Valve Announces Steam Machine Prototype Specs

[Strazdas]

Why a freaking Titan?!?? That thing is useless, unless you are going for a triple monitor setup or 4K res, and even then its still debatable whether its worth it. And the power supply does look kinda weak.
And no GAMING PC needs 16 Gigs of Ram. 8 Gigs? 12 Gigs? Maybe, and the second is already pushing it. 16 is just not necessary.

Needed, no unecessary. Do not forget that gaming PCs went with 4 GB when consoles went with 0,5 GB. consoles now go with 16 GB, so....

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

Ridiculously expensive assuming you get the Titan/i7. Not to mention the Power Supply seems WAY to tiny. My computer uses less specs and required a 600w Power Supply to run well without shitting itself. Also the specs are just... fucked up beyond belief. It looks like someone who has never built a PC and just cobbled together random parts laying around.

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

1. new components often actually require less power because they are usually smaller actually. so the pwoer requirements are actually downsizing the better components we go.
Also as far as PSU goes, notice they went for 80plus GOLD. which means very good efficiency, usually 80 silver is enough for regular gaming PC, and the pre-built ones are usually nonames that does not even pass silver tests. to put it short - the PSU they are using is an expesive monster.

I bought a 1000W power supply three years ago for $450, and I regret nothing.

Except your electricity bill

 

[Griffolion]

It was going so great until I saw the PSU as unbranded. What a shame. Hopefully they can see sense and at least get in a reputable make for the real thing.

 

[Ravesy]

I bought a 1000W power supply three years ago for $450, and I regret nothing.

Except your electricity bill

The PSU only uses the power needed by the PC, he could have a 5000 Watt PSU in there and it wouldn't change his electric bill .

 

[Strazdas]

I bought a 1000W power supply three years ago for $450, and I regret nothing.

Except your electricity bill

The PSU only uses the power needed by the PC, he could have a 5000 Watt PSU in there and it wouldn't change his electric bill .

the PSU uses the power needed by PC + inefficiency. PSUs are most efficient when used at around 80% load. both above and bellow that introduces inefficiency, and the curve is rather steep. If he is using a 1000W PSU and his computer in fact drains 400W, around 200W extra will get turned to heat due to inefficiency, so his eclectricity bill will come for 600W, huge wastage. Where if he had been using 600W PSU to begin with and drain 400W, the inefficiency would be much lower, closer to 450W,meaning much less electricity costs.

It was going so great until I saw the PSU as unbranded. What a shame. Hopefully they can see sense and at least get in a reputable make for the real thing.

The PSU has a gold certificate (at least it looks like that). Any PSU that passes that is good. Most "branded ones" only go for silver. It could just be a costum order built for Valve and thats it.

 

[Ravesy]

I bought a 1000W power supply three years ago for $450, and I regret nothing.

Except your electricity bill

The PSU only uses the power needed by the PC, he could have a 5000 Watt PSU in there and it wouldn't change his electric bill .

the PSU uses the power needed by PC + inefficiency. PSUs are most efficient when used at around 80% load. both above and bellow that introduces inefficiency, and the curve is rather steep. If he is using a 1000W PSU and his computer in fact drains 400W, around 200W extra will get turned to heat due to inefficiency, so his eclectricity bill will come for 600W, huge wastage. Where if he had been using 600W PSU to begin with and drain 400W, the inefficiency would be much lower, closer to 450W,meaning much less electricity costs.

True I guess, but chances are with his 1000W PSU hes going to be running around the sweet spot of 50% load on it (I thought it was 50%, not 80% that was best, but by all means correct me as I haven't looked into it for some time!). I don't disagree that it will draw slightly more than a 600W one, but I cant see the difference really having a noticeable effect on the electric bill surely?

 

[Strazdas]

I bought a 1000W power supply three years ago for $450, and I regret nothing.

Except your electricity bill

The PSU only uses the power needed by the PC, he could have a 5000 Watt PSU in there and it wouldn't change his electric bill .

the PSU uses the power needed by PC + inefficiency. PSUs are most efficient when used at around 80% load. both above and bellow that introduces inefficiency, and the curve is rather steep. If he is using a 1000W PSU and his computer in fact drains 400W, around 200W extra will get turned to heat due to inefficiency, so his eclectricity bill will come for 600W, huge wastage. Where if he had been using 600W PSU to begin with and drain 400W, the inefficiency would be much lower, closer to 450W,meaning much less electricity costs.

