
Overview of Valve's SteamMachines specs - ekianjo
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/2145128928746175450
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zokier
Interesting that they are aiming to such high-spec systems. I guess they need
the performance to run existing games at adequate speed. But trying to go to
retail with a $1000 box (my guesstimate for i5-4570/gtx760 setup) will not be
easy.

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lnanek2
Valve will get a wholesale price, and may not even try to make profit off it,
much like Google and amazon. They make money off the platform anyway, so
charging more than cost on something that gets people on the platform is
silly.

~~~
zokier
_Valve_ won't be getting any significant volume discount, because they won't
be making any significant amounts of steam machines. The retail units will be
made by several OEMs and in several configurations, so it's likely that no
single model will be selling in massive volumes and be eligible for massive
discounts.

The situation is actually quite similar to the Android world. Google makes the
platform and others make the phones, Valve also provides a platform and lets
others make the steam machines.

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mdisraeli
3 different graphics cards, 3 different processors, 300 total prototypes being
shipped. Is around 33 systems at each specification level going to be enough
to properly evaluate the different design levels?

Remember that they probably have a number of audiences they are considering
targeting. Off the top of my head, there is at least three core groups. The
high media consumption family who all game and often game together is
currently in vogue for console marketing. The 'hardcore' gamer crowd who play
high demand FPSes and MMOs, who used to be the traditional market segment for
Steam. Then there's the casual gamer who plays lighter games, but may well
play a lot more games than the 'hardcore' gamers. The last one I can think of
would be the family which buys consoles for the kids, and the parents have yet
to be converted and still need to be properly sold on all the interactive TV
features. I doubt that only 8 samples at a given level would give any
meaningful data once statistical variation was factored in.

The only conclusion from that which makes any sense is that Valve are going
after a single demographic at the start, most likely heavy gamers. But I am
concerned that this will both cause key issues to be overlooked, and that this
will make expanding outwards into other segments very hard. Although they will
have some big name assistance with getting into a wider market, just look at
Apple versus Android. Despite the leaps and bounds android has come on,
iPhones and iPads are still viewed as less geeky and easier to use.

On the other hand, however, perhaps Valve are intending just that result.
After all, the controller will often need custom mappings to be selected, so
perhaps that is a good market for them. If I were a living room electronics
manufacturer, however, I'd really want ease of use to be at the core of my
products. I wouldn't want to integrate with my premium TVs something that
could be called "geeky".

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ekianjo
Shameless plug but I was writing about this a few days ago on the very same
topic and questions:
[http://pandoralive.info/?p=2004](http://pandoralive.info/?p=2004)

I also think they will be going for the heavy gamer at first. Because that is
mostly their current market already. As they expand they will have several
issues to break into other segments, namely regarding brand recognition (who
will know what a SteamMachine is when it's built but 10 different
manufacturers) and what the differences in positioning are ? It reminds me a
lot of the 3DO situation 20 years ago when you had a single console
standard/OS but about 4-5 manufacturers and there was a real lack of strategy
as a platform. And pricing was, at that time, a big issue as well for the
launch window.

Hardware upgrades on the way are going to make this a real headache down the
road, but I'm sure they are already thinking on how to address this.

We'll see what their plan are very soon.

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OMBUG
450W seems a little lean for a Titan...

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zokier
I'd agree. Also cooling Titan+i7 in a tiny box might be a challenge. But on
the other hand Anandtech measured whole system consumption for Titan being 430
watts including a 130+ watt CPU. Drop 50 watts off the CPU and it doesn't
sound so bad for a 450 watt power-supply.

edit: Tech Report says 323 watts for whole system in their Titan review, so
it's certainly feasible.

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venomsnake
The cooling - the titan evacuates the air trough the backplate and you just
need a blowhole above the cpu. Now making it quiet is different story.

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rplacd
Would mass-produced closed loop be a viable solution here? I'd imagine the
engineering costs incurred ahead of time would add to quite a bit, but I'm
unqualified to make any interesting judgment on any final balance of costs.

