This killed any hope of me even wanting a Steam Machine

http://www.pcgamesn.com/alienware-will-release-new-steam-machines-every-year-due-lack-upgrade-options

Alienware has revealed that it will be launching new Steam Machines annually because the platform has almost no upgrade options. "Lifecycle wise, consoles update every five, six, seven years, we will be updating our Steam Machines every year," Alienware General Manager Frank Azor said in an interview with TrustedReviews.

Azor explains that the platform would need to evolve as more resource intensive games were released, but with no customisation options, Alienware would have to release a new machine every 12 months to keep up with the increasing demands of games.

Alienware's Steam Machine exists in a strange grey area between a console and home entertainment system and a traditional PC. Their Steam Machine is expected to cost around the same as the new generation of consoles, but will be out of date long before its Xbox One and PS4 cousins.

Azor advises those who want greater customisation options just to buy a PC. "If you actually want to customise your Alienware Steam Machine, maybe change your graphics card out or put in a new CPU, you would be better off with the standard Alienware X51. This particular product is restricted in its upgrade options."

There will be some limited configuration options, however, and Azor suggests that consumers might be able to get a faster CPU or more memory, but anything more, like a new CPU or graphics card, and you're looking at either purchasing an entirely new Steam Machine or just packing it all in and getting a PC.

just get a bloody PC. and not from Alienware

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And that's where it went wring.

I don't get this. Alienware isn't the only one making Steam machines. If you wanted one, just get another brand that is upgradeable.

I wanted a nice PC, then i realized all i play is Wow on my PC.

Did you even ever wanted one?

And that's Alienware, it will probably be a shitty Ivy Bridge i3 with a GTS 650 for $1,000 or some retarded pricing among those lines. There are loads of other models that actually seemed somehow reasonable, though I can't remember from which manufacturer.

Unless you absolutely don't want to build a PC but want to play on the platform nonetheless, only then would you even consider buying a Steam Machine instead of just installing SteamOS/Windows in your own computer.


Edit: And actually they are right. If anything you should just get the X51 if you really want a prebuilt, it's somehow reasonably priced given its form factor. No clue what PSU and motherboard it has though, so it could be some cheap shit to cut costs, but if they are quality components it's all right.

you're better off building your own, I don't have much faith in major games working on steam OS since it's linux for some time to come. Just build a cheap micro atx or mini itx pc and put windows 7 on it

the xbox one has a ~$110 7790 gpu in it, and a weak 1.6ghz AMD cpu

only thing that fucking sucks is ram prices skyrocketed. I got 8gb for 39bucks a year ago, that ram is now 92 bucks.


steam machines honestly just sound like a gimmick to me. I guess I just like tinkering with pcs.

Alienware.

If you are in US, I think there would be many vendors that will just build the PC for you, as long as you get the components from them, maybe just with a small fee. Even in Hong Kong, you can just go to a computer shop and order bunch of components and they will build it for you if you pay them approximately US$10 extra.

The only reason to get Steam Machine, at the moment, is if you really want the case that it comes in, for whatever reason.