A great product for a less beautiful price. Silent, compact and powerful.
Pros
- Silent
- Powerful
- Small
Cons
- Dongle position
- SteamOS is still in its infancy
- Pricey
Final conclusion
Score: 5Per criterion
Build quality
Score: 4
After a long time waiting and some bad experiences with ordering a comparable Alienware variant I’m finally at the SN970 come true. He is sitting in the more expensive segment, but that should not spoil the fun given what you get for it.
In the box :
– Zotac SN970
– Power supply, type of grown-up laptop brick
– Steam Controller + dongle
– Cradle + cable for the dongle
– Driver CD (windows) and something to read
– Wi-fi antenna
– Power cable 2x (EU & UK)
The box is small, silent and powerful. You can for the money, of course, a thicker (ht)pc build, but you never comes to this form factor. For me, this was therefore decisive : he had to fit in the place of my old mede8er.
Also consider hardware compatibility. If you have a Steam Machine an official supporter buys then you know that the hardware is supported by the OS. In the past I have all too often experienced issues with hacks had to be solved, since I had no interest in.
Out of the box it works perfectly for which it is intended : steam linux games to play. Plug in, log on, update to back up to let rumble and play.
I already had some reviews to read about bugs in the SteamOS, such as sound every time at startup is re-configured. But no, no problem, 1x indicate where it should and continues to work. SteamOS is every week is better if I go to the updates look. You know that if you step on a Steam Machine is that it is all still in its infancy, but I’m happy to report that it just works.
During the first test run, I did another fun thingy seen : I had only 1 game is installed and when I went out, there were suddenly 20 in the list as playable. What turned out to be – he had my laptop in the meantime found on the network and offered to have the games to stream. I then immediately turned off, but it was fun to see how smoothly it works. Also, the controller settings were actually taken as I on the laptop had set. The small things that indicate good things are happening at Valve.
You can use the dongle for the controller in the SN970 places, internally, there is a spot. That sounds good but is in my case already worthless in evidence. And with me many others given the reviews that I had read. The Zotac with 2 small thumbscrews open to be made to get direct access to things like the memory (1 slot occupied, 1 free), hard disk drive, M. 2 slot, and the aforementioned dongle usb slot. Unfortunately, this is slot at the bottom of the unit. While facing forward, but even on my wooden cabinet there is not enough signal without SteamOS starts to complain about the connection. So I have my refuge have taken to the cradle, this works perfectly, I have in the entire living room range. Even if I have the controller in the kitchen behind the (large American style STAINLESS steel fridge hold down then it works without a hitch.
Features 4*
Why not a 5 ? Video card is not replaceable and the USB port on the front has no metal sleeve. I can imagine that if there’s a usb stick in it and the woman is what excited at the substances that this weel once would be quick to break down. Fun and useful detail is that you can turn on with a press on the steam controller (and turn off via Steam of course)
Ergonomics 5*
So small, so quiet and with so much punch. That do but little. Bravo ! At startup, you hear the fan even at max speed, which is less noise than the humidifier.
Performance 4*
No, it is not the fastest hardware for that price. But it’s sat for full hd. If a game does not pull with this silicon, it is based mostly on the developer of the game. And after the ssd in my laptop can I find a normal hdd might be a bit slow feeling to it, even though I had worse expected.
Stability & reliability 4*
No crashes apart from the prutswerk of myself, and even when I press the steam button on the controller back to steam itself, and the pending application to close. I reserve the 5th star for when I longer have done.
Build quality and finish 4*
Plastic, that still is a bad feeling how you look at it. Also, I open a thread, seen what I think after patch ingesoldeerd.
Design 3*
What concerns me in colors other than strongly contrasting black/white will be supplied. Also, the bright white light of the power button is a minnetje. Not the prettiest, not the ugliest, I’m happy for him behind the tv to slide where only the cradle (barely) visible.
Price 2*
Well, lwa 1153 (lwa 1199 at time of writing) is still a lot of money for a ‘console’. No, but do 3*, I am finally satisfied with the product and then we call this but price/performance/satisfaction. After all, it’s for the enjoyment.
Finally, some other observations.
I’ve got Kodi installed on the Zotac and a link in Steam offers easy access. After some messing about with the repositories and configuration is all this was very successful and it works exactly as you would expect. No, that’s not out of the box and definitely not for beginners. Especially given the linux base of the unit, I recommend this not for the console/windows community. I really have to say : not yet. Who knows what Valve are all in store for SteamOS.
Related thereto, I want to still talk about the reviews on the web. Almost without exception, complain that is all about the support of windows games on this hardware/OS. Some recommend even to install windows. These are to my opinion bad conclusions. Under that same logic, one would also blame have to make that playstation/xbox/wii/whatever games don’t work under windows, or for my part these steam machines. You can buy a Steam Machine, with Linux, with a base of pak m beet 1800 games at the writing of this piece. In the same way bought playstation owners their console is a dedicated piece of hardware with a certain basis of games. Afterwards, go complain that your windows games don’t work is to admit that you do your homework not done have. And by the way, you can with steam link you windows games streaming to this machine, something which is of no lasting a few other ‘console’ as possible. And install windows ? No, then you have not understood.
Now just have to get used to the operation with the Steam Controller, muscle memory grow. Sooner or later line I have a corsair lapdog if I deem it necessary, but so far I am very satisfied with this purchase. He is now already the whole day in this first weekend as a radio/media player, and games for when the wife to the gym 