General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

How to Install SteamOS

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 02:57 PM PST

SteamOSEverything you need to know before installing Steam OS

Valve recently released its Beta version of SteamOS, based on the Debian distro of Linux. Naturally, we were intrigued by its release and wanted to take the new OS for a test run. We've put together a guide on how to install the operating system, and also provide you with our hands-on impressions of Valve's software. 

NOTE: Before beginning, we highly recommend that you back up everything on your system before attempting to install SteamOS, as the installer in this guide will erase your entire drive.

System Requirements:

To get started, you'll need to make sure that your rig meets the minimum hardware requirements: Intel or AMD processor, 4GB of RAM or more, a 500GB hard drive or larger, Nvidia video card (Valve states AMD and Intel graphics support are coming soon), UEFI boot support, a USB port for installation, and a 4GB flash drive or larger. 

How to Install SteamOS instructions:

Step 1: Format your flash drive to FAT32

Step 1

Plug in your flash drive and format it to FAT32. To do this, right click on the USB drive in My Computer and select format. Then change the file system from NTFS to FAT32 (if it isn't already FAT32). Then click format to freshly wipe your flash drive.

Step 2: Download the zip installer

Step 2

Download the SteamOSInstaller.zip from repo.steampowered.com/download.

Step 3: Extract the files from the zip file

Step 3

Right click on the SteamOSInstaller.zip you just downloaded and extract it to your flash drive. We used the free 7-Zip software to do this. Do not click on or open the flash drive to view its contents after the unzipping is complete, as this will mess up your extraction, and you won't be able to boot from the key after that.

Step 4: Reboot your system and boot from your flash drive

Step 4

Reboot your system and press F8, F10, or F12 to get to your Boot Menu and select your flash drive as your Boot Device. Make sure the Boot Option says UEFI and then the name of your flash drive, for example, UEFI SanDisk Cruzer.

Step 5: Run the automated installer

Step 5

You will then boot into a black screen with a purple Steam logo. This screen will have a list of three options, which include Automated Install WILL ERASE DISK!!!, Expert Install, and Rescue Mode. Select Automated Install WILL ERASE DISK!!! by pressing enter and the OS will start installing onto your hard disk. You will then see a white and purple installation screen for about 10-15 minutes, as it installs a fresh copy of SteamOS onto your machine.

Step 6: Remove your installation device

Step 6

After the OS finishes installing you'll be prompted to reboot your system and to remove your installation device.

Step 7: Select SteamOS Linux GNU/I

Step 7

The OS will boot up and have you choose between two options: SteamOS GNU/Linux, with Linux 3.10-3-amd64 and SteamOS GNU Linux, with Linux 3.10-3-amd64 (recovery mode). Make sure the first option is selected and then hit enter to start the boot up process.

Step 8: Log into SteamOS

step 8

You'll then see a login screen. To login use "steam" as both your password and username.

Step 9: Launch the terminal application to install Steam

Step 8

Now that you're at the desktop the last step is to launch the terminal application to install Steam. Go to the top left corner of the OS and click on Activities and then click on the Applications tab. Once the terminal is launched, type in steam and then hit enter to start the installation process. (You will need an internet connection for this installation setup to work)

Step 9

Step 10: You can now start gaming

Step 10

After the installer is finished running, you can login into your Steam account and start playing games.

Click the next page for our impressions of SteamOS.

 

Impressions:

With our GeForce GTX 680, our performance was great and we had no trouble hitting 60+ FPS in every title that we played using SteamOS. However, we didn't like how there was an immense amount of screen tearing, even when V-Sync was enabled. We saw less tearing in 2D games like Bastion and Shattered, but we experienced a heavy amount of tearing in Portal. Our current assessment is that games with complex polygons will experience a lot of screen tearing while 2D games will have very little to no screen tearing.

SteamOS

We encountered audio problems on the OS, as it only supports audio via HDMI, so your onboard motherboard audio will not work. We did get external headphones to work when we used an audio pass through on our monitor, in combination with HDMI as our video output. Valve probably assumes people will use SteamOS in their living room, so we think they guess most people will be using an HDMI audio setup too, or this could simply be patched up when SteamOS officially launches to the masses.

We like the idea of SteamOS and feel it could give Microsoft a run at being the go-to gaming OS, but right now it's very stripped-down. There aren't many third party applications you can run on SteamOS because not much supports it. We tried installing Chrome on the OS, and it didn't work because the browser doesn't support SteamOS. We were able to use the Internet by using Iceweasel, which is a rebranded version of Mozilla's Firefox for Debian distros of Linux, however.

