This bit of news may come as a bit of a blow to anyone who was thinking that the Alienware Steam Machine would be the box of choice.
Speaking to  TrustedReviews, Alienware’s General Manager  Frank Azor has confirmed that their Steam Machines will not really be upgradeable.
“Lifecycle wise, consoles update every five, six, seven years, we will be updating our Steam Machines every year. There will be no customisation options, you can’t really update it. The platform will continue to evolve as the games become more resource intensive.”
Although Alienware will cash in by pumping out new machines every year, Azor does say that there will be “some configuration options ” such as memory and CPU. Although he does also say that if you were wanting to upgrade often then buy a “standard Alienware X51”. It all sounds very sketchy.
This is not great news for anyone thinking that an Alienware Steam Machine is a solid easy option for PC gaming, and to put it bluntly it’s slightly taking the piss. With the Alienware Steam Machines are  likely to be priced similar to an Xbox One, and with PC gaming constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, who in their right mind would buy one of these?
Most people will not be able buy a new machine every year just to keep up with the hardware progression, and if the owner is not technically minded then they’ll be stuck.
The more we find out about the Steam Machines the less attractive they are becoming. Just buy/build a PC, install SteamOS and shove it in our living room if you have to. It could save a you a lot of cash.
