Steam Machine prices and hardware specs detailed

And not a single one has an aluminum unibody. Usually you get more for $4999.

SBX is the only one priced to compete.

actually the Alpha and Vapor are much better systems and only cost $20-$50 more

No, something that costs that much usually looks like a tiny trash can. ;)

And that's with a 4770K ($339), 3 980's ($549 each) and 32GB of DDR3 ($275). I'm not sure how they are getting to that $5K price point.

@FinalFighters:

Dude.. No consolite (I know) is going to spend $1100 freaking dollars on a gaming machine over the XBO or PS4.. Hell you can get BOTH for that price.

@GoldenElementXL: multiple 1tb Samsung evos on top of triple 980s and all the additional parts would get you pretty close to that number

@deadline-zero0: Indeed, i mean i don't need a new PC right now for work since i have a great laptop that also covers my most basic gaming needs as of now, but i was looking for an easier not so expensive way to play the upcoming games like Street Fighter V or MGS5, i mean PS4 and X1 are pretty shit so PC is the obvious choice, and a Steam machine where i wouldn't have to worry for nothing other than plug and play should have been be the best option, but after reading so many awful things about this machines, yeah...it would be far better to just build a brand new PC from scratch.

U didnt comment on those bright golden days that have passed and never will return....

We live in a sad day that 18 months after launch a pathetic 467$ machine owns consoles...

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bd7nFT

Sad days....

In March 2007 PC in no way or shape a $467 PC could even dream running multiplats at the 360's level...

Well, that $4,999 USD Tiki one has a steel/aluminium chassis that is mounted on a piece of granite. However, that still doesn't make it any less ridiculous and overpriced.

These are niche machines which aren't going to take off commercially. At these proposed price points they're just too expensive for the "playing video games on the TV with a controller" market.

3DO all over again.....

@lord_gaben:

Gabe, why can I build a mini-itx cube with amd 4GHz quad, 8GB DDR3-2400, 1TB hdd, blu-ray, R9 270(easy oc to 270x), KB/M, and 360 controller for $550 with SteamOS and $650 with Windows, but you guys can't?

Hahaha. I'll give props where due. lol

@gamecubepad: how much is the difference?

Hard to say since a lot of these have placeholder GPU listings like geforce 9-series, or RAM TBD.

I still can't help but think that Linux will kill the Steam Machine.

Unless Valve is willing to bribe their way into getting PC and Linux ports of games that would otherwise never see a PC version, I'm not expecting much people to migrate from Windows to Linux. As awesome as they are, they're not gods.

@lostrib:

*edit* Sorry about that I was going to post a mid-level amd build that had good price/performance/form-factor ratio, but the in the spirit of going apples-to-apples I switched to match the material.net steam machine. It looks like the kind of performance you would want and since it's using a fractal node case it has good upgradeability.

Material.net Steam Machine: Core i5 4440, GTX 960, 1TB hdd, unknown RAM->$900

Newegg can do Core i5 4440, GTX 970, 1TB hdd, 8GB DDR3-1600, 360 pad->$820

AMD build was AMD 3.8GHz Richland Black, R9 280x, 1TB hdd, 8GB DDR3-2400, 360 pad, blu-ray, and wireless mini KB/M->$650

In reality you would want Windows so the cost would be ~$900 and $700 respectively.

This case

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Inb4 "but consoles!" you are paying ~$200 for online fees so your systems are really $550-600 with 500GB hdd. That is the PS4 down at the bottom there. XO isn't even on the chart.

My conclusion is that while Steam Machines are a step in the right direction, there's still vendor cost that a savy build won't incur. I like the Alienware Alpha and the Brix, or XoticPC Odin, is the way forward but needs more than 7750 performance at $500. Once Alpha/Brix/Odin get 7850-level performance at $500 then you will see people jumping in.

I would also note that consoles do not in fact offer better price-to-performance ratio than a sff PC.

Yup it's gonna be flip flippery flop.

Console gamers won't care and won't pay the prices anyway.

And PC gamers will just build their own for cheaper.

Im going to get the I5 Alienware Alpha for my nephew since it does have windows. He needs a new PC anyway and 1080p with cheap games will be awesome in college lol.

Instead of $5000, why not get this "case", build the computer for well less than the rest of the $4k, and then use it as a desk/cabinet for your TV?

This way you wouldn't even need to worry about a PC sticking out like the Tiki?!

The Alpha does seem to be the best of the bunch and the price is pretty good too. More or less it's just as powerful as the PS4/XO and you get the benefits of Windows. The i5 model seems to be the way to go due to stutter issues. It's a good looking unit and the size is amazing...

Of course in the middle. They need to put a 970m and i5 in one of these and sell it for $700. lol.

This may sound like a silly question but what are the actual benefits of SteamOS? Games being designed for windows, does that factor into anything? Is it possible for a game running on Steam OS to out perform Windows, under the same hardware configuration?

@lostrib: you'll be able to run pre 2012 pc games on low settings with that setup. The gigabyte brix is about as fast as a geo metro.

Steam OS can be navigated with a controller. It also seems SteamOS is Linux based, and any game made for Linux can be used with it. From what I've read it seems performance is comparable to Windows. And yes, this does mean a much reduced library from a PC just running Windows.

The Steam Machine strategy is a waste of time and completely comparable to the old 3DO business strategy. Valve is better off just selling the Steam Link with the controller instead.

Hell, if anything I do hope Phil Spencer will probably try to get that Fat Bastard to make an App for the Windows Store to make a Steam App for the Xbox One and Windows 10 devices to stream steam games without the need to buy the steam link.

Why is this a thing. I still don't understand. If I'm spending over 600 on a platform and have to do all this research to pick the ideal machine, why don't I just build my own PC and get something double the power for the same price.

