

Valve Unveils 13 Steam Machines, With Specs And Prices - dil8
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/01/valve-unveils-13-steam-machines-with-specs-and-prices/

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quarterto
One of those, the Origin PC Chronos, looks to be using a Silverstone GD05
chassis, which is the exact one that's been housing my HTPC/"Steam Machine"
this past year. It's nice to see some vindication for the choice (although
I've been thinking about moving to something more compact and console-like, as
it's basically a full mATX case on its side, and has non-optimal airflow).
Cooling is definitely an issue; there is no way it can dump the heat of 2×
NVidia Titans and a 4770k, as it can just about handle my single GTX 460.

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merrua
Alternate links.
[http://www.valvesoftware.com/news/](http://www.valvesoftware.com/news/)

If you want to read the press sheet its here. It shows pictures of what the
designs will look like.
[http://media.steampowered.com/store/steammachines/SteamMachi...](http://media.steampowered.com/store/steammachines/SteamMachinesBroc_WEB.PDF)

Most of them seems to be simular to existing designs.

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nextw33k
Sony and Microsoft must be laughing their arse's off right now. The whole
point of a console is that its cheap and you get revenue from games. You lower
the barrier to entry to allow mass market.

The re-badging PC gaming as console gaming without altering anything else is
not going to usher in a new era of console gaming. I don't see the advantage
of this over having a PC for gaming plus an existing console. Where is the
USP?

~~~
sentenza
Larger numbers of units of a specific model sold bring greater stability to
the user. When you buy one of the official steam boxes, you (hopefully) suffer
less from the usual PC weirdness. Kind of like buying a HP or Dell machine
compared to a "supermarket PC".

Also, I imagine you plug it in and you can start installing games, without
having to go through the thousand and one steps that are neccessary to make a
Windows PC useable (Is that still the case today? Been a while since I set up
a Windows box).

~~~
MetaCosm
I was hoping there would be something "more to it" than just Linux boxes from
tons of manufactorers that will be sold in small volume and changed often. I
hoped Valve had a "secret weapon" like universal compariable ratings, or...
something. But, right now it looks like they made a Linux disto and a
controller... which is cool, but isn't going to rock the industry without some
incredible marketing (read: exclusives, which they said they won't do).

RE: 1000+1 Steps, depends on the brand. A computer sold at Best Buy will
likely still come with a good bit of crapware, but even there execptions
happen.

But, a decent group of manufactors now offer "Microsoft Signature"... which is
no crapware and higher standard on drivers... very much feels "Apple
Inspired".

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xeroxmalf
I was really hoping for some interesting case designs to use for an HTPC/steam
machine.

