Aaand they’re more powerful for the same (or even lower) price. All the people saying you can’t build anything better than the Steam Machine for the same price have been awfully quiet these last few days. I guess the memes about Valve fanboys have some truth to them.
On the other hand, the Steam Machine is smaller and needs less power, so there’s that. I don’t know if anyone cares that much, but I can appreciate very small PCs.
Is needing less power a plus when talking about a gaming pc? The steam machine uses less power than the competition because they’ve kneecapped the SoC with power draw limits, limiting performance.
It’s not a major concern, or even a minor concern for most. But it’s still a plus. Less money spent on electricity bills (even if it’s a tiny amount), and less strain on the environment (even if it’s an even tinier difference).
And less performance.
I guess. But is anybody interested in the Steam Machine because of its performance? I’d be surprised if that was the case.
It’s got less performance than it should though. Why they chose to limit its power draw I have no idea.
And unlike Nintendo switch, you can play games you bought 15 years ago… and use other stores or emulation
Steamroller is a great name.
Should’ve put wheels on it to make it even better
I’m on the reservation list for a Steam Machine and personally have no regrets, but I’m so happy these exist. I don’t think it has to be a big competition, but between not appealing to a mass audience and have limited stock, the Steam Machine may have inadvertently ushered in a prebuilt Linux PC revolution, and that’s a wonderful thing.
You’ve been able to make a low powered Linux machine whenever you wanted to. The Steam machine didn’t change anything.
Not everyone wants to build their own PC, and that’s okay. Other use cases exist besides just what the hardcore PC crowd wants. There was a penguin-shaped gap in the prebuilt market, and now the Linux gap is closing, thankfully.
You didn’t need to build your own pc to install Linux on a prebuilt pc either 🤣
Not everyone wants to figure out an os install
Linux isn’t for people like that.
It feels so needlessly aggressive. Valve openly stated that there are alternatives to the Steam Machine, and they aren’t trying to own the market. Calling your prebuilt the “Steamroller” is kind of a dickhead move. That’s like Del Taco coming out with a deep friend taco shell and calling it “Fuck your Chalupa, bitch.”
ITT: People who have no idea how marketing and advertising work.
Eh, I see your point, but it feels pretty tongue-in-cheek to me. Steamroller is just a cool name that implies the thing is a workhorse.
That’s not really how I read it. Clearly they are leveraging vale products, (steam os) so include steam in the name. They probably want this name to evoke strength and power, so what’s something with steam in the name that is powerful? A steamroller.
I don’t think it is meant to roll steam!
