According to PCWorld who spoke with Chris Sutphen, the senior marketing manager at Alienware, Dell are pushing out two new Steam Machine models.
QuoteA new Alienware Steam Machine priced at $749 will have the Intel quad-core Core i5 chip based on the Skylake architecture, Nvidia's GTX 960 GPU, 8GB of DDR4 memory, a 500GB hard drive and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
For more horsepower, a $899 Steam Machine will be loaded with a Skylake-based Intel Core i7 chip, an Nvidia GTX 960 GPU, 8GB DDR4 DRAM, a 1TB hard drive and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
The original cheaper Steam Machine will continue to be sold too.
I see this as a good sign, a sign of Dell's faith in the platform. Also, they wouldn't be introducing new models if the original didn't sell enough to be worth continuing to the point of adding more models. You could argue the opposite though, if it didn't sell enough they are trying higher models to see if people bite.
Another interesting quote from the article is this Alienware's Chris:
QuoteWe expect the SteamOS catalog to strengthen at the end of year
Going to be a fun year. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
If their Steam Machines wouldn't sell, they wouldn't do beefed up versions, period.
Maybe in some alternative universe. Dell doesn't think Steam Machines are stinker, period.
edit: also they are only OEM who knows how to market and sell Ubuntu OEM.
Last edited by Pecisk on 13 June 2016 at 10:39 pm UTC
QuoteYou could argue the opposite though, if it didn't sell enough they are trying higher models to see if people bite.
Maybe in some alternative universe. Dell doesn't think Steam Machines are stinker, period.
edit: also they are only OEM who knows how to market and sell Ubuntu OEM.
Last edited by Pecisk on 13 June 2016 at 10:39 pm UTC
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Finally some good news on Steam machines! I think a new model with a nvidia gtx 1060 by the end of the year would be pretty decent and could sell pretty well in the christmas season. Also good to hear that last quote.
6 Likes, Who?
cRaZy-bisCuiT Jun 13, 2016
Finally a 1070 Steam Mashine would be nice. The 960 was only half of the 970's. It's the same with 10xx. :/ And for 800 € I'd like to have a xx70!
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 13 June 2016 at 11:09 pm UTC
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 13 June 2016 at 11:09 pm UTC
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I'd really like to have an AMD RX480 Alienware SteamMachine.
With proper tweaks, it could be a pretty good machine for very nice price. Remember that AMD has always been the best for consoles (both XBox One and PS4 have an HD 7000 series GPU!)
With proper tweaks, it could be a pretty good machine for very nice price. Remember that AMD has always been the best for consoles (both XBox One and PS4 have an HD 7000 series GPU!)
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why one intel i7 CPU?
have to improve the GPU and not the CPU, Steam Machine is to games....and i5 is sufficient.
have to improve the GPU and not the CPU, Steam Machine is to games....and i5 is sufficient.
5 Likes, Who?
It is indeed cool that they are making new models, but I'm a little confused by the "For more horsepower" model that is $150 more.
As far as gaming goes the user will likely see VERY little difference as far as performance from the two models. IMO it would have made MUCH more sense to keep the i5 in the "upgraded" model but use the extra $150 to put in a GTX970 to go with the 1tb HDD. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Last edited by EKRboi on 13 June 2016 at 11:31 pm UTC
As far as gaming goes the user will likely see VERY little difference as far as performance from the two models. IMO it would have made MUCH more sense to keep the i5 in the "upgraded" model but use the extra $150 to put in a GTX970 to go with the 1tb HDD. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Last edited by EKRboi on 13 June 2016 at 11:31 pm UTC
7 Likes, Who?
"Dead in the water" lal
Today i experienced something that i wasnt used to in a very long time.
Im a strategy fan and i had to choose between master of orion and stellaris ; both are AAA titles and both are on linux stellaris won but im not used to having to choose ; in the old days there was one game to pickup not a multitude of them and thats a good indicator linux is in the good path.
Kiss my ass ars technica and mocosoft! Long live Linux!
Today i experienced something that i wasnt used to in a very long time.
