Valve Finally Reveals Steam Machine Prototype Specs

[exfileme]

The prototypes will be based on Nvidia GPUs and Intel CPUs.

Valve Finally Reveals Steam Machine Prototype Specs : Read more

 

[jimmysmitty]

I wouldn't be against a free SteamBox to mess with. I am in the beta so lets hope I get one.

Would be fun to mess with it and find the bugs in it. I wonder if SteamOS has a way to send error reports directly to VALVe.....

 

[bigshootr8]

Very interesting. I would just say that I wasn't expecting that high end of parts with the seam machine. With that said though I'm glad its not just some low powered stream box its something you can game on to.

 

[stevejnb]

Yikes - doubt these will be cheap without selling at a big loss. On the other hand, to do justice to some pc game, you need that kind of power.

 

[michael908]

Guess Nvidia was more interested in pushing mid to high end gpus with steam than selling laptop apus to Sony and Microsoft.

 

[yannigr]

All those expecting/asking/hoping/demanding Mantle on Linux, I think they can forget that now.

 

[soccerplayer88]

Well even console designers (MS/Sony) make their money back on the games not on the consoles. Even when the PS3 was marked at $600 Sony still were taking a loss on the console.

I would imagine that Valve approaches sales the same way a console company would. The money is in the games.

It'll be interesting to see how things pan out with Nintendo hanging on by a thread and the other two consoles dominating the market. It will be tough to get in such a saturated market.

 

[house70]

"Ouch! No AMD? ....."

Lame attempt to start a flame war. tsk, tsk...

They had to pick one. It is their choice, period. Did you really expected 2 different consoles, just to satisfy AMD fans?
If it runs well, I could not care less what it has inside (unless, of course, console is serviceable....he, he).

 

[edogawa]

Not bad specifications at all. It's basically going to be a mini-itx system running Steam OS Linux Distribution. When it really comes down to it anyone will be able to build their own, if not better, SteamBox which is great about this whole thing.

My only concern with the SteamBox is price, I don't see many console gamers purchasing a 600, 700, or 800 dollar Steam-box over a 400 dollar PS4 with more to offer. It will take a few years for things to kick into action if the Steam OS is a hit.

 

[Shankovich]

At least they tell you what PSU you get, hate it so much when vendors don't do that. And that's why I always build . Looks like these aren't the Xi3 machines though. Whoever gets a titan for free will be one lucky bastard.

 

[Mousemonkey]

"Ouch! No AMD? ....."

Lame attempt to start a flame war. tsk, tsk...

They had to pick one. It is their choice, period. Did you really expected 2 different consoles, just to satisfy AMD fans?
If it runs well, I could not care less what it has inside (unless, of course, console is serviceable....he, he).

Trying to start a flame war or just pointing out that like Origin not everyone has a hard on for AMD or Mantle.

 

[bigshootr8]

Agreed Mouse and not every solution will fit everyone's bill anyway people may just still use their own custom PC. If you like what you have just use the steam OS.

 

[stevejnb]

Agreed Mouse and not every solution will fit everyone's bill anyway people may just still use their own custom PC. If you like what you have just use the steam OS.

The ironic thing about this that everyone I so excited about is that everything it does you can already do on an existing PC, no SteamBox, no SteamOS required... I know that's not the point of it for many of you, but it is rather amusing to see the excitement for a product that does what products you already have do.

Not the point, I know, but still amusing.

 

[neblogai]

With specs like these, Valve seams to have a plan: to tease us for some two years, and as soon manufacturing prices drop, to unleash steam' 'consoles', superior to xbone and ps4, in full force.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Agreed Mouse and not every solution will fit everyone's bill anyway people may just still use their own custom PC. If you like what you have just use the steam OS.

The ironic thing about this that everyone I so excited about is that everything it does you can already do on an existing PC, no SteamBox, no SteamOS required... I know that's not the point of it for many of you, but it is rather amusing to see the excitement for a product that does what products you already have do.

Not the point, I know, but still amusing.

The same could be said of consoles though (and it is, quite regularly) its just that they've chosen to go with Nvidia and Intel for this venture rather than AMD but with this all you need is the OS and you can build your own box with whatever you want that you think will work.

 

[stevejnb]

Agreed Mouse and not every solution will fit everyone's bill anyway people may just still use their own custom PC. If you like what you have just use the steam OS.

The ironic thing about this that everyone I so excited about is that everything it does you can already do on an existing PC, no SteamBox, no SteamOS required... I know that's not the point of it for many of you, but it is rather amusing to see the excitement for a product that does what products you already have do.

Not the point, I know, but still amusing.

