Hmmm so you guys are saying that the base model Steam Machine is not as powerful as a PS4. Interesting, I thought it would be.

Steam machines? Complete waste of time if you ask me.

But hey, what do I know about steam machines. I don't have one.

It looks like the GPU is about 40%+ weaker, it has less Memory bandwidth (80 gb/s vs 176 (140 effective) gb/s), 2gb ram vs 8gb ram (5? effective).

The CPU at first you think, is better.... but its a dual core with hyper threading vs 8 real cores.... it might actually also be a weaker cpu.

When you factor in that on consoles they can optimise the games much more, than they can on PCs....

Yeah that 449$ model of steam machine will get its a** kicked by a PS4.

The idea itself has its merits, but it is being poor executed. Not only the price, but the OS could end up being a problem too (Steam Machines actually loses one of steam greatest strengths, their huge library).

That said, Valve is going after the consoles lunch and you can bet they won't stop pushing in that direction. Valve has incorporated one of PC biggest strengths, their adaptability. Just like they dropped the mod sales when it went south, they will drop the OS if they need to. They are obviously operating with good margins, so the price can drop too. Also, they still have PC advantages, like being able to change parts, use older games, apps, multitasking.

At the same time, 2 of the greatest console advantages (local co-op and exclusives) are losing power, not to talk about third partys much more willing to go to PC. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

The biggest advatage I can think of is this....

Steam for Linux has like 1100 games...... PS4 has only like 600.

this: https://steamdb.info/linux/

vs

this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_4_games

However even this "win" is a maybe... because alot of these games are old as dirt.. or smaller / weird titles.

You might actually look at both lists and end up thinking, theres more games I want to actually play on the ps4.

Yeah I think Valve has a miss with this one. If it were a single Steam Machine that was power and price competitive with PS4/XB1 they would be looking much stronger. Hell if they really wanted they could have simple upgrades over time like when the N64 released that easy to swap RAM pack.
Essentially what they should have made was a digital only console running SteamOS which boasts a larger library then the consoles with a few other benefits but instead we have the why not just build/buy a Windows PC, they're basically the same price and much better at everything anyway.

I think it's an interesting idea but they seem a bit overpriced right now. Also, you can't run all the games since the OS is Linux based. I know you can stream from a windows pc, but then why would you need the steam machine in the first place? I am interested in the controller and steam link though

I still think that, whatever the price bracket one chooses, the best value Steam Machines will be the ones that users assemble (or makes someone else assemble for them) choosing the best offers they can get for the components and installing Steam OS on them. Probably besides Windows and a general purpose Linux distro as I usually do, I'll put SteamOS too in multi-boot on my next PC. Probably I'll have Android subsystems too running on Windows and generic distro, so to have all that's needed to slowly and smoothly switch away from Windows, as sooner or later it will become legacy itself.

I think they will flop massivley

- they arent future proof, most models have a weak gpu which cant be upgraded or dual core and quadcore which could become obssolete if devolopers uttilize multi core devolopement.

- there are a dozzens of models scarring away casual gamers

- they have no exclusives. There is no real point in getting one if you allready game on PC. Consoles on the other hand do have a lot of software being only avaible on this and that hardware.

- steamOS has less games than windows or consoles currentley. I dont see why devolopers should keep expanding the support instead downgreading. And i dont see why should PC gamer switch to an OS which has less games and again no exclusives

- no physical media

You can't compare GFLOPS between two chips from different manufacturers and different architecture. A 860M is equal to a 750ti, wich athough only 1300 gflops is equal or faster than a 1760 gflops hd7850. So all in all graphics wise that Steam machine will be very comparable to a PS4(with much lower power consumption).

The biggest problem will come from the i3 i'm afraid, without even hyperthreading it will limit performance. The only savior could have been DirectX12, but since it uses SteamOS that won't help either.