Are you actually going to buy a Steam Machine?

I see no reason at all for me to buy one for the streaming capabilities, as I don't have a decent gaming PC to begin with, and I see no reason to buy the full-on Steam box because if I wanted to spend that much money, I'd just build a PC that could play the full Steam library instead of just SteamOS compatible games. This has been my issue with this entire concept from the beginning, and remains my issue with it now. These devices do basically nothing to expand the audience between those who are already there.

Yep, same thought as well though they haven't yet revealed a version where you can stream it to the machine in the living room from your main desktop computer or if they are actually planning on making one or if they are going to release one yet. That's the version I'll probably be getting.

I don't plan on buying a "Steam" machine specifically, but I do plan to set up a PC (ideally this holiday season if I have time for researching the parts/build I want) on my TV and will probably multi-boot SteamOS and Win8 on it for the foreseeable future until one of the options offers a clearly superior "couch" gaming/media experience.

I already have the Xbox One and PS4, but with neither system offering backwards compatibility and a lot of uncertainty around whether either will offer reasonable prices on independent games and back catalog sales, it really seems like Steam has the best eco-system for building a digital gaming library. There is also no certainty of future "backwards-compatibility" seeing as how both Microsoft and Sony are handling their Xbox 360 and PS3 downloadable libraries. I have a ton of games for Xbox 360 that I really wish I could still use on the Xbox One because in the next year or so I will probably unplug the 360 and store it away in a closet and games that I still enjoy playing on occasion will be a lot less accessible except for the ones that I have purchased Steam versions of. I may as well just purchase the Steam version first in the future.

I'd definitely buy one at launch. I'm a weird person, I like PC games such as Half-Life, UT 2004, etc... as well as game modding & openness, however I also prefer to play games on consoles due to the care-free simplicity, ease of play & good controller support for most games. That's why I love my modded Original Xbox, it functions like a PC & has tonnes of PC ports such as Half-Life 2, Doom 3 & Dues Ex: Invisible War. I also do not have a good gaming PC.

I think the Steam Box could appeal to both PC Gamers who are looking to get a new PC & Console Gamers; as an alternative to Xbox 1/PS4/WiiU. It doesn't have any "Steam Machine Exclusive" games, but it does have PC exclusive games, & many console gamers do not have a good gaming PC.

No, because I own a mini ITX PC that is just as powerful and has more storage options and room for cooling, though depending on price I might recommend others to do it. The Valve-built one is a nice piece of architecture, though the compact design makes me wonder how upgradable it really will be (specifically on the GPU side, because that containment space is so purpose-built for cooling that specific size and cooler/fan exhaust).

if i could get a kickass and well-integrated system for about the cost of building it for myself, hey why not? it's a nice form factor you probably can't readily copy in a self-built system (unless maybe you're good at welding or something?). i'm not sure if i'm willing to put $1000 towards a system upgrade; maybe $600 total but hey realistically it may end up being quite a bit more than that (i'm pretty much going to have to build a new system save hard drives and case).

For the GPU the prototype case basically forces users to use cards with blower coolers. Hopefully nVidia keeps leading the charge on that cooling solution; the Titan cooler does an okay job of moving hot air even when compared to non-reference coolers.

Not a steam machine isn't that interesting to me but I am very interested in the OS and the controller

I think to buy one you have to be an unusual person in a very specific situation:

You're way into gaming, but you don't have a PC, didn't get the latest gen console yet and no plans to do so, and don't have a last gen console (which still has plenty of life in it and lots of recent titles).

Of you're just insane with lots of money. Which is the best kind of insane to be.

If you don't already have a console or a gaming PC running windows you might as well buy a toaster for gaming,it'll run about as many of the games you want as steam os will.

It looks like a decent enough mini itx computer. Nothing more, nothing less. The OS so far is nothing more than debian booting into steam in big picture mode. Actually slower on my i7 4770k/gtx780 than installing the steam client on ubuntu 13.10, and it doesn't offer anything more than that does so far.

And the controller just looks like complete and utter dog shit. I'll buy it, because buying gaming peripherals is kinda what I do, but it looks turrble.