deanb Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 https://twitter.com/#!/gregcoomer/status/131907166960484353/photo/1/large So some sites are purporting this to be the fabled "Steambox". Mainly cos it's a PC that was made by a guy that works at Valve. He made it 6 months ago, and I've a feeling the folks at Valve are the kind to make their own PCs, so I've a feeling it's pretty coincidental. If not...mobile Nvidia. Tasty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 That PC... I want it. It's so neat and tidy and small... Why don't manufacturers make things like this? Instead of hideous great clunky desktops? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 That PC... I want it. It's so neat and tidy and small... Why don't manufacturers make things like this? Instead of hideous great clunky desktops? They do. They're called HTPCs. It looks like he was trying to make a gaming capable one... not that Portal 2 is that hard to run though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yeah HTPC cases tend to use mini-ITX/micro-ATX boards which are a bit of a bugger for getting parts for. Certainly no high end GPUs. Or most CPUs either. Could try Lian-Li. What's bugging me is I've seen that case before, but a top isn't much to go on. Definitely a HTPC case though going by the scale of the components. Also "Portal 2 FAST" ain't much since as he said it's mobile nvidia. May run Portal 2, but running high-end PC titles is a no-no, certainly not for any long term either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Honestly I don't really the point of Valve trying to sell that PC unless they bought one of the consumer PC companies that are going down. Best thing for them to do would be to let something Lenovo or Asus make a PC entertainment box that's branded with steam and functions as a plug and play. But honestly this exists as such, and if you want I'm pretty sure someone can make a loader that works such that it loads steam from the get go instead of taking you to the windows menu, just like most of our ATMs and other devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yeah, I fail to see how a steam box could be a new product or something which hasn't been done before. It's either a PC and those are available in any form factor you like or it's a game console and then how do they make it compatible with all the windows games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 (edited) Let's not forget that consoles are essentially PCs, albeit closed PCs but the architecture is, for the most part, identical. I don't see Valve making the hardware themselves but I can see them specifying the...specs. The thing that catches me is that if Steam are intending to exploit the console market, how will Microsoft react and how could Valve get around using Windows when the majority of Steam titles are dependent upon it? It also begs the question that if you're willing to buy a "Steambox" for half-a-k, why not get something more traditional? It's not as if it's going to have any exclusive titles......or is it? Edited March 5, 2012 by MasterDex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 They're identical for the most part up until you get to the CPU under the hood. X86 in a Windows PC and PowerPC in a console. It's a bit like men n women are pretty much the same "architecture" minus one has a todger and the other doesn't. It's that one small difference that changes everything. Yes consoles are closer to PC in nature than they used to be, but they're still not PCs. Given that Steams entire library is for Windows PCs I can't see them going with their own OS as some are thinking it might have. Some folks are even suggesting it'll be a streaming box like Onlive, except Steam have a content network, not a streaming network. They have lots of hard drives and bandwidth, not processing power. I just can't see Valve making anything that will directly compete with consoles because it will have to be a PC and with that comes the inherent cost of a PC. Yes you can make PCs that cost less than a console, but it'll be one hell of a shitty PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Well the thing is I don't really see the 'steambox' or valve technically heading to AMD or Nvidia asking them to make a card for their specifications. Not to mention the card rumoured to be in this is a Go. Based on the parts the architecture is going to be a PC with a smallish form factor. While consoles today are similar to PCs they still use chipsets that are purpose built for these things. Mind you there are subtle differences between AMD and Intel processors to begin with in terms of calculations itself. As Sean said I doubt they'll go with their own OS but at the same time it'll be purpose built to run steam and reduce memory leaks so that all it runs is basically steam some essential OS processes including network and the like. As for MS and Valve, I suppose they could negotiate some stuff between themselves. I mean technically there's not a lot of bad blood between them, Newell is an ex-employee and could be investing in MS again. The thing is when you get down to the architecture of a console and a PC, it's quite a different beast. Valve makes PC games and they're optimised to run for PCs, sure they can make it exclusive stuff for the steambox and use specialised hardware components but why would they? It's an additional expense right now. A boxed PC that's $500 would be the case. But then here's the thing. PC games are going to try and see how much they can stretch the best components available in the market and every 3-4 years people would buy new parts. For instance back in 2008 people were still buying 9800 and 9600GTs by early 2011 they were pretty much the low end of the spectrum. A good look at the average rate of change of components based on steam surveys gives you an indication that most steam users who take part in the survey upgrade components of their computer every 2-3 years. While there's not been a world of difference between gen 1 and gen 2 intel core processors, graphics card, space and RAM requirements have changed