Valve’s beta Steam Boxes will come in a range of specifications

The Steam Boxes due to be sent out to beta testers later this year will come in an assortment of specifications, some of which are very high-end indeed.

Of the 300 units some will include a modest Nvidia GTX 660, some a very decent GTX 760 and other a top-of-range Titan. CPUs will be mixed up too, ranging from the multi-threaded Intel i7-4770 to the fan-favourite i5-4570 or a simpler unspecified i3.

The prototype machine is a high-end, high-performance box, built out of off-the-shelf PC parts,” Valve stated. 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. And we expect that at least a few people will do just that. (We’ll also share the source CAD files for our enclosure, in case people want to replicate it as well.)

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.”

Here are the full specs:

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 DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold