Maingear's tiny Steam machine runs on AMD components

[Himanshu Arora]

Maingear is among the list of computer manufacturers that will be offering a Steam machine this year. The boutique PC maker announced last week at CES its Spark Steam machine, which, according to the company, is the smallest gaming PC it has ever assembled.

Spark weighs in at 0.89 pounds and its red and black chassis measures 2.34 by 4.5 by 4.23 inches, which if you compare, is even smaller than a DVD case. Unlike other Steam machines, Spark does not have to come loaded with Steam OS. Buyers are free to choose from Windows 7, Windows 8 and Steam OS configurations.

The machine features a four-thread AMD A8-­5575M processor, a 2GB AMD Radeon R9 M275X Video Card, four USB 3.0 ports, 2x SO-­DIMM RAM slots (up to 16GB supported), Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity, an mSATA slot for 256GB SSDs, and a slot for a 2.5" SATA III 6Gb/s HDD. It also has an HDMI port, and a Mini-DisplayPort that can power two displays at the same time, if necessary.

Although pricing details were not revealed, the company said that it will be an affordable PC solution. The machine will be available in mid-to-late Q1 2014.

Check out 13 other Steam Machines that made their debut at CES 2014. Our Complete coverage of this year's Consumer Electronics Show is available here.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55322-maingears-tiny-steam-machine-runs-on-amd-components.html

 

[hahahanoobs]

Isn't affordable Maingear an oxymoron?
The pricing on those 13 steam machines at CES are not comforting. In addition, it's not like those systems are using new technologies to warrant their high price like a 4K monitor for example, soooo....

 

[GhostRyder]

I don't know where the power of the R9 M275X will fall, however to me at least I would think making an APU with the new A10 7850k in this small form might actually be a better option than this and more cost effective if people look for something in this size. I think these steam machines because of the pricing and the fact that most companies are pairing these machines with 600+ dollars worth of GPU hardware to play steam games (Yes I know there are games like Tomb Raider on steam) which seems like complete overkill and over budget for most.

 

[veLa]

I'd rather just build another gaming rig than buy a Maingear system, Steam machine or not.

 

[Forg0t2]

The problem I'm having is that I don't get the information I want. All I currently hear and read is new steam machines with ridiculous pricing. I want to hear more about feature development and stuff. what are the capabilities of such a machine in my living room? Showing off a new steam machine almost everyday doesn't get me all warm and fuzzy inside.