Alienware Offers Two Steam Machines For Purchase Before November 10 Release

[heirdeux]

If you missed out on the early batch of Steam Hardware, don't worry. Alienware's selling a limited run of two of its four models before the November 10 release.

Alienware Offers Two Steam Machines For Purchase Before November 10 Release : Read more

 

[cknobman]

So $50 cheaper than the Windows version with a so called $200 worth of add ons (which are of absolutely no value to me whatsoever).

IMO its typical overpriced Alienware/Dell product.

With that weak GPU and no Windows license those things should be at least $100 cheaper.

 

[SylentVyper]

A full desktop i7, with an 860m? Yep, sounds like a prebuilt - not to mention Alienware - to me!

 

[Quixit]

So $50 cheaper than the Windows version with a so called $200 worth of add ons (which are of absolutely no value to me whatsoever).

IMO its typical overpriced Alienware/Dell product.

With that weak GPU and no Windows license those things should be at least $100 cheaper.

$50 is actually more than Windows costs Dell so I don't know why you're upset. They even offer the same system with Windows, so all you're really complaining about is them giving people a choice of OS.

 

[captaincharisma]

so if it just has steam OS on it will it support all games on steam or is it like the mac and Linux clients where some games are not supported?

 

[littleleo]

It definitely seems Alienware has lost something since the Dell purchase.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

It looks a bit less dusty. And great disclosure of the GPU. Nvidia GeForce GTX GPU (2 GB GDDR5) makes a lot of sense

 

[littleleo]

Hey the MS Notebook has a Nvidia 1GB eGPU under the detachable keyboard for an additional $200. That is all the description on it and I commented on that an was attacked by the MS protection squad, lol.

 

[sardonia1]

$750 for a completely weak machine. I'll stick with my I7 4790k, 970sli, and 32gigs of ram and like it

 

[jasonelmore]

where the alieware alpha excels at is the base i3 model for $399.. That's a lot of computer for $399. Try building a small form factor NUC for that price,, and the NUC won't have a good GPU

 

[back_by_demand]

The benefit of paying the $50 extra to have Windows is that the other 75% of your games collection will actually work

 

[Long__T123]

I feel that the 2gb of vram is already out of date. That's pretty much the minimum specs for next year

 

[joshyboy82]

I feel that the 2gb of vram is already out of date. That's pretty much the minimum specs for next year

Except these are for media centers. Everyone I know has a 1080p TV. 2 gb is perfectly fine. Also, these are minimum spec computers. Go spend $5k at Origin for a SFF if you want more. Oh, you want more without paying more? May I suggest living in the real world.

 

[joshyboy82]

...

 

[photonboy]

1) I think price includes a STEAM CONTROLLER so that's $50USD. Thus the i5 listed above is really a $600USD machine for comparison.

2) Price?
You can argue overpriced if you want, however it's optimized to be SMALL and probably pretty quiet so I'm not sure what you would compare it to.

Sure you can BUILD a much larger, faster machine for the same price however that's also not something most people want to do either.

Summary:
It's arguably a reasonably priced product for the NICHE that it's in. I have a better (much more expensive) rig in my study and will simply buy the $50 Steam Link to connect to my HDTV downstairs (via ethernet, not wi-fi).

Other:
SteamOS supports only the Linux capable games for the guy who asked. So many games are missing vs Windows. That's the main drawback of SteamOS. It's a cross between Windows Gaming PC and game Consoles with both pros and cons to both.

It will succeed largely because it's not tied to a console cycle, so as long as PC gaming exists I don't see how this can disappear... plus there's a push to get rid of Windows completely... maybe by the time the 2020 (roughly) next console release comes Valve will plunk down a "REFERENCE" SteamOS machine that developers can optimize for. I think that's a great idea and by the the supported games will be huge and maybe Valve will decide to just have one built AT COST to increase adoption rate.

 

[back_by_demand]

The only way SteamOS would replace Windows is when it supports 100% of games. Even then, it would only eat into the HTPC market, plus it would be competing with HTPC's setup for Kodi/Plex. Nope. Won't replace Windows anytime soon.

 

[photonboy]

The only way SteamOS would replace Windows is when it supports 100% of games. Even then, it would only eat into the HTPC market, plus it would be competing with HTPC's setup for Kodi/Plex. Nope. Won't replace Windows anytime soon.

Nobody said it would REPLACE Windows. It will coexist with it.

Many people will buy a Steam Machine like they would a game console then buy and download whatever SteamOS (linux) games exist which is still a LOT and increasing all the time. In the future I expect it to succeed quite well so many titles will be released for SteamOS/Windows at the same time. In fact, SteamOS should have less issues since it will have less hardware configurations and a known OS state unlike the multitude of Windows/application/hardware states.

(And there is a LOT of interest in bypassing Windows... I wish we could just agree on a single API like Vulkan eventually so games can be coded for the PS4, XBOX One, PC Windows and PC SteamOS all at the same time... but Microsoft knows they need DX12 to tie people to Windows or they'll start losing market share to Linux... thus the fragmented market.)

Even if it supported 100% of games many people would stick with Windows since they can do other things that SteamOS never will support.

SteamOS is optimized for a console experience in the living room, and Windows is optimized for an office/bedroom situation.

PROS and CONS to both, though I'll just buy the Steam Link so company can play games from my PC downstairs on the HDTV.

As for Kodi/Plex it's hard to say how well SteamOS will work for video. We often end up with minimal support for our own content so they can push services they make money on, or may be forced to implement features like Cinavia that prevents some content from playing (audio watermark).

(If you have a Steam Machine you could optionally set up a dual-boot situation with Kodi-Linux and SteamOS. Not ideal but would at least work.)