 So let's get this out of the way first. What this video is not is a comprehensive review of SteamOS. What this video is, is my impressions from having used the Alienware Steam Machine, which was provided free of charge by Dell, as a game in console for the last little while. So expect a mishmash of my thoughts on both the hardware and the software, and what they add up to in terms of the user experience. FreshBooks is the super simple invoicing solution that lets you get organized, save time, and get paid faster. Check out the link in the video description to try it for free. Let's start with the hardware. There are going to be no surprises here. If you've been following SteamOS through its long and arduous birthing process over the last two years, because this is pretty much the same piece of kit that Alienware first unveiled as a living room console running SteamOS almost two years ago. Then, when it became apparent that Valve's SteamOS and Steam controller teams were operating on, oh I don't know, say Valve time, released a few months later as the Alienware Alpha running Windows with a living room friendly game launching UI and an Xbox 360 controller, presumably to recoup some of the hardware engineering costs that went into it. So yeah, it's got somewhat dated, but actually not totally incapable hardware for casual games and even older AAA titles like Bioshock Infinite at low to medium settings. My model is equipped with a Haswell-based Core i3 dual core, 8 gigs of RAM, a 1 terabyte hard drive, and an 860M 2 gig ish equivalent custom Maxwell-based GPU. Alienware is touting the Steam machine as upgradable like a PC as well, but I'd say that's a little misleading. You can add RAM and a larger drive or SSD, but the motherboard and video card are both non-standard, so if you bought a maxed out config today, there would be no upgrade path, with the graphics card being the biggest concern here, since it's the same all the way from the $449 price point to the $749 price point, not the way that step-up options usually are handled on a gaming machine, but a necessary limitation with this kind of highly customized form factor. On that note, I'd say industrial design-wise, Alienware did a really great job. It's not as small as an Nvidia Shield Android TV or anything like that, but the overall look is very subtle, and if it wasn't for the glossy plastic, I'd be giving full marks here. The black housing features a couple USB 3.0 ports, an alien head-shaped power button, and Steam logo on the front. The color of these backlights, by the way, can be changed or disabled altogether. Around the back, you'll find the power input, HDMI 1.4 output, HDMI input. Note, though, that this is a pass-through, only not a capture card, and optical audio output. Note, also, that there is no analog audio output, a bit of a head-scratcher, a LAN port, and two more USB ports, this time of the 2.0 speed variety. A fifth USB port is on the inside for the wireless receiver that supports up to four Steam controllers. The unit is quieter than a spinning optical drive at idle, and under load when, oh, I don't know, you might be playing a game, say, for example, with sound, it was significantly louder than that, but inaudible over the background music and ambient sounds of any but the quietest games like Limbo. Speaking of games, in addition to the console, you'll get a couple of games in the box, as well as a Steam controller, although I'm going to leave the long-term use functionality-focused review of this puppy to Luke, who is working on that right now. In the meantime, let's get into my experience using Steam OS. When you run the initial setup, you are prompted to connect to a network, prompted to run some updates, if applicable, and then to create or log into an existing Steam account. Text entry with the touchpads is actually pretty clever, but my account name has an underscore in it, so I actually had to go get a keyboard to plug in to log in, because the on-screen keyboard has two tildes for some reason and no underscore. Strike one. Then at the home screen, my controller started tweaking out with the vibration motor going crazy and overriding my keyboard and mouse inputs, so I actually had to hard reset the system, and then finally upon reboot, I was prompted to update the controller firmware, which fixed the issue. So far, not a great experience. Strike two. Next, I headed to my library to download some Linux-compatible games, where I was surprised by a couple of things. Number one, while the game count that Valve keeps throwing around is utterly meaningless. I mean, there were over 10,000 total PlayStation 2 games, but come on, how many of them were worth playing? There are some pretty decent indie games like Super Meat Boy and Papers, Please, and while mostly somewhat dated, way more AAA grade games than I expected, like Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2 and Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, Witcher 2, Civilization 5, and Metro Last Light that run on Linux. The Valve titles that are supported, we can kind of take for granted here, but those are good too, but the thing that really stands out is that third-party developer support for Linux has improved in the last two years to the point where if you bought a Steam Machine just for playing native games, it would be pretty hard to get bored. And speaking of things that are hard, browsing and buying games. I searched valiantly in the store for a SteamOS-compatible tag, until finally near the bottom, I was like, hallelujah, Steam Machine tag, only to realize that that tag is to buy a Steam Machine. Come on, Valve, here's a request for this feature from five years ago. Instead of being able to just see all the Linux games in one place, I have to check every product page individually and look for the small little OS support icon and then buy it. And the worst part is that nothing in the checkout process prevents a newcomer who doesn't know about this from buying incompatible games. I mean, I know that Steam allows refunds now, but preventing issues like this is a lot better than fixing them after the fact, strike three. Once I got gaming though, things got a little smoother again. For native games, launching them is fast and the performance is fine, as long as you don't overestimate the capabilities of your hardware and you account for the constantly shrinking, but still significant Linux performance penalty. And there's more good news for the games that are not Linux compatible. If you have a capable Windows gaming box elsewhere in the house, logged into the same Steam account and your home network performs very well, the Steam OS interface allows those games to not only be run remotely using Steam in-home streaming, but also even installed remotely. And