SteamOS isn't a free gaming OS that can replace Windows at the moment. We'd much rather take Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, as a Windows alternative at this point because there's much more you can do with this Linux distro. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS also has more third party applications than SteamOS, and it performs similarly in gaming too. Ubuntu also supports legacy hardware, so you won't need to mess around modifying an installer to get it to work properly on your coveted rig. Lastly, unlike SteamOS, which doesn't support Intel and AMD graphics as of print time, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will install easily to Intel, AMD, or Nvidia graphics hardware.

If Valve wants to move people away from Windows and onto SteamOS, they'll need a more versatile OS to bring people on board. When it comes to gaming, currently, there are over eight thousand titles on Steam that support Windows, while SteamOS has just 440 games. For an OS devoted to living room gaming, it's a cool idea, but Windows can do so much more than the free OS at the moment, both in gaming and productivity. Still, if you've got some time to spare, SteamOS is free so feel free to give it a try and let us know what you think of it in the comments below!

China Outlaws Battlefield 4, Claims Game Threatens National Security

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 12:20 PM PST

BF4Is anyone truly surprised?

The Chinese government doesn't just keep a tight grip on the Internet, it has a firm hold on the games market, as well. So, it doesn't come as a total shock that China just banned Battlefield 4 while pointing an angry finger at publisher Electronic Arts (EA) for pushing content that government officials claim is a threat to national security. But wait, there's more. China also considers BF4 a form of cultural invasion.

Citing a Chinese-language PCgames.com.cn report (the original link appears to have been pulled down), ZDNet says China's Ministry of Culture issued a notice prohibiting all game-related materials regardless of form. That includes news reports, game downloads, patches, demos, etc.

China had already censored the world "ZhandDi4," which means "Battlefield 4," on the country's largest social media site Weibo.com. The game was never officially released in China, though users in China have been posting peer-to-peer download links of BF4 under its English name.

BF4's single-player campaign is set in the year 2020. China is on the brink of war as Admiral Chang plans to overthrow China's government. Should he succeed, he would have support from Russia, bringing China to the brink of war with the United States.

How that translates into a threat to national security is a good question. At the same time, the game has been so buggy since launch, the Chinese government may inadvertently be doing gamers a solid with this move.

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Puget Systems Pitches Virtues of Prebuilt Versus DIY Based on Component Failure Rates

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 11:25 AM PST

Puget SystemsKingston emerges as one of Puget Systems' most reliable brands of 2013

Boutique system builder Puget Systems recently wrote an interesting piece that both gives readers a glimpse of what the company found to be the most reliable hardware of the past year, and makes a case for buying a prebuilt system over going the do-it-yourself (DIY) route. Based on Puget's own data, a prebuilt system is roughly five times less likely to have a hardware failure than one you built yourself.

Let's back the boat a moment. Puget builds a lot of systems so it's in a unique position (compared to an end user) to analyze which components and brands are the most reliable based on failure rates. The company shared that info in a blog post, noting that it only considered items it's dealt with in bulk.

"Since we are a custom computer company and do at times special order in components to meet a customer's specific needs, there is one stipulation we are imposing on what hardware we will be allowing into this list," Puget explains. "Specifically, we are only considering high volume items from our product line so that we have a large enough sample size to make an informed call on the reliability of the component."

Based on Puget's failure reports, there were four motherboards that stood out, each with zero failures in 2013. Three of them were from Asus (P8B-M, P9D-M, and F2A85-V Pro) and one was from MSI (FM2-A75IA-E53). As for CPUs, the failure rate was so small -- a combined 0.39 percent for both AMD and Intel combined -- that Puget decided to keep it simple and say that every CPU in 2013 is "incredibly reliable."

Where things get interesting is the RAM. Puget says it almost exclusively uses Kingston brand RAM these days because it keeps proving itself more reliable than the competition.

Kingston LoVo

"Any time we tried any of the other prominent brands (when Kingston was either in shortage or did not offer exactly what we wanted), we almost always ended up moving back to Kingston once we were able," Puget stated. "This is primarily due to the fact that as a whole, Kingston is as much as three to four times more reliable than other brands."

We reached out to Puget Systems founder Jon Bach to find out which other brands his company tried and were told it gave volume orders to OCZ, Corsair, and Patriot at one point or another. Based on a sample size of 3,000 to 4,000 PCs for each of those brands, the failure rates repeatedly pushed Puget back towards Kingston. Bach says his company also has a "little experience" with Crucial/Micron, though not enough to make a public claim about its reliability (it was still less reliable than Kingston based on a small sample size).

Moving on, Puget lists out reliable components in several other categories before comparing a prebuilt system with a home brewed one. Through its qualification process, Puget is able to weed out faulty components so that the chance of failure is greatly reduced to the end user. For example, the overall failure rate of an AMD-brand graphics card is 10.09 percent, but that figure drops to 1.83 percent for the end user once Puget weeds out the bad eggs, so to speak. For Intel motherboards, the overall failure rate is 4.71 percent versus 0.47 percent of the end user.

