Steam Machine prototype: laying out Valve’s slimline machine (pictures of the Steambox's parts insid - Polidicks

[IMG]http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2013/10/SteamProtoProfile-610x347.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2013/10/Steam-Machine-insidesPCG-610x396.jpg[/IMG] [quote=pcgamer]Looking again at the specifications for Valve’s own prototype for their Steam Machine one thing jumped out of the page at me – this powerful, fully specced gaming PC isn’t even going to be 3-inches high. That’s slimmer than the XBone, and there’s a GTX Titan inside. I sat down with a ruler, a mini-ITX motherboard and a Titan to try and visualise the way the Steam Machine is likely to be laid out inside, and with a little imagination you can see what a lovely, sleek little device this could turn out to be. Those Steam Machine specs in full… The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components: CPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660 CPU: some boxes with Intel i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3 RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB GDDR5 (GPU) Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high I put together a few components to see if those slimline specs are doable, and they are. My main concern though is the cooling. I’ve checked out some impressive low profile coolers recently and Valve isn’t using the overclockable K-series processors from Intel so I’m not too worried about the CPU. The graphics card is another matter. Ensuring this thing has adequate airflow to stop the card needing to spool up its fans to max, the instant you start gaming, is likely to be quite a challenge. The final prototype is supposedly only a few centimetres taller than the component layout here. I’m also intrigued as to how loud this prototype is going to be. With small fans in the PSU, CPU cooler and graphics card – having to work pretty hard in all likelihood – it could end up being a rather noisy beast. It’s all very well having a machine small enough to fit under your TV, but if it drowns out everything that’s happening on-screen it’s a bit of a worry. Valve will have thought of these issues too, of course. It’ll be interesting to see what they have in place to solve them. The fact that this is just the prototype has me very excited for the seriously small form factor chassis that are bound to be copycat-created once the inaugural Steam Machine is out of Valve’s laboratory. This layout is approximately 12-inches square – I’m guessing that gap will be filled by the PSU and storage I’ll be doing a lot more investigation into custom Steam boxes and small factor components shortly, so keep an eye on PCGamer.com for more soon.[/quote] [url]http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/10/17/steam-machine-prototype-laying-out-valves-slimline-machine/[/url]

I don't understand why it needs 1TB/8GB hybrid drive

I can imagine it looking something like that on the inside, obviously some kind of PCIe riser cable would need to be used but still, those are readily available. [editline]17th October 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Kondor;42556973]I don't understand why it needs 1TB/8GB hybrid drive[/QUOTE] 8GB for SteamOS, 1TB for games. Although with 16GB I'd LOVE to see the option to copy the game to RAM.

[QUOTE=Kondor;42556973]I don't understand why it needs 1TB/8GB hybrid drive[/QUOTE] Fast-as-fuck boot-up times and lots of storage for your games?

[QUOTE=MasterFen006;42556976]I can imagine it looking something like that on the inside, obviously some kind of PCIe riser cable would need to be used but still, those are readily available. [editline]17th October 2013[/editline] 8GB for SteamOS, 1TB for games. Although with 16GB I'd LOVE to see the option to copy the game to RAM.[/QUOTE] Actually how a hybrid drive works is that if the drive detects information that is being accessed a lot it loads it into the SSD part of the drive

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;42556988]Fast-as-fuck boot-up times and lots of storage for your games?[/QUOTE] no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] lolno

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] It's enough to not have to worry about it.

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] no it's not, it's a drive dedicated to games. Games are big. You're going to want to install all of them on a dedicated device. honestly 1TB is conservative if anything.

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] 1 TB is not overkill.

[QUOTE=elitehakor;42557007]Actually how a hybrid drive works is that if the drive detects information that is being accessed a lot it loads it into the SSD part of the drive[/QUOTE] But surely the RAM would be faster to cache to than the SSD, I don't understand why you'd need a hybrid in that case.

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] It's made to keep the owner of the console not needing to upgrade..

[QUOTE=MasterFen006;42557050]But surely the RAM would be faster to cache to than the SSD, I don't understand why you'd need a hybrid in that case.[/QUOTE] Except unlike RAM the SSD will retain its data Say for example you played Dota 2 a lot the drive would detect that this information is being loaded frequently so it will store it in the SSD

1TB is far from overkill for a steam library. I have 2 TB and I still uninstall shit from time to time to have space.

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] A rule of thumb is to always overestimate the harddrive capacity, RAM and the power supply. With those 3, there no "good enough", there's either too little or too much.

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] For a device that you can only download games to, I really disagree that 1TB is too much.

[QUOTE=MasterFen006;42557050]But surely the RAM would be faster to cache to than the SSD, I don't understand why you'd need a hybrid in that case.[/QUOTE] Those 8GB are directly accessed by the HDD controller and is only used for the HDD. Think of it as permanent and fucking fast RAM cache for the HDD.

[QUOTE=Van-man;42557091]A rule of thumb is to always overestimate the harddrive capacity, RAM and the power supply. With those 3, there no "good enough", there's either too little or too much.[/QUOTE] There's no 'too much' in RAM, PSU or HDD.

Damn that is one sexy machine.

[QUOTE=Riller;42557129]There's no 'too much' in RAM, PSU or HDD.[/QUOTE] Well if you're on a budget.

I signed up and I reside in Washington, I hope I get one.

[QUOTE=Riller;42557084]1TB is far from overkill for a steam library. I have 2 TB and I still uninstall shit from time to time to have space.[/QUOTE] I'd like to know what's being used up.

[QUOTE=Riller;42557084]1TB is far from overkill for a steam library. I have 2 TB and I still uninstall shit from time to time to have space.[/QUOTE] Imagine having 500 GB. For steam I only have like 300 GB. So much shit has to be installed/uninstalled.

[QUOTE=redBadger;42557186]I'd like to know what's being used up.[/QUOTE] He said games.

[QUOTE=redBadger;42557186]I'd like to know what's being used up.[/QUOTE] I have about 330 games on Steam.

Prob gonna get killed for this but i would seriously love if they put that in one of these cases like the Alienware X51 [t]http://image.alienware.com/images/galleries/gallery-shot_desktops_x51_10.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=E1025;42557105]For a device that you can only download games to, I really disagree that 1TB is too much.[/QUOTE] Yeah, even if an average game was about 20GB (which is still pretty high for the latest AAA sandbox/massive world titles; indies, linear/multiplayer shooters and older games in general won't come anywhere close to this), you can still fit like 50 games on there. Not having to worry about storing your massive porn libraries would definitely save you some room

[QUOTE=Kondor;42556973]I don't understand why it needs 1TB/8GB hybrid drive[/QUOTE] I remember when I was looking for hard drives and my friend recommended me a 1TB sized drive and I'm like "wow dude I don't need that much space" so I got a 500GB one instead. Few months later I constantly only had about 10GB of free space with all the games I have installed :v:

[QUOTE=Kondor;42557015]no shit i can tell that it's a storage device is used for storage but it's overkill[/QUOTE] Not really. There are lot of games now are 10GB+. I'm guessing it saves them on server bandwidth because you don't have to redownload games you stopped playing. 1TB isn't even that large to begin with.

[QUOTE=darth-veger;42557548]Prob gonna get killed for this but i would seriously love if they put that in one of these cases like the Alienware X51 [t]http://image.alienware.com/images/galleries/gallery-shot_desktops_x51_10.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] Probably one of the least offensive alienware cases I've ever seen. In any case I don't dislike alienware for the cases, I dislike them because they just mark shit up through the roof and market it as somehow being the best computers :v: