darthbator

Return of the Steam Box!

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How are you guys streaming? I noticed I don't have the same issues so many people are reporting. I've been doing all my streaming over 5ghz wireless N. When i pulled out the wifi tester I noticed I am actually the only 5Ghz signal in my area. I'm sure that's certainly helping my general wireless throughput!

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Gigabit ethernet. Both PCs are gaming PCs in their own rights, for what that's worth.

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Hmm, so if I were invited to the streaming beta, or any other Steam beta really (family sharing would be nice) where would that information be located?

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Hmm, so if I were invited to the streaming beta, or any other Steam beta really (family sharing would be nice) where would that information be located?

 

You should get an email notifying you, after which you can opt into to the Steam client beta build through Settings option.  You do have to have joined the In Home Streaming group and the Family Sharing group to be eligible to join.  My wife's account got into the streaming beta about a week after my account did, and based on other forums, it seems like invites are going out on a regular basis.

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Thread resurrection time! I've been putting this off, but I really should move my big computer out of the living room. Also, I think by now I can get a small living room machine that is more powerful than that one.

 

So, what happened to the steam machines? Are any available right now? Anybody here using one?

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Alienware Alpha is due November 21, though it's not really a Steam Machine as it has Windows 8 installed. It's probably the most mainstream with cheap prices, but boy are they coy as hell about what the GPU is in that sucker. It does have a pretty slick box that seems to compare favorably with build quality and appearance to the consoles. I don't think they say it once on the main product page - http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-alpha/pd

 

The Digital Storm Bolt II was another notable box from CES 2014, it's available now but like the Alpha it has Windows 8 installed. The Bolt 2 is bigger than the Alpha, but that's because it can pack full sized video cards. The specs are much more transparent because they're much higher, and appropriately so are the prices - http://www.digitalstormonline.com/bolt-ii.asp

 

Cyberpower probably has the best average of the two, with low priced builds that compete with the Alpha to a high priced build that undercuts the Bolt II prices. It's also hideous - http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/LandingPages/VenomX/SYBER/]

 

Gigabyte is selling a barebones small-form factor box called the Brix, their top of the line build has a laptop quad-core Core i7 chip with what they're saying is a GTX 760 (it's not clear to me if this is the mobile chip, or if they have some sort of custom desktop module crammed in there somehow) - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5156#ov

 

There are tons more that were announced at CES, but from what I can tell the reality is that nobody really wants to put out a legit "Steam Machine" and are instead hedging their bets with Windows 8 HTPC-style boxes.

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I'm quite happy with my Zotac ZBOX (don't know the model) which is a steambox-like. Although I'm mostly using it as HTPC in my bedroom running XMBC (on Ubuntu). But I have Steam installed and I have played The Cave natively. The ZBOX EN760 is quite powerful, but also pricy.

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Steam machine release date, specs, and pricing details

 

Honestly, I'm not sold on this and I'm having a hard time understanding who the target demographic would be. The major problem I see is that it looks like only about 25% of Steam's catalog will be supported at launch due to SteamOS being Linux based. To be able to play the other ~75% of Steam games you would need to purchase the Steam Link for another $50 and stream it from your gaming PC. So you either:

  1. Already have a decent gaming PC and need to drop a minimum of $500 to get everything you need to play the full catalog of Steam games on your TV.
  2. Don't have a decent gaming PC and need to drop well over $1000 on a gaming PC, a Steam Machine, and Steam Link to play the full catalog of Steam games on your TV.
  3. Don't have a decent gaming PC and need to drop a minimum of $450 on a Steam Machine to play about ~25% of Steam's current catalog on your TV.

From my perspective, I just don't see a strong value proposition for this. With the cheapest option, I could spend $100 less and get a PS4 or Xbone with all of their bells and whistles along with a good lineup of games. And I'm willing to bet that there will be a good number of popular games that won't be playable on the base Steam Box making it even more unattractive as a thing you would own to play games instead of one of the other consoles. And if you want the full lineup of Steam games to play on your TV and don't have a gaming PC, it just becomes so cost prohibitive that only the most hardcore people with a decent amount of disposable income would be able to justify that purchase.

 

So really, the best market I can imagine for this device will be for those that already have a decent gaming PC and want to play PC games on their TV without having to hook their PC up to their TV. And honestly, I don't think there is too big of a market for this either, especially at a minimum $500 price point. If it were me, I would rather just save that money and hook that shit up to my TV directly. And if the Steam controller is actually decent, then maybe that would be worth purchasing to make navigating a PC interface easier on my TV.

