Last year Valve have officially announced that they will be partnering with different hardware companies in order to make different types of consoles, known as Steam Machines, that run on the same OS. Although both the controller and the official SteamOS by Valve were already it wasn’t until a few hours ago that all of the official partners of Valve were revealed.
As anticipated at their press conference at CES 2014 Valve made their official statement revealing their Steam Machines’ partners. People already knew about iBuyPower and the rumored CyberPowerPC steam machine, but a few hours ago Valve presented all of the prototypes of Steam Machines that will be available in 2014.
However which of the machines is right for you? Let’s take a closer look at the prices and specs with a quick roundup of the information about every one of them.
AlienWare Steam Machine
The AlienWare Steam Machine is probably one of the most anticipated ones. Having both HDMI-out and HDMI-much like the Xbox One, it stands out from the SteamOS hardware crowd. It is smaller in size than both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One being a square that is 8 by 8 inches and 3 inches high.
The specifics and the price are still to be announced. The Steam Machine Itself will be available in the second half of 2014.
Origin’s Chronos Steam Machine
The Steam Machine offered by Origin is the only one that is based on an actual existing in the moment piece of hardware. It will feature a Dual nVidia GeForce Titan GPU and you will be able to extend its internal storage to up to 14 TB. If you have a ton of games in your Steam account this machine could prove to be just perfect for you.
The price of the Origin’s Chronos was not announced, neither was the release date. However it will probably be released in the early 2014, having in mind that it is based on an actual current PC build.
The Next ‘Spa’ Steam Machine
Although the choice of the name is quite interesting, The Next ‘Spa’ Steam Machine doesn’t stand out of the crowd as much. It will have as much as 1 TB of internal hard drive storage, 8 GB of DDR 3 RAM and with an Intel Core i5 and nVidia GTX 760 GPU it proves to be a strong gaming machine.
The price of the Next ‘Spa’ Steam Machine is still not announced. The release date has also not been officially confirmed, but it will definitely be released on the market in 2014.
Gigabyte Brix Pro
Another company that didn’t want to reveal official information about the price and the release date of its steam machine is Gigabyte. Although their Gigabyte Brix Pro looks quite cute it is a powerful gaming console. It features an Intel Core i7-4770R processor and the Intel Iris pro5200 graphics chipset. The RAM Memory of the Steam Machine will be 8 GB and it will have four USB 3.0 ports placed on the front and the back of the console. The internal storage of the Gigabye Brix Pro is 1 TB.
What is most interesting about the design of the Steam Machine is that is actually looks a lot like Maingear’s one that wasn’t officially presented in Valve’s presentation, the reason for which remains unknown.
iBuyPower’s SBX
Last year, iBuyPower was the first official partner of Valve that presented itself to the public. We learned quite a lot about the two Steam Machines that will be available by the company code-named ‘Gordon’ and ‘Freeman’.
The price of the machines will compete with the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 as the cheapest version of iBuyPower’s SBX will come at the price of $499.
iBuyPower will also probably be the first company to officially release their Steam machine on the market as the official release is set for January, 2014.
CyberPowerPC Steam Machine
Having one of the most console-looking designs, the CyberPowerPC Steam Machine will be offered in two models. The cheaper version will be available for $499 and the more powerful one for $699. The differences between the consoles named ‘Steam Machine A’ and ‘Steam Machine I’ will only be in the provided GPU and CPU. They will both have 500 GB of internal hard drive storage and 8GB of DDR RAM.
CyberPowerPC’s Steam machines will hit the market in the second half of 2014. \
You can read more on this Steam Machine here.
Zotac Steam Machine
Having definitely one of the most weird designs, the Zotac Steam Machine’s hardware specifications are a mystery. The price will be $699, but it is still unknown what customers will be getting for their money. The only information that is available is that is has a GeForce GPU and ‘enthusiast class’ CPU.
The weird, router-like Zotac Steam Machine will be available at some point, later in 2014.
Scan’s NC 10 Steam Machine
As the price range of the Steam Machines goes up, things get quite more interesting. The Scan’s NC 10 Steam Machine definitely stands out from the crowd with an amazing stylish design. Moreover, the aluminium housing of the console holds pure power with nVidia GeForce GTX 765M, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD and 2.4 intel core i3 4000M.
Some will argue that $1090 for such a hardware build is too much, but if you want a sleek looking console in your living room, not just a big box, that would be the Steam Machine for you.
Materiel.Net’s Steam Machine
If you want a better gaming build for $1098 and you don’t care as much about the design, then the right choice for you would be the Materiel.Net’s Steam Machine. Looking like a big black box (that is what it is actually) the console will come with a Intel i5 4400 CPU, MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC, 1 TB SSHD and 8 GB of DDR 3 RAM.
The Materiel.Net’s Steam Machine may not stand out when it comes to design, but it definitely stands out with its specifications.
Alternate’s Steam Machine
Alternate’s Steam Machine is also going for the box design. It was one of the most powerful gaming rigs presented by Valve with an Intel Core i5 4570 processor, Gitgabyte GTX 760 GP, 16 GB of RAM, 1TB SSHD and four USB 3 ports. It also has one HDMI port and the other standard ports for a gaming console.
The Alternate’s Steam Machine will come at the price of $1399 in 2014.
Falcon Northwest Tiki
If there was such as thing as the ‘Ferrari’ of Steam Machines, then it would definitely be the Falcon Northwest Tiki. The design may not be that innovative when it comes to the shape, but they’ve done their best with the artwork on the console. What’s more interesting about the Falcon Northwest Tiki is that it will feature a huge number of customization options for the hardware choices.
Depending on your choices the price of the of Falcon Nortwest Tiki will vary between $1799 and as much as $6000.
Digital Storm’s Bolt II Steam Machine
If you are having trouble adapting to SteamOS or you just want to enjoy your huge collection of Windows-based games then the Digital Storm’s Bolt II Steam Machine will be the right choice for you. It is an amazing high end gaming rig that comes with Dual OS booting for both windows and SteamOS.
The prices of the Digital Storm’s Bolt II different types of steam Machine will start at $1899. The console will be released in January 2014.
Webhallen’s Steam Machine
Another interesting console that is a definite value for the money you will be spending is the Webhallen’s Steam Machine. It prices will start from $1499 and up, but you will be getting quality for the money you will be spending.
The main build of the Webhallen’s Steam Machine will be an Intel Core i7 CPU, nVidia GTX 780 GPU, 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of SSHD. Depending of your choices the price range will start at $1499.
Do you believe that Steam Machines will change the console gaming world?
For more information on Steam Machines go here.
