Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Steam Machine

store.steampowered.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

851–860 of 1001 posts

Re: Steam Machine

#851

Post by yencabulator »

JBiserkov wrote: post #53

A bit of topic, but I was wondering how much bigger is the steam machine compared to the mac mini m4, since that's what I have and is my frame of reference. Obviously comparing apples to oranges and only talking about physical volume, not features, compatibility, price, personal preferences, etc. Mac Mini m4: 127 x 127 x 50 mm = 0.8 L Steam Machine: 156 x 162 x 152 = 3.8 L That's 4.76 times more volume.

127 x 127 x 50 mm is likely the size of the cooling fan in the Steam Machine. Apples to oranges.

Re: Steam Machine

#852

Post by bigyabai »

3acctforcom wrote: post #848
lazyfanatic42 wrote: post #775

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve respects its customers. It is so insane that this isn't a norm; what a world we would be in if all companies did so.

Gabe is literally practising Noblesse Oblige, which is really funny but really shows that our billionare society is really just a reduction to old aristocracy. He's just the good Duke, whereas most Dukes are horrible, horrible people.

Noblesse oblige exists because of a moral economy. You can be a horrible Duke, because there's no real reward for being the good one.

This is not that - Steam has to compete on the free market, there is a reward for making the product everyone else refuses to make. In a post-Deck world, it's hard to believe that moral obligation plays a bigger role than the overall hatred of Windows for seamless gaming experiences.

Re: Steam Machine

#853

Post by black_knight »

taude wrote: post #807
black_knight wrote: post #785

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be the minority, but I frankly would buy it at 1000€ easily if it meant that the hardware was really good.

Nope, I don't think you're the minority, once people think of this as a micro itx build. Power supply integrated. That's cool. Will be curious what the actual performance is because hard to compare the custom chipsets with what's out there now.

Yeah, I am seriously considering a small ITX build for my living room for gaming on. But this might be an alternative!

Re: Steam Machine

#854

Post by [deleted] »

keyringlight wrote: post #42
Ekaros wrote: post #6

>RAM 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM Hmm. Not that it is big deal, but I would be somewhat worried about true longevity with the VRAM. Not sure if SteamOS helps there, but on PC some new titles are going over the 8GB VRAM.

One of the things I've noted for a while is that PC gaming as a platform seems to be polarizing between high and low spec, especially if you look outside of North America/Western Europe to places like South America or SE Asia. The steam deck and now this seem to be a reference/target platform for the low spec group. It might not be able to play the prestigious high spec titles well if at all, but so long as "your mil…

[deleted]

Re: Steam Machine

#855

Post by cjbgkagh »

saghm wrote: post #823

My theory for a bit now has been that Valve is playing the long game in trying to make SteamOS a mainstay gaming platform as an alternative to Windows, and that the hardware products are essentially a way of breaking into that market. Even a few years ago, the idea of a custom Linux distro based on Arch Linux with both a built-in full desktop mode and a lower-powered gaming mode that you could switch between on a han…

Gabe is a former MSFTy, left in 1996 to found Valve, he saw games as more popular than Windows. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got into games in order to compete against his former employer which would suggest to me that this plan has been in motion since before 1996, almost 30 years. At least from my point of view, if I wanted to take on Microsoft, doing what he did for the past 30 years is how I would go about doing that.

Re: Steam Machine

#856

Post by BlueTemplar »

baby wrote: post #472
conor- wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I view it as Valve is doing me a favor by adding friction towards me installing a rootkit to play video games. There's also been numerous userspace ACs that work well and also run in userspace (EAC, Battleye, etc.) that have been enabled for Linux/Proton users (including by EA with Apex Legends at one point). A lot of the support for Linux mostly comes down to the developer/publishers not wanting to and not because o…

on the other hand you can't play any of the older battlefields due to cheating (not like "is he cheating?" more like blatant "this guy is speedhacking and heashotting everyone" cheating that the server could easily detect if they cared about it)

Is that the same Battlefields that removed support for private servers ?

Re: Steam Machine

#857

Post by vkazanov »

gorfian_robot wrote: post #835

echoing others here in that I want Steam Lap(top). I am old and never into controller/couch gaming after the Atari era. I prefer either keyboard/mouse or gameboy for those nintendo exclusives. I also travel a lot and a console or desktop PC just doesn't make sense in my life. Maybe soon!

Nothing keeps you from buying an amd-based thinkpad with ubuntu and steam on it. I run god of war on mine, no problem.

Re: Steam Machine

#858

Post by kartoffelsaft »

utopiah wrote: post #655
thadt wrote: post #29

Pretty much the only reason I boot to Windows anymore is to play games with my kids and family. The direction of this thing is dangerously close to being all I'd care about from a desktop computer. If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...

> If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games... SteamDeck is out since February 2022 and does all that. You can use a BT mouse&keyboard, plug a USB-C screen or dongle for HDMI. I did live presentations with that quite a few time. It's just a computer with another form factor. It's not "dangerously close", it's been there for years now. Basically only compet…

The thing that makes that different though is the packing/unpacking experience. With a laptop it's just... opening and closing the lid. With a steam deck (or really any mini PC with a screen and battery), if you go wireless as you suggest, there's now at least 3 devices (deck, KB, mouse) that need to be handled and charged separately. Given my previous negative experiences with BT I'd go wired but that makes every move take even more effort.

I could see a setup with a case for the deck gives it a laptop form factor, but that doesn't seem like what you're suggesting. I might also ask how often you move your setup? My schedule requires I do so at least 8 times/week.

Re: Steam Machine

#859

Post by Rohansi »

gorfian_robot wrote: post #835

echoing others here in that I want Steam Lap(top). I am old and never into controller/couch gaming after the Atari era. I prefer either keyboard/mouse or gameboy for those nintendo exclusives. I also travel a lot and a console or desktop PC just doesn't make sense in my life. Maybe soon!

You could always just install the Steam client on a regular laptop. All of Valve's hardware is basically just booting into that anyway.

Re: Steam Machine

#860

Post by MrDrMcCoy »

utopiah wrote: post #655
thadt wrote: post #29

Pretty much the only reason I boot to Windows anymore is to play games with my kids and family. The direction of this thing is dangerously close to being all I'd care about from a desktop computer. If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...

> If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games... SteamDeck is out since February 2022 and does all that. You can use a BT mouse&keyboard, plug a USB-C screen or dongle for HDMI. I did live presentations with that quite a few time. It's just a computer with another form factor. It's not "dangerously close", it's been there for years now. Basically only compet…

A Uperfect lapdock with a USB-C PD injector from one of the AR glasses sets (can be bought separately) is even more convenient for Deck as a laptop replacement.
Post reply on HN