I just saw a round-up on a bunch of the Steam Machines over here then other day. I'm still kinda on the fence with the Steam Machines. I can't get past the whole "I can build a system for that price" mentality.
Perhaps some people can't be fucked to build a PC for cheaper. Who says everyone must build there own pc because it's cheaper. They like the product and they buy it, end of. I got a next day call out warranty with my alpha, if they can't fix it they they swap it there and then. This was included in the price.
I don't think OP realizes how small it is. I own a lower end one (The i3) version that was about $500 that I bought as an HTPC that could do decent gaming. To build my own rig with a similar level of performance would of cost me that much, without the OS, and would of been a larger rig. Not hugely so, but still a couple inches in all directions.
860m is a lot more powerful than people realize. I have the same GPU on my laptop and so far have had no problems at 1080p. Granted im not playing TW3 on it and such, but people need to have realistic expectations. You're not gonna play TW3 on a $800 desktop with a decent framerate either. That game pretty much requires a $300 graphics cards to play at medium high settings.
My P.o.v. first and foremost is if I spend money to game on. I want the best price per performance I can get or comfortably close. Obviously not everyone see's things this way and I admit that it is somewhat hard to wrap my head around at times. Hence the knee jerk reaction after I first saw the Alienware (with modified "?" laptop parts). Only fair to compare something competing with home pc's with home pc's. It lacks portability of a laptop. Unlike a laptop you are limited to where you can use it. I also don't think a lot of people will get what they are buying. Expecting it to eat games up. The Steam Link is neat if there are no latency issues. (Another poster pointed it out earlier) Why not big box in another room and then it? Never used anything like that. Even when I had my Nvidia Shield Tablet. I should have tried the Streaming feature.
For the record and in general has nothing to do with Alienware or prebuilts. A Steam Machine Syber is a prebuilt. Just a stupid reaction to what I saw as a crazy price for what it is. But I get it and accept it that people want it for it's size. Forgive me If I still say "wtf?" but I'm no longer really phased by it. It's passed.
Edit to add:
I also admitted earlier that maybe the lower end one. Might be alright. Especially if it has the 860m. But CPU power is just as important as another poster pointed out.
What got me wound up like slinky was the $800 version.
Part options. Upgradable. But it's again, Bigger. Actually curious how this one and the and the Alienware version stack up. Wouldn't surprise me if the Alienware pulls ahead slightly with the modified 860m.
I don't understand why its so difficult for people to understand that people have different needs when it comes to computers. Everyone who buys a computer isn't looking for the absolute pinnacle of performance per dollar. Things like size, noise level, how it looks, etc, are all factors in someone's purchasing decision. People buy $8000 Falcon Northwest desktops that they could build themselves for $4k because they have money and they prefer to let professionals do it, or because they like the look of it and realize its something they can't do themselves.
You kind of got back to my point. Volume wise that syber one is almost 4x the size, it takes up 784 cubic inches of space, vs 192 cubic inches for the Alienware. It not just smaller, its A LOT smaller. I purchased one because when I priced out a similar spec'd mini itx build it was going to be about 550 bucks, without an OS. The alienware came with windows 8.1 and was $540. I use it as an HTPC in my home theater, so it being small, not generating a ton of heat, and being whisper quiet, were all important factors to me. It wasn't going to be my primary gaming system so I wasn't super worried over the 15-25% performance decrease of the 860m vs a desktop 960.
Either way. Overall I think we have a good discussion, I just think people need to be more conscious of the fact that people have differing needs and are going to purchase different products based on those needs.
Edit: I wanted to mention, it is ABSOLUTELY portable. The thing is seriously tiny. Its really not a whole lot bigger than a xbox 360 controller. Granted yes you would have to have an LCD, or hook it up to a TV, but if you were gonna go to a friends house to game, you could bring this, an HDMI cable, and your controller and be up and running on their tv in a couple of seconds. For reference, its less than half the size of my roommates PS4
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
I don't think OP realizes how small it is. I own a lower end one (The i3) version that was about $500 that I bought as an HTPC that could do decent gaming. To build my own rig with a similar level of performance would of cost me that much, without the OS, and would of been a larger rig. Not hugely so, but still a couple inches in all directions.
860m is a lot more powerful than people realize. I have the same GPU on my laptop and so far have had no problems at 1080p. Granted im not playing TW3 on it and such, but people need to have realistic expectations. You're not gonna play TW3 on a $800 desktop with a decent framerate either. That game pretty much requires a $300 graphics cards to play at medium high settings.
