's also good reports at the verge.

I think you nailed it pretty much. This year comparted to a console a Steam Machine does not seem to have an edge, however, in 2-3 years, the differences in graphics, and back catalogue of games will make the steamOS really attractive.
aL Jan 7, 2014
wtf is in the pdf... I have a pretty powerful machine and it took forever to load the first 2 pages... in okular... evince just show loading...

pdf.js couldnt handled it either
Liam Dawe Jan 7, 2014
Quoting: Quote from aLwtf is in the pdf... I have a pretty powerful machine and it took forever to load the first 2 pages... in okular... evince just show loading...

pdf.js couldnt handled it either
It took a minute or two to load here to, left it minimized, nothing much just minor details on each machine. Not sure why it's so big.
Narvarth Jan 7, 2014
It's materiel.net, not material (french inside ;)).
The complete specs can be found here.
(no controller...)
Liam Dawe Jan 7, 2014
Quoting: Quote from NarvarthIt's materiel.net, not material (french inside ;)).
The complete specs can be found here.
(no controller...)
Don't shoot me, I took that directly from Valve it seems they didn't check either :P

Interesting to know it also won't have the controller since that's another point.
adolson Jan 7, 2014
Didn't Valve say they aren't making Steam Machines themselves, outside of the beta units?

Depending on the price and specs, I am probably most interested in the Alienware Steam Machine, though at that size, it most certainly won't be upgradeable in any meaningful way. So that's a big consideration for me. At least in the future it could still stream games from a more powerful Steam Machine or PC, so I guess there's that.

I also like iBuyPower's design in black, and with the light set to a SteamOS-blue. I think that would look nice in my living room...

On the other hand, I kinda just want Valve's reference design, even without a GPU so I can stick my own in.
philip550c Jan 8, 2014
I'm interested in the alienware machine as well. I recently read an article that valve may make their own machine afterall. Taking a look at the digital storm really gives no indication that it's a steam machine seeing as how it has no steam controller and it comes with Windows. To me that means it's just a regular pc as they have always made. Also one of them comes with amd graphics, that's probably a mistake. I do like that gigabyte is making an low powered Intel gpu box which will be good for casual gamers.
PKM Jan 8, 2014
I see a lot of hate towards steam machines in the comment section of other websites. I personally think CyberPowerPC is a very good deal for the price, especially considering the size and the fact that it comes with a steam controller. The funniest part is that if they keep the original price in the UK ($500, around £304), it will actually be cheaper than the ps4.
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