News Prototype 'Steam Machine' dusted off and tested — running Windows on an old AMD APU ten years later

[Admin]

YouTuber Bringus Studios got its hands on an old Steam Machine prototype that used Windows instead of SteamOS.

Prototype 'Steam Machine' dusted off and tested — running Windows on an old AMD APU ten years later : Read more

 

[Avro Arrow]

I dunno, I still use an twelve year-old Llano (A8-3500M) craptop for watching YouTube instead of using a tablet and it runs just fine using Windows 7 and Opera. I wouldn't try using it for much else but it works just fine for general browsing, playing Starcraft II or Armada II and watching YouTube. To be fair, I did replace the HDD with an SSD but other than that, it's 100% stock except that I doubled the RAM to 8GB of DDR3-1333 when I bought it. It appears that was a smart move on my part.

 

[edzieba]

While the Steam Machine wasn't really successful

Now THAT's an understatement!

As for SteamOS itself: SteamOS 1.0 and 2.0 were Debian-based distros developed to be widely installable on a variety of hardware. Support for this version of SteamOS has ceased entirely.
SteamOS 3.0 is based on Arch, and is only officially available for the Steam Deck - can can require some heavy modification to get running even vaguely normally on other hardware (officially it's been 'coming soon' from Valve for well over a year).
The two share a name, but are pretty different.

 

[ezst036]

I dunno, I still use an twelve year-old Llano (A8-3500M) craptop for watching YouTube instead of using a tablet and it runs just fine using Windows 7 and Opera. I wouldn't try using it for much else but it works just fine for general browsing, playing Starcraft II or Armada II and watching YouTube.

That sounds reasonable since the YouTube videos will be set aside and processed separately on the UVD decoder. That leaves most of the rest of what the computer can do for general browsing and gaming.

 

[ezst036]

I'd like to see the original Steam Machine tested using HoloISO or actual SteamOS 3.0+ if it can be had.

 

[brandonjclark]

I dunno, I still use an twelve year-old Llano (A8-3500M) craptop for watching YouTube instead of using a tablet and it runs just fine using Windows 7 and Opera. I wouldn't try using it for much else but it works just fine for general browsing, playing Starcraft II or Armada II and watching YouTube. To be fair, I did replace the HDD with an SSD but other than that, it's 100% stock except that I doubled the RAM to 8GB of DDR3-1333 when I bought it. It appears that was a smart move on my part.

You have a dedicated PoS for just watching YT?

 

[35below0]

You have a dedicated PoS for just watching YT?

Bigger than a phone. I'm sure it can do other things.

 

[coromonadalix]

lol they where sold for almost nothing on Ebay, and now the prices are absurd

 

[TechLurker]

If I'm not misremembering some of the background, the guy behind the Xi3 company was retired military, and part of the reason it reportedly cost so much was because of the costs of developing the novel modular board layout that allowed for upgradable modules that could be replaced as tech got better. As well, he reportedly also marketed the idea to the US military, who were interested in potentially being able to use semi-off-the-shelf tech, as well as marketing them to hospitals and healthcare facilities where its small size was perfect for thin clients and simple standalone PCs.

Most of the Xi3 mini-PCs, including higher end models, mostly ended up in healthcare settings until they were obsoleted due to Xi3 going under and offering no more upgradability, and ended up as e-waste, although some could be had on eBay as a novelty item (or in some use cases, a Pihole/mini-media server with performance).

Personally, I think it's an idea that was too ahead of its time; but with companies like Framework putting out modular laptops and the rise in interest in mini-PCs, the Xi3 could have probably found a market nowadays.