One of more than a dozen Steam Machines unveiled at CESRelated storiesThis is Valve's Steam Machine prototypeSteam Controller revealed, Valve's kind of crazy Steam gamepadValve cracks open specs for its Steam Box prototype, some are insaneValve Steam Machine's big moment arrived atop the Palms Casino at CES 2014.
"This has been a great year for the PC," declared Valve Co-Founder Gabe Newell at an intimate press event here.
Indeed, 2013-2014 has seen the unveiling of Valve's Steam Machine console concept and prototype, SteamOS beta and the Steam Controller. Tonight, Newell officially unveiled 13 hardware manufacturers that are building their very own Steam Machines.
"Today we're taking the next step," Newell said. "The next step is to say there are another bunch of hardware manufacturers who are also going to be introducing Steam Machines."
Who is making a Steam Machine?Newell noted that the specs of all the Steam Machines varied greatly from the low to high end, something Valve said would be the case when the initiative was first announced in September.
Alienware was a late addition to Valve's Steam Machine party, and one of the few devices not to have a price.
Alternate, CyberpowerPC, Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, Next Spa, Scan, Digital Storm, Gigabyte, Materiel.net, Origin PC, Webhallen and Zotac rounded out the dozen other hardware makers building devices that plug into Steam OS.
Webhallen's Steam Machine proves the devices are coming in all sizes
The price ranges from $499 - $6,000 (about £304/AU$559 - £3,658/AU$6,724), with a few TBDs thrown in. Webhallen's white-box machine occupies the top of the spectrum, while CyberpowerPC will have Machines from $499 and up.
Most house an Intel Core i7 or Core i5 CPU, though the Falcon Northwest Tiki has a customizable chip and iBuyPower will run with either a quad-core AMD or Intel chip.
It was Nvidia across the board for graphics, except for Gigabyte's Brix Pro, which is opting for an Intel Iris Pro 5200. RAM ran from 2 x 4GB to 16GB, while storage floated in the 1TB SSD range. Falcon Northwest, clearly the monster of the bunch, will have a storage option up to 6TB.
The Brix Pro Steam Machine by Gigabyte
Valve currently has 300 of its own Steam Machine prototypes in the hands of beta tests, but Newell said the company will continue to evaluate if it makes sense to manufacture its own commercial machine.
"We're going to continue to make that decision as we go along," he conceded. "We've been happy with the results of doing the hardware development. We had plans to build more Machines as our customers demand. We also expect people to be really happy with the range of offerings coming in from the range of hardware manufacturers."
The company is certainly doing some evaluation. Newell said beta testers haven't been forking over the critical feedback needed to improve the device, controller and overall experience.
"Beta users have been super happy," he said about what the feedback has been like so far. "We actually kind of want them to tell us what's wrong, so we're kind of poking at them a little harder. Right now they're just saying this is the best thing since the beginning of time, or something. We're trying to get them to give us sort of more, how can we iterate on this and what are the steps that we need to solve next."
In addition to its Steam Machine partners, Newell left the crowd with one more revelation; that Valve plans to sell its Steam Controllers separately, though manufacturers will be able to produce their own.
Read on for what else is happening at CES 2014!Join TechRadar and get our weekly newsletterGet the week's hottest news stories, our most popular reviews, and fantastic competitions straight to your inbox with our free weekly newsletter.
Tell me moreLearn moreTagsValveSteam MachinesAlienwareSteamOSSteam BoxconsoleSee more gaming newsCommentsTweet Add your commentType your comment here.You need to log in or join to add comments.Hello, you are logged in as Not you, eh? Log out, log in as another user or joinBy submitting this form you agree to our Terms of Use and so are legally responsible for anything you submit. DO NOT submit anything which may violate the Terms of Use or another person\'s rights including copyrighted or offensive materials. 0 commentsAdd comment AdvertisementPopular in gaming right nowLatestTop storiesMost discussedAlienware Steam Machine joins revolution to bring PC gaming to the living roomValve reveals 13 Steam Machine partners, leaves door open to build its ownCyberpowerPC and Origin PC bring their Steam Machines to CESMicrosoft's mind is blown by Xbox One demand with 3 million sold in 2013Digital Storm's Bolt II is a Steam Machine/Windows hybrid to splash the cash onFirst wireless controller for iPad and iPhone unveiled, on sale nowUpdated Oculus Rift will be playable at CES, may eliminate motion sickness90 best free Android games 2014Top 50 best free games you should play todayXbox One reviewPS4 vs Xbox One: which is better?Updated Oculus Rift will be playable at CES, may eliminate motion sicknessGabe Newell talks Half-Life 3, DayZ explodes, PS4 looks forward to the pastAlienware Steam Machine joins revolution to bring PC gaming to the living roomValve reveals 13 Steam Machine partners, leaves door open to build its ownCyberpowerPC and Origin PC bring their Steam Machines to CESMicrosoft's mind is blown by Xbox One demand with 3 million sold in 2013Digital Storm's Bolt II is a Steam Machine/Windows hybrid to splash the cash onFirst wireless controller for iPad and iPhone unveiled, on sale nowUpdated Oculus Rift will be playable at CES, may eliminate motion sicknessLenovo takes a swing at MacBook Pro Retina with 4K Ultra HD Y50Gabe Newell talks Half-Life 3, DayZ explodes, PS4 looks forward to the pastMicrosoft considered making Xbox One download-only as late as June 2013Can a Mac be a gaming PC? How the world is changing for Mac gamersTobii and SteelSeries team up to make eye-tracking game peripheralsZX Spectrum is coming back as a Bluetooth keyboardSony: Smartphone gaming may actually help boost the PS4, not kill itGear of the year: TechRadar's top tech from 2013In the pursuit of FPS: how AMD and Nvidia are tackling PC gaming optimizationUbisoft: There'll be less waiting around for game updates with PS4 and Xbox OneNo love for next-gen? Revisit Atari glory days with The Console LibraryPS4 can now stream free music videos, still can't play CDs or MP3sWere festive 3DS and Wii U sales that good? Ninty eShop falls over under strainYou might also like... Xbox One review
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