If you already have a computer that can play steam games, the 49.99 steam link is the best option. (no second computer required 1080p 60fps to your living room)
I built my own steam machine in a small format (coolmaster elite 130 case, 650W modular power supply, mini-itx motherboard, haswell i5, dedicated nvidia maxwell card, 16 GB system ram, and 1 TB hard drive, with a blue-ray rw unit) it is tiny and kicks some serious ass for under $1000. I could have spent a little more and gone with the top of the line GTX 980 but decided to save a few hundred since I was only targeting 1080p and 60 FPS... plus I can upgrade the card in a few years without any additional upgrades to the system. NVIDIA is more expensive, however since this is a linux/steam OS system I would not use AMD on it until they fix their linux drivers (you have been warned).
The advantage I see in the steam machine offerings is an off the shelf living room pc experience and it will come at a premium. I think that many of the sub $1000 offerings still present good value for money Webhallen S15-01 and Asus ROG GR8S looked very good.
PS: As of this week the number of steamOS/linux games on steam is over 1000... coupled with HIB, GOG, Desura and so on it is in the 1100-1200 total.
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