Zotac announces NEN Steam Machine sporting Skylake CPU, Nvidia GTX 960

[Master Disaster]

Zotac has announced its first SteamOS based mini PC targetted at the gaming audience, with the NEN Steam machine mini PC. The NEN Steam Machine’s India pricing and availability details aren’t yet out. At the moment it is available in the US and EU regions only at a price of $999 (approx Rs 65,500).

Considering this is a Steam machine, the mini PC will come bundled with Valve’s Linux based operating system called SteamOS. The NEN Steam machine runs the 6th generation Intel Core i5-6400T processor which has a base clock of 2.2GHz which can be boosted up to 2.8GHz and this is paired with 8GB of RAM with the option to add in another 8GB DIMM. It will come with 1TB hard drive and will also have an M.2 SATA SSD slot.

Since this is a gaming machine, the NEN houses Nvidia GTX 960 graphics card which has proved its mettle as far as full HD gaming is concerned. On the connectivity front, you get four HDMI 2.0 ports, three USB 3.0 ports out of which one is a USB Type-C port, two ethernet ports, one SD card slot and a Wi-fi hookup option.

The NEN Steam machine will also come bundled with a Steam Controller which has two touchpads based gamepad made by Valve.

http://www.tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/zotac-announces-nen-steam-machine-sporting-skylake-cpu-nvidia-gtx-960-graphics-and-more-286660.html

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Gotta say I like the way it looks, much better than Alienwares.

Still $1000 for a console replacement that only has a handful of AAA titles right now.

I can't see Steam Machines taking off, however it is Valve and it's likely they'll pull something out of the bag.

[PlayStation 2]

can we just get a steam machine with at least an r7 265

[Master Disaster]

can we just get a steam machine with at least an r7 265

It's got a GTX960??

[PlayStation 2]

It's got a GTX960??

I know, but there's like no AMD options...

[Master Disaster]

I know, but there's like no AMD options...

They only cracked AMD drivers on SteamOS fairly recently, I'm sure now it's sorted in Brewmaster some manufacturers will start doing AMD GPUz soon.

[The Official Czex]

A grand for that? No thanks. I'll pass.

[marldorthegreat]

Meh. Failed operating system IMO. Didnt work. 

[Alurit]

I know, but there's like no AMD options...

if you follow tek syndicate, wendell talks about AMD having very bad driver support for linux right now, as despite the r9 380 being a better card than the gtx960, it's only on windows.

[Alurit]

so a cpu very close to the perforance of a desktop i3, a gtx 960 that is probably a 2gb one, and a notebook 1tb hard drive, and no windows for $1k. how's is that not a ripoff?

[Dabombinable]

I know, but there's like no AMD options...

:rolleyes: What are AMD GPU known for? Their TDP. And how big are steam boxes? Bloody small.

[PlayStation 2]

:rolleyes: What are AMD GPU known for? Their TDP. And how big are steam boxes? Bloody small.

Not if I can help i-oh wait.

[Megahurt]

can we just get a steam machine with at least an r7 265

SteamOS is based on Linux and openGL, you'll get a lot more for your money with nvidia on that platform, unless Vulkan manages to take off.

[Albatross]

can we just get a steam machine with at least an r7 265

 

Give it some time. They will have some AMD options soon. It wouldn't be very wise if they didn't, I would think.

[rcarteraz]

I don't understand why anyone would buy this though. For that price you can build yourself a pretty dang good gaming machine. Am I missing something?

[TechGod]

This should have had a Fury Nano...

[MageTank]

so a cpu very close to the perforance of a desktop i3, a gtx 960 that is probably a 2gb one, and a notebook 1tb hard drive, and no windows for $1k. how's is that not a ripoff?

Two words. Form Factor. Smaller hardware comes at a heavy price premium. High end ITX boards cost 50% more than their normal counterparts. I just paid $185 for a Z170 ITX board, when i could have gotten a standard ATX board with the same features, for $100. 

 

This is a 2 Liter box that can handle most 1080p AAA titles. It also has some room for upgrading, as far as storage, CPU, and memory goes. 

 

To put this into perspective, i will be doing a custom 3.7-4L build, and it will cost exactly twice as much as this build ($2000) and be twice as large in size in total. However, the hardware contained in each build will be vastly different. I will have a 6700k, 980 Ti, 32gb of memory and a 950 Pro SSD. Overall, it's a pretty fair price considering the engineering involved. Though, after seeing them put a desktop 980 in a laptop, i would much rather see an option with a 980 in it. Once that happens, then they have the right to call it the "fastest ITX gaming PC". Actually, @QinX already beat them to that title quite a while ago.

[Commander Llama]

GTX960 ought to be a pretty good price/performance sweet spot for these things.

[ConnorDahne]

Had an alienware steam machine, the Alpha with i7 and gtx 860m.
Couldn't get into "living room gaming"

Didn't make sense to give up power of my rig, mouse and keyboard, and a good monitor so I can sit on couch personally.
Used at a LAN box for a while, then sold it.

If they'd make one with the new 980 thats in some gaming laptops that would make more sense.

[Castdeath97]

This better not be the 2GB 960, seriously it better not be.

[zMeul]

the NEN houses Nvidia GTX 960 graphics card

actually, that's not a regular 960, it's the OEM version that has 192 bit Memory Interface compared to 128bit of the desktop version

to be fair, it's a GTX970M

[asim1999]

technically speaking its a 970M, so we are getting a bit more than a bog standard 960 

[dalekphalm]

This is one reason why "Steam Machines" will likely never catch on mainstream. They will continue to be a Niche market for wealthy gamers that have more money than time. For those in that situation, who can't be bothered to build their own ITX rig, this might be great.

