Alienware Steam Machine
Gaming fandom wars of the past are child's play compared with the real eternal struggle between consoles and gaming PCs.
Console acolytes boast of the convenience and ubiquity of their chosen
platforms. PC zealots claim that the knowledge needed to squeeze extra
horsepower out of a gaming rig makes the reward all the sweeter. But
now, Valve, the makers of acclaimed PC games and the all-powerful PC
gaming digital marketplace Steam,
has put forth a vision for peace between these two tribes. The company
is partnering with manufacturers to create Steam Machines, desktop
gaming PCs that offer the best of PC gaming in an approachable,
console-like form. The Alienware Steam Machine ($749 as tested) is among
the first of these boxes to hit the market, but while Valve's dream for
PC gaming on your television is an exciting one, the choice of OS has
made the reality much more limited.
Design and FeaturesThe Alienware Steam Machine is essentially last year's ,
except instead of running Windows, it's running Valve's new Linux-based
operating system, SteamOS. It's roughly the same size as the Alpha, at 3
by 8 by 8 inches (HWD), and the small form factor is closer to a
last-gen system like the Nintendo Wii instead of more technically
comparable consoles like the and the .
You can adjust the color of the glowing logos on the desktop. It
certainly looks compact and distinctive when compared with traditional
gaming towers like the .
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The Steam Machine has the same array of ports as the Alienware Alpha: three USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a digital audio (TOSLink) jack, and HDMI-in and -out ports for connecting the desktop to a television and connecting another video source to the desktop. You'll have to dedicate one of those USB ports to the wireless dongle that pairs up to four to the machine. The package comes with one controller. For wireless connectivity, there's 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
We didn't tear apart the Steam Machine, and if Valve and
Alienware want it to be treated like a console, they can't expect casual
users to want to do that either, but you can open up the device and
start swapping out parts. The $449 base model includes an Intel Core i3
processor, a 500GB hard drive, 4GB DDR3, and a custom Nvidia GeForce GTX
graphics card based on the mobile Nvidia GTX 860M. The $749 model I
tested adds four more gigabytes of RAM, doubles the hard drive to 1TB,
and features an Intel Core i7 processor. There are several other
configurations between those two price points. All configurations also
come with a handful of free games like Payday 2.
SteamOSUnless you were intrepid enough to
build your own Steam Machine with beta source code, the Alienware Steam
Machine will be many players' first introduction to SteamOS. This
interface is a beefed-up version of Steam's Big Picture mode for
presenting PC games in a TV-friendly format, and it excels at its one
job. Aside from easily fixable resolution issues with some games, a TV
displaying SteamOS is a fantastic way to enjoy your Steam library.
After signing into Steam or creating a new account, you can easily
start buying, downloading, and playing games along with interacting with
the larger Steam community. If you want to know the best button layout
for playing an old PC game with a Steam Controller, you can look it up.
You can download mods to your heart's content. The OS also lets you
broadcast your gaming session or watch others stream theirs. You can
even hop into a Web browser to visit a strategy guide or watch a funny Source Filmmaker video. Storing multiple accounts on one system and switching between them is also a breeze.
However, as neat as this interface is, you don't necessarily have to buy a Steam Machine to enjoy these benefits. Using a Steam Link
to stream your existing gaming PC through a TV will work just as well.
In fact, buying a Steam Machine, or any device exclusively running
SteamOS, will just limit your gaming choices to titles available on
Linux.
Whatever feelings Valve may have toward Microsoft, this is an
inexplicable choice. Nearly all of the almost 5,000 games you can
purchase on Steam run on Windows. Only a fourth of those run on Linux as
well. Just using my own pre-existing Steam library as an example, I was
able to find and enjoy some Linux-compatible games, like Hotline Miami, Super Meat Boy, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, and Valve's own Portal 2.
But time and again I was told a game I was trying to download was not
available on SteamOS. At least you can filter out incompatible games
when browsing through the store. Look for the Valve logo next to the
Windows and Mac logos to make sure the game will run. In the weeks since
our initial impressions, the library has barely expanded. Hopefully,
Linux support will pick up post-launch. And since there's no optical
disc drive, if a game isn't available to download on Steam, you won't be
playing it on your Steam Machine
