A gaming PC for the living room
I laughed when the rumors started back in 2012: "Valve is building a PC-based game console for living rooms." Sure it is, I thought. Imagine my shock when "Steam Machines" turned out to be real. The project promised a bizarre, revolutionary controller, a Linux-based operating system designed specifically to play PC games and in-home game streaming for titles that required Windows to run properly. The proposal was unbelievable, but it's finally here; it's real; and it will ship to customers in early November. As of today, I have an Alienware Steam Machine nestled in my entertainment center that delivers on almost everything those original rumors promised. Let's talk about that.
Note: Valve says it plans to continue rolling out software updates ahead of the Steam product family's official launch on November 10th. We plan to update our story as these new features come out. We will also hold off on assigning the Alienware Steam Machine a numerical score until the final hardware goes on sale.
If the Alienware Steam Machine looks familiar, it's probably because it has the exact same chassis as another PC built for the living room: the Alienware Alpha -- the unofficial Steam Machine Dell launched without Valve's support late last year. Dell classifies these PCs as different products, but they're mostly separated by their operating systems: Windows 10, for the Alpha and SteamOS for the Alienware Steam Machine. Today we're looking at the latter, Valve-sanctioned Steam Machine, but both rigs have a great chassis: It's compact, subtle and fits right in with everything else in your entertainment center.
Visually speaking, the Alienware Steam Machine is a simple thing: a glossy black square with a matte black top and a few simple LEDs -- one behind the power button and another highlighting a triangle-shaped bisection of the chassis corner. A Steam logo glows out from this triangle-shaped cut, marking the only design tweak that separates the Alienware Alpha from the Valve-sanctioned Steam Machine.
Want connections? You got 'em. The Steam Machine has two USB ports on the front, two more in the rear, HDMI output, optical audio out and an Ethernet port. Just like with the Alpha, there are two other connectors here, as well: an HDMI input for piping a cable box through the Steam Machine interface (no, it won't capture video or stream your other consoles to Twitch) and a fifth USB port hidden under a panel on the rig's undercarriage. Don't get too excited: That extra USB slot is already spoken for. The console ships with the Steam Controller's dongle pre-installed in the secret compartment (sit tight, we'll be talking about that very soon).