 

Maybe there is an argument to be had for how great these things are and all of the problems they will solve but I'm just not seeing it. Given the price point and other details, it doesn't really seem to be solving any problems and doesn't provide an attractive alternative to the other consoles out there.

 

Edit: you bastards revived the other Steam box thread before I could finish this post.

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Steam machine release date, specs, and pricing details

 

Honestly, I'm not sold on this and I'm having a hard time understanding who the target demographic would be. The major problem I see is that it looks like only about 25% of Steam's catalog will be supported at launch due to SteamOS being Linux based. To be able to play the other ~75% of Steam games you would need to purchase the Steam Link for another $50 and stream it from your gaming PC. 

 

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't need both. A steam machine (or any computer that can run the steam client) is capable of streaming. I think the steam link is an alternative for those who don't want to buy another PC just for the living room.

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You definitely don't need both. The Steam Link is a clean $50 for all your streaming purchases.

 

megaspel: The streaming we're talking about is in-house streaming from computer to computer, not like Twitch streaming.

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Ah okay, I misunderstood that part then. So I could definitely see picking up the Steam Link and Steam controller and I think there is a solid market for that. I'm still not sold on the Steam Box itself though. It doesn't seem to go far enough as a PC or console and is in that weird price range where I think you'd be better off either buying a console or buying/building a Windows PC that can actually run all of the games on Steam.

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It's specifically for people who want a PC but don't want to have to think about building one and who don't already otherwise have one and (ostensibly) won't have to think about managing it or installing weird shit once it's actually in their hands.

 

It's not for people like you.

 

Whether or not it works out as such remains to be seen. But I don't think it's that hard to see what they're trying to do.

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I'm just sayin' that sounds like a really narrow market to me. I think the one thing that will make it a no-go for a lot of those people is the fact that it is Linux based and they will be locked out of playing over 75% of the games available on Steam. At that point, why not just get an Ouya for like 1/5th the price?

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I'm just sayin' that sounds like a really narrow market to me. I think the one thing that will make it a no-go for a lot of those people is the fact that it is Linux based and they will be locked out of playing over 75% of the games available on Steam. At that point, why not just get an Ouya for like 1/5th the price?

It's worth saying that you can run Windows on them as well, which is what I would be doing if I had one. Now that I have a decently powerful laptop, I'm not really interested in getting one, but I definitely can see the appeal. 

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It's worth saying that you can run Windows on them as well, which is what I would be doing if I had one. Now that I have a decently powerful laptop, I'm not really interested in getting one, but I definitely can see the appeal. 

 

I didn't realize that. That's kind of weird though if you think about it. Because at that point you're literally just buying a pre-built PC which is hardly a new or unique thing. And the only reason I could see for getting a Steam machine with Windows over any other pre-built PC would come solely down to price and specs. 

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I didn't realize that. That's kind of weird though if you think about it. Because at that point you're literally just buying a pre-built PC which is hardly a new or unique thing. And the only reason I could see for getting a Steam machine with Windows over any other pre-built PC would come solely down to price and specs. 

 

Yeah, it's definitely nothing particularly special as a product when you think about it. But I think it will find its audience among people who like the idea of PC gaming but have no real tech expertise so they would feel better about getting a Steam-branded machine than something off the shelf from PC World. (Do you guys have those in the States?) 

 

There's also a contingent of people who essentially want a console that will play PC exclusive games. 

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On the other hand, Steam Link being a thing where I can unplug my brain and just plug in a receiver to stream directly to the TV is extremely appealing. I understand there are solutions to do that already, but this is a pre-built solution directly for that purpose that integrates with the thing I was doing already anyway.

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I'm interested in the controller and will probably end up pre-ordering it, but I'm on the fence about Steam Link.  I like the idea but I'm pretty sure I won't use it very much.  I mostly play games that are better played (to me at least) with a keyboard and mouse, something I wouldn't use on a couch.  The games I do use the controller for tend to be smaller games that demand less of my attention.  I usually play them windowed so that I can do other stuff at the same time, such as watch a video on my second monitor.  I don't think I'd really like to play them in full screen on my TV.  Perhaps the controller will change that if I find it good enough to use for more games, but I can always pick up a Steam Link later if I decide I want to go that route.

 

Edit: Controller pre-ordered!

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In that case I don't really know what you're complaining about. U:

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The game to game controller layouts seem pretty neat. Does anyone know if Valve have talked about the battery? It doesn't seem to be removable and they haven't said upfront what kind of battery life is to be expected.

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Says around 80 hours with a disclaimer on "DEPENDS ON WHAT BATTERIES AND THE STATE OF YOUR BATTERIES, etc." Still a looooot.

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