Are Steam Machine Game Consoles Worth it?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
2,516 words · ~12 min read
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so let's get this out of the way first what this video is not is a
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comprehensive review of Steam OS what this video is is my Impressions from
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having used the Alienware steam machine which was provided free of charge by
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Dell as a gaming console for the last little while so expect a mishmash of my
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thoughts on both the hardware and the software and what they add up to in
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terms of the user experience
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fresh books is the super simple invoicing solution that lets you get
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organized save time and get paid faster
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check out the link in the video description to try it for free let's
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start with the hardware there are going to be no surprises here if you've been following Steam OS through its long and
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arduous birthing process over the last two years because this is pretty much
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the same piece of kit that Alienware first unveiled as a living room console
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running Steam OS almost 2 years ago then
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when it became apparent that valves Steam OS and steam controller teams were
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operating on oh I don't know say valve Time released a few months later as the
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Alienware Alpha running Windows with a living room friendly game launching UI
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and an Xbox 360 controller to presumably to recoup some of the hardware
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engineering costs that went into it so
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yeah it's got somewhat dated but actually not totally incapable hardware
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for cas ual games and even older AAA titles like BioShock Infinite at low to
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medium settings my model is equipped with a haswell-based core I3 dual core 8
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gigs of RAM a 1 TB hard drive and an 860m 2 gig is equivalent custom Maxwell
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based GPU Alienware is touting the steam machine as upgradeable like a PC as well
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but I'd say that's a little misleading you can add RAM and a larger drive or
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SSD but the motherboard and video card are both non-standard so if you bought a
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Mac out config today there would be no upgrade path with the graphics card
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being the biggest concern here since it's the same all the way from the 449
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price point to the 749 price point not
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the way that stepup options usually are handled on a gaming machine but a
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necessary limitation with this kind of Highly customized form factor on that
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note I'd say industrial design-wise Alienware did a really great job it's
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not as small as an NVIDIA Shield Android TV or anything like that but the overall
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look is very subtle and if it wasn't for the glossy plastic I'd be giving full
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marks here the black housing features a couple USB 3.0 ports an alien head
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shaped power button and Steam logo on the front the color of these backlights
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by the way can be changed or disabled altogether around the back you'll find
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the power input HDMI 1.4 output HDMI
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input note though that this is a pass through only not a capture card an
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optical audio output note also that there is no analog audio output a bit of
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a head scratcher a land port and two more USB ports this time of the 2.0
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speed variety a fifth USB port is on the
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inside for the wireless receiver that supports up to four steam controllers
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the unit is quieter than a spinning optical drive at idle and underload when
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oh I don't know you might be playing a game say for example with sound it was
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significantly louder than that but in audible over the background music and
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ambient sounds of any but the quietest games like limbo speaking of games in
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addition to the console you'll get a couple of games in the Box as well as a
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steam controller although I'm going to leave the long-term use functionality
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focused review of this puppy to Luke who is working on that right now in the
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meantime let's get into my experience using Steam OS when you run the initial
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setup you are prompted to connect to a network uh prompted to run some updates
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if applicable and then to create or log into an existing steam account text
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entry with the touchpads is actually pretty clever but my account name has an
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underscore in it so I actually had to go get a keyboard to plug in to log in
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because the onscreen keyboard has two tities for some reason and no underscore
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strike one then at the home screen my controller started tweaking out with the
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vibration motor going crazy and overriding my keyboard and mouse inputs
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so I actually had to hard reset the system and then finally upon reboot I
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was prompted to update the controller firmware which fixed the issue so far
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not a great experience strike two next I headed to my library to download some
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Linux compatible games where I was surprised by a couple of things number
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one while the game count that valve
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keeps throwing around is utterly meaningless I mean there were over
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10,000 total PlayStation 2 games but come on how many of them were worth
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playing there are some pretty decent
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indie games like Super Meat Boy and papers please and while mostly somewhat
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dated way more AAA grade games than I
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expected like BioShock Infinite Borderlands 2 and Borderlands the
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Pre-Sequel Witcher 2 civilization 5 and Metro last Light that run on Linux the
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valve titles that are supported we can kind of take for granted here but those
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are good too but the thing that really stands out is that third-party developer
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support for Linux has improved in the last two years to the point where if you
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bought a steam machine just for playing native games it would be pretty hard to
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get bored and speaking of things that are hard browsing and buying games I
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searched valiantly in the store for a Steam OS compatible tag until finally
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near the bottom I was like Hallelujah steam machine tag only to realize that
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that tag is to buy a steam machine come
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on valve here's a request for this feature from five years ago instead of
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being able to just see all the Linux games in one place I have to check every
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product page individually and look for the small little OS support icon and
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then buy it and the worst part is that nothing in the checkout process prevents
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a newcomer who doesn't know about this from buying incompatible games I mean I
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I know that steam allows refunds now but preventing issues like this is a lot
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better than fixing them after the fact strike three once I got gaming though
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things got a little smoother again for Native games launching them is Fast and
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the performance is fine as long as you don't over estimate the capabilities of
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your hardware and you account for the constantly shrinking but still
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significant Linux performance penalty and there's more good news for the games
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that are not Linux compatible if you have a capable Windows gaming box
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Elsewhere on the house logged into the same Steam account and your home network
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performs very well the Steam OS interface allows those games to not only