usually, as long as you don't have a UAC pop-up to deal with or something like that, without ever actually getting off your butt and putting down your Steam controller and going and looking at that computer. But Linus, hold on a minute. If I wanted to stream games over my local network, Steam Link can do that for 50 bucks. Why am I spending 500 plus dollars on a full PC for this exactly? Great question. And I wish the answer was something like, well, it's got all these other great capabilities, but it doesn't. And to address the Linux army that is undoubtedly charging to the comments to inform me that there's a checkbox to enable the desktop Linux experience so you can sudo it up, I know, but I don't care. That's completely irrelevant to the target audience for this product. The audience that isn't already just running a normal Steam client on Linux for even better customizability. The audience for whom over-scan settings are apparently called resolution, the console audience. I mean, for people who just want to veg on the couch in front of their gaming box, honestly, I think even issues like the default gamepad mapping for Tomb Raider being an unusable disaster that required me to go source one of the, thankfully, surprisingly usable, community created ones are going to be a showstopper. And these people really don't want to hear that they're going to need an external capture PC to stream to Twitch and that this alleged game console doesn't support all but ubiquitous features like being able to Netflix and chill or, well, okay, arguably actually watching movies is not a prerequisite for that, so I guess you're good there. But what it can't do without an add-on app purchase or the requisite Linux ninja training is just plain Netflix or Hulu or stream most content in general. While YouTube, thankfully, works, the built-in browser makes it a frankly fairly rubbish experience. If I did want to watch a YouTube video, I would expect pressing the steam button on the controller would indicate that I would like to mute that video and switch to another task now, but no, it just keeps playing in the background and that's just one of the many annoying things about the experience. Hopefully, more tightly integrated native apps arrive in the future to make the experience more complete, but I have a hard time seeing where developer support is going to come from unless Valve can figure out how to sell some consoles, which at this point I think is just plain not going to happen because right now a steam machine is a Super Nintendo without Super Mario World, it's an Xbox without Halo, it's the Wii without a gimmicky game in the box that lets you flail a weird dildo and watch graphical representations of you and your roommates pwning each other at bowling. So while Valve is a smart company and I'm sure someone over there has after very careful consideration decided that exclusive content doesn't align with the core purpose of this entire freaking project, a desire to unshackle gamers from their dependency on closed systems from the likes of Microsoft or Sony and drive Linux as a more open gaming platform, that doesn't change the cold hard truth that this is a different market and your noble philosophy is not going to sell consoles. Great exclusive titles sell consoles and Steam OS has nothing that doesn't run on the regular Steam client. It manages to deliver none of the core benefits of the PC, the versatility to run anything through a web browser and any app you could possibly want, wide compatibility, nearly limitless gaming experiences with VR, surround, endless peripheral choices, etc. And manages to deliver none of the benefits of a console, plug and play, ease of use, exclusive titles, familiarity to casual users. And I guess I just can't see who it would appeal to other than tech heads with enough disposable income to toss out a random extra box that doesn't really do much under their TV. And even for them, wouldn't they just have an extra hundred dollars then for a Windows license? It looks like to me that Steam OS's biggest competitor, aside from Steam Link, which I mentioned before, is Steam itself running in big picture mode, a much more sensible option for ballers who want to detether that living room gaming experience from their desktop one in case little Sally wants to make a PowerPoint presentation or whatever while they're gaming on the TV, something that Steam Link cannot do because it has to display exactly what is on the screen of the computer. So if I had to place my bet today, and it's not the first time I've said this, I'm with Razer and Nvidia on the Android gaming bandwagon. That is a platform with a massive install base and developers who have a track record of releasing software on it and expecting to make a good return on their effort. As much as I hope I'm wrong, and as much as this isn't Alienware's fault or any of the hardware partners, I'm pronouncing the Steam OS platform dead on arrival unless there's a seemingly impossible philosophical change at Valve. But you know what doesn't require a dramatic philosophical change to appreciate? FSP's Hydro G750 power supply. It features 80 plus gold efficiency with a zero decibel, zero noise mode depending on the load on the power supply for that 135 millimeter fluid dynamic bearing fan. It is fully modular and it has eCaps that are made in Japan with a focus on reliability. They're using what they call a server-grade design with copper bars joining the main board and the daughter board to increase conversion efficiency and it comes with three Hydro G sticker choices to match a variety of build color themes. Something I wish more manufacturers actually did because it can be like everything's matching except there's like your power supply sticker and I mean the case industry has gone as far as to make cases that cover the power supply so that you don't have to worry about that but still there are very very few that feature that so it's nice to see those stickers. Anyway if you want to learn more about that power supply check out the link in the video description. So that's pretty much it guys thanks for watching if you disliked this video hit dislike if you disagree with me about Steam OS hit dislike too if you like the video though please do hit the like button it does make my self-esteem go up and I think there's other things you can do too right yeah like get subscribed and maybe even consider supporting us by buying a cool shirt like this one giving us a monthly contribution through our forum you get a cool little supporter badge or by changing your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code instructions for which are up there. Now that you're done doing all that stuff that pretty much wraps it up I think I forget the rest of my outro so bye!