Although Steam Link is something I'm definitely getting. It'll completely destroy the "game in your living room" argument.

This isn't a fair comparison simply due to the fact that steam machines are very compact ITX build.. If you go a Matx and atx build for the same price around, of course it will be more powerful.. It doesn't sacrifice power and cooling by being crammed in a small space.. Steam machines have possibilities but Nvidia and AMD need to get on the ball in releasing specific graphics tech for said machines.. Because they are either cramming in a laptops graphics processor which isn't powerful enough due to it being designed for a portable laptop.. Or they are putting in a desktop graphics card which was designed to have room to be able to breath for cooling.. This is obvious with early "steam machine" releases past year in which they had significant problems with their hardware throttling because they were getting too hot.

What a waste of R&D funds.

I own the Alienware Alpha right now. and i can agree with the others the Alpha is one of the best out of the selection. I have no problems with it, runs games quite well and the CPU, RAM, hard drive and wireless card can be switched out and upgraded. I have the base model now but i"ll upgrade its CPU sometime soon and add another stick of RAM when I can.

The downside is that the Steam Big Picture mode will only play games with full controller support (duh) but i own a game such as Test Drive Unlimited 2 and it says it needs a keyboard and mouse to play but it does have full support of the controller so I don"t get why some still can"t run on Steam Big Picture but other wise if you like gaming on desktop then go for it. now the Steam machine version , I guess the selection of games will be lesser than the current Windows 8.1 version . I got no plans to swap it for SteamOS but i"ll buy the Steam Controller whenever its released.

Has fail written all over it for prices like that.

Might as well BYO PC.

Can Sony/MS even afford to wait more than 5 years with the XboxTwo/PS5?
Because 5 years into this generation there will be more powerful Steamboxes, likely with more support and better pricing.

Actually there are some quite good deals there

Granted build it your own is always better but i dont get why people get so hang up on prices since as with every other product there are some pretty damn good deals as well as some terrible deals

Asus ROG GR8S

• Price: Starting at $699
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i5/i7 processors
• GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9-series graphics
• Memory: DDR3 4GB ~ 16GB
• Storage: 500GB/1TB 7200rpm HDD, or 128GB ~ 512GB SSD
• Audio: ROG SupremeFX 5.1 HD audio
• Network: Intel Gb LAN with 802.11 ac Wi-Fi

of course it doesnt say what 9xx series gpu is there but the lowest 9 series is 960 and even that is a great deal at that price

a bit weak cpu ( still way more powerfull than consoles ) but a gpu well above consoles for less than $500 are pretty damn good

Syber Steam Machine A

• Price: $499
• CPU: AMD Athlon X4 840
• GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB
• Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz
• Storage: 500GB 7200 RPM HDD

( the only downisde is 4gb of ram but imo if you are gonna sacrifice something to stay at $500 then sacrificing ram which is the cheaper and easier component to upgrade so be it )

Wow, that is a horrible list of specs and prices. Like just so horrible it's not even funny it's literally like a scam for some of these boxes and whats in them for the price.

There's so many I'd have to look them all up, but I think price to compete varies among people. It is more about value and what the community wants. From talking to people and reading on this forum and watching some youtube, the general opinion on the two new consoles seems to be that they are underpowered--that people buying these consoles would be willing to spend more money for more powerful technology. This may sound odd to some, but I would group anything that is priced $500 to $800 as "priced to compete" IF they are quality and value with real world hardware results.

I know that is going to come off as extreme. Today though, the industry has grown drastically to where there are different levels of what people want--similar to that of the phone market. WiiU was $300 vs X1 $500. That isn't much different from $400 to $800, considering the added value of the open format and no online fees. (again IF these machines can pump out visuals like The Order--I'm no geek when it comes to developing on consoles vs over a bloated os).

Wow, that is a horrible list of specs and prices. Like just so horrible it's not even funny it's literally like a scam for some of these boxes and whats in them for the price. Like that Alternate steam machine for $1000 is literally like robbing someone. You can do the same build for $500. This is literally a build I put together of the exact same case for only $500 more over in the pc section of the forum, I'll post it below.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DMZDXL

That's an i5 4690s ,gtx980,3tb 7200rpm 64mb cache drive, 16gb ram and a 250gb ssd for $500 more! 4k ready gaming for $500 more!

I'm so unbelievably disappointed in this showing of shit, Like how in the hell can they think releasing this crap into the world is going to make people wish to play on pc. All this is going to do is get people who know nothing about computers to buy them realize they payed 3 too 4 times the price for the hardware they could have slapped together themselves, and never want to return to the market again. This is only going to hurt things not improve, which is something I thought they were trying to push with these, I was sorely mistaken.

Are you serious? Its business. Why shouldn't they have the right to sell their product?

Here's an idea:
Valve tells the companies that they are going to use a tier system that shows to consolites how powerful their system is and what will work on them.
So a Tier 1 SteamBox can play the simplest of games, and will meet a certain standard of CPU and GPU performance.
Tier 2 is faster, etc.
That way the hundreds of Steam Boxes that will eventually be on the market will actually be easy to understand for the intended (I think?) audience.

If there are no set standards, what will be the difference between a PC and a Steambox?! I thought the whole point was to set standards so that casuals/consolites would have an easy time getting into PC gaming.

Small form and a smaller library.

Your tier system is a nice little way to classify power, valve could also require certain set benchmarks be posted on each page. If the current steam machine page isn't just a placeholder and Valve doesn't do some quality control, I can't see these having much success.

Those prices are ridiculous. I was interested in one for something with a really small form-factor, and some decent horsepower. I'm just gonna build again.

The Steam Machine isn't a gaming PC. It's a gaming console that plays PC games.