Steam Machine By Digital Storm Will Cost You $1900

Syzygy23

New member
Sep 20, 2010
824
0
0
loa said:
That thing looks huge!
Isn't the whole point of steam machines to be compact pcs that ape consoles?
Yes, it DOES look quite huge... Almost...

XBOX HUEG.

Nice try Microsoft! You almost got us this time! I ain't payin' 1900 USD for an XBOX!
 

Koios

New member
Jul 28, 2010
65
0
0
llamastorm.games said:
PC gamers and their needless instance on wasting money on i7's -_-
LOL
I was going to get an i5 when I built my new desktop during the holidays, but I got a deal on the i7 4770k that priced it middle of the pack for i5s.
 

Church185

New member
Apr 15, 2009
609
0
0
Ultratwinkie said:
There are many steam boxes. No two are the same.

Valve's steam boxes are one of a kind, and will never reach production. Only 300 will ever have one. Free, and built to high standards.

Everyone else must buy theirs.

Also Ibuypower is making one that is 500$ and blows next gen consoles away. This one is for people with money to throw around.
It actually doesn't blow next gen consoles away. Not by a long shot.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/06/ibuypower-sbx/?ncid=rss_truncated
 

Church185

New member
Apr 15, 2009
609
0
0
Ultratwinkie said:
Turns out I got Ibuypower and CYBERpower mixed up.

Cyber power is an I5 with a 760. 8 GB of RAM. for 499 or 699 depending on what you choose.

Either way, it beats both consoles because these are full desktop parts. The consoles use tablet APUs from AMD's bargain bin of fail and an undervolted equivalent of an AMD graphics card.
The $500 option doesn't outperform either console, and the $700 i5 with a GTX 760, while a bit more powerful than current gen, isn't going to attract many new people over to PC gaming because of the price. Normal consumers were bitching about the price of the Xbox One, do you really think they are going to pay $200 more for something that is more of a hassle to game on? On top of that, these cases are tiny and it will end up being a huge pain to upgrade. Might as well build a tower for that money.
 

Church185

New member
Apr 15, 2009
609
0
0
Ultratwinkie said:
I explained this before in another thread. You are vastly overstating the power of the next gen consoles.

The consoles are tablet tech. Even the I3 and 270 beat the ps4.

The BEST scenario for the PS4's APU is a damn I3. Horrid for gaming. Its GPU is beaten in power by a damn 270.

An i5 is not "a bit" more powerful. It blows it out of the damn water.

A 7850M that is said to be under volted is not some powerful thing. A 760 blows that out of the water. Even the 270 is better.

And these consoles will never need to be upgraded due to that fact. By the time an upgrade comes along, it would be better to buy a new steambox.

And this is for people that can't build towers.
Conversely you are understating the power of the PS4. It's GPU is closer to a 7870 [http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/156273-xbox-720-vs-ps4-vs-pc-how-the-hardware-specs-compare] than a 7850M, a claim which you have made without sources I might add. If you are truly a PC gamer then you would know that the CPU isn't that big of a bottleneck for gaming, and while the Jaguar cores were made for laptops and tablets, those devices tend to only have 2-4 cores, not 8. Please quit misinforming people.

As far as steam machines being for people who don't want to build towers, why would they buy a $700 machine they are going to have to replace in 4 years? If they aren't building towers and upgrading themselves then I guess they are expected to just scrap that expensive box. Might as well buy a console for $400 and replace it in 7 years.
 

Church185

New member
Apr 15, 2009
609
0
0
Ultratwinkie said:
Why is 4 years? You don't NEED to upgrade shit in PC gaming. if you beat consoles, you beat consoles for a whole gen.

Any PC gamer knows that. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

and JAGUAR IS MEANT FOR TABLETS AND NETBOOKS. Its only semi custom. It couldn't have been drastically different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Accelerated_Processing_Unit#Jaguar_architecture_.28Kabini_and_Temash.29

Because it is low cost, low power, and meant for mobile. Cores mean nothing, because Jaguar uses more cores with less power to save on ENERGY. Its a brand new method of making chips for mobile. Its not meant to be identical to other chipsets which use 2-4 cores. Its brand new.

NUMBER OF CORES MEAN NOTHING. That's another myth people like to spout. If those cores are weak like the PS4's Jaguar, it means nothing. Just like Rock,Paper, Shotgun found.

And yes, I accounted for the 7870 in my edit which is copy pasted from the other post. Its still an outdated card. The R9 series shits all over the 7 series in both power and price tag.

The 270 shits all over it. And that's the higher end of what the PS4 is said to be.

The APU itself is obsolete. As if I needed to tell you that.

http://www.techspot.com/news/54690-amds-upcoming-mobile-apus-make-jaguar-next-gen-console-chips-obsolete.html
https://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ps4-and-xbox-one-s-amd-jaguar-cpu-examined/0116297

The ps4 is obsolete now. These steam boxes mostly use newer parts. And the 7850M comment is from Tom's hardware. Which is taken into account on terms of power as a potential scenario.