When you combine all the components, there's a 14.43 percent of a hardware failure in a home built Intel machine with Nvidia graphics, and 20.4 percent change of a hardware failure in home brewed AMD rig with Radeon graphics. Because Puget is able to detect and eliminate parts that are faulty from the get-go, those figures drop down to 3.3 percent and 3.66 percent, respectively, for end users who buy a pre-built system from Puget. In other words, a system built by Puget is about five times less likely to have a hardware failure than a DIY system.

"Keep in mind that these numbers are only true for Puget Systems computers/hardware and won't be true for every computer manufacturer out there. Here at Puget Systems we put our computers through a very rigorous testing process so we are much more likely to find hardware problems before the customer receives the machine than most other companies," Puget says.

Interesting stuff. Give the blog post a once over and then post your thoughts in the comment section!

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Laptop Makers are Feeling Skeptical About Convertible Models Heading into 2014

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 09:30 AM PST

Dell XPSVendors don't want to get stuck with a bunch of 2-in-1 devices

There's still no clear cut indication from consumers whether or not hybrid notebooks that also function as tablets are all that desirable compared to keeping the form factors separate. That being the case, notebook vendors are reportedly having cold feet when it comes to stockpiling 2-in-1 devices, fearing that weak sales could leave them with a bunch of unsold inventory needing to be written off.

To make matters more of a gamble, some peripherals are device specific, such as keyboards. That means that if a particular 2-in-1 device fails to drum up sales, vendors will also be stuck with a pile of related peripherals. This is something vendors fear, Digitimes says.

These 2-in-1 devices accounted for less than 10 percent of the mobile device category in 2013. Intel reckons the category the will increase 10-fold in 2014, but notebook vendors aren't as confident.

Interestingly enough, these vendors don't seem as reluctant to embrace the 2-in-1 systems that function as both an all-in-one (AIO) and tablet, otherwise known as convertible AIOs. It was reported back in October that first-tier vendors other than Apple are getting ready to promote convertible AIO systems in a big way, with volume shipments expected to take place in the second quarter of 2014.

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IBM Analyzes Holiday Mobile Traffic, Says iOS Users More Active than Android

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 08:35 AM PST

Android and MaciOS users spent five times more than Android users on Christmas

IBM revealed some interesting statistics about holiday spending in a thinly veiled attempt to draw attention to its Digital Analytics Benchmark, which IBM claims is the industry's only real-time, cloud-based digital analytics platform that tracks millions of transactions and analyzes terabytes of raw data from around 800 retail sites across the nation. So, what did IBM find?

As a percentage of online sales, IBM says iOS was more than five times higher than Android. iOS users drove 23 percent of online sales versus Android at 4.6 percent. iOS users spent on average $93.94 per order, which works out to almost twice as much as Android users, who spent $48.10 per order. Finally, iOS led as a component of overall traffic with 32.6 percent 14.8 percent for Android, IBM says.

Regardless of platform, one thing that's interesting is that smartphones trumped tablets in terms of online traffic at 28.5 percent versus 18.1 percent, respectively, but when it came time to shop online, tablets drove 19.4 percent of sales, more than twice that of smartphones at 9.3 percent. The average sale was also higher on tablets ($95.61 per order) versus smartphones ($85.11 per order).

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Newegg Daily Deals: Intel Core i5 3570K, Western Digital Black Series 1TB HDD, and More!

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 06:34 AM PST

Intel Core i5 3570Knewegg logo

Top Deal:

You may have heard the news that Intel's going to launch its Haswell-E Series of desktop processors in the third quarter of 2014, and if you have the disposable income to drop a grand on a CPU, more power to you (literally and figuratively). If not, you'll need to look elsewhere for your next upgrade or build. A good place to start your search is today's top deal for an Intel Core i5 3570K Ivy Bridge processor for $200 with free shipping (normally $225; Free Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn game coupon with purchase). This is a quad-core part clocked at 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) with 6MB of L3 cache and Intel HD Graphics 4000.

Other Deals:

WD Black Series WD1003FZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $75 with free shipping (normally $100; use coupon code: [EMCWVVP23])

G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-16GTX for $158 with free shipping (normally $175; use coupon code: [EMCWVVP27])

Asus P8Z77-V Pro LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $165 with free shipping (normally $190; use coupon code: [EMCWVVP29]; additional $25 Mail-in rebate)

Cooler Master V700 - 700W Power Supply with Fully Modular Cables and 80 Plus Gold Certification for $125 with free shipping (normally $160; use coupon code: [EMCWVVP34]; additional $40 Mail-in rebate)
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