How to build your own Steam Machine today for $560

Watch out, Nintendo: Valve's quest to drag PC gaming into the living room is picking up steam. In September, the company announced it's Linux-based SteamOS, based on the Steam gaming service's Big Picture Mode, a Steam Controller that's supposed to emulate keyboard and mouse controls in gamepad form, and a slew of diminutive "Steam Machines" to bring the puzzle together.

[come_bom]

"How to build your own Steam Machine today for $560"

What is this? HERESY !!!

Console gamers say we need $2000 to build a gaming PC. /s

[SnakeCQC]

cheap steam machines can't handle games at max and can't stay up to date for long

[Vegamyster]

It depends on the game you're playing, also keep in mind even if you can't max games out they will still look & run good.

[aquamala]

why do you need steam machines to run games at max when consoles don't run anywhere near PC max settings?

[minimur12]

I'd like to know the specs on the steam machine, they can't afford to sell it at a loss purely because they won't be making money elsewhere on games unlike console manufacturers that take a cut of the games spent (maybe alienware will get a cut of steamOS games bought, but it'd be a small margin. think about it - the amount who buy a steam machine, and then that amount of people who buy the alienware version.)

Why not buy a new PC that has windows, get steam and put it in big picture mode. All of your steam games, and they've already said steamOS won't have exclusives....

[kingduqc]

Oh yeah because you can run console games at max?

Here is some bit of magic debunk: A pc build in 2006 in November will run the games as good as a ps3 would.

a pc build in 2011 with the same specs (7870)as a ps4 will run a game as good as a console in 2020. so yes this 550$ steam machine will do just fine.

[starchild]

Well the PS4 and XB1 don't run games at max settings either and they have barely launched.

Take Assassin's Creed 4, for example. On PC it runs with higher quality shadows (contact hardening shadows) and a more advanced form of godrays that fills the whole scene instead of just filtering through one spot. It also has better anti-aliasing and texture filtering on PC. The PS4 version runs at 30fps and doesn't match the PC version in those areas.

The gap in most games between PC and consoles is only going to widen as time goes on.

At least with a gaming PC you always have the option to upgrade down the line if you want even prettier graphics.

[ABizzel1]

You're better off buying a console, than this PC unless you just really want an average gaming PC.

You can build a better PC than the XBO for the same price. Simply switching the CPU to an FX 6300 ($110) or 8320 ($150) saves you money that can be put back into buying 8GB of RAM instead of 4GB.

The 650 ti is a decent card, but it's basically the NVIDIA equivalent of the 7790 aka the XBO GPU. The PS4 is already doing performance levels of the 650 ti with launch titles.

If you went with the FX 6300 you saved $70, and spent $20 on RAM (8GB upgrade) leaving you with a price of $514.73 ($50 off from the cheaper CPU). You have a PC version of an XBO right now.

IMO it's better to bite the bullet and get a better PSU, a better motherboard, and upgrade the GPU to a GTX 660 for around $600, and have a solid gaming PC, then trying to squeeze as much as you can into a budget, just to get mediocre performance that the consoles are doing now, and will surpass in the next 1 - 2 years.

[LackTrue4K]

this could be off topic but, If i ever bot a Steam Machine it would be that lovely looking Alien-ware model.
:D

[ABizzel1]

More than likely you're better off buying a PS4 or XBO than the alienware steam machine.

The X51 start at $700, and spec wise the PS4 / XBO stomp it in gaming (i3, GTX 645, 6GB RAM).

The steam machine from them looks heavily based off the X51. With SteamOS that should knock $100 off the price of the steam machine to $600, but you still have an overpriced and weaker platform than the consoles.

If you're worried about design then the CyberPower Steam Machine is the best overall balance between looks, specs., and price. It has a R9 270 GPU (aka PS4 GPU), 8GB RAM, A6-6400k APU (the only real downside, but not that awful thanks to Mantle), it's only $500, and it looks good.
http://www.geek.com/wp-cont...

[GentlemenRUs]

I built my PC for less then that and I can run newest games at near max/maxed.

[debacle]

Details please.. I am trying to put together some parts to build a desktop.

[minimur12]

try http://www.reddit.com/r/bui...

you create a topic saying how much you wanna spend, what you want it for and the people who are on their and know what theyre talking about will guide you to the right places, what to buy etc.

give it a go :)

also, when you're done message me a pic to see what it looks like... and the specs of course!

[debacle]

I will give that a go. Thanks!

[ABizzel1]

It depends on how much you want to spend, how powerful you want it to be, and whether you prefer AMD or NVIDIA.

To safely outperform the PS4 / XBO you're looking at $600 for a all around "QUALITY BUILD" Gaming PC. You can do it for less, but it then becomes a problem of quality and when things start dying you've ended up spending more money than if you had simply gone with quality to begin with.

[DuB]

I like it

[Hicken]

... doesn't building your own kinda defeat the purpose?

[kevnb]

I don't even try to be economical with my pc, it's my hobby and not just something I play games on.

[ABizzel1]

I agree, most of us have a budget, but what's the point of building a PC with the cheapest parts for the sake of having a gaming PC that struggles with stable frame-rates on mid settings. Just get a console.

If you're going to build a PC then it should be for maximizing the performance you intend on using the PC for. If that's editing it needs to be a high-end CPU and a decent GPU. If that's gaming it needs to be a decent CPU and a mid range or higher GPU.

If you're building a small media hub PC get an APU build.

But don't try to match a PS4 / XBO, and end up spending more money on cheap knock off parts, when you could have simply bought a PS4 / XBO and called it a day.

Go Big
Go with what you need
Go mini
Or go console :D