Steam Machine Prices Range From $499 to $6,000 for First Generation

[Andy Chalk]

Steam Machine Prices Range From $499 to $6,000 for First Generation

Valve has confirmed more than a dozen manufacturers of Steam Machines, with prices ranging from $499 to a down payment on a house.

The dime was dropped on a number of Steam Machine makers earlier today but now Valve has made it official, confirming that a total of 14 PC manufacturers will be constructing the first generation of it custom gaming systems:


Alienware
Alternate
CyberPowerPC
Digital Storm
Falcon Northwest
GigaByte
iBuyPower
Maingear
Material.net
Next Spa
Origin PC
Scan
Webhallen
Zotac


The Digital Storm Bolt II that was unveiled this morning [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131055-Steam-Machine-By-Digital-Storm-Will-Cost-You-1900] is a $2500 powerhouse but Valve Grand Poobah Gabe Newell confirmed that a range of machines, at a variety of prices, will be available. "The first generation Steam Machines offers something for every gamer, which is a critical part of extending Steam into the living room," he said.

CyberPowerPC and iBuyPower will produce systems for as little as $499, while Falcon Northwest rigs will start at $1799 and go as high as $6,000. The systems themselves come in a variety of configurations based on both AMD and Intel CPUs, and Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Storage ranges from 500GB to 6TB, with some SSD options - but bear in mind that these are only promotional examples, and that actual configurations - and prices - will vary.

In fact, while we don't have an overload of detail at this point, it's becoming clear that the "Steam Box" is less a thing than an idea, and a rather murky one at that. Some of these systems, like the iBuyPower or the Zotac, look like consoles, but the Falcon Northwest and the Digital Storm are clearly just high-end gaming PCs. That shouldn't be a surprise - Steam is a PC-based platform, after all - but if Valve wants to compete for the living room then it's unavoidably competing against consoles, and in that light the lack of uniformity is a little unexpected.



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[Rutskarn]

(EDIT: Little niggle with the article, now altered. Go about your business.)

On topic, I'll be interested in seeing how the $499 machines match up to the standards of people actually good at building these kinds of consoles.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I think the major selling point of the Steam Machine is meant to be its Operating System, Steam OS. That will apparently be much more gaming friendly than Windows. Everything else is just window dressing for a gaming PC. It's a computer that does everything your computer already does, but also plays games better.

 

[SKBPinkie]

I think I may be remembering this all wrong - but didn't they say at one point that all Steam boxes will run any game at 1080p and 60fps?

If that's the case, I'm not sure if a $500 machine would be capable of that.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Uh, I don't know if this is you carrying forward the "PC Master Race" thing a little too far, but is "grand wizard" really the title you wanted to give Gabe Newell?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Wizard

I dunno, I find it rather fitting with the article you linked because:

Let's face it gabe hates consoles and hates windows

gabe loves Linux and loves PC's, ergo he wants his side to prosper and rule while the other to go to ruin.

Pretty sure that group you linked actively hated one colour over another and saw themselves as the supposed "master Race" and we all know how that turned out for everyone.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

I think I may be remembering this all wrong - but didn't they say at one point that all Steam boxes will run any game at 1080p and 60fps?

If that's the case, I'm not sure if a $500 machine would be capable of that.

The R9 270, which I'm fairly sure is the GPU inside the iBuyPower box, runs Battlefield 4 at an <a href=http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2013/11/13/amd-radeon-r9-270-review/4>average of 62fps and a minimum of 51fps on 1080p high with no AA (this is on Windows, so excluding any benefit SteamOS will bring). Assuming the games have proper options menus (and they damn well better) you could fiddle around with the options menu to squeeze in some AA if you really want.

Really, the only one that interests me so far is the iBuyPower machine that actually seems worth the money as opposed to the others which seem to be overpriced pre-builts branded as consoles. Will be interested to see how things develop.

 

[Roxas1359]

Out of all of them the best one to probably draw in console people, which is what I see a lot of people saying it's supposed to do, it's the iBuy Pro Power Steam Box. Really I don't think that's a bad price for that one, and I've been happy with my iBuy Pro Power computer and I've had it for about a year now. It's done it's job brilliantly, and allows me to run most of my games on max settings with not framerate issues. Cost me about $651 total, but that's more because my tower is more for show as you can see inside it and it has Blue LED cooling fans in it. It also came with a wireless gaming mouse and a keyboard...I wanted some flashiness. XD

 

[Andy Chalk]

Uh, I don't know if this is you carrying forward the "PC Master Race" thing a little too far, but is "grand wizard" really the title you wanted to give Gabe Newell?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Wizard

Honestly wasn't aware that the term was so closely linked to the KKK - I always topk it as more of a D&D-type thing. Anyway, to avoid potential offense and confusion, I've promoted Gabe to a new and even more powerful position. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[Rutskarn]

Uh, I don't know if this is you carrying forward the "PC Master Race" thing a little too far, but is "grand wizard" really the title you wanted to give Gabe Newell?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Wizard

Honestly wasn't aware that the term was so closely linked to the KKK - I always topk it as more of a D&D-type thing. Anyway, to avoid potential offense and confusion, I've promoted Gabe to a new and even more powerful position. Thanks for the heads-up.

