A lot of manufacturers have committed to the Steam machine but unfortunately none of them have made their debut in India. That might change soon. Zotac, a company known for manufacturing graphic cards and ZBOX Mini PCs is launching a steam machine. Unfortunately, there is no information available about the price point or availability of the machine. Zotac claims that the NEN Steam Machine isn’t just a PC running the Steam OS. Zotac says, “It (the NEN Steam Machine) is engineered from the ground up to game with the mechanics of the PC fused with the genetics of console to be the most powerful small form Steam Machine.”
Coming to the specifications of the NEN Steam Machine, the device has 8GB RAM expandable to 16GB, 1 x 1TB 2.5" SATA HDD and 1 x M.2 SATA SSD slot. The 6th Gen Intel Core i5-6400T 2.2GHz quad-core process coupled with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 graphics card powers the device. It has 4HDMI outs making it ideal for a multi-monitor setup. Here is a detailed look at the specifications.
| Product | NEN Steam Machine |
| Memory | 8GB Memory (up to 16GB) one slot free |
| Storage | 1 x 1TB 2.5" SATA HDD 1 x M.2 SATA SSD slot |
| CPU | 6th Gen Intel Core i5-6400T quad-core processor 2.2GHz (Turboboost up to 2.8 GHz) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (192-bit, 3GB GDDR5) |
| Display Options | 4 x HDMI 2.0 |
| Card Reader | 3-in-1 (SD/SDHC/SDXC) |
| Ethernet | Dual 10/100/1000Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0 |
| USB Ports | 3 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C, 2 x USB 2.0 |
| Audio | HDMI Audio Headphone Microphone |
| DirectX Support | 12 |
| HDCP | Yes |
| OS | SteamOS pre-installed |
| Controller | One Steam Controller bundled |
The steam machine is a great concept for PC gamers. it's a machines that offers great hardware and unlike consoles which can’t be upgraded, some Steam machines give users the ability to not only customise the hardware but upgrade it as well. The Steam controller, which comes bundled with a steam machine, is a unique take on gaming controllers moving slightly away from traditional gaming controllers but still sticking to the core that defines consoles controllers.
Another advantage that a steam machine has is the library of games. Sure, with backwards compatibility, the Xbox One has a dynamically larger games library but the PC has the largest library of legacy content. Time for the PS4 to introduce backwards compatibility?