Valve reveals the first 13 Steam Machines during CES 2014

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announcement3-1152-610 Last year, we posted that Valve has made the big move by invading gamers living room space. Now, they revealed that they officially have 13 Steam Machines being developed by different manufacturers. Yes, we are not talking about one unit that would be using the new Steam controller and it's new Linux-based operating system called SteamOS, we are talking about 13 kinds of units.

It's crazy. The manufacturers creating Steam Machines are Alienware, Alternate, Cyberpower PC, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, Gigabyte, iBuyPower, Materiel.net, Next Spa, Origin PC, Scan, Webhallen and Zotac. Each Steam Machine is different, with price range as low as $500 to as high as $1400. The shape of the unit also varies depending on the manufacturer, so there's a lot to choose from when considering Valve's Steam Machines.

Unit specs for some Steam Machines were also announced with a price:

  • Alternate – $1339 CPU – Intel Core i5 4570 Graphics – Gigabyte GTX 760 RAM – 16GB Storage – 1TB SSHD
  • CyberPowerPC – $499 and up CPU – AMD/Intel Core i5 CPU Graphics – AMD Radeon R9 270/Nvidia GTX 760 RAM – 8GB Storage – 500GB
  • Digital Storm Bolt II – $2,584 CPU – Intel Core i7 4770K Graphics – GTX 780 Ti RAM – 16GB Storage – 1TB HDD + 120 GB SSD
  • Gigabyte Brix Pro – TBD CPU – Intel Core i7-4770R Graphics – Intel Iris Pro 5200 RAM – 2 x 4GB Storage – 1TB SATA/6GB SATA
  • Falcon Northwest – $1,799 to $6000 CPU – customizable Graphics – Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan RAM – 8 to 16 GB Storage – up to 6 TB
  • iBuyPower – $499 and up CPU – Quad core AMD or Intel Graphics – Radeon GCN Graphics RAM – 8GB Storage – 500GB+
  • Materiel.net – $1,098 CPU – Intel Core i5 4440 Graphics – MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC RAM – 8GB Storage – 8 GB + 1 TB SSHD
  • Origin PC Chronos – price TBD CPU – Intel Core i7 4770K (3.9 to 4.6 GHz) Graphics – 2 x 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX Titans
  • Next SPA – price TBD CPU – Intel Core i5 Graphics – Nvidia GT 760 RAM – 8GB Storage – 1TB
  • Scan NC 10 – $1,090 CPU – Intel Core i3 4000M Graphics – Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M RAM – 8GB Storage – 500GB
  • Webhallen – $1,499 CPU – Intel Core i7 Graphics – Nvidia GT 780 RAM – 16GB Storage – 1TB SSHD
  • Zotac – $599 CPU – Intel Core (TBD) Graphics – Nvidia GeForce GTX RAM – TBD Storage – TBD

It's exciting to know these Steam Machines will be available within the year. But I'm curious on how Valve and each manufacturer will manage the information for each unit. With each Steam Machine being different, it can come out confusing for consumers with all the choices.

Valve also announced that there are now 250 games now SteamOS ready.

Excited to get your own Steam Machine when it's available? Or are you good with your PC when it comes to your Steam games?

[Source: Joystiq, Valve]

The Steam box is a reality,will come in multiple forms on release

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Steam Machines-ss01 The second countdown has ended and Valve has announced the highly rumored Steam Box with the name "Steam Machines". This system will come in multiple forms from different manufacturers, all using the Linux-based SteamOS. They have a prototype, and Valve wants to send the prototype to 300 Steam users for testing purposes. Check out if your eligible. 

It's pretty easy to be on that eligible list, but your pretty much going against millions of users that want to be within the lucky 300. But trying won't hurt, here are the steps:

Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility

1. Join the Steam Universe community group 2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions 3. Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven't already) 4. Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven't already) 5. Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode

Valve didn't talk about specs or anything but they did mention in the reveal that these "Steam Machines" are completely upgradable and open.

There's still one more announcement left for Valve's three-part reveal and my guess is either a new source engine, a game exclusive to this box, or the box's controller.

 

[Source: Steam]