Valve Announces Steam Machine Prototype Specs

[Andy Chalk]

Valve Announces Steam Machine Prototype Specs

Valve has revealed the system specs for the 300 Steam Machine prototypes it will distribute next year.

The Steam Machines announced by Valve last week [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128156-Valve-Unveils-Steam-Machines-Hardware-Beta-Coming-Soon] are essentially PCs optimized for the living room, and you can't talk about PCs for very long without talking about specs. So today, Valve shone some light on what the lucky 300 can expect.

The prototype units will actually come in a variety of flavors, according to the post:


GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high


"To be clear, this design is not meant to serve the needs of all of the tens of millions of Steam users. It may, however, be the kind of machine that a significant percentage of Steam users would actually want to purchase - those who want plenty of performance in a high-end living room package," the post says. "Many others would opt for machines that have been more carefully designed to cost less, or to be tiny, or super quiet, and there will be Steam Machines that fit those descriptions."

That's some pretty sweet hardware, but I'm not sure what niche Valve is trying to fill with it. There's no way to build a killer rig like this and stay competitive with consoles on price, and the enthusiast PC gamers who might be interested in such a thing are also, generally speaking, the ones most likely to prefer simply building a custom PC of their own.

More interesting is the promise of hardware for PC gamers who already have solid rigs and "would like to have a way to bridge the gap into the living room without giving up their existing hardware and without spending lots of money." Valve said it's working on ways to do that with its in-home streaming technology, and would "talk more about that in the future."

Source: Steam [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/2145128928746175450]


Permalink

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Lol. Already did a thread on this....bit late arent you?

Seems a really expensive box from the specs. Though i do wonder if the parts will be at cost or the overall Steam Machine will be more expensive than the cost of those components themselves. If so, then it could be worth buying it, just to gut it and update my PC.

 

[James Crook]

Those are impressive specs, but that's gotta be super expensive, especially the Titan model. Right now I'm only interested in the steam OS for it's streaming capabilities, in which case I'm gonna get the bare minimum parts I can and stream from my main rig.

EDIT: Also how the fuck are they going to run a high end GPU and CPU with a 450W power supply??

The CPU is a Haswell, which has about 65W TDP. You CAN cram such specs on a 450W power supply.

 

[CriticalMiss]

So folks who know about PC bits, does this tell us anything about pricing other than there will be one ridiculously expensive box?

 

[Me55enger]

Geforce.com- a site I got to via the official Nvidia site when searching for product information- advises that a 600w minimum PSU is to be used with the Titan.

Link can be unceremoniously found after this colon: http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan/specifications

 

[fix-the-spade]

If so, then it could be worth buying it, just to gut it and update my PC.

I'd be willing to bet that even though it has 'production' parts on it you won't be able to remove them and bung them in your desktop box, they'll be soldered in place (built into the board). No way is a 450w power supply running an i7, 2 or four DDR3 Dimms and a Titan separately safely.

It does sem to defeat the point for the Steambox to be a $2000 ultra hardcore gaming PC in disguise, on the other hand, if that's the package, it costs a little bit less than a retail build and lets you install your own OS (namely dual boot Stea/Windows) I'd buy one when it comes to upgrade time.

Captcha: uncharted island, indeed my obstructive artificial friend, indeed.

 

[LAGG]

It's clear from the specs that those machines are made for streaming HD video at full graphics while keeping excellent performance for the player. Valve want's the beta users to flood TwitchTV.

 

[CriticalMiss]

EDIT: So you understand the expensiveness, a Titan goes from anywhere between 700 USD to 1000 USD.

Yeah, that was the one I thought would be the expensive machine. I'm just not familiar with the rest of the components and whether it's going to be crammed with equally high cost parts. I'm assuming Valve have worked out deals to get the Titan cheaper than retail, but it's still going to be a big cost for a single component that is (if I've heard correctly about the Titan) pointlessly overpowered.

 

[fix-the-spade]

but it's still going to be a big cost for a single component that is (if I've heard correctly about the Titan) pointlessly overpowered.

It's pointlessly overpowered for right now. What about in two years time when the next Battlefield/Crysis/MMO/Total War comes out and starts burning out all the two year old mid range cards and forcing downsizing on the other console brands? Or four or five years time when 4k TV screens are cheaper (Titans are really for single GPU multi screen and 4k setups, for 1080p they are massive overkill)?

