Gadgetory

what's up guys so after months and months of waiting and teasing and rumors and speculation the first batch of Valve's long-awaited steam machines are finally upon us but how do the living-room centric PC console hybrid box things actually perform well I can't speak for all of them I do have one particular model on hand with me today this is the zou tec-9s n 970 and it's being touted as the most powerful small form-factor steam box so far with its quad core Core i5 6400 T skylake CPU at 2.8 gigahertz eight gigs of RAM one terabyte of storage and a full not mobile gtx 960 with a three gig frame buffer on a 192 bit bus those of you who know your GPUs like the back of your hand probably noticed that the reference gtx 960 sports two gigs of VRAM on a 128-bit bus and I've confirmed with ZOTAC that this is actually the OEM version of the gtx 960 which features those higher specs I'll put a link to that in the description the box itself sports a black and white plastic enclosure that's roughly three to four times larger than something like an Intel nook but still slim enough to fit comfortably in a living room environment one big oversight here is that there's no included stand to orient the Box upright which would have allowed twice as much flexibility for users with limited space the absence of any ventilation slots on the right side would have made this an easy feature to add that said you do get plenty of ventilation around the rest of the unit and a loud and proud steam logo on top at the front is a large power button with a white power LED that's slightly distracting not due to its brightness but rather its size a USB 3.0 and SD card slot combo with UHS to support audio jacks and the USB 3 type C port around back you'll find DC power a pair of USB 2 and 3 ports for hdmi 2.0 outputs for multi display dual gigabit ethernet lan and a connector with included antenna for 802 AC Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 one of the big selling points that set certain steam machines apart from their console counterparts is having significantly more expandability options two thumb screws on the back allow users to remove the bottom panel in order to access some of the unit's internal hardware here we see ZOTAC has left one som slot unpopulated if you wish to add another a cake module apart from being able to replace the two and a half inch mechanical drive there's also support for a single SATA M to drive at forty to sixty or eighty millimeter lengths seeing is how nen comes with a steam controller as well which we'll touch on later an internal USB port can be used for connecting the controllers receiver though you can also opt to connect the dongle externally to the unit itself or to the included adapter for better signal now while there's nothing revolutionary about the hardware here though Tech's experience what they're successful ZBOX line has positioned them quite nicely when it comes to making steam machines and they've done a fine job here at cramming some capable hardware into a small footprint as soon as we press the beckoning power button however this review switches its focus almost entirely to valve and what they've been able to do with their Linux based steam OS and in-house controller now booting into the OS took me just shy of a minute 20 which is partly due to limitations of the mechanical hard drive although there's probably a way to clone steam OS onto an end to drive it would have been nice to find an easy clone utility tool in the OS for less experienced Linux users upon booting up were met with a simple home menu where we can navigate the different pockets of the OS starting with web browsing the first thing I noticed when jumping onto YouTube is that the web pages are somewhat fitted to the screen but not perfectly so you constantly find yourself sliding left and right when you're simply trying to scroll up and down which can get pretty annoying now the preset controls for browsing aren't horrible but they definitely make this section of the OS the least intuitive to navigate since the right trackpad is reserved for cursor movement it only felt natural to me that clicking in would register a left click but for some reason this action has been assigned to the triggers instead it was the first time I've ever had to shoot my way out of a pre-roll sure you can use the a button to click but that's just too far away from the trackpad to be practical if you're not happy with the default controller configurations you can browse a list of user made profiles or create your own so at the moment it seems modifying the web browser and big picture profiles is off limits until a future patch inside the browser you can perform simple tasks like refresh and add favorites but you can actually access the URL bar up top with your cursor instead you have to press X to open an action menu first whereas I would have liked to see options for both typing with the steam controller is done with an on-screen keyboard that's split in half and navigated by the two track pads this is actually one of the more successful implementations of the OS and divides a fairly precise typing experience for web browsing and chatting that comes naturally after a bit of practice moving on to the steam store everything is neatly organized easy to navigate and equally unsafe for your wallet one gripe I have here is that the preview videos are on autoplay and the only way I've been able to pause them is by going fullscreen which brings up the playback menu why one of the unassigned track pads couldn't handle this function I'm not too sure on the plus side steam lists the system requirements for all games so you don't end up buying a title that's not supported by steam OS or the limitations of your hardware while there's currently around 1,500 supported games on the OS any titles outside of that group can be streamed locally from a nearby PC the screen quality is nothing to write home about but it's sharper than most other Stream boxes I've seen and it still looks better than a console although that's not saying much the downside as is with most streaming devices is the slight but constant input lag that makes it tough to play fast paced shooters and the like and I did experience them stuttering every few minutes which really pulls you out of the game so what about the games that you actually can play natively on this device after all if this thing tanks at playing games what use does it have other than an expensive cheese plate well from the 5 different games I tested all of the managed to deliver a solid gameplay experience on high settings at 1080p FPS counter the image seems buttery smooth and looks great on a big screen all the while the Box stays relatively quiet under load overall the quality here is what you'd expect when gaming on a desktop PC and this is where the steam machine really shines as far as I could tell the only thing holding back my gameplay experience was the steam controller granted it's nice to be able to use game specific user generated profiles but I still can't tell whether there's a steep learning curve to aiming with the trackpad or if it just doesn't work that well either way I can imagine most folks will take the time to figure it out before plugging in an Xbox one or 360 controller which worked beautifully I might add with all the games I tested except for left 4 dead 2 I see what you did there valve both trackpads feature haptic feedback which provide an element of tactile resistance to your thumbs wherever they go this gives the illusion of grip and attempts to trick your brain into thinking you're using a joystick but with a joystick I can usually hit targets more than three feet away the grip buttons on the back of the steam controller designed to perform key actions like jump and reload out happy to take your finger off the trackpad and while it's a neat idea I found myself constantly hitting them by accident when tensing my grip during a heated firefight I haven't bunny hopped like that since counter-strike 1.3 finally the controller uses two double-a batteries as opposed to a rechargeable lithium-ion battery which you'll either love or hate but you can also power the controller using a microUSB cable in closing I can confidently say that the steambox feels right in between a console and the PC you get to game in the comfort of your living room with a controller friendly UI but you also get to enjoy superior visuals and play some of your favorite PC exclusive titles at the same time the finished product doesn't feel quite as fluid as a full-fledged console nor is it as limitless as a traditional PC as it currently stands I have my doubts that early steam machine adopters will be fully satisfied with the number of shortcomings I've just discussed but as is the case with new technology only time will tell if steam can patch up some of the oversights and their OS and give gamers a more complete list of games to choose from but let me know what you guys think of this steam box here in the comments below and don't forget to toss me a like on this video if you enjoyed it before you go feel free to check the description below for shirts as well as bookmark my Amazon affiliate link and use it when you buy stuff it helps me a lot as well some calluses Network thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and that we'll see you all in the next video you