Steam Machine Prototype Details and Specs

KazeoHin said:
My question is this:

What is Valve planning on releasing that would require such power??



Halflife3confirmedomgomg
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Well, 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 ... 2160P) is coming eventually ... maybe they just want to see if existing hardware can handle it ... there are also some very inefficient game engines (cough cough CRYSIS cough cough) so they may want to see if there are substantial performance hits running different games at 1080P settings with different bells and whistles turned on (AA, V-Sync, PhysX, etc) ;)
 
pcjunkie said:
I don't understand such beefy specs? Why on earth if you are going to run SteamOS, which is supposedly highly optimized for games would you need such high end parts? Who are they trying to target with this? So many questions... :(
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Because Linux gaming sucks? Maybe they need high end parts for it to have 'acceptable' performance.
 
dyzophoria said:
I'm not really sure all PC gamers "can" push the graphics to the max, there is still this limitation called money :p
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True, but for the most part PC gamers care more about the looks of a game more than console players do.
 
maxius said:
a very good summery of this epic fail here

www.extremetech.com/gaming/167674-steam-box-valve-abuses-its-gamer-goodwill-to-bet-big-on-a-bad-idea

what does this box solve in getting a pc experience in your living room?
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The guy really doesn't touch on anything really. Nor does he any clue what he's talking about.

What does the SteamBox solve for PC gaming in your living room?

#1 It's all ready to go with little work to get it going.

Unlike pre-built or self built PC's, the SteamBox is purpose built to hook up to the TV. No need to activate Windows. No need to install anti-virus software or deal with butt loads of trail versions of software. It's as simple as setting up the PS4 or Xbone machine.

#2 The price will be cheaper.

The Steambox's will likely be cheaper then home built or pre-built PCs. One of the major complaints of PC gaming is how expensive a fast setup is. But this will run Linux, which is free compared to Windows, and Valve will likely get a discount on the hardware. It'll more expensive then PS4 and Xbone, but cheaper then most PCs of equivalent specs.

#3 The controller is a bridge to keyboard and mouse.

Valve didn't take a dump on KB+Mouse setup, but they know people want a simple gamepad to hold when they're sitting in front of their TV. They know their Steam gamebox isn't as good as a traditional PC setup, but it should be much better then what Xbone or PS4 will have for gamepads. Also, you can still hook up a KB+Mouse if you desire, not like the PS4 and Xbone.

#4 Windows can Die in a Fire.

There's already about 20% of new games heading to Linux. So the SteamBox has already influenced developers to port their games over. Right now if you game, you do it on Windows. Not Mac OSX, and certainly not Linux. But thanks to Valve, Linux may finally be an option for users.

We know that Linux is...
#1 More secure
#2 Virus free
#3 FREE!
#4 Has a better update system then Windows.
#5 Very customizable

buonanotte_xfce_theme_by_lifeinthegrey-d4n7dvb.png
 
If I get into this I have some left over Sandy bridge parts and do this myself.
 
From the sound of the spec/size it sound a lot like just a bit smaller then similar in many respects to what below.
Digital Storm’s Bolt
Falcon Northwest Tiki
Alienware X51
But any case I best it about $2500/$3000 setup full load with Nvidia Titan and Intel i7-4770 but funny thing is Nvidia Linux driver are so poor vs AMD driver.
 
shspvr said:
but funny thing is Nvidia Linux driver are so poor vs AMD driver.
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It's the other way around. Nvidia drivers are awesome in Linux, and in most cases better then on Windows. On the other hand the AMD drivers are horrible, and is far slower then it's Windows counter part.

Now if you're talking about open source drivers, that's a different story. Though the Nvidia nouveau drivers are pretty decent, but they lack reclocking, so they're 1/10 the speed of Nvidia's. The AMD open source drivers though are 80% of Catalyst drivers. But neither open source drivers are good.

In fact the Dolphin emulator guys have their options on Linux drivers. This is how they see Linux drivers.

Excellent - NVIDIA <- Nvidia's Proprietary driver
Good - Mesa <- Open source drivers for both AMD and Nvidia
Mediocre - AMD <- Their proprietary drivers
Bad - ARM/Mali <- Which is surprisingly bad, but that's for ARM based devices, and we don't care about those.

But yea, is it a surprise why Nvidia hardware was chosen for SteamBox?
 