over the years. The difference is unlike the early 2000s and late 90s we don't have to totally upgrade our computers every 1.5-2 years and games don't impose shit like you can't play this game without a T&L 2.0 card. These days if you buy a top end processor you can expect it to run your games for at least 5 years unlike 10 years ago. You will however need to increase your RAM at a slightly faster rate than that (possibly every 3 years) and your graphics card every 2 years or so. That too announcing a steambox right when there's new graphics cards, gen 3 processors and the like coming up doesn't seem smart. Unless they want you to buy a very expensive machine which beats the purpose. Or they're trying to expand on the emerging market of people who are playing games that are a year or two old. Ideally they'd lend their name to consumer PC manufacturer and steambox would be a brand like Alienware is to Dell if they were to enter the hardware market. Unless of course they have ulterior motives which could extend PC lifecycles and actually bring about true 10 year life cycles for next gen consoles... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 From an interfacing standpoint there's obviously a lot that could be done with a PC/console crossover. You'd have an interface like, say, the Xbox 360 dashboard, which is lovely, but instead of only console games and weird TV/media apps, you'd have Steam through which you can download PC games, and browsers/ other programs through which you can do other fun stuff, with a bigger hard drive and more customisability. I mean, if you put a PC in a front room with a big TV and a controller that's basically what this is anyway, but PC's need more space, more kit, and more work to get started/ maintain. A console-cum-PC could improve on all of those things, though it'd lose out on a lot of the freedom a user gets with straight PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 It'll be like XBMC, but for games. I think Steam creating a living room mode in general is just a plain damn good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Well they're already confirmed to be working on their Steam Big Screen or whatever it is they call it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 I know, so I'm liking this either way. It's a move forward for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 I agree. I think it can fill the gap in the market on a separate level from the technology/ power behind the thing, which is all anybody seems to talk about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 But the thing is don't most of us already connect our PCs to the TV to play games. I would like steam's big screen mode but more than that I'd like them to make sure every game on their storefront has some clipart instead of using the icon from the executable (there are some that do that). Annoying as it may be. I think of the steambox as one for the indie gamer and also for the ones who wait to play certain games but other than to create a market for those who buy stuff from steam sales it's not quite progressive. Why would it be profitable? I really think they'd just add the steam brand to an external PC manufacturer rather than do it themselves since that way they don't lose out and the manufacturer gets to use some components that would've gone obsolete faster. Basically that would be ideal as it uses the steam branding and the pc manufacturer branding and no one loses out. I don't really see how this can be a really profitable venture if they were to do it on their own unless they were trying to split their markets a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 But the thing is don't most of us already connect our PCs to the TV to play games. I don't think so. I did it once right when I first got my 3DTV in order to try out some games on it, but that's about it. I game on a monitor, and I think most others do as well. Hell, I even have my 360 hooked to a monitor rather than the TV, so I don't have to fight with the wife about TV usage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Well you could do it like I do. I'm sure your wife like mine doesn't need the TV all the time and you could just connect your PC to both your monitor and the TV. When the TV is in use just disable the TV as a monitor and it functions like a single monitor setup. Otherwise it's a two monitor setup. As long as you've enough HDMI ports on your TV i.e. I have 4 so that's good enough for the PS3, 360, PC and satellite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 My computer desk is in a different room from the TV, so I'd have to lug it back and forth to do that. If it were in the same room then you're right I'd probably use the TV whenever my wife wasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 ^I just use a long ass HDMI cord. These days there's WiDi and all sorts of other methods. One of the Kotaku writers always talks about how he prefers the Witcher 2 on a big screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 I play on a TV. Though I live alone, and it'd be a bit silly to purposefully split all my stuff apart between different rooms in this dinky flat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Possibly linked to the steambox rumours, what do people think about the (other) rumours that they're working with nintendo for the wiiU online service? Could the steambox actually be the WiiU?! and no snickering! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I swear that one was debunked ages ago. Either way Nintendo have already announced their Wii U online service, and it wasn't named as Steam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Or Origin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Nintendo has trademarked Nintendo Network, which would be unnecessary if they were just using a modified steam. There's even been rumours about PS4 being the steambox, but no this is either something separate or something that most likely would go with gaikai or onlive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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