The rise of steam machines

[Commenter]

This is one good reason to halt when thinking of purchasing a next gen console. Especially now that consoles are essentially using the same architecture as a pc, and specs for 1st gen steam machines look good. As long as it's not alienware it'll probably be acceptable value for money vs a next-gen console as well, taking into account the loss leader philosophy.

http://wccftech.com/pc-vs-consoles-steam-machine-ps4-xbox-specs-performance/

Now as this is the console tech forum. My question is, do you think the time of upgradeable consoles or tailor made consoles has come? With software like DX12 and Mantle pc software should in theory be as optimized as console software has traditionally been.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

WARNING - reading that 'article' can damage your brain. Approach with caution.

 

[Rurouni]

Too late Shifty.. Too late...

 

[whome0]

Reference for lazy people its CyberPowerPC Steam Machine A.
OS SteamOS(linux)
CPU AMD A6-6400K 3.90Ghz
GPU Radeon R9 270 with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM
RAM 8GB DDR3 dualchannel 1600Mhz
HDD 500GB 7200RPM
Includes wifi, usb3, bluetooth, Steam Controller.
Price $499

Let's hope Eurogamer runs Metro:Last Light(Linux) or similar game head to head pixel counting article. Why not add Win8 to this box and same game run on Linux+Win+XOne+PS4 platforms.

They also have bigger B spec price $699 (Core i3-4330, GTX 760) machine available.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

You can't argue with that. Some numbers are bigger than other numbers

MATH!

 

[Deleted member 13524]

As it stands, this "Steam Machine" is useless because SteamOS is still useless for gaming. Either pay more for Windows or it simply isn't worth it.That 6400K cpu is a single-module Richland. It couldn't get much worse than that in terms of CPU for gaming.

It doesn't really matter much if the PC eventually gets better bang-for-buck gaming performance. The consoles still have the advantage of getting many of the best titles ever in the form of first-party exclusives.
I own a fairly high-end PC with a 4GHz Ivybridge-E CPU and a Radeon 290X, but playing The Last of Us in the PS4 made it worthwhile to own the console.


That article is as bad as the fact that the page automatically loads a video with sound on. Makes me want to stop supporting webpages through means of an ad blocker.

 

[Squilliam]

The AMD CPU is only a dual core, and it runs at 3.9Ghz. I don't know the how fast the clock for clock comparison between the PS4/One's Jaguar and bulldozer, but even if this CPU is 3* faster per core it is still likely slower. Also it lacks things like the audio co-processor. I think the PS4/One are probably still better value compared to this.

edit: For $549 this is probably a better deal (if the GPU is decent)

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-alpha-steam-machine/pd?c=us&l=en&s=dhs

$549
Haswell Core i3 2.9 Ghz with hyperthreading.
4GB RAM (should be 8 tbh)
Xbox 360 controller (wireless)
500GB HDD
Unknown 2GB Maxwell GPU.
Windows 8.1

 

[orangpelupa]

i think steam machines will be good next year with broadwell. It should make haswell price go much lower.
so we can use bottom bargaiin bin cheap CPU but still fast. then hopefully the same will happen in GPU. we can use previous gen-gpu to get cheaper but still fast PC.

but i dont kno aboutmemry.. it seems the price is rathr super stable :/
and for gaming i will recommend 8 GB at minimum if using HDD. But 4 GB with SSD is already good. (the pagefile swap is very fast in SSD, i dont feel any slow down)