Linux is virus free, lol really did you just say that Ashbringer.
 
rudy said:
Linux is virus free, lol really did you just say that Ashbringer.
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Yes I did. There's no such thing as an OS that's 100% virus free, but I wouldn't install an anti-virus in linux. The same would go for Mac OSX.
 
Then its not free then is it? Also I have had more malware on Linux servers than windows machines in my life. But who are we kidding we are getting into this silliness again, If steam on Linux is worth 2 shits, it will have malware, if it is worth nothing and gains no traction then no one will bother.
 
Ashbringer said:
It's the other way around. Nvidia drivers are awesome in Linux, and in most cases better then on Windows. On the other hand the AMD drivers are horrible, and is far slower then it's Windows counter part.

Now if you're talking about open source drivers, that's a different story. Though the Nvidia nouveau drivers are pretty decent, but they lack reclocking, so they're 1/10 the speed of Nvidia's. The AMD open source drivers though are 80% of Catalyst drivers. But neither open source drivers are good.

In fact the Dolphin emulator guys have their options on Linux drivers. This is how they see Linux drivers.

Excellent - NVIDIA <- Nvidia's Proprietary driver
Good - Mesa <- Open source drivers for both AMD and Nvidia
Mediocre - AMD <- Their proprietary drivers
Bad - ARM/Mali <- Which is surprisingly bad, but that's for ARM based devices, and we don't care about those.

But yea, is it a surprise why Nvidia hardware was chosen for SteamBox?
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That funny this a diff story
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=fedora_19_15mesa&num=1
 
rudy said:
Then its not free then is it? Also I have had more malware on Linux servers than windows machines in my life. But who are we kidding we are getting into this silliness again, If steam on Linux is worth 2 shits, it will have malware, if it is worth nothing and gains no traction then no one will bother.
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When it comes to desktop linux, it's safer then Windows dekstop. Even Linux servers are safer then Windows servers. Unlike desktop machines, Linux servers dwarf Windows servers in popularity, but are still less effected by viruses. Unlike Windows which takes sometimes 6 years to fix a known security hole, Linux does it damn near instant.

Once Linux does become popular it'll certainly see some threatening viruses, but because of how diverse Linux is and how often it's updated, it'll never be anywhere nearly as bad as Windows is. Enough to the point that I'll never bother to install an anti-virus on a home computer. This can also be said for Mac OS X.

shspvr said:
That funny this a diff story
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=fedora_19_15mesa&num=1
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What can I tell you but learn to read better?

"Coming up in a later Phoronix article will be a closed vs. open-source driver comparison from this system having the proprietary NVIDIA and AMD Catalyst results shown side-by-side, for a clear look at the performance of the Linux desktop for OpenGL gaming."

So yea, those are open source drivers. It's Nouveau (Nvidia) vs Gallium 3D (AMD) open source drivers. The poor performance is due to re-clocking issue in Nouveau, which means the clock speed of the graphic cards are running lower then they should. Which is why Nvidia does so poorly compared to AMD.

When they do the proprietary driver test, then you'll Nvidia very much on top.
 
of course it seems safer because no one out there uses desktop Linux. Who would bother writing malware other than academics looking to proof of concept for 1% of users.
 
rudy said:
of course it seems safer because no one out there uses desktop Linux. Who would bother writing malware other than academics looking to proof of concept for 1% of users.
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Technically Linux is the majority of OS's used in the world. This includes servers, Android, and soon to be SteamOS. Mac OS X which is Unix, which is like Linux, also doesn't need anti-virus. It also doesn't have as much of a user base as Windows, but at 6% you'd think it would be enough to require anti-virus. Most Mac users will tell you that you don't need AV. Not unless you run Windows next to it.
 
Technically many people claim the most insecure phone OS is android. So bringing android into this to try to stake out a claim of ubiquity is a bad idea, but you are welcome to argue it either way.
 
Cool and article that could practically be written exactly the same for windows tol now search for all the articles about malware in the play store and everywhere else.
 
specs look good.
But pricing will be the big factor.
Now with "Mantle" being in the mix, its going to be interesting how this plays out.
 
pcjunkie said:
I don't understand such beefy specs? Why on earth if you are going to run SteamOS, which is supposedly highly optimized for games would you need such high end parts? Who are they trying to target with this? So many questions... :(
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Optimized is very questionable. Likely very much stock Linux with a custom GUI.

This is essentially just a standard PC at standard PC pricing.

The only real difference is running Linux instead of Windows.