The same could be said of consoles though (and it is, quite regularly) its just that they've chosen to go with Nvidia and Intel for this venture rather than AMD but with this all you need is the OS and you can build your own box with whatever you want that you think will work.

No, the same thing can't really be said. Consoles are almost defined by their exclusive titles, generally. Steambox is defined by Steam's game library which is entirely available on a Windows PC. It could well be a significant boon for squeezing the most out of hardware. It may well turn out to have some services or features unique to not just SteamOS but the SteamBox itself, but until then, I don't see what any SteamBox/SteamOS combo can do that a Windows PC running Steam can't. Heck, at this point, the WIndows PC actually plays more of the Steam library than a Steambox or PC running SteamOS does.

I'm not disparaging the value of this... Though in previous threads I've expressed concerns about how open SteamOS will be, I recognize it'll likely end up a lighter weight OS to run PC games on. That's not insignificant, and a viable gaming competitor to Windows in the PC world will be huge. Just, some of the excitement is kind of amusing - because people can't wait to get SteamOS so they can play exactly the games they can already play, but on a new OS. It's kind of like if you were to have bought a PS3 not to play MGS4 or the next GTA or Final Fantasy that weren't out on your old platform, but to play all the PS2 games - but have them run a bit better.

 

[jurassic512]

Linux plus flagship hardware = A horrible idea.
Anyone who buys this is a fool and should be shot in the chest at point blank range.

 

[stevejnb]

Linux plus flagship hardware = A horrible idea.
Anyone who buys this is a fool and should be shot in the chest at point blank range.

I remember people like you saying this about a Linux distro on another set of devices a few years ago... I think that distro was called "Android" or something like that. How's that doing now? I can't recall. I wonder how many were shot in the chest for supporting that abortion of an OS, amirite?

If the market has a niche for a competitor to the power(s) that be and a strong one arises, it sometimes can be a meteoric rise to the top. Not saying this is what will happen, but, there are a lot of people out there who hate Windows just because it's Windows, and a lot out there who prefer other OS's but just can't game on them.

PS - what kind of phone do you use?

 

[jimmysmitty]

Agreed Mouse and not every solution will fit everyone's bill anyway people may just still use their own custom PC. If you like what you have just use the steam OS.

The ironic thing about this that everyone I so excited about is that everything it does you can already do on an existing PC, no SteamBox, no SteamOS required... I know that's not the point of it for many of you, but it is rather amusing to see the excitement for a product that does what products you already have do.

Not the point, I know, but still amusing.

The same could be said of consoles though (and it is, quite regularly) its just that they've chosen to go with Nvidia and Intel for this venture rather than AMD but with this all you need is the OS and you can build your own box with whatever you want that you think will work.

No, the same thing can't really be said. Consoles are almost defined by their exclusive titles, generally. Steambox is defined by Steam's game library which is entirely available on a Windows PC. It could well be a significant boon for squeezing the most out of hardware. It may well turn out to have some services or features unique to not just SteamOS but the SteamBox itself, but until then, I don't see what any SteamBox/SteamOS combo can do that a Windows PC running Steam can't. Heck, at this point, the WIndows PC actually plays more of the Steam library than a Steambox or PC running SteamOS does.

I'm not disparaging the value of this... Though in previous threads I've expressed concerns about how open SteamOS will be, I recognize it'll likely end up a lighter weight OS to run PC games on. That's not insignificant, and a viable gaming competitor to Windows in the PC world will be huge. Just, some of the excitement is kind of amusing - because people can't wait to get SteamOS so they can play exactly the games they can already play, but on a new OS. It's kind of like if you were to have bought a PS3 not to play MGS4 or the next GTA or Final Fantasy that weren't out on your old platform, but to play all the PS2 games - but have them run a bit better.

Not quite Steams library as its not the same as on Windows. What it has, Windows does have but it wont have the same library as Windows since not every vendor is willing to throw money and resources to recode their entire game to use OGL instead of DX.

In the larger scheme its just not profitable to them while VALVe, since it is privately owned, does not worry as much about making more money only. Of course they need to make money to survive but they still connect more with their customers than any other company.

Linux plus flagship hardware = A horrible idea.
Anyone who buys this is a fool and should be shot in the chest at point blank range.

I remember people like you saying this about a Linux distro on another set of devices a few years ago... I think that distro was called "Android" or something like that. How's that doing now? I can't recall. I wonder how many were shot in the chest for supporting that abortion of an OS, amirite?

If the market has a niche for a competitor to the power(s) that be and a strong one arises, it sometimes can be a meteoric rise to the top. Not saying this is what will happen, but, there are a lot of people out there who hate Windows just because it's Windows, and a lot out there who prefer other OS's but just can't game on them.

