Valve employee Greg Coomer has stated that the 300 prototypes that participants will be testing will include the following specs:

GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660

CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3

RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)

Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD

Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold

Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high

If you aren’t aware, Valve will randomly choose 300 people to ship prototypes to. To be eligible, you have to have to have a PC controller. More information here. As of the time of writing, there are over 340,000 eligible participants. If you want to join, good luck.

These are some really powerful machines. The most powerful feature some of the most beastly hardware available. I honestly thought that Steam Machines were going to be dinky little media PCs. The concern, however, is the low-wattage power supply. 450 watts is very low and is also considered the minimum for gaming PCs. It will be quite interesting to see how much Valve’s version will cost when the machines are released in 2014.

Source: PC Gamer