Im a strategy fan and i had to choose between master of orion and stellaris ; both are AAA titles and both are on linux stellaris won but im not used to having to choose ; in the old days there was one game to pickup not a multitude of them and thats a good indicator linux is in the good path.
Kiss my ass ars technica and mocosoft! Long live Linux!
12 Likes, Who?
You forget to quote the part where they say that they will make a Steam Machine with AMD GPU later this year. It could be interesting, especially we could have cheaper Steam Machines. But obviously they have to wait for AMD drivers to be ready.
Also from an interview of the general manager Frank Azor of Alienware by Polygon (http://www.polygon.com/e3/2016/6/13/11874994/alienwares-new-steam-machine-backpack-vr) :
So Steam Machines are definitely still alive and Alienware is still invested in making it a success.
Last edited by Nyamiou on 14 June 2016 at 1:10 am UTC
Also from an interview of the general manager Frank Azor of Alienware by Polygon (http://www.polygon.com/e3/2016/6/13/11874994/alienwares-new-steam-machine-backpack-vr) :
QuoteThe Steam Machine has done well, but it didn’t meet the expectations that we all thought it had, we lost a lot of momentum at launch. A lot of the big titles didn’t come over. The gamepad didn’t have as many games optimized for it as we would have liked when it came out. It’s been a very slow ramp up.
QuoteThe demand dropped for a new operating system, but we still sell it and we’re still investing in it.
So Steam Machines are definitely still alive and Alienware is still invested in making it a success.
Last edited by Nyamiou on 14 June 2016 at 1:10 am UTC
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ElectricPrism Jun 14, 2016
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTFinally a 1070 Steam Mashine would be nice. The 960 was only half of the 970's. It's the same with 10xx. :/ And for 800 € I'd like to have a xx70!
Considering the GPU looks to be soldered to the motherboard I think it probably is more economical to have 1 motherboard for both products.
The CPU on the other hand is replaceable and WINE games are much heavier on the CPU, so in the event that there are wine wraps they'll run better on the i7 no doubt.
I think you also have to take into account that this is a pretty small gaming console box. Even with my Mini ITX motherboard my standard ATX PSU makes my case huge at minimum in the Corsair 380T.
You're paying for the Alienware name, the compactness and portability, and the future success of Steam vs PS4/XBONE/Nintendo/WindowsPC
I would also like to see some AMDGPU Polaris 4XX Steam Machines by the end of the year. The open driver makes it increasingly appealing. I may be crazy enough to get one of these when I get some extra cash to complete my living room gaming experience.
3 Likes, Who?
Kimyrielle Jun 14, 2016
Quoting: Uncleivan"Dead in the water" lal
Today i experienced something that i wasnt used to in a very long time.
Im a strategy fan and i had to choose between master of orion and stellaris ; both are AAA titles and both are on linux stellaris won but im not used to having to choose ; in the old days there was one game to pickup not a multitude of them and thats a good indicator linux is in the good path.
Kiss my ass ars technica and mocosoft! Long live Linux!
Haha, seriously! Two years ago, I backed pretty much every Kickstarter pledging Linux support. Even if I didn't really care for the game. But just to show support to the platform and the (few) devs who chose to support it. Now? I can't remotely buy every Linux game that interests me with any hope to have enough time to play them all. The equivalent of first world problems! :D
3 Likes, Who?
I bought the low end $450 i3 Alienware Steam Machine at launch - it's a good machine!
It looks attractive and tiny under the TV, plus very quiet - and surprisingly decent 3D game performance for such a small and quiet PC form factor. It's what I was looking for: a modest gaming PC for under the TV, that looks attractive in the living room, and adequately runs about 90% of my games library, since the majority of my titles have more modest hardware requirements.
Glad to see some kind of movement here, any movement :-) I recently convinced a local friend to buy one. And I was honest with him: install Win 10 on it, it'll basically be considerably better for gaming in general: almost uniform better game performance head-to-head same hardware/same game, better games compatibility.... But that's not the point, Linux is a new gaming OS option doing surprisingly well in a short amount of time, plus it's a better choice over Windows at a desktop usage level for *many* many reasons. You really are taking your PC's life in your hands using Win 10 as your desktop.
