Valve's Steam Machines at CES 2014: There's One For Everyone

Perhaps one of the bigger unveils at CES 2014 was the flood of new Steam Machines from Valve and their partners. All 13 of them.

Steam Machines are Valve’s answer to fuss-free PC gaming ready for the living room in a world of restrictions by Microsoft and Apple with their respective operating systems. Steam Machines are powered by a custom Linux-based operating system and comes with a special controller that offers mouse-and-keyboard interaction while sticking to a comfortable console-gaming experience.

The lineup of these new entertainment systems are currently in production by various companies and vary in price and performance, ranging from the average to the top-of-the-line, with further customisation for some. Here’s a summary of the 13 machines unveiled with the details from their latest fact sheet, listing CPU, Graphics Card, RAM, Internal Storage and Price.

(from left)
Alienware (Dell): No specifications supplied.
Alternate: Intel Core i5 4570 CPU, Gigabyte GTX 760, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSHD, US$1339
CyberPowerPC: AMD/Intel Core i5 CPU, AMD Radeon R9 270/NVIDIA GTX 760, 8GB RAM, 500GB, From US$499

Gigabyte: Intel Core i7-470R CPU, Intel Iris Pro 5200, 2 x 4GB RAM, 1TB SATA, US$TBD
iBuyPower: Quad Core AMD/Intel CPU, Radeon GCN Graphics, 8GB RAM, 500GB+, From US$499
Origin PC: Intel Core i7 4770K CPU, 2 x 6GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan’. RAM, Storage and Price TBD.

Webhallen: Intel Core i7 4771 CPU, NVIDIA GTX 780, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSHD, US$1499
Next Spa: Intel Core i5 CPU, NVIDIA GT 760, 8GB RAM, 1TB, US$TBD

Digital Storm: Intel Core i7 4770K CPU, GTX 780 Ti, 16GB, 1TB HDD + 120GB SSD, US$2584
Falcon Northwest: Customisable CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan, 8-16GB RAM, Up to 6TB US$1779 – US$6000
Materiel.NET: Intel Core i5 4440 CPU, MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC, 8GB RAM 8GB-1TB SSHD, US$1098

Scan: Intel Core i3 4000M CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M, 8GB RAM, 500GB, US$1090
Zotac: Intel Core CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX, RAM and Storage TBD. US$599

Valve expects these machines to roll out in 2014. Or you could always install SteamOS or go Big Picture on your already souped-up compatible machine.

*photos resized for illustrative effect. hardware sizes not to scale.