Invading the living room
Valve finally finished tweaking its Steam Controller and certifying is Steam OS, and as a result, official Steam Machines went up for pre-order two weeks ago. Dell, an OEM that's been collaborating with Valve for years, was one of the first to offer a Steam Machine under its acquired Alienware brand, and we got a chance to see one of these systems up close at E3.
Alienware's take on the Steam Machine starts at $450. The base model is configured with an Intel Core i3 4130T dual-core desktop CPU, 4GB of DDR3 memory, an unspecified Nvidia GeForce GTX GPU that's on the level of a GTX 860M, and a 500GB hard drive (7200 RPM). Alienware told us it opted for a 7200 RPM drive because the 5400 RPM models it shipped in the Alienware Alpha didn't meet the expectations of its customers.
As an official Steam Machine, there's no version of Windows included here, just Valve's Linux-based Steam OS. Alienware said it will continue to offer its Alpha line for those who prefer to roll with Windows.
For $100 more, you can double the storage and memory to 1TB and 8GB, respectively. At the $650 price point, Alienware trades the CPU for a Core i5 4590T quad-core chip, while the $750 model jumps up to a Core i7 4765T quad-core CPU. All four models come with a Steam Controller.
Unfortunately there are no SSD options, though all the parts are upgradeable, meaning you could swap out the HDD for an SSD on your own.
Have a look:
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1dMKuT0