It looks attractive and tiny under the TV, plus very quiet - and surprisingly decent 3D game performance for such a small and quiet PC form factor. It's what I was looking for: a modest gaming PC for under the TV, that looks attractive in the living room, and adequately runs about 90% of my games library, since the majority of my titles have more modest hardware requirements.
Glad to see some kind of movement here, any movement :-) I recently convinced a local friend to buy one. And I was honest with him: install Win 10 on it, it'll basically be considerably better for gaming in general: almost uniform better game performance head-to-head same hardware/same game, better games compatibility.... But that's not the point, Linux is a new gaming OS option doing surprisingly well in a short amount of time, plus it's a better choice over Windows at a desktop usage level for *many* many reasons. You really are taking your PC's life in your hands using Win 10 as your desktop.
1 Likes, Who?
Valve is definitely playing the long game. It's nice to see manufacturers that share its long-term vision. I wonder if part of that is because Dell is now privately owned and not at the mercy of greedy shareholders.
5 Likes, Who?
Segata Sanshiro Jun 14, 2016
Quoting: bubouswhy one intel i7 CPU?
have to improve the GPU and not the CPU, Steam Machine is to games....and i5 is sufficient.
Yup. Would make more sense if the next model up had a GTX 970 and still an i5 since it still wouldn't bottleneck the card.
It's this kind of stuff I've been complaining about since the first Steam Machines specs were announced. All these terrible decisions end up doing is giving the machines a terrible price-performance ratio and make them pretty unappealing.
1 Likes, Who?
[email protected] Jun 14, 2016
I think the price is very good. Very competitive against Zotac's boxes with similar specs to their high end models.
The 960/970 is good enough for most games on Steam really.
I have a 670 FTW+ and it's good enough to play most games on high/ultra at 1080p.
And if you don't like SteamOS, think of it as a very capable and effective PC that can run Linux or Windows at a very affordable price with warranty at that.
Last edited by [email protected] on 14 June 2016 at 3:01 am UTC
The 960/970 is good enough for most games on Steam really.
I have a 670 FTW+ and it's good enough to play most games on high/ultra at 1080p.
And if you don't like SteamOS, think of it as a very capable and effective PC that can run Linux or Windows at a very affordable price with warranty at that.
Last edited by [email protected] on 14 June 2016 at 3:01 am UTC
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I would like to see amd rx 480 or 470 steam machine priced around 500 to 600 euros. That would be awesome, I would just sell my old pc.
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TheRiddick Jun 14, 2016
The RX480 should bring some new life to the steam-machine push. Hopefully AMD can sort out some good official drivers with the pro series before then so SteamOS can be a THING..
2 Likes, Who?
Valve has all the piecess here to make steam os a success.Just make some performece tweak on SteamOS And release HL3 exclusive for linux/steamOS with Vulkan.Even if only just for 1 week .If they can make a great HL3 ,SteamOS populatrity will rise like the steam itself.
1 Likes, Who?
Kuduzkehpan Jun 14, 2016
nice big companies coming in not only Linux also hardwares. (SM)
good job valve.
good job valve.
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Quoting: Segata SanshiroQuoting: bubouswhy one intel i7 CPU?
have to improve the GPU and not the CPU, Steam Machine is to games....and i5 is sufficient.
Yup. Would make more sense if the next model up had a GTX 970 and still an i5 since it still wouldn't bottleneck the card.
It's this kind of stuff I've been complaining about since the first Steam Machines specs were announced. All these terrible decisions end up doing is giving the machines a terrible price-performance ratio and make them pretty unappealing.
We are talking about small, laptop like silent machines here, not full blown PC. A bit different pros and cos and requirements. One of them being silent.
Also Vulkan (why i7 upgrade).
1 Likes, Who?
Mblackwell Jun 14, 2016
For me the sweet spot is still $300-350 before I would consider buying one... buy I have definitely considered it a few times in the past. The hardware revision they are talking about is on the level of what I'd hoped to see really.
1 Likes, Who?
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