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Making my own Steam Box?
I got really excited when Value announce Steam Box. However some of their partners making steam box are really over price. Is there a way I could make my own box?
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Unless I am mistaken a Steam Box is only a PC with the steam OS on it.
So basically building a PC and downloading the steam OS is a steam box. Use an HTPC case maybe to fit inside an entertainment center.
Or use an existing PC and just add the OS and a steam box you have. Nothing special about one other than steams OS. Components are all the same. And yes a prebuilt one will be overpriced compared to building one.
Here is a link with some " steam boxes" http://kotaku.com/from-alienware-to-zotac-all-the-steam-machines-with-sp-1495960379
As you can see the only thing special about some of them are the cases. Most will come with Windows & Steam OS installed. The rest is basic PC hardware. You can build a SFF PC to your own specs and use it as one. I might end up doing that myself.
I'm looking at that right now. Most of the games I play are multiple so I makes sense to look into this. and save money on games.
I saw this and was very curious GIGABYTE GB-BXi5G-760 Intel HM87 2 x 204Pin SO-DIMM NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Barebone on newegg
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Most (not all) combo deals include one really nice item, with something else is that close to junk that they can't get rid of otherwise.
For a gaming rig, you want to stay away from the Intel H-series chipsets (H87 motherboard in this case).
You want a Z-series for a gaming rig. That allows the highest turbo frequencies for your chip and also allows for better overclocking (if you wish to overclock at all).
And jdnewell is right - a steam box is just a PC. SteamOS is just Unbuntu linux with a nice Steam wrapper on top.
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Also to note - not every game has compatibility with SteamOS. If it works with Linux, it's 99% likely work with SteamOS as well. Often these titles are noted with the Linux Penguin (Tux) and the SteamPlay logo on them.
But if you look across all the titles on Steam - a lot aren't compatible with Linux and are Windows only - those will not play (natively) on SteamOS.
Still - my opinion - that doesn't matter so much. I'm moderately excited about SteamOS - but not because of SteamPlay. I'm more interested in In-Home Streaming. That lets you build a very modest HTPC - one running even on native Intel integrated graphics. It can be very low power, very quite, very small, and since it won't require a $100 Windows license very inexpensive. And that connects to your monster gaming rig running Steam on Windows - and can stream every Windows title (and many titles not even associated with Steam, through Steam). It's pretty slick and works very well - it has repurposed a few of my older machines that can't play squat on their own, but through in-home streaming, now have become HTPCs in effect.
Do you need Steam OS for that capability? No - Steam running on Ubuntu works fine for that as well (and that's what SteamOS is, in effect). Steam running on OS X works for that just as well (although you can argue that OS X isn't exactly free, you are paying for it in the hardware). But is is nice that a major gaming company is putting some momentum behind the initiative, if for no other reason, than to drive manufacturers to release more on-parity drivers for their hardware (GPUs have had traditionally horrible Linux driver support_ and give the open source community some semblance of a standard to work around (sound card drivers/standards, Windows Managers, etc - are often very problematic across linux distros).
The Steam Box concept seems to be a way for Steam to enforce minimum required specifications when built by third-parties. They can go beyond that and charge pretty much whatever they want.
Right now, SteamOS is in its infancy. The adoption rate is low by both consumers and developers. Steam was taking a gamble and hoping developers would move away from programming games for Windows after the Windows 8 disaster. While SteamOS isn't picking up as much steam (pun intended) as I hoped, it may still replace Windows as the default gaming OS within ten years with the right marketing and product support.
Outside of some specific usage scenarios, it is more advantageous to have a Windows PC for gaming than strictly a SteamOS PC. The in-home game streaming mentioned in this thread still requires a gaming PC operating on Windows if you want to play the majority of games offered on Steam.
As for the rig I want to setup, I was thinking a slim case like ps4, nividia or ATI? 16 gigs of ram, I have no idea on motherboard, ssd, chip set Intel i7
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In home streaming can work if the game not made for linux at all if the 2nd pc is online to do all the work for it.
Read my blog http://sanmonocobra.blogspot.com/
I wouldn't get hung up on a COre i7 - in gaming, the real difference between that and the i5 that costs $100 less is... $100. They perform almost identically (for gaming purposes).
If this is your first build, I recommend against a mini-ATX build (would be roughly the same size as a console) - it's pretty challenging to get all the pieces and parts to actually fit in there right. You can step up one size to micro-ATX (much smaller than your basic PC, but a little bit bigger than a console). ATX is the easiest to put together - that is the standard computer size.
In your price range (roughly $80-1000), here is what I would look for:
Core i5 4690 (the K edition allows you to overclock, but it's an extra $20, and you can save that if you don't plan on overclocking)
A basic micro-ATX motherboard based on the Z97 chipset (I like Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI, some people will recommend Asrock because they are a lot less expensive)
A micro-ATX case you think looks good and works with your setup - pay close attention to air flow and fan arrangement. Picking a case that fits your system and works well is probably the hardest part of a SFF build (even if you are just going to micro and not all the way down to mini)
An aftermarket heat sink that will fit inside your case - it doesn't need to be expensive, but Intel stock heatsinks are awful. Anythign with a few heat pipes and a fan will be better and quieter.
8G of DDR3 RAM (minimum PC1333, maximum of 1.5V and 9-9-9 timing) - don't need to spend a lot on this, the cheapest package that meets or exceeds those specs with at least a 1yr warranty
+/-250Gb SSD (I like Samsung and Crucial, but they aren't always the least expensive)
A nice 500-600W PSU, modular (Seasonic and Corsair are my two go-to brands, but they aren't the only good ones). You won't need as big of a PSU as most people will tell you, and remember this is a small build. Modular makes it much easier to arrange the cables in a smaller case.
And then however much money you have left in your budget, throw it at a single good GPU - make sure it will fit inside your case (shouldn't have much problem until you start to get into the upper-tier video cards)
Maybe a secondary 2TB drive, this can be the most basic, least expensive option you can find - it's just for bulk storage, if you need more than 250G of space in your computer
Maybe an optical drive - some microATX cases don't even have slots for an internal drive (there are plenty of external USB options available), and a lot of people are getting by fine without them anymore
I would strongly re-think the reasons you want to do this.
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Read my blog http://sanmonocobra.blogspot.com/
Both have driver issues with Linux, and both are trying to get better - but this is one case where nVidia is less sucky than ATI if you are going to try Linux/SteamOS. SteamOS does support ATI cards now, but it supported nVidia first, and nVidia drivers tend to come out sooner for Linux (both lag a lot - nVidia by weeks, ATI sometimes by months).
If you are going to use Windows, then it doesn't matter so much, there's more parity there and cost versus performance is more the driving factor.
How long does it take to boot a Steambox or a PC though?
How much maintenance is required for Steambox vs PC? (drivers, viruses, updates, etc.)
I would imagine that the whole point of having a Steambox would be to have a more console-ish feel to PC gaming. But the 2 issues above are big problems when it comes to PC vs console currently. And if Steamboxes don't solve this then it's pointless indeed.
I know I for one would pay to get a more plug and play/"out of the box" experience for my Steam games collection.