Alienware Steam Machine

Alienware Steam Machine

 

Gaming fandom wars of the past are child's play compared with the real eternal struggle between consoles and gaming PCs. Console acolytes boast of the convenience and ubiquity of their chosen platforms. PC zealots claim that the knowledge needed to squeeze extra horsepower out of a gaming rig makes the reward all the sweeter. But now, Valve, the makers of acclaimed PC games and the all-powerful PC gaming digital marketplace Steam, has put forth a vision for peace between these two tribes. The company is partnering with manufacturers to create Steam Machines, desktop gaming PCs that offer the best of PC gaming in an approachable, console-like form. The Alienware Steam Machine ($749 as tested) is among the first of these boxes to hit the market, but while Valve's dream for PC gaming on your television is an exciting one, the choice of OS has made the reality much more limited. 

Design and FeaturesThe Alienware Steam Machine is essentially last year's , except instead of running Windows, it's running Valve's new Linux-based operating system, SteamOS. It's roughly the same size as the Alpha, at 3 by 8 by 8 inches (HWD), and the small form factor is closer to a last-gen system like the Nintendo Wii instead of more technically comparable consoles like the and the . You can adjust the color of the glowing logos on the desktop. It certainly looks compact and distinctive when compared with traditional gaming towers like the .

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The Steam Machine has the same array of ports as the Alienware Alpha: three USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a digital audio (TOSLink) jack, and HDMI-in and -out ports for connecting the desktop to a television and connecting another video source to the desktop. You'll have to dedicate one of those USB ports to the wireless dongle that pairs up to four to the machine. The package comes with one controller. For wireless connectivity, there's 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

We didn't tear apart the Steam Machine, and if Valve and Alienware want it to be treated like a console, they can't expect casual users to want to do that either, but you can open up the device and start swapping out parts. The $449 base model includes an Intel Core i3 processor, a 500GB hard drive, 4GB DDR3, and a custom Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics card based on the mobile Nvidia GTX 860M. The $749 model I tested adds four more gigabytes of RAM, doubles the hard drive to 1TB, and features an Intel Core i7 processor. There are several other configurations between those two price points. All configurations also come with a handful of free games like Payday 2.

SteamOSUnless you were intrepid enough to build your own Steam Machine with beta source code, the Alienware Steam Machine will be many players' first introduction to SteamOS. This interface is a beefed-up version of Steam's Big Picture mode for presenting PC games in a TV-friendly format, and it excels at its one job. Aside from easily fixable resolution issues with some games, a TV displaying SteamOS is a fantastic way to enjoy your Steam library.

After signing into Steam or creating a new account, you can easily start buying, downloading, and playing games along with interacting with the larger Steam community. If you want to know the best button layout for playing an old PC game with a Steam Controller, you can look it up. You can download mods to your heart's content. The OS also lets you broadcast your gaming session or watch others stream theirs. You can even hop into a Web browser to visit a strategy guide or watch a funny Source Filmmaker video. Storing multiple accounts on one system and switching between them is also a breeze.

However, as neat as this interface is, you don't necessarily have to buy a Steam Machine to enjoy these benefits. Using a Steam Link to stream your existing gaming PC through a TV will work just as well. In fact, buying a Steam Machine, or any device exclusively running SteamOS, will just limit your gaming choices to titles available on Linux.

Whatever feelings Valve may have toward Microsoft, this is an inexplicable choice. Nearly all of the almost 5,000 games you can purchase on Steam run on Windows. Only a fourth of those run on Linux as well. Just using my own pre-existing Steam library as an example, I was able to find and enjoy some Linux-compatible games, like Hotline Miami, Super Meat Boy, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, and Valve's own Portal 2. But time and again I was told a game I was trying to download was not available on SteamOS. At least you can filter out incompatible games when browsing through the store. Look for the Valve logo next to the Windows and Mac logos to make sure the game will run. In the weeks since our initial impressions, the library has barely expanded. Hopefully, Linux support will pick up post-launch. And since there's no optical disc drive, if a game isn't available to download on Steam, you won't be playing it on your Steam Machine