True I guess, but chances are with his 1000W PSU hes going to be running around the sweet spot of 50% load on it (I thought it was 50%, not 80% that was best, but by all means correct me as I haven't looked into it for some time!). I don't disagree that it will draw slightly more than a 600W one, but I cant see the difference really having a noticeable effect on the electric bill surely?

You are somewhat correct. The peak efficiency is 50-85%, 65-80% for more highly rated PSUs (This one is gold, ratings go, from best to worst: Platinum, Gold (this one), Silver, not-rated), as well as better efficiency with higher rated ones usually.
Considering that a gaming PC is one of the most electricity intensive things in most households it will have an effect.
A gaming PC, while gaming, is expected to draw up to 600W (and used to be more) power. A gaming PC can be on for hours, and in some extreme cases lime myself, sometimes on for 16 hours striaght. Thats A LOT of consumtion.
Lets see what else uses a lot of power in your house:
Vacuum cleaner (800-1000W) - that is on once a week for 5-10 minutes. not significant comparison.
Refrigirator (which in some household is over half of the bill, or at least thats what people think), depends on model of course. Mine for example uses 324KW per year, which if averaging would be 37w of constant train. 20 times less than PC, but of course it stays on 24/7.
Washing machine/dishwasher. Not sure how much electricity dishwashers use, but smart people calculated that its cheaper than washing by hand. Washing mashines arent THAT powerful really. most electricity used for water heating. Googling some numbers i get ~1000W for dishwasher (thought its less) and washing machines around 400W. This would be a good contester ir not for the fact that both are turned once or twice a week, not sure how long dishwasher goes though its cycles (dont have one) but washing machine takes 2 hours.
Electric oven/cooking plate/microwave - now this is contender. Microwaves are above 1000W but only run for a few minutes, so actual consumtion is less. MY electric stowe can go as high as 1800W, and if your cooking for a while (for example a cake!) this can last for hours. but people who use these usually have cheaper electricity contracts. but thats a healthy contender.
What else, we got the "enviromental evil" lightbulbs. While true years ago, now everyone uses either the saving lgihtbulbs or LED (thats even better) lightbulbs. one bulb consumetion of mine is 4W. we dont evne have to count those nowadays.
"A big ass TV" is probably the best contender. depending on what kind of technology used and size of screen can go from 100W to 2000W. of course electricity instalation permitting (i got 15000W line but i used to live where 2000W was total line strenght of whole household). but then, so does monitor, altrough i havent seen a huge plasma monitor yet, and ive seen TV. (plasma ones use obscene amounts of electricity).

And unless i mised something thats about it. As far as constant long term usage PCs are one of those things that given to Gamers they are very hungry. Of course now more popular are the Laptops with 90W PSUs, that dont do anything similar, but thats not going to be one.

Jeez, it got longwinded, sorry.

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

Valve are assuming that the top-tier specs they've released may represent "the kind of machine that a significant percentage of Steam users would actually want to purchase", which anyone who has enough Steam friends knows is pure horseshit -- nobody except the most wasteful spenders (i.e. Valve's most favored customers) are going to be willing to fork out the cash required to pick up a secondary gaming rig like that. If by "significant percentage" they mean the mighty 1% of Steam users who can afford to buy the entire Steam catalog, then they're right on the mark. Otherwise, Valve are already off to a bad start in their Hardware & Consumer Assessment 101 education.

We don't know if Valve are going to be selling Steam Machine units directly, which is something that would (hopefully) indicate some kind of quality control on their part. They may feature a handful of specific boutique builds at the Steam Store, but everything we've seen so far regarding the Steam Machine seems to indicate that Valve will be allowing anyone with a screwdriver and a business license the freedom to design and sell these things.

The whole retail process for the Steam Machine is looking messier and messier with each new bit of information that surfaces. The unrealistic specs, the haphazard partnering plans, and Valve's over-eagerness to make this project as open as possible due to Gaben's delusional hatred of Microsoft make me wonder how much meaningful research they've actually done.