iFixit dismantles Valve Steam Machine prototype in latest teardown

[Shawn Knight]

The teardown specialists at iFixit have a knack for getting their hands on the latest gadgets so it should probably come as little surprise that they recently scored a modern rarity: a Steam Machine. Considering Valve only shipped systems to 300 lucky beta participants, the odds that one ended up on iFixit’s teardown bench is pretty remarkable.

Valve made it clear that the machines are all prototypes and as such, there are no set hardware specifications at this point. What’s more, the machines have been billed as little more than run-of-the-mill hardware crammed inside a neat package which is exactly what iFixit found.

Skipping right to the goodies, this particular machine is powered by a fourth generation Intel Core i5-4570 CPU kept cool with a Zalman CNPS 2X Mini-ITX heatsink. The chip is mated with an ASRock mini-ITX motherboard alongside two sticks of Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3 RAM and a Zotac GeForce GTX 780 graphics card installed with the help of a SilverStone RC2 PCI Express x16 riser card.

It’s all powered by a SilverStone SST-ST45SF-G 450W 80 Plus Gold power supply which should be plenty to handle the load from the CPU and GPU.

The teardown team ultimately awarded the Steam Machine a repairability score of nine out of 10 (10 being the easiest to repair). The system earned praise for being easy to get into (only a single screw holds the case panel on) while the modular design with off-the-shelf components would make hardware upgrades a snap.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55076-ifixit-dismantles-valve-steam-machine-prototype-in-latest-teardown.html

 

[BMfan]

Nvidia recommend a minimum PSU of 600w,so how has valve got a 450 to work under every load possible?

 

[cliffordcooley]

GTX 780 - 250W
i5-4570 - 84W
CPU/GPU - 334W
That leaves 116W for the remainder of the system. Seems fine to me.

 

[oldikes]

Nvidia recommend a minimum PSU of 600w,so how has valve got a 450 to work under every load possible?

Only so people cant sue them when they overclock an FX-8350 to 6 GHZ with that GPU and it overloads the PSU.

 

[tomkaten]

GPU manufacturers usually list some insane PSU recommendations because they have to cover every possible usage scenario, including heavy overclocking. And possibly because it's better to be safe than sorry (sorry, in this case, meaning thousands of complaints on forums and the associated damage to one's reputation).

But, as Clifford pointed out, that PSU seems to fit those system specs quite well.

 

[WangDangDoodle]

It's good that it's a 80 Plus Gold standard on that PSU, because you lose a fair amount of Wattage in the conversion, and even more at high load. I tend to buy 750-850W PSU's with 80 Plus Gold for my computers to be sure that I'm in the "sweetspot" of PSU efficiency, which is usually at 50-60% load. That makes the PSU run silent, it saves some money on the electric bill in the long run and I never have to worry about my PSU not being able to handle a bit extra (like charging my phone via USB3).

That 450W would be about a 405W with Gold Standard 90% efficiency at 50-60% load, but the efficiency drops a bit more when the PSU is under heavy load. I imagine this system would use a maximum of maybe 365-375W (including drives and at peak consumption) which is cutting it pretty close, but it should work just fine. I'm basing this on the Gold Standard and not the actual PSU, which often surpasses the standard by 1-3% depending on quality.

 

[howzz1854]

It's good that it's a 80 Plus Gold standard on that PSU, because you lose a fair amount of Wattage in the conversion, and even more at high load. I tend to buy 750-850W PSU's with 80 Plus Gold for my computers to be sure that I'm in the "sweetspot" of PSU efficiency, which is usually at 50-60% load. That makes the PSU run silent, it saves some money on the electric bill in the long run and I never have to worry about my PSU not being able to handle a bit extra (like charging my phone via USB3).

That 450W would be about a 405W with Gold Standard 90% efficiency at 50-60% load, but the efficiency drops a bit more when the PSU is under heavy load. I imagine this system would use a maximum of maybe 365-375W (including drives and at peak consumption) which is cutting it pretty close, but it should work just fine. I'm basing this on the Gold Standard and not the actual PSU, which often surpasses the standard by 1-3% depending on quality.

the efficiency is calculated by maximum power produced after factoring in the percentage. so in this case, the PSU will at least be able to produce 450 watts at load, or more at short burst peaks. to convert that into actual power draw off the wall will be 562watt off the wall at 80%, or 500 watts at 90%. however, it is never a good idea to have the system outputting at a sustained full load 450 watts, it degenerate the life of the PSU. this is why the Gold, Platnium, Bronze standard, as you can see higher the efficiency, the ACTUAL power draw off the wall will be closer to the rated output, and hence saves you power bill.

 

[WangDangDoodle]

It's good that it's a 80 Plus Gold standard on that PSU, because you lose a fair amount of Wattage in the conversion, and even more at high load. I tend to buy 750-850W PSU's with 80 Plus Gold for my computers to be sure that I'm in the "sweetspot" of PSU efficiency, which is usually at 50-60% load. That makes the PSU run silent, it saves some money on the electric bill in the long run and I never have to worry about my PSU not being able to handle a bit extra (like charging my phone via USB3).

That 450W would be about a 405W with Gold Standard 90% efficiency at 50-60% load, but the efficiency drops a bit more when the PSU is under heavy load. I imagine this system would use a maximum of maybe 365-375W (including drives and at peak consumption) which is cutting it pretty close, but it should work just fine. I'm basing this on the Gold Standard and not the actual PSU, which often surpasses the standard by 1-3% depending on quality.

the efficiency is calculated by maximum power produced after factoring in the percentage. so in this case, the PSU will at least be able to produce 450 watts at load, or more at short burst peaks. to convert that into actual power draw off the wall will be 562watt off the wall at 80%, or 500 watts at 90%. however, it is never a good idea to have the system outputting at a sustained full load 450 watts, it degenerate the life of the PSU.

If what you're saying is indeed correct, then a 450W PSU is more than enough for this system.

 

[9Nails]

Slap a hybrid hard drive in there and take my money already!

 

[St1ckM4n]

GPU rated @ 250W, realistic max ~280W
CPU rated @ 84W, realistic max ~90W
HDD's maxed out, ~30W
CPU and maybe one case fan, ~20W

Total is ~420W.

It's close, but I'm sure Steam did thorough testing.

 

[jeffz6]

Sell me that case Steam! Ill purchase it

 

[Burty117]

Sell me that case Steam! Ill purchase it

Same! that's a fantastic case, I already know of 2 builds I could instantly do with that!

 

[cliffordcooley]

According to the "ASRock Z87E-ITX" pages there is

1 x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 x half mini-PCIe, 1 x mSATA/full mini-PCIe

Slap a hybrid hard drive in there and take my money already!

It took me a little bit to find the slot in the pictures. There is a full mini-PCIe port for mSATA on the back of the motherboard in this setup. So there is an option other than using a hybrid drive. That is if they continue to use this board (or comparable), in the final Steam Machine release. And assuming the Steam Machine can handle multiple drives.