The machine above was somewhere in between, with an Intel i7 CPU and a GTX 780 GPU housed in its snug chassis. All the parts in the prototype were swappable, and the only standard it's missing internally is an optical drive presumably unnecessary if you're running SteamOS and downloading all your games digitally, right.Valve's Steam Machine prototype is a reference design, essentially. "We think it's the right test platform for us," Coomer said. Of course, putting all that work into a reference design and not creating the box seems mighty wasteful.As far as speed and usability goes, the Valve Steam Machine prototype we tried is literally a gaming PC with an Intel i7 and a high-end NVIDIA GPU.
Though we aren't clear on the RAM, it's safe to say that the prototype we used operated without a hitch at least while navigating the SteamOS and playing World of Goo. And let's be honest, the performance of a high-end PC isn't what matters here North GA vending machine thieves caught on camer
-- what matters is how game console-like it is. And that usability is all a measure of the software running on it, which was actually Valve's new, free system: SteamOS.Anyone who uses Steam's Big Picture Mode is already intimately acquainted with SteamOS, as they're very similar. SteamOS looks and acts like Big Picture Mode, except it's the basis for the entire hardware system. It's controller-friendly and easy to navigate. The same Steam splash page washes across the screen when it launches, and the same tile-based layout of games and the Steam store are visible at launch. As promised, the OS is built on Linux not based on Ubuntu, we're told, but entirely custom, though you'd never know it as the only interactive layer is all Steam.
That means it also has the limitations of Steam: SteamOS is not the replacement for Windows 8 you've been waiting for. Beyond basics like browsing the web, there's little in the way of standard OS functions. While Valve reps showed off slides of the box's vanity shots using a Windows PC, I asked how I'd view such shots from within SteamOS -- the answer is that there's no real way to do so, as there's no file browsing system or image viewing application. While these limitations may not affect the vast majority of Steam Machine buyers who are essentially buying a game console, it certainly impacts folks who are looking at Steam Machines as a replacement for their standard PC. Make no mistake: Steam Machines are PCs posing as game consoles, which comes with both positives and negatives.