Starting to See the True Range of a Steam Machine

…and this is about to get interesting. Last month, iBuyPower released some rather skimpy information about their own machine, but included a $500 price tag and a hint (via the defined graphic chipset) that it will be a powerhouse, outclassing the hardware in it’s console counterparts. We can neither confirm nor deny if this will be the case without more details, but knowing that they opted into a chipset from the latest generation available, we can certainly speculate. But may be a very low-end SteamMachine based on what news released today.

DigitalStorm, a major player in the custom-made gaming PC market, has announced that they will be revealing a much more high-end SteamMachine at CES next year. So far, they have released very little in the details, but we know a few things about it:

1. This machine will be dual-booting when you get it. You will have both SteamOS and Windows pre-installed, allowing this machine to use literally everything as you see fit (even if Windows starts losing it’s gaming ground by Valve’s initiative).
2. It’s been confirmed the graphics card behind this will be a Geforce GTX Titan, so there is no skimping out on power here. In fact, that is the company statement: "Rather than try to compete with console pricing, our system takes aim at the high end of the market and capitalizes on PC gaming's biggest advantage, raw performance,” You can expect this will be the machine you want if you care about graphics before anything else, BUT don’t want to build something yourself.
3. This is also so far the most expensive box we have seen, pricing higher then it would cost me to build my own (Max and I have been specking out a smaller rig he wants to build right now, so I'm speaking from experience) at about $1,500. Whatever other specs come out, that price tag aims it squarely at a high-end market.

We will know more after CES, when Valve is expected to display many of their partner’s works… but for now, this is shaping up to be a very interesting branch of things to come. The two examples we have already seen are very different, in approach and market to aim at. It’s going to be very interesting to see just what everyone puts on the table.

Source: Yahoo! Digital Storm’s first Steam Machine

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