Last month Valve made three very interesting announcements; a new controller set to mimic control pad, mouse and keyboard functionality, the Linux-based SteamOS, and Steam Machines.
Regarding Steam Machines, they announced that 300 testers selected at random from eligible members of the community would be given a prototype version of Valve's very own interpretation of the living room PC.
The company has now announced the specifications for these prototypes, revealing what those lucky 300 users will be getting their hands on when the machines are sent out at the end of the year.
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB GDDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high
In the post they also explained their reasoning behind some of the design decisions: "The prototype machine is a high-end, high-performance box, built out of off-the-shelf PC parts. It is also fully upgradable, allowing any user to swap out the GPU, hard drive, CPU, even the motherboard if you really want to. Apart from the custom enclosure, anyone can go and build exactly the same machine by shopping for components and assembling it themselves."
The post continues: "And to be clear, this design is not meant to serve the needs of all of the tens of millions of Steam users. It may, however, be the kind of machine that a significant percentage of Steam users would actually want to purchase - those who want plenty of performance in a high-end living room package. Many others would opt for machines that have been more carefully designed to cost less, or to be tiny, or super quiet, and there will be Steam Machines that fit those descriptions."
Valve also acknowledges that many gamers won't be interested in paying a premium price for a computer when they already have a capable device already in the home: "There are a lot of other Steam customers who already have perfectly great gaming hardware at home in the form of a powerful PC. The prototype we're talking about here is not meant to replace that. Many of those users would like to have a way to bridge the gap into the living room without giving up their existing hardware and without spending lots of money. We think that's a great goal, and we're working on ways to use our in-home streaming technology to accomplish it - we'll talk more about that in the future."
They're still not ready to give us a glimpse of what the new machines will look like, but they're promising they'll give us a peek at the prototypes before they'll ship. If you're interested in throwing your hat in the ring, log into Steam and follow the instructions in you "Quest Page" to ensure you're eligible.