Steam Machines - 12 partners will launch dedicateed Steam PC Machines with dedicated controllers and Steam OS

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/01/06/12-of-valves-steam-machine-partners-unveiled/

Alienware, Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, CyberPowerPC, Origin PC, Gigabyte, Materiel.net, Webhallen, Alternate, Next, Zotac and Scan Computers

Starting price of $499 gets you:

 Athlon X4 740 CPU
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
Radeon R7 250 GPU (1GB GDDR5) (with chances of it being a 260X come launch) + Steam Controller

$699 gets you a configuration more powerful than next gen consoles:

3.5 GHz i3 

2GB GTX 760

Bluetooth, WiFi, USB 3.0, 8GB of RAM, Steam Controller

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/06/cyberpowerpc-steam-machines/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/06/ibuypower-sbx/

Question I have is...

Are these devices trying to attak the PC market or the console market? Or possibly both?

Thoughts?

It's wait and see. But the formula: create a hardware spec and let other manufacture, brand it and sell is something that didn't worked before (3DO being sold by the unknown 3DO company, that was in reality a joint-venture with Panasonic, Sanyo, Goldstar, etc). You need a powerfull and well-known brand on it to sell at retail. And that partners aren't well-known in a consumer eletronics perpective, just in a computer parts perpective.

They are targetting consoles. I really believe that PC gamers prefer PC like they are now, or they would be on consoles. They are going for the living room this time and that is it. I'm wondering how VGChartz will track it (probably will sum all versions in one number), specially because VGC should be tracking Shield and simply isn't.

I'm not confident on their timing too, it should be out last year and not on the onslaught of PS4/One launch, this way it's just meat on the table.

Just attacking the gamer market.

Giving you the best of both worlds. A better and more accessible PC gaming machine with the simplicity of console design and control.

I'll likely build one when SteamOS is mature.

Why attack anyone? They just made this to make more money don't they?

If you are able to put windows 8 on it and make it run like a normal pc, I would definatly buy it.

It a separate OS.

You'd need to have a dual boot system or simply run normal Steam is it has always been.

However, the point is to have the flexibility and best performance from a PC perspective while getting rid of all the waste from a normal PC OS. Something defined solely for gaming, like a console.

The more I think about it and read opinions on this such as yours, the more I think this will bomb hardcore.

I see many issues with Valves approach here but the main 2 are:

1. Why would I dedicate a minimum of 500 dollars of PC equipment to run a Steam Machine, when all it does is play games? It doesn't steam Plex, do netflix, youtube or other popular apps(yet) or even have a file manager for media. Some of these things are coming but I'd rather have a 500 dollar PC connected to my TV that does everything a Steambox does, and a whole lot more as well. 

2. Why would I dedicate a minimum of 500 dollars for a gaming machine when next gen consoles are the same price or less? They will get much more support and games than a Linux based SteamBox.

Funny thing is that many people on this site, myself included could build a similar or better PC for less money that includes Windows 8.

Even if you ask one of the retailers who sell and build PCs here in Canada to put one together for you, something like this in a HTPC mATX enclosure that fits under your TV won't cost you more than $550-$600 bucks.

When the first rumors start going around that Valve was going to make a console I was pretty excited, I was really looking forward to it. But now that we know more details all that hype has basically gone away. 

I don't like the idea of 3rd parties being the manufacturers, the all SteamOS sounds weird and the controller well...there's nothing to say there. I think I will stay with my PC.

How do you know it will not do what your normal PC does? I'm asking out of pure curiosity, since Steam OS specs are not out yet and it's supposed to be an OS that can omplete substitute your windows PC.

Based on the above, my answer is that they are "attacking" Windows PCs as they are. A box with steady, known specs will help customization and this will be aided by the lighter OS. It will help devs know a number of users with the specified machine specs and develop accordingly. Instead of developping "blindly", that is, not knowing how many people can play the Ultra-Super graphics game they are preparing.

I'm a bit on the darkness here though, so excuse me if I am misinformed. I'll also appreciate any info or corrections to the above.