It is hard to see how this succeeds.

PC with Windows = All games.
PC with Linux/Steam = Small subset of ported games.
 
I keep seeing a few things repeated incessantly that need to die a fiery death.

1. OH-EM-GEE 450WTFITAN
A *real* 450 watt PSU is easily enough for a 4770 and a Titan. Go look around the SFF forum and see just how many people are building powerhouses with tiny PSUs. I'm looking at you, Silverstone ST45SF-G.

2. OH-EM-GEE EXPENSIVE!
Well no shit, this is top-end PC hardware that is meant to trounce the new consoles' hardware. Did you think Valve would pull some miraculously cheap quantum computing out of Gabe's diamond-encrusted poo or something? Those of you complaining about these being overpowered are also forgetting the fact that new consoles are about to come out with a slew of new game engines that will actually push current-gen mid-level hardware at 1080. Like it or not, consoles are currently dictating mainstream game engines for AAA cross-platform titles and the new generation will catch up to modern PC hardware. If this effort succeeds in (re)creating a cohesive PC-based gaming platform, then the PC will once again dictate developers' direction.

3. LinuxOLWUT
Linux is a leaner OS with a fraction of the overhead the Windows kernel could ever hope to achieve. The only reason it isn't the mainstream OS is due to fragmentation--it hasn't had any serious effort put into it to form a singular, concentrated platform. Valve wants gaming to be OPEN and Linux is the only OS available to do that. With Valve pushing the OS as a developer AND a publisher, many more developers will move to support it. It also doesn't hurt that OpenGL is still very viable, is no longer in a Microsoft choke-hold and Green has plenty of experience with it. But sometimes I forget that I'm old and not everyone remembers how NVidia's OpenGL performance and widespread adoption is what killed 3dfx and GLide.
 
DiabloRojo said:
Valve wants gaming to be OPEN and Linux is the only OS available to do that.
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LOL! It isn't about open, it's about the battle of the app stores.

Valve wants to lock you into it's own app-store/walled garden (steam), so they had a hissy fit about Windows 8 and it's built in app-store/walled garden.

Now they are trying to get onto Linux where they won't have app-store competition.
 
Snowdog said:
LOL! It isn't about open, it's about the battle of the app stores.

Valve wants to lock you into it's own app-store/walled garden (steam), so they had a hissy fit about Windows 8 and it's built in app-store/walled garden.

Now they are trying to get onto Linux where they won't have app-store competition.
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Actually, you're interpreting their intentions and have absolutely no idea. You're just guessing.

It could just as easily because they don't want to have to continue developing with DirectX versions that are not released for previous versions of windows. Or they don't want to incur the windows licensing cost on hardware devices (more likely).

Windows is expensive, and could be seen as an irritating non-free requirement for what they see as a multi-purpose device with many different configurations.

It could be anything, but speaking like you have some sort of knowledge about it and then posting speculation about nasty motives just makes you come across as childish.
 
InternationalHat said:
Actually, you're interpreting their intentions and have absolutely no idea. You're just guessing.
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Just about everyone can (and did) connect the dots between Windows 8 App Store and Valve claiming it was a catastrophe, is because there is a good chance it will eventually supplant Steam on Windows. Just follow the money.

Valve’s Newell: Windows 8 “catastrophe” driving Valve to embrace Linux

Newell is not a disinterested third party. Valve makes money from the commission it takes on Steam sales. Windows 8, with its built-in Windows Store, challenges that revenue source. Features such as Xbox LIVE integration could make the Windows Store and Windows 8 a more appealing platform for gamers and developers alike than Steam.
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If you really think this is some kind of utopian idealism, and not a reaction to app-store competition, you are living in a dreamland.
 
Snowdog said:
LOL! It isn't about open, it's about the battle of the app stores.

Valve wants to lock you into it's own app-store/walled garden (steam), so they had a hissy fit about Windows 8 and it's built in app-store/walled garden.

Now they are trying to get onto Linux where they won't have app-store competition.
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A multiplatform walled garden? I don't think that's a thing.
 
cptnjarhead said:
specs look good.
But pricing will be the big factor.
Now with "Mantle" being in the mix, its going to be interesting how this plays out.
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Cripes the specs look good for a high end pc gaming rig so I would hope so! You want price go to Newegg or Amazon. I wouldn't expect lower prices, actually the opposite for specialized Steam boxes.
 
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