It's been a while since we heard much about the Steam Machine market, the idea of a home console that can handle games found on Steam is still sticking with plenty of users out there. Now,CyberPower has let three new such devices slip with some fairly substantial price tags, but how will the Syber Steam Machines perform in the field?

There are three such Steam Machines slated to be available, with reports suggesting these will ship on November 10, though pre-orders will ship as early as October 16. The models on hand are known as the P, the X, and the I. The I sells at $499, while the X sells at $1419. The P, meanwhile, splits the difference at $729.

The I packs in an Intel Core i3 processor at 3.6 GHz, with an nVidia GTX 750 packing a gig of GDDR5 RAM itself. It comes with four gig of DDR3 RAM and a 500 gig SATA III hard drive. The X, meanwhile, blows the doors off its cheaper sibling with an Intel Core i7 at four GHz. It boasts an nVidia GTX 980 with four gig of GDDR5 RAM, 16 gig of DDR3 RAM, and a terabyte SATA III hard drive. The P, meanwhile, is middle of the road with a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, an nVidia GTX 960 with two gig of GDDR5 RAM, eight gigs of DDR3 RAM, and a terabyte SATA III hard drive. All three come with 1x1 802.11 ac/g/n wireless and an optional Steam controller.

Here's where things get interesting. A few weeks back we got a look at the required specs to use the Oculus Rift, a development that at the time meant quite a bit to potential users. Based on what we know so far, the I is out outright for using the Oculus Rift--the RAM count is about half of what's needed--and while the P and the X have the RAM muscle, the P is out on the video card, just under what's necessary since it's packing a GTX 960 where a GTX 970 is needed.

So therefore, only the X can run the full Oculus Rift system having the necessary spec loadout to handle the job. This isn't the greatest news for potential buyers, but this may not be such a problem.

Why not a problem, you wonder? Consider the Steam Machine concept; the Steam Machines were designed to bring Steam gaming to the living room, not so much to work with the Oculus Rift. While it would be great if such things did work that way, it's not strictly necessary. The living room usually has one of the best display platforms in the house in the television, and if the Steam Machines are meant to work with the big televisions, it should provide a sufficiently satisfactory experience all by itself.

So the bad news here is that the new Steam Machines from CyberPower mostly won't work with the upcoming Oculus Rift. But the good news--which is a definite consolation--is that they likely weren't ever meant to do so. These are living room platforms, at last report, and as such need to work with living room display systems. That they work with televisions should be good enough for this generation, though they may not be good enough to buy, at least at this stage.