Earlier this month, Valve announced its "Get It Early" promotion, where customers could not only pre-order the Steam Controller and Steam Link, or the Alienware or Syber Steam Machines, but also have it by October 16, weeks before the actual release date of November 10. Unfortunately for those who have yet to pre-order the hardware, the number of devices available in October has sold out.
Valve didn't provide an actual number of pre-orders with the promotion, but considering that it took less than a month to sell out, the numbers should be impressive. If anything, this is a good sign for the company that the long-awaited hardware is still a sought-after product. (Unless of course Valve is playing a low-volume game here to create the illusion of demand.)
Even though the early promotion is sold out, pre-orders are still available for the actual launch date. Both the Steam Controller and Steam Link will cost $49.99, or you can buy both with a bundle for $99.98. We saw both for the first time at GDC earlier this year, but we weren't impressed at the time. Hopefully, some changes and additional features will be included in the final product.
Valve is also taking pre-orders for two Steam Machines, one from Alienware and the other from Syber. Alienware will have four models available. The low-tier model will cost $499 and will contain an Intel Core i3-4130T processor with 4 GB of DDR3 memory and 500 GB of HDD storage. For $549, you can upgrade the memory to 8 GB and have 1 TB of storage.
The mid-tier model features an Intel Core i5-4590T CPU with 8 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage, all for $649.
As for the high end model, which costs $749, it will have the Intel Core i7-4765T, 8 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage. All of the models include an Nvidia GPU, but it's unclear as to which card is available for any of the devices.
On the other hand, Syber only has three versions available. The first, like the low-end Alienware unit, is priced at $499 and will have an Intel Core i3-4160 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 GPU, 4 GB of DDR3 memory and 500 GB of HDD storage.
The mid-tier is a drastic increase in price at $729. It will have an Intel Core i5-4460 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960, 8 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage. For the high price of $1,419, Syber's top-of-the-line Steam Machine will offer an Intel Core i7-4790 CPU, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980, 16 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage.
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