- This topic has 13 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by Creg.
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Steam gaming machines
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ashleydwsmithFree Member
What are theses steam gaming machines my boys are telling me about?
Are they any good?
Are they worth the money?
DelFull Memberpcs in a small box.
jury suggests steam os needs work. performance lacking wrt windows.
not imo.Pawsy_BearFree Memberwhat Del says – just a small pc with none of the advantages of a full size desktop.
shindiggyFree MemberGo for a small form factor PC build with an AMD nano card. More powerful than steam machine, benefit of windows and steam.
squirrelkingFree Memberjury suggests steam os needs work. performance lacking wrt windows.
It’s Linux, I suspect the jury will be out for some time especially given the lack of support from major manufacturers and publishers still being the biggest hurdle.
just a small pc with none of the advantages of a full size desktop.
Que? I’m not really sure what disadvantages a small form factor PC has unless you want to overclock it to death.
Go for a small form factor PC build with an AMD nano card. More powerful than steam machine, benefit of windows and steam.
According to whom? Power is down to component choice, not size.
What are theses steam gaming machines my boys are telling me about?
Are they any good?
Are they worth the money?
They are off the shelf dedicated gaming PC’s designed for the living room rather than on a desk, as such they are smaller, better looking and, of course, more expensive. They run on Steam OS but are not in any way restricted (like any normal desktop) so can have Windows installed. I believe they also come with Steam controllers.
They are as good as any other small form factor PC. Main hurdles are cooling given the small size and possible lack of tweaking options if you want to overclock (changing heatsinks, adding water blocks etc.) or add cards.
Worth the money? Good question. An Alienware? Hell no. Something more reasonable? Probably. I’m looking at Corsair Bulldog cases ATM as they are suggesting $400 or so with motherboard, cooling block and PSU, just add a processor, memory, graphics card and HDD. As a dedicated gaming machine I’m tempted but only because I’m due a major upgrade anyway. If they are only going to mess about with minecraft tell them to do one and get something basic.
Pawsy_BearFree MemberQue? I’m not really sure what disadvantages a small form factor PC has unless you want to overclock it to death.
well as you mention cooling, expense and upgrading. Much easier to upgrade a PC in a tower or desktop system so future proofing your system.
I honestly cant see why you would want a small PC unless its for aesthetic reasons or you travel to gaming contests and so need portability. Desktop are cheaper. Its worth bearing in mind along the upgrade route that for games its the graphics card that’s the main component to being able to run games and new more powerful ones come along weekly. They and the CPU give off the most heat thus a large case with fans is the preferred gaming rig.
I run a tower system, loads of fans, big side door allows access to all the components so I’m able to upgrade individual components as and when. If you want a good long term investment I’d go for a good monitor and a SSD HD.
disco_stuFree Memberthis might be worth a read
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2016/01/hey-valve-whats-the-point-of-steam-os/
Pawsy_BearFree Memberyeah disco-stu I think that about sums it up. ‘I turned on my Windows PC to play Just Cause 3. It worked perfectly’
Its a solution looking for a problem and looking at that inside shot it will overheat.
martinhutchFull MemberThat model reviewed in the link above – £900 for i5 and GTX 960 card seems like a massive premium for fairly modest performance. In contrast, my pc with i5 and the better GTX970 was just over £500 just before Christmas.
How does the Steam OS cope with non-steam games? If you want to play, for example, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, which I think needs Ubisoft’s Steam equivalent software to run, can I just boot it up and run it, or would you be restricted to steam games only?
I’d be worried about overheating as well in a case that small. You certainly wouldn’t want to tuck it away inside a cupboard.
Seems to me steam were looking for a market among console fans wanting to PC game, but improvements in cloud-based gaming in the latest crop of consoles, and the relative ease of just running steam/usoft etc in a normal PC seems to make it the worst of all worlds.
D0NKFull MemberDoesn’t seem to be a lot of point to them from what little I’ve read, if you want a small unit in your front room get a proper games console, if you want to tinker get a proper pc.
Only thing I can think of is you may get small discreet unit and access to more games (bypassing any sony v microsoft turf wars*) but I’m willing to bet that a bunch of non steam games will need some software tinkering to run properly.
*but iirc a lot of those don’t end up on PC anyway (later halo and GoW games), and some do both PS and xbox but not pc (destiny)
squirrelkingFree MemberAgain, let me spell this out for those who didn’t get it the first time – YOU DO NOT NEED TO RUN STEAMOS
And yes – it is all about aesthetic. What would you rather have next to your TV? A bloody great big tower or a small ITX form factor unit? Let me put this in perspective, I can’t fit my current setup inside a 4U server case which is already massive, why the hell would I want a 5u server case for the sake of running a decent heatsink? (Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, yes others are available but I’m making a point)
That £900 shitter is exactly the high end guff I’d lump in with Alienware. Again, look at the Bulldog and you could build a far superior system for the same money.
As for running a console – 60 FPS. I’ll just leave that there. We won’t even bother with anything above 1080p, we don’t have to.
sirromjFull MemberWas kinda hoping these would take off a bit better than this, not because I want one, but because it would be good for gaming in Linux. But most of the time I can’t be bothered with games, though every now and then I go through a gaming phase for several months.
Pawsy_BearFree MemberNot many games support Linux, Windows 10 mainstream really. I just find it easier to go with the flow.
CregFull MemberI’ve got a Mini ITX gaming system and its great. Stepped down from an i7 full tower behemoth to a mini ITX with a i5 4690 and a GTX 970 in it and it runs all my games perfectly with no cooling issues at all at 60fps 1080p. Granted the case isnt as small as something like an Alienware Alpha but then my system has better tech in it.
I think the Alienware Alphas actually running W8 with Steam running in Big Picture mode as an overlay, seem to remember some guy doing a video about it on Youtube.
I built my system for less than the cost of the steam machines and get better performance out of it.
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