Id sell it, there is no advantage of this over a PC (ok size maybe). But it will be outdated in a few years and with no way of upgrading it you will have trouble selling it.
Honestly If I was given the choice of a gaming PC or this id take the PC all day.
The SteamOS-powered hardware will be refreshed on a 12-month basis, Alienware boss Frank Azor has explained.
Replacing a Steam Machine on a yearly basis would be an expensive endeavour, but Azor concluded by reminding users that, unlike when buying an entirely new console, they wouldn't lose any of their games library - it would still be there to re-download.
So unlike consoles and like some PCs which haven't been upgraded, the possibility exists that someone who purchases a particular Alienware Steam Box configuration at launch (possibly choosing a slower CPU/lower amount of RAM to fit their budget) might not be able to play the latest game release for their platform 4 or more years later.
"Enabling customers the opportunity to upgrade components has been a core tenet for Alienware since the company was founded, and that remains true today," he said. “Considering we've purposefully designed the Alienware Steam Machine to be smaller than the latest generation consoles, upgrading the internal components will not be as easy as compared to other platforms, such as the Alienware X51, but we will not prevent a customer from upgrading."
As much as I love Valve, this first run of Steam machines and the reaction to them have left me very worried about VavleOS/SMs in general. Confusion reigns and Alienware haven't helped. We need one really good reason from Valve before September to show us all what we're missing regarding the platform. Oculus could be a part of that but it's more outlay, and the first run are serious money as is.
I think it's time that people stopped talking about 'taking on the consoles' it's not going to happen anytime soon. Fair enough, if they are looking at five years time when (for £300) you can fill a box with stuff that trounces the consoles, but crystal balls are risky and that's based on the current gen consoles having a long life, and that may not happen. I don't think new consoles in five years is out of the question, and we seem to be reaching a temporary plateau as far as graphics go and all a lot of console owners seem to want is 1080/60 so I wouldn’t be surprised at a revision. Some may disagree and I digress.
Away from the consoles, a modest PC or a meagre upgrade in most recent prebuilds with the obligatory Steam account will yield access to 3000+ games and the vast majority of PCs will run over 2000 of them, not to mention a lot of the Indie games coming out in 2014 will run on a potato, not many on Linux though (3% Of the Steam store?) and paying over a grand just to have a worse (controller/bugs/no evidence yet of the performance benefits) experience than a PC costing half the money. As much as I try…
If anyone gets to see a Steam machine in the flesh please post thoughts on the controller!
Comments
Id sell it, there is no advantage of this over a PC (ok size maybe). But it will be outdated in a few years and with no way of upgrading it you will have trouble selling it.
Honestly If I was given the choice of a gaming PC or this id take the PC all day.
They are also aiming for the Steam Box to compete withthe PS4 and Xbone in terms of raw performance: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/446226/new-alienware-steam-machines-will-be-released-annually/.
So unlike consoles and like some PCs which haven't been upgraded, the possibility exists that someone who purchases a particular Alienware Steam Box configuration at launch (possibly choosing a slower CPU/lower amount of RAM to fit their budget) might not be able to play the latest game release for their platform 4 or more years later.
"Enabling customers the opportunity to upgrade components has been a core tenet for Alienware since the company was founded, and that remains true today," he said. “Considering we've purposefully designed the Alienware Steam Machine to be smaller than the latest generation consoles, upgrading the internal components will not be as easy as compared to other platforms, such as the Alienware X51, but we will not prevent a customer from upgrading."
I think it's time that people stopped talking about 'taking on the consoles' it's not going to happen anytime soon. Fair enough, if they are looking at five years time when (for £300) you can fill a box with stuff that trounces the consoles, but crystal balls are risky and that's based on the current gen consoles having a long life, and that may not happen. I don't think new consoles in five years is out of the question, and we seem to be reaching a temporary plateau as far as graphics go and all a lot of console owners seem to want is 1080/60 so I wouldn’t be surprised at a revision. Some may disagree and I digress.
Away from the consoles, a modest PC or a meagre upgrade in most recent prebuilds with the obligatory Steam account will yield access to 3000+ games and the vast majority of PCs will run over 2000 of them, not to mention a lot of the Indie games coming out in 2014 will run on a potato, not many on Linux though (3% Of the Steam store?) and paying over a grand just to have a worse (controller/bugs/no evidence yet of the performance benefits) experience than a PC costing half the money. As much as I try…
If anyone gets to see a Steam machine in the flesh please post thoughts on the controller!
There is no need for evidence of being faster, it just is on Linux rather than windows. You can also stream your pc windows library to steam box.