So far, the only one spreading misinformation is you when you claim cores matter and PCs needing to be upgraded every 4 years.
You're forgetting that DirectX is going to eat a lot of your resources with it's massive overhead. You need more powerful components just to match the PS4's performance due to it's custom API. I'm aware number of cores isn't important, due to saying that CPUs aren't a gaming bottleneck. Please read what I write, and not what you thought I wrote. Most games are developed with one core in mind, BF4 is the first to use 8 cores. Games will be designed differently for the consoles to take advantage of the tech available to them. As far as upgrading goes, you will need to upgrade if you are using some of the parts from the basic Steam Machines. For some reason you only care about "beating consoles", instead of PC gaming. If you want to keep up with what PC gaming is actually capable of 4 years is a pretty reasonable amount of time before you'll need to upgrade your rig. Having to upgrade constantly is a myth, but so is never having to upgrade.

Steam Machines are a terrible idea. They aren't going to convert console gamers due to price or complexity, and PC gamers are just going to build something more powerful at a better price.
 

Church185

New member
Apr 15, 2009
609
0
0
Ultratwinkie said:
Steam machines don't use direct x. Do you even know what Gabe Newell is going for?

They want to use Mantle or OpenGL. Both highly promising. Both will kill Direct X and therefore Microsoft's stranglehold.

And no one will keep up with PC gaming with a steambox. Its not the point. Its meant as an alternative to consoles. If we needed to keep up with PC gaming, the box wouldn't fit quad sli 780 TIs.

Theses are small pcs. They are not meant to keep up with the quad card I7 monsters. Hell, the majority of steam users use integrated intel graphics for christ sakes. The steambox is also meant to upgrade those laptop gamers into something a little better.

It serves multiple purposes, but if you are already an established PC gamer with an actual rig, the steambox is not for you. So you don't understand.
I do understand, Linux and Steam Machines aren't going to be widely adopted, so there will be no incentive for developers to break from Direct X. Hell, most of the Steam Machine partners know that, so their boxes are coming with dual boot Windows 8. That way when the shit hits the fan, their product isn't completely worthless. Mantle looks a little more promising, but there is no telling if AMD will share their toys with NVidia users (similar to PhysX). If that's the case, either people will need to switch to AMD parts (could cost some people a lot of money) to gain access to that API, or it won't end up as widely used, once again leaving Direct X king.
 

Church185

New member
Apr 15, 2009
609
0
0
Ultratwinkie said:
They do have an incentive.

Windows 8 is just the beginning. It will be locked down and taxes levied on anyone still inside. Everyone knows what microsoft is planning to do, and their little threats to Sony players prove that. They want to play the monopoly card to try to get their way.

So that will cut into everyone's profits. Publishers like EA created origin to RUN from fees. Now microsoft is trying to muscle everyone out through their monopoly and the creation of a windows store.

And since Direct X is used as a weapon now , and locked behind certain OSes that NO ONE is using or wants, it gives them all the more reason to drop Microsoft. Windows 8 is a flop, and their insistence to continue down that route is killing PC.

Everything microsoft ever did was a headache for everyone else. There is a reason microsoft is seen as hitler to the mainstream population.

AMD and Nvidia know whats coming. Steam, publishers, and every dev knows whats coming. Even Sony benefits from helping drop Direct X because that's less leverage Microsoft has.

This has been a long time coming. Everyone has a reason to drop Direct X because of Microsoft's bullshit. Especially if they start locking everything down.

Origin won't exist.
Uplay won't exist.
Steam won't exist.

Neither will GOG, Green Man Gaming, Gamefly, and everything else. Only the windows store will exist. The publishers will have to pay whatever MS charges. No negotiations.

Even if they hated steam, they know that MS is worse.

The only thing that's stopping Linux from taking over is a lack of tools which valve and other devs are looking into now. Its free, and no one can tax anyone else for it.
Beautiful conspiracy theory. You do seem to forget that despite having the Metro interface and the Windows store, Windows 8 is still an open system. I can install whatever programs I want without a hitch. Origin, Uplay, and Steam still exist and work fine. It's hard to make a claim like "the mainstream population think Microsoft is Hitler [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum]" and still have people take you seriously. In fact the mainstream population seems to think Microsoft is alright considering Windows is installed on nearly 80% of all PCs (if Wikipedia is to be believed).

What you write is almost entirely hyperbole, so I'm done arguing with you.

*tips hat*
 

thewatergamer

New member
Aug 4, 2012
647
0
0
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Why would I buy a steam machine then when I can just buy a PC rig???

More and more my interest in the Steam Box is dying valve, sorry
 

Aardvaarkman

I am the one who eats ants!
Jul 14, 2011
1,262
0
0
loa said:
That thing looks huge!
Isn't the whole point of steam machines to be compact pcs that ape consoles?
The website has its measurements. It's pretty compact.
 

EHKOS

Madness to my Methods
Feb 28, 2010
4,815
0
0
I'd go up to 6, maybe 700 watts, but that's just me being cautious.

Although iBuyPower and CyberPower PC and Gigabyte are supposedly terrible manufacturers. I've heard many a story of customers getting DOA machines.