 

But for console users? Hell no. Almost three times the price of a console? Sure it'll have higher performance, but not nearly enough for that price. Plus, with SteamOS still basically in its infancy, you're intentionally cutting yourself off from most major AAA releases by going SteamOS right now. Perhaps in the future, with Vulkan, Linux Ports will come more frequently, but right now, unless you happen to only play the games already on SteamOS, it's not a good value.

 

Most console users want two things: Low outright cost (They don't want to drop $1000 or $1500 on a gaming PC), and low complexity (They don't want to deal with multiple levels of DRM + multiple game platforms - eg: Steam, Origin, UPlay, etc - and they don't want to deal with complicated - by comparison - installations and troubleshooting).

 

Most gamers just want to buy a game - digitally or on disc - do a very simple install, and just play.

 

Some will counter that yes, consoles do require game installs now, but the process is simplified quite a bit compared to many PC Game installs. You literally click the download button, and that's pretty much that. You can even start playing many games before the download finishes. Granted, this is not unique to consoles. Blizzard does this, for example, if I recall correctly. But it's certainly a rare feature in PC gaming.

 

This kind of product isn't for console gamers (At least, not your average one). This is for the niche market of PC Gamers who want an HTPC Gaming PC that will be compact and have nice aesthetics to match their living room. It's a very valid product, but it has a very small potential userbase.

[Humbug]

Although I am not really the target demographic some of these steam machines are looking quite sweet, more appealing than the ones that were announced 2 years ago and never made. And they are all very small and quiet. With 14/16nm GPUs coming next year 2nd Gen steam machines will be interesting too. There are also some stupid models of course...

[MageTank]

-snip-

You are right for the most part, but these things CAN catch on, if companies would be open to suggestions. For systems like this to work, the CPU's need to be socket-able, memory remain SODIMM, and the GPU's need to be MXM. MXM modules need to find their way to the consumer market, so people can actually start upgrading laptops, and do these custom ITX builds. Problem is, not that many people are interested in ITX, let alone custom form factor GPU's. Because of the limited production of these MXM cards, their prices are absurd. Easily twice that of their desktop counterparts, and with less performance.

 

If they would catch on and find their way into the consumer market, prices would drop, and these tiny Steam Machines could be built by the average consumer. Sadly, this will most likely never happen, as people never take into consideration the custom cooling solutions involved in these builds, and it would only result in a headache once people try to put hardware in places it cannot survive in. Case in point? The original Zotac Zbox where the GTX 760 throttled like crazy, to the point in which it performed less than a GTX 750.

 

The only thing this box has going for it, is its form factor. It's price tag is expensive, but it is justified to some extent. Good Z170 ITX boards are $165+, with the highest being $250. This board is entirely custom built, smaller than ITX, and includes a GTX 970m on it. Custom parts tend to cost more, and this extremely small form factor comes with a high price premium. I would like to see them use the 65w processors, instead of the ultra low voltage versions, as the 65w processors should still work on their current cooling solution. I would never put an i7 in one of these, simply because HT tends to add an extra 10C of heat when all 8 threads are 100% utilized. Still, for what you are getting, you would be hard priced to find a laptop with an i5 and GTX 970m for $1000. Granted, this thing lacks a built in screen and keyboard/mouse like the laptops, but it does come with a controller, so i guess that offsets it a little?

 

TL:DR? Custom form factors are expensive. If MXM catches on to the consumer market, we could make these custom boxes ourselves. It probably won't happen, so don't hold your breath. 

[Humbug]

This kind of product isn't for console gamers (At least, not your average one). This is for the niche market of PC Gamers who want an HTPC Gaming PC that will be compact and have nice aesthetics to match their living room. It's a very valid product, but it has a very small potential userbase.

Agreed. Thing is Valve knows that, and the hardware vendors too know that. And they know they don't need to sell millions and millions of units and be comparable to PS4 and Xbox One.

They probably want to at least for now establish their niche market and look after it and within a couple years grow it into a slightly larger niche market. It combines with desktop linux userbase on Mint / Ubuntu etc and kinda feeds off it's own success and the ecosystem gets continiously better as time goes on.

 

The hardware vendors will be satisfied by selling a small number of units in the same way they sell a small number of pre-built gaming PCs or gaming laptops. It's not a console where they have years of R&D to recoup, they are using PC tech. Only Valve has sunk a massive amount of money into this (and they don't care as it's a strategic move to uplift Linux). The hardware vendors will sell a few, then come back with gen2, gen3; sell a few more etc...

 

They already have a good game selection for launch. The reason Valve has been able to sucesfully canvas devs and achieve that is not because Linux is a lucrative place to sell games like PS4 or Xbone. But because these are still PCs and many devs who were releasing a windows game anyway decided that they could justify the lesser amount of additional work to get it working on Linux for a few more sales, a reappearance on the front page of steam and some positive PR. Plus going forward the similarities between DX12 and Vulkan and the fact that the new gen game engines are all almost universally supporting Linux means that ports are getting easier.

 

So it's kinda like steam machines (and overall Linux gaming) are going to ride the success of windows PC gaming and ride that wave in order to sustain their own niche.

 

If you look carefully at the things that Valve is doing such as investment into vulkan and it's debuggers, dev tools, source2 game engine free with native support across different OS etc you can see that what they want to do on the longterm is push the game developer ecosystem into a direction where more game devs will think "well considering how easy it is to do we may as well make our game multiplatform". At the end of the day Valve still makes their money from steam sales on the windows platform, but while maintaining that I think they are trying to push the ecosystem into a place where Microsoft holds less cards.