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be run remotely using steam and home streaming but also even installed
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remotely and usually as long as you don't have a UAC popup to deal with or
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something like that without ever actually getting off your butt and
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putting down your steam controller and going and looking at that
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computer but lonus hold on a minute if I wanted to stream games over my local
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network steamlink can do that for 50 bucks why am I spending 500 plus dollars
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on a full PC for this exactly great
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question and I wish the answer was something like well it's got all these
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other great capabilities but it doesn't
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and to address the Linux Army that is undoubtedly charging to the comments to
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inform me that there's a checkbox to enable the desktop Linux experience so
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you can sudo it up I know but I don't
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care that's completely irrelevant to the target audience for this product the
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audience that isn't already just running a normal steam client on Linux for even
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better customizability the audience for whom overscan settings are apparently
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called resolution the console audience I
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mean for people who just want to veg on the couch in front of their gaming box
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honestly I think even issues like the default Gamepad mapping for Tomb Raider
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being an unusable disaster that required me to go Source One of the thankfully
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surprisingly usable Community created ones are going to be a
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showstopper and these people really don't want to hear that they're going to
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need an external capture PC to stream to
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Twitch and that this alleged game console doesn't support all but
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ubiquitous features like being able to Netflix and chill or well okay arguably
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actually watching movies is not a prerequisite for that so I guess you're
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good there but but when it but what it can't do without an add-on app purchase
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or the requisite Linux ninja training is just playing Netflix or Hulu or stream
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most content in general while YouTube thankfully works the built-in browser
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makes it a frankly fairly rubbish experience in if I did want to watch a
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YouTube video I would expect pressing the steam button on the controller would
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indicate that I would like to mute that video and switch to another task now but
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no it just keeps playing in the background and that's just one of the
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many annoying things about the
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experience hopefully more tightly integrated native apps arrive in the
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future to make the experience more complete but I have a hard time seeing
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where developer support is going to come from unless valve can figure out how to
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sell some consoles which at this point I
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think is just plain not going to happen
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because right now a steam machine is a
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Super Nintendo without Super Mario World it's an Xbox without Halo it's the Wii
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without a gimmicky game in the box that lets you flail a weird dildo and watch
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graphical representations of you and your roommates poning each other at
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bowling so while valve is a smart company and I'm sure someone over there
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has after very careful consideration
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decided that exclusive content doesn't align with the core purpose of this
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entire freaking project a desire to unshackle Gamers from their dependency
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on closed systems from the likes of Microsoft or Sony and drive Linux as a
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more open gaming platform that doesn't change the cold hard truth that this is
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a different market and your Noble philosophy is not going to sell consoles
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great exclusive titles sell cons conses and Steam OS has nothing that doesn't
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run on the regular steam client it manages to deliver none of the core
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benefits of the PC the versatility to run anything through a web browser and
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any app you could possibly want wide compatibility nearly Limitless gaming
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experiences with VR surround endless peripheral choices Etc and manages to
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deliver none of the benefits of a console plug andplay ease of use
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exclusive titles familiarity to Casual users and I guess just can't see who it
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would appeal to other than Tech heads with enough disposable income to toss
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out a random extra box that doesn't really do much under their TV and even
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for them wouldn't they just have an extra $100 then for a Windows license it
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looks like to me that steam os's biggest competitor aside from Steam link which I
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mentioned before is steam itself running
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in Big Picture Mode a much more sensible option for Ballers who want to dether
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that living room gaming experience from their desktop one in case Little
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Sally wants to make a PowerPoint presentation or whatever while they're
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gaming on the TV something that steamlink cannot do because it has to
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display exactly what is on the screen of the computer so if I had to place my bet
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today and it's not the first time I've said this I'm with Razer and NVIDIA on
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the Android gaming bandwagon that is a
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platform with a massive install base and developers who have a track record of
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releasing software on it and expecting to make a good return on the their
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effort as much as I hope I'm wrong and as much as this isn't alienware's fault
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or any of the hardware Partners I'm pronouncing the Steam OS platform Dead
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on Arrival unless there's a seemingly impossible philosophical change at valve
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but you know what doesn't require a dramatic philosophical change to
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appreciate fsp's hydrog g750 power
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supply it features 80 plus gold efficiency with a zero dbel zero noise
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mode depending on the load on the power supply for that 135 mm fluid Dynamic
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bearing fan it is fully modular and it has ecaps that are made in Japan with a
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focus on reliability they're using what they call a server grade design with
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copper bars joining the main board and the daughter board to increase
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conversion efficiency and it comes with three hydr G sticker choices to match a
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variety of build color themes something I wish more manufacturers actually did
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because it can be like everything's matching except there's like your power
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supply sticker and I mean the case industry has gone as far as to make
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cases that cover the power supply so that you don't have to worry about that
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but still there are very very few that feature that so it's nice to see those stickers anyway if you want to learn
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more about that power supply check out the link in the video
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description so that's pretty much it guys thanks for watching if you dislike
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this video Hit dislike if you disagree
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with me about Steam OS hit dislike too if you uh like the video though please
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do hit the like button it does make my self-esteem go up and I think there's
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other things you can do too right yeah get subscribed and maybe even consider
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doing all that stuff that pretty much wraps it up I think I forget the rest of
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my outro so bye