My P.o.v. first and foremost is if I spend money to game on. I want the best price per performance I can get or comfortably close. Obviously not everyone see's things this way and I admit that it is somewhat hard to wrap my head around at times. Hence the knee jerk reaction after I first saw the Alienware (with modified "?" laptop parts). Only fair to compare something competing with home pc's with home pc's. It lacks portability of a laptop. Unlike a laptop you are limited to where you can use it. I also don't think a lot of people will get what they are buying. Expecting it to eat games up. The Steam Link is neat if there are no latency issues. (Another poster pointed it out earlier) Why not big box in another room and then it? Never used anything like that. Even when I had my Nvidia Shield Tablet. I should have tried the Streaming feature.
For the record and in general has nothing to do with Alienware or prebuilts. A Steam Machine Syber is a prebuilt. Just a stupid reaction to what I saw as a crazy price for what it is. But I get it and accept it that people want it for it's size. Forgive me If I still say "wtf?" but I'm no longer really phased by it. It's passed.
Edit to add:
I also admitted earlier that maybe the lower end one. Might be alright. Especially if it has the 860m. But CPU power is just as important as another poster pointed out.
What got me wound up like slinky was the $800 version.
Part options. Upgradable. But it's again, Bigger. Actually curious how this one and the and the Alienware version stack up. Wouldn't surprise me if the Alienware pulls ahead slightly with the modified 860m.
I don't understand why its so difficult for people to understand that people have different needs when it comes to computers. Everyone who buys a computer isn't looking for the absolute pinnacle of performance per dollar. Things like size, noise level, how it looks, etc, are all factors in someone's purchasing decision. People buy $8000 Falcon Northwest desktops that they could build themselves for $4k because they have money and they prefer to let professionals do it, or because they like the look of it and realize its something they can't do themselves.
You kind of got back to my point. Volume wise that syber one is almost 4x the size, it takes up 784 cubic inches of space, vs 192 cubic inches for the Alienware. It not just smaller, its A LOT smaller. I purchased one because when I priced out a similar spec'd mini itx build it was going to be about 550 bucks, without an OS. The alienware came with windows 8.1 and was $540. I use it as an HTPC in my home theater, so it being small, not generating a ton of heat, and being whisper quiet, were all important factors to me. It wasn't going to be my primary gaming system so I wasn't super worried over the 15-25% performance decrease of the 860m vs a desktop 960.
Either way. Overall I think we have a good discussion, I just think people need to be more conscious of the fact that people have differing needs and are going to purchase different products based on those needs.
Edit: I wanted to mention, it is ABSOLUTELY portable. The thing is seriously tiny. Its really not a whole lot bigger than a xbox 360 controller. Granted yes you would have to have an LCD, or hook it up to a TV, but if you were gonna go to a friends house to game, you could bring this, an HDMI cable, and your controller and be up and running on their tv in a couple of seconds. For reference, its less than half the size of my roommates PS4
you're correct about needs and wants, for me price isnt so much a factor as i'll pay what i have to get what i want... but i like having the computer shops close to me who only charge $100 more to build it, do custom builds for me, because i don't always have the time to put it together myself, granted it might only take a couple of hours... but i'd prefer they messed around with lighting, fans, custom cable sleeving, cable management etc... i pay $100 and they do all the work and i've paid roughly the same as i would have purchasing the parts online with deliver in australia.... there isnt really much of a markup in the computer shops as what you can get it for online.. it's pretty cut throat.
same with buying an alienware laptop i paid $200 more, but didn't have to sacrifice any of the hardware in place of lesser parts with the other brands and i got a 3 year replacement warranty where they come out as someone else said and replace it if they can't fix it within 48 hours... to me thats more piece of mind than having to wait 3 week's RMA'ing a product and having all that downtime.
i understand not everyone can afford to have this view and that's fine... i don't judge how people want to do things to each their own... but yeah, i've built my own rig's in the past, now i'd prefer to have someone else do it and get better warranty terms and not have to worry about being without something for upto 3 weeks.
Buying a laptop does not have much to do with this. Not comparable. It doesn't compete with them.
This isn't a thread saying build your own. I'm comparing to other prebuilt options even within the S.M. brand. Not about disliking or liking a vendor. Most vendors have something decent even if at a premium. I'm looking a single product. If someone knows what they are getting in an Alienware S.M. ok.
What is Steam Machine? Bullet points are fine. Have to know this to judge it. The goal.
Smaller form factor than full tower? Zero uniformity among vendors. No hardware uniformity. So it's not competing with consoles. Where games are programmed and optimized for their hardware. Entice new/console gamer to pc Steam os What else? Other than a just another brand.
Perks of pc gaming. What it competes with.
