What to Make of the Steam Machine?

[Arlo]

SJReiter said:

Arlo said:
I always thought the whole point of a Steam machine was that they could finally settle on one piece of hardware and manufacture it in large numbers so that they could compete price-wise with console makers, thus bringing high power and PC architecture to the more casual crowd and advancing the idea of an open platform for the future. But here they are again, making many models from multiple makers, thus giving us a rig that's too pricey for console buyers and too weak for your average PC builder.

I really don't get it. It was a great idea in my mind that could have changed everything, but they're just treating it like another regular old gaming PC.

Interesting. See, I thought one of the pros to the Steam Machine was it's price. $450 for the base model puts it in the ballpark of the PS4 anyway. How does the Steam Machine compare to a regular gaming PC? More powerful? Less powerful?

I'm pretty sure most if not all of them are more expensive than building a similarly powered gaming PC due to all the overhead, assembly, etc.  But I actually don't know nearly enough to make any solid statements beyond what I've heard.