Had things gone to plan, Steam Machines would be a shipping product by now. However, Valve threw a wrench into the works when it decided that more time was needed to tweak its custom Linux-based Steam OS and fine tune the platform's accompanying Steam Controller. That decision left several partnering OEMs and boutique system builders in limbo, as they had already put in the necessary R&D to develop living room boxes that would serve as official Steam Machines.

Hence a new category was born -- the PC gaming console. Systems like the Syber Vapor are full-fledged PCs stuffed inside console-sized cases that could have and would have served as Steam Machines. Since they lack Steam OS, they're not official Steam Machines, but they are intended for the living room where they'll mate with your large screen HDTV. The Syber Vapor that we're looking at here even boots directly into Steam's Big Picture mode, a 10-foot user interface that was designed specifically for this purpose...