NBD. I'll go ahead and scrub my old post to avoid dragging this thread down.

 

[Irridium]

Really excited to see how this pans out. I've seen plenty of people who've wanted to get into PC gaming, but haven't because of, well, reasons [http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1477]. Hopefully this gets more people into it.

 

[SinisterDeath]

The lack of uniformity is a good thing.
Consoles aren't 'uniform'. They keep trying to 'up' the price by making 'special editions' with 'more GBs'.
Well, Anyone who knows anything.. Knows that a 100GB vs 500GB Console, means absolutely freaking nothing.
They are the same damned console! Now with steam box? You spent $100 more for your console? Well Yours is probably better than some other guys'!

That all said, The whole thing about the SteamMachines, is it does what the PC Gaming Alliance tried doing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Gaming_Alliance)

And that was, have all PC's that were capable of meeting their minimum specifications having their 'PSGA' sticker on it. So newbie computer users could pick up that PC with the PCGA sticker on it, and find a game and play it.

Steam's effectively doing the same thing. But unlike the PCGA, people actually KNOW! what Steam is!

Ideally, Steam will be able to talk to developers/producers/ect, to incorporate a SteamMachine compatible 'sticker' on said game, to go along with any 'certified' steam machine, that basically will tell all PC gamers, regardless of knowledge, that said games are compatible.

And if in the future, games minimum specifications go up to much, steam can always alter said sticker. (Steam2.0) Problem solved.

And unlike consoles, Steam Machines are upgradeable. So it's possible to make it '2.0' compatible, and if they play their cards right. They can keep track of each of these different models, and offer an easy to understand -upgrade- system for newbie pc users. So they can put in their model, it'll tell them what they have, and what they can upgrade it with.

 

[Avaholic03]

The lack of uniformity is a good thing.

Not in this case (at least, not in my opinion)

PCs already had that lack of uniformity thing going for them. Almost complete customization down to what color LEDs you wanted in the case. I was under the impression one of the driving factors behind Steam Machines was to standardize PC gaming slightly so that you knew what you were getting when you bought certain hardware. I thought I remembered hearing about 3 main classes of Steam machine...but these early prototypes seem scattered all over the board rather than falling into simple-to-understand groups. Aside from SteamOS (which many Steam games still aren't Linux compatible and will need to dual-boot to Windows to play), what exactly is the point?

The only thing I'm really excited to try is that Steam Controller to see if the haptic feedback and touch screens are as fluid and intuitive as they claim. Aside from that, I'll just continue to build my own machines with the exact hardware (and software...I can't wait to see all the bloatware these companies cram into their boxes) that suits my needs.

 

[RA92]

Gabe... wants his side to prosper and rule while the other to go to ruin.

Yes, because that's not what every single console manufacturers want as well.

 

[FalloutJack]

So, the boiled-down version of this is "It's a very impressive machine, essentially a Steam console for the games on Steam you own, but whoa-baby it will cost ya.", then?

 

[gamegod25]

*shrugs* God luck to them but I'll stick with my own PC thanks. Just don't really see the point honestly.

 

[BartyMae]

I think I may be remembering this all wrong - but didn't they say at one point that all Steam boxes will run any game at 1080p and 60fps?

If that's the case, I'm not sure if a $500 machine would be capable of that.

What games couldn't be run at 60FPS-1080p with a $500 computer, as long as there are settings to fiddle around with? Budget/entry level computer parts have the highest price to performance ratio, so I imagine a $500-$600 computer, if built wisely, could run most games at least on medium at 1080p at 60fps.

 

[godofallu]

I don't understand what the point is of branding a pc with the term "steam box" if you're going to brand dozens of the things with that term.

At some point PC is just going to become synonymous with steam box. They really should have chosen like 6 models tops and gone from there. Giving the consumer this much choice is the exact opposite of what a console is supposed to do. Consumers who do a lot of research before shopping and are willing to put a ton of time into tweaking games are not the demographic that primarily uses videogame consoles.

 

[Morti]

On topic, I'll be interested in seeing how the $499 machines match up to the standards of people actually good at building these kinds of consoles.

Doesn't matter because they're not the target audience. Those of us interested in building gaming rigs have already built a gaming rig and will continue to build our own gaming rigs. Steam Box is an idea to try and convince mum to buy their little one a PC for gaming instead of a conventional console.