It makes a degree of sense to me to fir the fastest hardware available now. The relative price is dropping all the time, the development cost to Valve is nil, if they order a million of them you can bet Nvidia would drop a further $200 off the trade price. Plus it gives them a legitimate claim to making the most powerful console in the world, probably more or at least close to whatever Sony and Microsoft would be thinking about for next gen.

It is very expensive though.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Urg...

I worry Valve is going to overshoot on the price. That's incredibly important nowadays, and even just 100$ more can hit you pretty hard on the sales side.

On the plus, this is really powerful I guess.

 

[Psychobabble]

Okay, so gaming rig. Nice but I already have one. And I for one could give a fuck about playing my Steam games in the living room. Let's hear more about the Steam Os please.

 

[Psychobabble]

but it's still going to be a big cost for a single component that is (if I've heard correctly about the Titan) pointlessly overpowered.

It's pointlessly overpowered for right now. What about in two years time when the next Battlefield/Crysis/MMO/Total War comes out and starts burning out all the two year old mid range cards and forcing downsizing on the other console brands? Or four or five years time when 4k TV screens are cheaper (Titans are really for single GPU multi screen and 4k setups, for 1080p they are massive overkill)?

It makes a degree of sense to me to fir the fastest hardware available now. The relative price is dropping all the time, the development cost to Valve is nil, if they order a million of them you can bet Nvidia would drop a further $200 off the trade price. Plus it gives them a legitimate claim to making the most powerful console in the world, probably more or at least close to whatever Sony and Microsoft would be thinking about for next gen.

It is very expensive though.

What would make a hell of a lot more sense though would just be to build the damn box where you could upgrade components instead of having to pay insanely high prices for cutting edge tech you don't currently need.

 

[Sight Unseen]

but it's still going to be a big cost for a single component that is (if I've heard correctly about the Titan) pointlessly overpowered.

It's pointlessly overpowered for right now. What about in two years time when the next Battlefield/Crysis/MMO/Total War comes out and starts burning out all the two year old mid range cards and forcing downsizing on the other console brands? Or four or five years time when 4k TV screens are cheaper (Titans are really for single GPU multi screen and 4k setups, for 1080p they are massive overkill)?

It makes a degree of sense to me to fir the fastest hardware available now. The relative price is dropping all the time, the development cost to Valve is nil, if they order a million of them you can bet Nvidia would drop a further $200 off the trade price. Plus it gives them a legitimate claim to making the most powerful console in the world, probably more or at least close to whatever Sony and Microsoft would be thinking about for next gen.

It is very expensive though.

What would make a hell of a lot more sense though would just be to build the damn box where you could upgrade components instead of having to pay insanely high prices for cutting edge tech you don't currently need.

Steam Machines are confirmed to be fully upgradeable and customiseable and you can even build your own. If you don't like the specs/price on this one, buy a cheaper one and put your own hardware in it if you have the know-how. Problem solved.

Everyone keep in mind that these are just the specs of the steam machines that they will be sending out for the BETA testing, and are going to be intended to blow the beta testers away with their high performance. They've already confirmed that there will be cheaper ones out there that are optimized for different thing (size, quietness, etc)

 

[Psychobabble]

but it's still going to be a big cost for a single component that is (if I've heard correctly about the Titan) pointlessly overpowered.

It's pointlessly overpowered for right now. What about in two years time when the next Battlefield/Crysis/MMO/Total War comes out and starts burning out all the two year old mid range cards and forcing downsizing on the other console brands? Or four or five years time when 4k TV screens are cheaper (Titans are really for single GPU multi screen and 4k setups, for 1080p they are massive overkill)?

It makes a degree of sense to me to fir the fastest hardware available now. The relative price is dropping all the time, the development cost to Valve is nil, if they order a million of them you can bet Nvidia would drop a further $200 off the trade price. Plus it gives them a legitimate claim to making the most powerful console in the world, probably more or at least close to whatever Sony and Microsoft would be thinking about for next gen.

It is very expensive though.

What would make a hell of a lot more sense though would just be to build the damn box where you could upgrade components instead of having to pay insanely high prices for cutting edge tech you don't currently need.

Steam Machines are confirmed to be fully upgradeable and customiseable and you can even build your own If you don't like the specs on this one, buy a cheaper one and put your own hardware in it if you have the know-how. Problem solved.

I had read they could be monkeyed with but didn't know the extent. That's great as I already build my own gaming machines, so don't really need to buy one of theirs. I'm hoping the Steam Os is a fully functional gaming replacement for Windows. As that would kick serious ass.