Upgradable. Off the shelf readily available lists of parts to choose from. longevity. Which comes from being able to upgrade. Better performance Graphics (these two hardware reliant) Hardware (internal) and peripheral configuration Case: How it's packaged. lots of options that can use off the shelf parts and not be a full tower.
Alienware SM.
Is it upgradable? If it is options are going to be extremely slim. Maybe even Alienware only. performance: Comparable to a console depending on title. longevity: How long before new hardware pushes up requirements that the 860m will really start to struggle. Graphics: Medium-high. Varies greatly from game to game. How long before it just struggles to much for new titles? Samll: If that's your #1 want out of a gaming pc. this is clearly the machine for that person. What are other options in the given price range.
$749 Alienware S.M. is a horrible option unless size is all you care about. It gives up biggest perks of desktop gaming machines for a high price. But it's small. Tiny. New pc gamer (targeted at so people say) buys that. "Hey guys. Wait up! lag " In reality it's frame drops.After dropping $800. I'm sure they will be thrilled.A little knowledge is just enough to get someone in trouble.
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I don't understand why its so difficult for people to understand that people have different needs when it comes to computers. Everyone who buys a computer isn't looking for the absolute pinnacle of performance per dollar. Things like size, noise level, how it looks, etc, are all factors in someone's purchasing decision. People buy $8000 Falcon Northwest desktops that they could build themselves for $4k because they have money and they prefer to let professionals do it, or because they like the look of it and realize its something they can't do themselves.
You kind of got back to my point. Volume wise that syber one is almost 4x the size, it takes up 784 cubic inches of space, vs 192 cubic inches for the Alienware. It not just smaller, its A LOT smaller. I purchased one because when I priced out a similar spec'd mini itx build it was going to be about 550 bucks, without an OS. The alienware came with windows 8.1 and was $540. I use it as an HTPC in my home theater, so it being small, not generating a ton of heat, and being whisper quiet, were all important factors to me. It wasn't going to be my primary gaming system so I wasn't super worried over the 15-25% performance decrease of the 860m vs a desktop 960.
Either way. Overall I think we have a good discussion, I just think people need to be more conscious of the fact that people have differing needs and are going to purchase different products based on those needs.
Edit: I wanted to mention, it is ABSOLUTELY portable. The thing is seriously tiny. Its really not a whole lot bigger than a xbox 360 controller. Granted yes you would have to have an LCD, or hook it up to a TV, but if you were gonna go to a friends house to game, you could bring this, an HDMI cable, and your controller and be up and running on their tv in a couple of seconds. For reference, its less than half the size of my roommates PS4
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
same with buying an alienware laptop i paid $200 more, but didn't have to sacrifice any of the hardware in place of lesser parts with the other brands and i got a 3 year replacement warranty where they come out as someone else said and replace it if they can't fix it within 48 hours... to me thats more piece of mind than having to wait 3 week's RMA'ing a product and having all that downtime.
i understand not everyone can afford to have this view and that's fine... i don't judge how people want to do things to each their own... but yeah, i've built my own rig's in the past, now i'd prefer to have someone else do it and get better warranty terms and not have to worry about being without something for upto 3 weeks.
This isn't a thread saying build your own.
I'm comparing to other prebuilt options even within the S.M. brand.
Not about disliking or liking a vendor. Most vendors have something decent even if at a premium. I'm looking a single product.
If someone knows what they are getting in an Alienware S.M. ok.
What is Steam Machine? Bullet points are fine. Have to know this to judge it. The goal.
Smaller form factor than full tower? Zero uniformity among vendors.
No hardware uniformity. So it's not competing with consoles. Where games are programmed and optimized for their hardware.
Entice new/console gamer to pc
Steam os
What else? Other than a just another brand.
Perks of pc gaming. What it competes with.
Upgradable. Off the shelf readily available lists of parts to choose from.
longevity. Which comes from being able to upgrade.
Better performance
Graphics (these two hardware reliant)
Hardware (internal) and peripheral configuration
Case: How it's packaged. lots of options that can use off the shelf parts and not be a full tower.
Alienware SM.
Is it upgradable? If it is options are going to be extremely slim. Maybe even Alienware only.
performance: Comparable to a console depending on title.
longevity: How long before new hardware pushes up requirements that the 860m will really start to struggle.
Graphics: Medium-high. Varies greatly from game to game. How long before it just struggles to much for new titles?
Samll: If that's your #1 want out of a gaming pc. this is clearly the machine for that person.
What are other options in the given price range.
$749 Alienware S.M. is a horrible option unless size is all you care about. It gives up biggest perks of desktop gaming machines for a high price. But it's small. Tiny. New pc gamer (targeted at so people say) buys that. "Hey guys. Wait up! lag