Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
System spec's for valve's Steam Machine (Beta)
stayontarget
Member RarePosts: 6,519
Spec's are out for the new system that's being shipped out to 300 testers.
The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high
Link to source: http://kotaku.com/valves-first-steam-machine-prototype-is-crazy-powerful-1441267520
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Comments
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can
be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard
Very true Redcor, but i think the main selling point is the Steam OS running on Linux. And i think a few people will just build there own machine just for that purpose.
Quote from Valve:
Valve wants to be clear, here: this is going to be pricey. Not everyone will be able to afford one of the highest-end Steam Machines. Not to worry—there will be other options.
"So high-powered SteamOS living room machines are nice, and fun to play with, and will make many Steam customers happy," Valve writes. "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. "
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
I don't get it, not sure why I would buy this, verse my gaming computer.
Not going to happen. Titan alone costs more than a PS4 and Xbone added together.
You may well be able to get a Richland-based Steam machine with integrated graphics only cheaper than a PS4, but not the higher end ones.
I think that Valve's vision is that if, eventually, games are as likely to run on Steam OS as on Windows, then you'd rather get your gaming computer running Steam OS because you save the $100 for a Windows license. What Valve gets out of this is that your computer comes with Steam prominently pre-installed to encourage (but not force!) people to buy stuff through Steam.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
They're competing more with Windows desktops than $400 consoles. I also think that Valve wanted to send a message that this isn't going to be restricted to some dinky little games that don't try to do much, the way that Ouya is.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
No they can't compete with the $400 consoles. They can't compete with anything really. I could put together a pretty decent gaming PC for about the same price. And the PC would still have more function and customization than the steambox. It does nothing really a gaming computer can't. Probibly less even....so really I don't see it being much more than candy for the rich kids.
The point isn't to compete. It is to provide a platform to launch a PC gaming revolution.
I'm not saying SteamOS will be the PC gaming revolution, but it could be. Windows lost a lot of popularity with Windows 8, which leaves a hole in the market for an operating system designed for gaming. Linux has lacked both game developer and hardware (driver) support for gaming. SteamOS looks likely to be the catalyst for the push to a new OS for gaming.
The Steam Machine is little more than their effort to create a product similar to Alienware. It doesn't compete in any major markets, but it does give people an elite status symbol for gaming. Laptops will be coming soon with the Steam brand.
Ok thx. I just didn't see the need, but someone in the thread stated that they would like it, to avoid windows. I wouldn't personally fork out money in this range, and not have windows myself, it would be too limiting for me, but I guess not for others. I see a tough road ahead, people will equate it with a console most likely, and that's a tough fight if they do.
Yeah, a lot of people dislike Windows 8, I personally think it is a lot of hype/bad press, and people listening to it. I don't know how many people I have talked to that thought you didn't even have a desktop mode in windows 8 anymore. I was just talking to a guy at work Friday about it. I am in desktop mode for my windows 8 95% (probably 99.9%, only thing I do in metro is my music), doing some of the settings for windows it takes a couple minutes to figure out the change from 7, but that is usually a set once and done thing. So I have never really gotten the hate, but I guess if someone had a lot different usage than me, and had to use the metro all the time, maybe I could see it. Most people I know use their windows like I do though.
They should of launched with the 8.1 changes to begin with, and gone a little further, but I get what they are trying to do, and if they can get their app store to actually work across their phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops, and xbox (I think I read something about having code to scale or something recently), I think they could really have a nice ecosystem imo.
No I wouldn't. The reason I play on PC is well, is a PC and can do so much more than just gaming. Alt-tabbing to the browser instantly for that quick guide, playing some music in the background, putting some video on the other monitor.
Who the hell wants a gaming only OS on their PC? Removing all those features is like going backwards. I would have gotten a console if I wanted that.
Who the hell wants a gaming only OS on their PC? Removing all those features is like going backwards. I would have gotten a console if I wanted that.
It's Linux. Alt-Tabbing to a browser window, while playing some music in the background or playing a video in a window while doing something else all works just fine.
