I don’t think there’s a more interesting topic in gaming hardware right now than the SteamOS initiative being rolled out by Valve. We’ve had hints at what coming down the pipeline, but up until now we’ve largely been in the dark about what we can expect in terms of actual components or manufactures. After what has felt like a lifetime of waiting, Valve has finally announced the following 13 companies as partners that will be rolling out their own versions of the Steam Box.
- Alienware
- Alternate
- CyberPowerPC
- Digital Storm
- Falcon NW
- GigaByte
- iBuyPower
- Maingear
- Material.net
- Next Spa
- Origin PC
- Scan
- Webhallen
- Zotac
The price of these machines starts at $499 for the entry level Steam Boxes from companies such as iBuyPower and CyberPowerPC, but companies that target computer enthusiasts such as Falcon Northwest will raise price points up to $6,000.
It’s going to be interesting to see exactly what companies plan on doing here. CyberPowerPC has already announced that they’re going to be including a Core i5, 500 GB hard drive, 8 GB of ram, and either a AMD Radeon R9 270 or Nvidia GTX 760, while Gigabyte plans on doubling down on processor speed and letting Intel’s integrated graphics technology do the rest.
There’s still a lot of questions left to be answered, including the most obvious of how well will they actually play games, but there’s no doubt that this an exciting time to be a PC gamer.