PS - what kind of phone do you use?

Android, much like Windows, was specifically designed for the hardware it uses though (ARM). They do have a x86 version but I doubt anyone will really use it to game as its not a full blown OS.

In fact its probably just a watered down Linux kernel stripped of features to work on hardware that's not as powerful as desktop PC hardware.

And while there is various versions of said hardware, its still all ARM based so optimizing it is not as hard as with PC.

While I am not a fan of Linux, due to it being much harder to use and therefore not a good for a network environment, I am excited for SteamOS and the SteamBox. The SteamBox mainly because you can still throw Windows on it if you want or you can build a HTPC that's low power but decent and throw SteamOS on it and play some mid end games on your TV like Sonic Generations which works best with a controller.

 

[Nilo BP]

Linux plus flagship hardware = A horrible idea.
Anyone who buys this is a fool and should be shot in the chest at point blank range.

I remember people like you saying this about a Linux distro on another set of devices a few years ago... I think that distro was called "Android" or something like that. How's that doing now? I can't recall. I wonder how many were shot in the chest for supporting that abortion of an OS, amirite?

If the market has a niche for a competitor to the power(s) that be and a strong one arises, it sometimes can be a meteoric rise to the top. Not saying this is what will happen, but, there are a lot of people out there who hate Windows just because it's Windows, and a lot out there who prefer other OS's but just can't game on them.

PS - what kind of phone do you use?

I don't see how that invalidates his point. Quite the contrary. Anyone who buys flagship hardware to run Android should be shot in the chest at point blank, with a bazooka, I might add.

Android took over the world from the low end, even if you only consider smartphones. Which is exactly the opposite of what Valve seems to be doing with this. AMD are the ones with the "monopolize the mainstream" approach right now.

 

[beta212]

Looking at this news, I have just lost all hope in steam boxes. One of the major advantages of a "console" is static, identical hardware, and a closed system. This allows many developers to optimize code for that specific set of hardware. It also makes it hard for games to be pirated, that is one of the reasons the majority of the profits are made on consoles.

How is this steam box different say, a normal PC with linux installed? What's to prevent a person from making a fork of steamOS? Or pirating games? 450W of heat in that small space could lead to high failure rate/loud fans.

Consumers are sensitive to price, look at all that backlash the X1 received for being priced at 499$. And those are actual "consoles", with features not found in normal PCs. Looking on the flip side, all this powerful hardware probably indicates that games *future* steam games on linux are still inefficient and require massive amounts of horsepower to run them fluidly.

I have already dropped money on a PS4, but I also game on the PC. I would love another competitor, but this approach has little hope.

 

[aggroboy]

Did Valve lock Steamboxes to Nvidia GPUs?

 

[OverclockedCeleron]

"Ouch! No AMD? Probably not given Nvidia's involvement with SteamOS and all this talk of "streaming" PC games to the Linux-based machine. Also, did you notice all the Shield-friendly Kepler GPUs?"

Shame on you Tom's, stop the AMD bashing already. Steam already said that the streaming technology will work on Nvidia as well as on AMD cards. Also, Nvidia is the logical choice for Steam at this point because they have the latest generation of GPUs available on the market today, and of course, they deserve a gesture of gratitude for helping Steam with the streaming technology.

Ha, and regarding Shield, mark my words, the only thing that will be left from Shield is the technology, other than that, Shield will be an utter failure.

 

[billgatez]

Typical prototype system as they always have more power then the final product. The final product will have half the power and be half the price, valve is not dumb, and they know they have to price the steam box at or lower then the consoles or they don't stand a chance.

 

[ojas]

Well, so much for the theory of having AMD CPUs inside.

Though it was expected, since Valve and Nvidia were talking about this a lot. I think the Core i3 + GTX 660 or 760 might be the final spec from Valve, since Nvidia can slash down the price quite a bit, given GK104's die size and all. Even Intel can reduce prices if it wants to (though it wont). Nvidia's more likely because Maxwell's round the corner, so by the end of next year, GK104 production costs should be much, much lower.

And to all those comparing this with a console: Don't. It's a PC. It's Valve PC, not a console. Their model is closer to the Android/IBM PC model than the console model.

And the entire point of this is to maybe replace a console but co-exist with the PC.

@Kevin P: Dude, this having kepler is sort of irrelevant, the idea is to stream from the desktop and not to it, though i guess that could work too for some people.

p.s. I think the motivation for most devs to use Mantle may just have nosedived. I'm personally mixed about it. EA/DICE may have the time and money to implement it, i don't know about the rest. I mean, isn't this why PhysX never really took of and Glide was killed?