The Steam Machines are coming

Valve have finally made an announcement with hard numbers for their Steam Machines. The news is just coming out of CES in Las Vegas. Infodump of specs with prices and some images all below, commentary follows:

Alternate - $1,339
CPU - Intel Core i5 4570
Graphics - Gigabyte GTX 760
RAM - 16 GB
Storage - 1 TB SSHD

CyberPowerPC - $499 and up
CPU - AMD/Intel Core i5 CPU
Graphics - AMD Radeon R9 270/Nvidia GTX 760
RAM - 8 GB
Storage - 500 GB

Digital Storm Bolt II - $2,584
CPU - Intel Core i7 4770K
Graphics - GTX 780 Ti
RAM - 16 GB
Storage - 1 TB HDD + 120 GB SSD

[gallery type="slideshow" link="none" ids="5162,5163,5164" orderby="rand"]

Gigabyte Brix Pro - TBD
CPU - Intel Core i7-4770R
Graphics - Intel Iris Pro 5200
RAM - 2 x 4 GB
Storage - 1 TB SATA 6Gb/s

Falcon Northwest - $1,799 to $6000
CPU - customizable
Graphics - Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan
RAM - 8 to 16 GB
Storage - up to 6 TB

iBuyPower - $499 and up
CPU - Quad core AMD or Intel
Graphics - Radeon GCN Graphics
RAM - 8 GB
Storage - 500 GB+

Materiel.net - $1,098
CPU - Intel Core i5 4440
Graphics - MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC
RAM - 8 GB
Storage - 8 GB + 1 TB SSHD

Next SPA - price TBD
CPU - Intel Core i5
Graphics - Nvidia GT 760
RAM - 8 GB
Storage - 1 TB

Origin PC Chronos - price TBD
CPU - Intel Core i7 4770K (3.9 to 4.6 GHz)
Graphics - 2 x 6 GB Nvidia GeForce GTX Titans

Scan NC 10 - $1,090
CPU - Intel Core i3 4000M
Graphics - Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M
RAM - 8 GB
Storage - 500 GB

Webhallen - $1,499
CPU - Intel Core i7 4771
Graphics - Nvidia GT 780
RAM - 16 GB
Storage - 1 TB SSHD

Zotac - $599
CPU - Intel Core (TBD)
Graphics - Nvidia GeForce GTX
RAM - TBD
Storage - TBD

It's a numbing series of numbers, but the good news is that the gamut is quite wide, from the $600 Zotac model to the $6,000 Falcon Northwest, though most seem to be around the $1,200 mark. We still don't know why owning a Steam Machine is going to be a good idea for anybody but the most keen hobbyists. I don't doubt there'll be a good experience, but at a cost substantially higher than any console for less of the functionality.

I will say that if the local streaming turns out to be efficient and well-implemented, I don't see why you couldn't install the SteamOS on a very small, cheap machine, even something as basic as a Raspberry Pi, and stream your spec-hungry games in 1080p from somewhere else in your home. That'd be something I'd be very interested in and could see catching on faster than these too-much-for-too-little offerings.

Specs and images via Polygon.