ZOTAC Goes Full Steam Ahead With SN970 Steam Machine

If the stars align, Valve will really be announcing about a dozen Steam Machines come November this year. Of course, that was the promise last year and we all now what happened. Still, it seems like partners are getting back on track, and one of those is ZOTAC. The company that has recently been putting out mini and pico PCs has just announced that they are completely on board the Steam Machine thrust with a new SN970 gaming PC coming to its catalog soon.

ZOTAC has been filling the small PC market with a lot of boxes, most of them running Linux or without any operating system. Last year, it started shipping Windows 8.1 out of the box thanks to Microsoft's reduced licensing scheme. Now ZOTAC will be returning to Linux, sort of. The Steam Machines will naturally be running SteamOS, which is a Linux derivative. But don't pan it for that, because this box was definitely built for gaming.

The company claims that it will be utilizing Intel's 6th generation CPUs, which are still coming later this year. For graphics, it will employ an NVIDIA Maxwell GPU, believed to be a GTX 970M. The rest of the specs are still up in the air, except for a 64 GB M.2 SSD paired with a 2.5-inch 1 TB HDD, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 4K video output. From preview of the SN970 that ZOTAC released, we can see capability for up to 4 simultaneous displays via 4 HDMI ports. There's also a mini display port and a decent amount USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, plus an SD card slot.

In terms of design, ZOTAC says that the SN970 will display the company's signature look, which practically means a very plain and nondescript box. But instead of the usual monochromatic black, the SN970's body is sandwiched by a white bottom and top, the latter of which bears the Steam insignia. As mentioned, the box will be running SteamOS, which might limit some of the games you can play out of the box. That said, thanks to Steam's built-in streaming function, you can simply stream Windows or Mac games running on another box right into SN970.

ZOTAC has not yet revealed any pricing details, but we're sure to find out when the first batch of Steam Machines are announced. The box will also come with a Steam controller, in whatever incarnation it comes by then.

SOURCE: ZOTAC

VIA: Liliputing