from Hacker News

Steam Machines – Prototype Details

by mrt0mat0 on 10/4/13, 8:49 PM with 47 comments

• by breckinloggins on 10/4/13, 10:24 PM

  I can't wait to hear more about how they'll lessen the "fragmentation" confusion with different Steam Machines. Perhaps they'll do a tier system like "Steam Machine Bronze / Silver / Gold / Platinum" and then games can be rated "Gold+" or something.

  Or maybe they'll have a minimum spec that gets bumped every 2 years, so a game can say "runs on all Steam Machines (2014+)".

  But it's clear there's going to have to be some way of "tranching" the different hardware levels, because nothing will kill this idea faster than a general public who's heard that you can never be quite sure if a game you buy will run on your particular Steam Machine.

  But then I realize something: where do people get Steam games from? The Steam store online! I'm pretty sure they'll build in the equivalent of the windows performance score that can be sent to Steam's servers, and they'll simply be able to show you the games that will run best on your machine and hide games that simply won't run at all.

  Thoughts? I think that, as with the controller, this is a really important aspect of getting this whole big idea to work.

• by devx on 10/4/13, 10:46 PM

  I initially thought it would be better to go with Nvidia to provide some kind of "competitive advantage" over the AMD-based consoles, but that's going to be hard to do when PC's tend to be unsubsidized, and when the same level of hardware is actually weaker because of the DirectX/OpenGL overlays.

  Then, after I saw AMD announcing the Mantle API, I realized, it would be a perfect match for the Steam Machines, to get some of that console-level performance for more or less the same price. John Carmack agrees that Valve+Mantle would be a deadly combination:

  http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-mantle-api-xbox-one-pla...

  Mantle is the future of gaming machines. It will not create lock-in, because both Nvidia and Intel will scramble to create something similar, or even compatible with AMD's API (which will be open soon), and what this will lead to eventually is a reset of standardized overlays for GPU hardware, that will support AMD, Nvidia, Intel, and probably even ARM GPU's, but with much lower overhead than DirectX and OpenGL.

  http://www.anandtech.com/show/7371/understanding-amds-mantle...

  http://semiaccurate.com/2013/09/30/amds-mantle-biggest-chang...

• by johnbellone on 10/4/13, 9:16 PM

  I'm actually more interested in the enclosure and its exciting to see that Valve is providing the CAD so that we can effectively fabricate our own. It'd be awesome if they just sold the enclosures and let us put our own hardware in. Nevertheless this is fucking brilliant.

• by mladenkovacevic on 10/4/13, 9:41 PM

  I am curious about the enclosure they've built to minimize heat and noise coming from the GPU and the 450W PSU.

  A couple of years ago I built a small AMD Llano based computer using a small enclosure sold by Mini-Box and an 80W fanless Pico Power Supply also sold on the site.

  Case - http://www.mini-box.com/M350-universal-mini-itx-enclosure

  PSU - http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-80

  It is much quieter than an Xbox 360, but also can't play any XBox level games on it (I use it as an HTPC). I'd be curious to see what I can do today with the same amount of power using Haswell, some 28nm GPU and SteamOS.

• by StavrosK on 10/4/13, 9:21 PM

  I don't even know why I'm interested in this: I have neither the time nor the desire for games any more. The only game I play is DOTA2, and I want to quit it.

• by Namrog84 on 10/5/13, 2:34 AM

  Link doesn't appear to be pointed at anything relevant? Was it taken down? Link or mirror please? Thanks!

• by corresation on 10/4/13, 9:07 PM

  Those specs are very high-end (cue someone dismissing that compared to their triple-SLI, etc) and it is hard to imagine that is at all commercially credible: that would be a $1200+ machine. The GTX780 alone is $700, the Titan $1200. Add that the notion of a living room media/gaming box using up to 450w seems oddly backwards.

  After all of the talk about leveraging the AMD successes with the game consoles -- and about smoothing ports -- surprised to see nvidia only.

• by mrt0mat0 on 10/4/13, 9:29 PM

  Goes to show you how the OS is 40% of the cost of a computer. take that away and you can get great hardware for the same price.