Valve's vision is for people to buy more games from them, and to do it without paying for a copy of Windows. The important part is buying games from Valve. Yes, they believe that Linux can give a superior gaming experience over Windows, just as Sony believes they can give a superior gaming experience using BSD over Windows, but it's all about getting people to buy more games. Valve just tends more towards giving people more for their money, because that makes people happy to part with their money.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
There are several different machines, at least 4.
Not all have Titan with an i7. They are salted to have Titan/780/770/660's, with the CPU scaling down somewhat as well i7/i5(?)/i5/i3.
They scale all the way down to a dual core i3 with nV660GTX.
The top end one would be very expensive - even if they broker a good deal with nVidia on the GPU and all the other parts, your still looking at well over $1500, and probably closer to $2000.
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/168084-valves-steam-box-specs-revealed-seems-like-a-letdown
And these are just the prototypes, that doesn't mean the final shipping products will ship with any of this hardware, or that 3rd parties won't introduce various other hardware points.
It is interesting that they all are Intel/nVidia though.
Yeah, I agree with Lizardbones. A linux-based OS will probably do all of that better than Windows in the first place.
They make browsers for Linux, too, you know--including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera. Same with word processors, spreadsheets, and basically any other category of software. If Steam OS becomes popular enough, then basically all commercial software that isn't made directly by Microsoft or Apple will be ported to Linux. A lot already has been. But still, that's a big "if".
The biggest barrier to switching to Linux is games. There are games for Linux, too, but not nearly as many of them, and games aren't nearly as good of a substitute for each other as other categories of software are. If you have to use OpenOffice or LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office, oh well, you can adjust. But going to Linux might be, now you can't play Guild Wars 2 (or at least not without some major issues, e.g., trying to get it to run under Wine), so go play Spiral Knights instead. And while Spiral Knights is a fun game (seriously!), it's not at all similar to Guild Wars 2. On Windows, you could play both.
Linux is a kernel. You can take Linux and make an extremely powerful OS if you can or a really limited one. Ubuntu is Linux and so is android. They share the same kernel but they're not like each other in terms of functionality whatsoever. They're different OSs.
I doubt steam OS, that particular distro will match windows in desktop functionality.
In my case: Not important. There are VPN clients, even Cisco Anyconnect, available for Linux. Cord for my RDP sessions so basically I do not need Windows for working at home...
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
I doubt steam OS, that particular distro will match windows in desktop functionality.
This is true, Linux is a kernel.
However, given that you have the proper libraries, along with the kernel, there is nothing stopping you from compiling the same OpenOffice that runs on x64 Unbuntu and running that on Android for ARM.
That is part of why Open Source code is such a big deal.
Why can't they make it match Windows in desktop functionality? Please elaborate.
Have you tried Ubuntu, Debian, or Mint? Those are very close in terms of having a GUI that allows you to do as much as Windows can do. The biggest difference is the lack of software and driver support. SteamOS could easily be as good as, or better than those three, if they put the time into it.
I don't understand the big picture here,it just sounds like Dell making PC machines.Fully upgradeable is again a PC feature,so why would Valve get into this market?
They claim this is not to compete versus people with already good gaming PC's.Tehy also mention that for those that don't have great gaming machines,you won't have to spend a lot of money,that part we will have to see to believe.I guess since my machine is now outdated,i will be buying a new one soon,so i guess this type of purchase if cost is reasonable,is well suited for myself.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Valve is a gaming company, they have zero experience making OSs. It took them years to fix the mess that was one piece of software they made, steam.
Hell they're not even trying to make a desktop OS. All you have to do is look at what they're advertising it for. They use words like living room, controller, TV, big picture. They're making an OS for the TV that is comparable with PS4 and Xbox OSs and is navigated with a controller. This is not something that is trying to compete with windows and OSX.
And is not. This is Valve trying to expand steam in the console market, the living room one. It has little to do with the traditional desktop with monitor and kb/m setup.
This is basically a box you buy and put it near the TV with an OS that is entirely focused on gaming and controlled by a company's store. Is awfully similar to a typical console.